ThredUP – Is it Worth the Trouble?

Who doesn’t love a side hustle? How about extra money for cleaning out your closet? I lost a lot of weight and found it hard to part with my clothes because some of them were expensive, some still had tags on them. I found a way to make a little money to assuage my guilt.  ThredUP – is it worth the trouble?

What is ThredUP?

Their tagline is Secondhand Clothes. First hand Fun. Basically, you send ThredUP your gently used, brand-name clothes. They do all the heavy lifting by listing photographing, marketing, and handled the commerce of your items. You make a little and they take their cut for their hard work.

They are the self-proclaimed largest fashion resale marketplace with over 35,000 brands.  Right now it’s only for women and children.

Here’s my referral code if you want to give it a try referral code . I get $10 for the referral and you get $10 in your account. Win-Win.

How does it Work?

ThredUP sends you a shipping bag in the mail.  You fill it with your brand name clothes, as long as they are still like new. Clothes must have the size/washing instruction tags, no rips, and no holes. Once you fill the bag you drop it off at the shipper. The label is on the bag so you don’t pay to ship it.

Shoes are also great, so if you have that one pair of shoes you bought because they were so cute, only to realize you can only wear them for 1 hour before they hurt your feet, those are perfect to sell.

I’ll be honest about the shipping bag. I thought my heels would poke through the bag so I didn’t include them.

ThredUP receives the bag and decides if they want to sell your pieces, then lists them on their site. They donate and/or upcycle the pieces they don’t want.  You can request to have your unlisted items returned, but you get charged.

When your pieces sell you get a cut.       

My Experience

So please take this review with a grain of salt. I understand companies are going through unprecedented times due to Covid-19, but here is my experience.

I signed up on June 13^th and was notified it may take a few weeks for my bag to be sent due to shipping delays and COVID-19. Fair enough. While I waited, I cleaned out my closet so I was ready when the bag came.

Ten days later I received the bad, I neatly folded the items and sealed up the bag.  I took photographs of my stuff so that I remembered what I sent out.

The next morning, I drove to the post office and mailed the package like I was instructed to do.  Turns out the instructions were wrong; the bag should have been sent to FedEx.  I didn’t check the label; I just trusted the instruction I got.

The package rerouted but it eventually ended up in the right place.  I received an email on July 7^th saying my bag was received. Here’s where things went south.  The email told me they were swamped and needed my help in deciding how long it would take them to process my bag. Um What?  Here were the options:

1. No Rush, you can put my kit on hold.  Just happy to get stuff out of my house. Time Estimate – Up to 6 Months
2. No change for me, please process my kit as soon as you can. Time Estimate 9-12 weeks.

I understand business delays in 2020, I just wish they were upfront about the processing time before I sent all my clothes to them. I sent Summer and fall clothes to ThredUP because I was led to believe the processing time for my bag was a couple of weeks, so my stuff would go up mid-July. 

My clothes wouldn’t be processed (not even sure if that means listed) until late fall, and my package was mailed in June. I would imagine my clothes won’t sell since it will be cold and I sent Summer and Fall pieces.

ThredUP is doing a heavy marketing campaign right now. That’s confusing. If they are backlogged why the campaign blitz to sellers? I’ve seen segments on morning talk shows, Hulu and tv spots, and heavy retargeting ads on social media. My background is in advertising, and businesses usually ramp up ads when they are looking to grow the business or during slow times. If a business is overwhelmed, typically they pull back on advertising until the backlog is resolved.

I wish the correct timeframes were disclosed initially. Ethically that would have been helpful, but I also would have gone to another company or listed the items myself on eBay.  Hopefully, this was an oversite and they will correct this soon.

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Here’s where things got more confusing.  I saw a dress I owned on the site, same designer, same color, etc., I purchased it on sale last year for $29.99 (the tag was still on it). The used version of the dress on ThredUP was $67. So, you’ll want to do your research before you purchase from the resale store.

On the flip side, I found decent deals on items that were brand new. Cute shorts, skirts, and shirts.  The pricing systems is inconsistent, which they are up front about.

Pros

• Full-Service, very easy to use
• Items are inspected and photographed
• Descriptions posted online with garments
• New Customers often receive 20-50% off their first purchase
• Blog Tips on Organization
• Payout estimator
• They accept returns

Cons

• Processing delays 3-6 months
• Unclear instructions and upfront disclosures
• Pricing is all over the place on the site
• Wrinkled clothes on the listing site
• Returns are for Store Credit only, not cash, the credit expires

I’d love to hear from our readers, let us know in the comments how your experience is with ThredUP. 

If you’d like to try out ThredUP, here is our referral code, we both get $10 if you sign up: http://www.ThredUP.com/r/9BOWUO

Rating

Not worth the trouble, right now.

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