The better (and easier) way to resell clothing online

If you're going through a January closet cleanse, this post is for you. It is my latest discovery, a trick of the trade passed down from a friend who I will owe until the end of time for the introduction. I have no affiliation whatsoever with this company... I just adore the whole process from start to finish. So without further ado...the story of my greatest online resale discovery of 2016 (and no, I'm not just late to the game with eBay). 

The first week of this year I decided I needed to get rid of a lot of "things". I wanted to be more mobile in 2016 and that requires "shifting the stuff" from my life. Yes, I'm part of the growing group of women around the world that are in an endless battle to rid themselves of the overwhelming feeling of owning too much. I've previously tried eBay. In fact, I sold nearly my entire closet on the site years ago, long before I ever started FFG. I wanted to start afresh and that required cleansing my entire wardrobe. The act of photographing, measuring, listing, monitoring, collecting payment and then sending the items, was a full time job- to say the least. And yes, there are people who have made a full time career of this. But, sadly I'm not someone who has time to do this. Have purchased plenty from eBay, and continue to do so, but my selling days are over since I've been introduced to Thredup. Ugh I'm jumping ahead.

In October, my best friend from Washington D.C. came to visit in the Carolinas. We got to talking about the amount of clothing I had hanging around on the island, she stole a few pieces (as I love to let her do) and we discussed what to do with the rest. Well, as fate would have it, bestie had just been introduced to the greatest thing since sliced bread- her words. thredUP. 

Here's what's shaking. thredUP is basically an online consignment store - only they are more massive than any consignment store I've ever come into contact with. Yes, they have been compared to eBay a great deal, but they are not an auction site. They are a resale site- no clever bidding involved, just great deals to be found around every corner. Now, I haven't purchased anything from the site yet so I am writing to you today about this marvel as a seller. 

This is truly the easiest thing ever when it comes to reselling clothes online. You put your information into the website, request a bag (or two or three - or four, in my case) and wait for a large pre-paid plastic carrier bag to arrive at your house. You then fill said bag with clothing, bags, shoes, accessories - you name it, they'll most likely take it off your hands. Then just drop the bags off at your local Fedex store and wait to hear from thredUP. They take your bags, empty them, sort the contents and get in touch with what it looks like you'll be making.

Now, when the bags are being processed, thredUP are more or less dividing your belongings into three piles. The first is for upfront sale. These are items that will be sold for less than $60 on the site, for which thredUP will pay you for immediately. The second pile is consignment. These are the more expensive items that go up online that will need to sell before you can be paid. If you think they've set the price too high, you are even able to adjust it as you see fit to make sure you collect. The third pile - and I love this - is what I call the "do good" pile. These are the items that thredUP know they can't shift. You can either request that these be sent back to you, or you can "do good." These pieces are then either sold off to a third party seller, with proceeds going to Teach for America, or recycled and repurposed into cool things like carpets or pillow stuffing. Hell of a lot better than ending up in a landfill, right?

Mark my words - this company will receive awards, recognition of the highest degree, and dozens more bags from me before everything is said and done. And that's why I had to share it with you - because it's January, we're all clearing out and none of us have time to do the right thing with our clothes. This is the right thing - for your bank account and the world in general - in my opinion. 

Visit thredUP to get started - http://ift.tt/1gZjXvW