Classified ads, specialized sites: our guide to reselling your second-hand clothes

In France, hundreds of millions of euros worth of clothes are thrown away every year or gather dust at the bottom of obscure drawers.

If you feel like it's high time to make some space in your home and boost your bank account a little at the same time, you've come to the right place.

In addition to the guide to buying second-hand clothes , here is logically the one dedicated to selling clothes.

• How to effectively sort through your wardrobe?
• At what price to sell your clothes, and where?
• What are the best practices to maximize the chances of selling your pieces?

Instructions for use.

What can I sell?

I invite you to (re)watch the episode of Parlons Vêtements by Benoît on decluttering his wardrobe .

You will find valuable advice on how to effectively sort through your wardrobe:

In addition to these tips, here are some additional recommendations:

Identify the “dead weight” in your wardrobe

This is an idea mentioned by Nicolò in his article on organizing your wardrobe :

These are those famous ugly pieces that you keep "just in case" and which prevent you from buying your first nice clothes, because you tell yourself "I already have what I need".

The dead weights I'm talking about here are those famous "pretty ok" pieces, but which you don't like. Maybe that green sweater is too basic and doesn't satisfy you? Maybe you already have a pair of selvedge jeans even if you find the canvas boring and the cut approximate? Maybe you already have that leather bought on sale which "does the job" but nothing more?

To give you a personal example: I took a good year to replace a Maison Standards sweatshirt that was nice, that suited me well but that lacked a bit of character for my taste and that I was starting to get tired of.

I ended up buying another navy sweatshirt from Benjamin Jezequel with a much more beautiful and textured material, which I like, and which I enjoy wearing very regularly.

The difference in texture is clearly visible in the photo. That being said, I continue to wear the Maison Standards sweatshirt at home for its comfort.

Identify duplicates

In addition to clothes that you don't really wear, some surely look similar or serve a very similar purpose:

• Perhaps over the years you have accumulated too many white shirts or t-shirts?
• You bought two beige chinos, at two different times, and one of them you actually wear more than the other?
• Do you own five or six mid-season jackets but only wear two or three of them regularly?

In short, you get the idea: getting rid of duplicates is a good way to make space in your closet without losing style combinations.

Selling one pair of white sneakers if you have five others still leaves you with plenty left over.

What you can't necessarily sell

I'm talking about clothes here:

• Very worn or damaged ,
• Fast fashion, which is rife on second-hand platforms and which above all have a very high value weak.

For these pieces in particular, at best you can get a handful of euros out of them. If not, we can advise you to give them to your loved ones, to a charity near you, or to use them in a setting where style matters less, such as for sports or DIY, for example.

We can also talk about clothes with strong sentimental value, which you can keep. I have in mind my very first pair of raw jeans which no longer fit me, which I no longer wear, but which I keep as a souvenir of my first love with clothing.

On which sites can I sell my clothes?

In the previous article I mentioned the main sites that exist to buy clothes. Here, I will tell you on which sites to put your clothes according to their typology.

If necessary, you can of course cast your net wide, however, some pieces really do not have their place on certain platforms. For example, entry-level brand clothing is of no interest on Vestiaire Collective, since the minimum commission per transaction is €15.

Fast fashion and entry level

Vinted and Leboncoin are the platforms where you will most easily find buyers.

Mid and high end

Go to Vinted or Vestiaire Collective . Leboncoin possibly.

Luxury brand clothing

Instead, head to Videdressing and Vestiaire Collective, as both sites offer a luxury product authentication service.

The certificate of conformity, by Videdressing .

How to sell well?

Beautiful photos for beautiful sales

It probably won't surprise you if I tell you that photos are the lifeblood of selling second-hand goods: nice photos will bring more traffic to your ad and increase your chances of selling. Makes sense.

We won't recommend that you go as far as hiring a photographer and renting a photo studio, but at least follow a few simple recommendations:

• Favor natural light : avoid photos taken at night or in dark environments. You will lose a lot of detail and the colors will be very far from reality.
• Make sure your photos are sharp : This might seem like an obvious tip, but I'm surprised by how many blurry photos online retailers have, even on nice clothes. Take multiple shots if your phone's camera is a bit temperamental like mine.
• Take your photos on a neutral background : preferably a light one, but if it's a wooden floor or table, that will do the trick. Also remove any objects around the frame so that only the clothing and the clothing are visible.

I'll let you guess the example to follow.

In this respect, Vinted's recommendations go in this direction:

I advise you to put at least three or four photos per product:

1. A photo of the product flat (or straight on a hanger) that can be seen in its entirety
2. A photo of the product folded when appropriate .
3. A photo zoomed in on the material and/or on a detail
4. I like the idea of ​​putting a photo of the label , either indicating the brand or indicating the composition and place of manufacture of the product. This can reassure about the authenticity of the product or its composition.

You may want to consider showing some clothes in a little more creative way to generate interest. Such a photo for pants is perfect as a thumbnail. Maharishi Pants

Next comes the case of photos of the product being worn. As shown in the screenshot above, Vinted indicates that you can do it... or not. Doing so can be interesting to see how the garment falls on someone.

Obviously, if the product does not suit you , do not do this and stick to photos of the product lying flat or hanging.

Size, condition, style elements… a precise description of the product

In addition to photos, take the time to fill in the correct information about the brand, size, product type, color, condition or original price of what you are selling.

These fields are laborious to fill out, especially if you have a lot of products to put on sale, and on several sites moreover. But it is necessary. Vestiaire Collective

Next comes the description. Here are the essential elements that should be included so that people who see your ad have everything they need at their disposal:

• Recall of the product sold , brand / size / color. Example: COS TM blue sweater
• Style or technical elements related to the product : slim fit, waterproof, notched lapels, semi-lined, etc. You can also talk about the material composition here.
• Two or three sentences that present the product you are selling and its advantages. This can therefore be a focus on the material (textured, keeps you warm or on the contrary very light, ...), style (goes with everything, perfect for a wedding, to give a little character to your outfits, ...).
• The condition of the garment : worn a lot or like new? Slightly patinated? Damaged?
• You can also insert the measurements of the piece here , and discuss the sizing more generally (is the garment fitted, loose? Long, short?)
• It seems important to me to indicate the base price, either in text in the description either via the dedicated box .

I am surprised to see many extremely brief descriptions or even completely absent.

As a customer, this forces you to buy a product knowing almost nothing about it, or to take the first step by contacting the seller to ask for information. Which will end up wasting your time.

Provide enough information in your descriptions so that your potential buyers have everything they need to buy with confidence.

Here is an example of a description I made about selling a blazer:

An example of one of my listings, with a concise and informative description. A size guide was present in the form of a photo.

Be active and responsive: answer questions

Regardless of the platform, potential buyers will have the opportunity to contact you to ask questions about the product or negotiate the price.

As much as possible, respond as soon as you can to these requests. .

On several occasions I have asked a seller for information via private message with a view to purchasing a part, without ever receiving any response from them.

Rather a shame.

This message will unfortunately remain forever in the depths of eBay...

At what price do I sell?

The pricing advice given in the previous article on buying second-hand clothes also holds;

• The Videdressing method , which advises lowering the price by at least half compared to new clothing
• The prices charged by other sellers on sales platforms for a similar product, which allows you to "connect" to market prices. Note that on Vinted, when you put a garment for sale from a referenced brand, the site gives you a price range based on the other garments of the brand present on the platform
• The brand's propensity or not to discount . The value of a garment from a brand that aggressively discounts will be lower than the value of a garment from a brand that does not discount or discounts very little.

This recommendation should not be followed blindly, but taken as one indicator among others.

When you put a garment up for sale, you can set a price a little higher than what you originally intended to put in order to "test" the market a little, to see if people are interested in this garment. If it sells very quickly, so much the better for you.

If it doesn't go, lower the price little by little until you find a buyer.

Of course, there are many exceptions : limited edition clothing from well-known brands can have a fairly high rating, for example; on the contrary, a beautiful garment from a beautiful brand that no one knows in France will not necessarily find a buyer.

I can't sell my clothes, what should I do?

Go back to basics and review the presentation, the visuals: have you given enough information about the product? Are the photos of good quality, taken in good conditions?

Also take seasonality into account : if you can't sell your Bermuda shorts in December or your coat in July, that's pretty normal. .

If everything is done correctly at this level, it is probably necessary to lower the price .

From my experiences on second-hand sites, I realized that a price around -60 or -70% compared to the new price allows you to sell the garment relatively quickly. We are talking about the order of a few weeks.

So, a pair of jeans worth €40 will sell for between €10 and €15, and another pair worth €120 will have a good chance of finding a buyer for around forty euros.

Some people don't like this idea and insist on selling at a fixed price that they have decided. This is understandable. If you want to sell for more, I think that's possible, but you may have to be a little more patient.

And if the price of the garment is seen as really too high, it simply won't sell.

From my point of view, losing money on the resale of a garment is not something dramatic : the garment has lived, its condition has potentially deteriorated during the period you owned it. It is logical that its value has decreased.

Above all, if you sell a garment, it is because it has reached the end of its life , that you have made the most of it. There is a lesson to be learned behind it: the cuts of brand X do not suit you, you do not like striped clothes, you tend to buy and accumulate too many t-shirts to the detriment of pants, etc.

Personally, I've had a few zip-up hoodies in the last few years, all of which I've sold. The lesson I learned from these seemingly "failed" purchases isn't so much the money lost, but rather that the hoodie isn't a piece for me.

I once owned this Suitsupply 100% linen hoodie. It's a beautiful piece that I didn't wear because it's not really my style. I hope it lives a happy life with its new owner.

This helps boost your sales and make room faster.

The final word

There are many steps between wanting to sell your clothes and actually selling them:

• Sort clothes
• Take photos, then crop them and put them neatly in a folder
• Post ads online, on different sites if necessary
• Answer questions from interested parties, adjust or negotiate the sale price
• Ship the garment once sold
• Receive payment, transfer it to your bank account

It all takes time, but it's ultimately quite rewarding : once you've sold the majority of your clothes, you'll realize how much space you've saved in your wardrobe and how much money you've made back.

And to end on a humorous note, an Instagram account has made it its mission to highlight the improbable conversations and sometimes strange users on Vinted.

It's happening over here .

I leave you with this one which I am quite a fan of: