Have you ever heard of Thrift+? I hadn’t until earlier this year. It completely passed me by. But as a lover of pre-loved fashion, I’m super glad I have found it.
It’s essentially an online second hand clothes shop that will also sell your old clothes for you. Now, for anyone who regularly sells their unwanted clothes on platforms like Vinted or Depop, this might sound like an absolute godsend. However there is a downside, and that’s the amount of money you get to keep from the sale. But I’ll talk about that properly later.
As a buyer, you can search from items sent in by people like you and me, which are quality assessed and professionally listed by Thrift+ themselves, as well as surplus stock and customer returns from retailers and brands. In other words, it’s a great place to find a bargain.
It’s also closer to a regular online shopping experience, because as a business, Thrift+ have to offer the usual consumer protections. It’s a halfway house between shopping on a regular fashion retailer’s site, and using a pre-loved platform.
This girl likes it a lot.
How Does It Work?
The company’s mission is to end fashion waste by making second hand seamless, and if you’re going there to buy, it works!
Shopping on Thrift+ is much the same as shopping on any other website. You can browse clothes, shoes, and accessories, filter things by brand and size, and choose between pre-loved and brand new items. The only real difference is where the stock comes from.
However, because they don’t stock their site in the same way as a regular retailer, you won’t always find a selection of sizes that work for you. So if you find an item you absolutely love, there’s no guarantee that you will be able to buy it in your size.
You do have 30 days to change your mind if you want to return anything, though. So if you’re like me and regularly convince yourself that you can still fit into a size 10 when you know damn well that you can’t, you can at least get your money back minus postage.
Not your dignity, though 😂
Oh, and everything they list is automatically synched with eBay too, so everything you can find on the website is also available there.
That’s buying. When it comes to selling, things are very different to using a platform like Vinted.
Is Thrift+ Worth It For Selling Clothes?
The benefits of selling clothes with Thrift+ are obvious.
You don’t have to list the item, you don’t have to photograph the item, you don’t have to fill in all of the annoying details about the item. Best of all, you don’t have to deal with any annoying buyers. All you have to do is go through your wardrobe, box up anything that you don’t want anymore, and send it on its way.
However, all of this convenience comes at a cost. And it’s quite a high cost. So the question is, how much do you get?
Thrift+ will keep a large portion of any money made from selling your items. The exact amount they keep depends on how much the item sells for and the structure works like this:
- Items sold for £4.99 or less = 10% payout
- Items sold for £5 to £49.99 = 20% payout
- Items sold for more than £50 = 40% payout
So if you sell something for £6.50, you’re going to earn a grand total of £1.30 – and you have to wait 30 days after the sale, too. It costs £1.50 for the bag to send them the clothes in the first place. There’s also a 25p fee to withdraw cash to your bank!
Hardly seems worth it, does it?
However if you really can’t be bothered to sell the clothes yourself, and you have a significant enough number of items to sell, you might still think it’s worth it. For anything you have that’s designer and worth a fair amount more, you can still end up getting significant money for it, but not nearly as much as you’d get from selling it yourself.
I guess what I’m saying here, is that you reeeaally need to hate using online selling platforms to choose Thrift+ to shift your pre-loved togs if money is your main motivator. It’s not the best option for anyone who wants the biggest possible return, but you can use any money you make as store credit on the site or even give it to charity. I think a lot of people probably choose this option because Thrift+ has raised over £2 million for charity so far.
It’s also worth pointing out that the company won’t accept all brands. The Thrift+ brand checker is your first port of call to find out if they will accept the clothes you are looking to move on.
What Happens If Your Clothes Don’t Sell?
Another key aspect of selling your clothes with Thrift+ is that you don’t control the price, they do. You can request a specific price, but they have the final say. What’s more, the company will reduce the price to encourage a sale if it’s not attracting much interest, and your payout is based on the final sale price, not the initial listing price.
Items that don’t sell over a longer period of time can even be removed and “recirculated”, in which case you will get nothing. Recirculated means basically being sent to textile sorters or wholesalers, or perhaps being sent to international second hand markets. So if making money is your main aim here, Thrift+ comes with an element of risk.
It is possible to ask for returns in certain circumstances but it costs £2.50 per item and there’s no guarantee your request will be approved.
So, Is Thrift+ Any Good?
As a buyer, most definitely. As a seller, maybe.
There is a large selection of items on the site for men and women (they don’t do kids’ clothes), so if you are looking for something to give your wardrobe a bit of a refresh but don’t want to spend high street prices, it’s a great place to look.
The nice thing is that it doesn’t feel like second hand shopping, and because all the items are quality checked, a lot of the anxiety that comes with buying second hand is removed. There won’t be any nasty surprises here because Thrift+ is a legitimate company, not some dodgy Debbie trying to pull a fast one.
If you’re trying to clear out your wardrobe and make a little bit of money while doing so, it is an option, but not the most profitable one.
On the other hand it’s a fantastic alternative to donating clothes to a local charity shop, and for anyone who really doesn’t have the time to list numerous items individually, Thrift+ takes all of the hassle away, and you can always use the money you make to buy something else for yourself from the site. A bit like trading in your old clothes for money off new ones.
I have only used it as a buyer, and would 100% recommend. As a seller, it’s best for people who want to clear out a lot of clothes with minimal hassle and give them a chance at a second life. If you like the idea of donating any earnings to charity, even better. Any money you keep is a nice little bonus, rather than the main reason to use it.