top of page
As an avid thrifter, reseller, and Depop community member, online discourse surrounding the topic of thrifting & reselling is constantly on my feed. Infographics, memes, critical comments, and back-and-forth arguments have been all over my fellow resellers' posts, stories and timelines. Depop is an app where people resell and buy clothing; according to Depop's about page, "Depop is home to 21 million+ stylists, designers, artists, collectors, vintage sellers, sneakerheads and more." Depop is just one reselling app among many; The most popular reselling platforms besides Depop are Poshmark, Letgo, Mercari, ThredUP, and eBay. These reselling platforms aren't limited to those who resell thrifted clothing; many people resell their own clothing. As someone who loves to purchase and wear second-hand clothing, I was naturally concerned when I started seeing comments that called attention to the harm that resellers and above low-income thrift shoppers cause to low-income communities. Was I as a reseller and thrifter, harming low-income communities and their ability to get clothing essentials? Were my reseller and thrifter peers doing the same? Is reselling thrifted clothing and thrifting, in general, a bad practice? I had so many questions, and internet commenters weren't giving me definitive answers. I started with what seemed to be the most pressing issue, as it was the most common comment:
Do resellers gentrify thrift stores?
When wealthy people move into a poor urban area and improve housing, they attract new businesses and affluent residents, typically displacing the people living there before. This process is known as gentrification. According to Stanford sociologist Sandra Feder, gentrification disproportionally affects minority communities. As shiny new neighborhoods with hefty price tags pop up from the concrete, minority communities end up having fewer and fewer options for affordable housing, pushing some into homelessness.
Resellers purchase a low-priced item from a thrift store, resell that item for a higher price on an app or website, and hope to make a profit by doing so. By reselling a thrifted item at a higher price, the reseller partakes in a practice that is comparable to gentrification. Resellers often price items that make clothing unaffordable for low-income people, especially those who can only pay a thrift store price.
Reselling is comparable to gentrification in some aspects. However, this comparison implies that there isn't enough affordable clothing to go around, just like there is a lack of affordable housing for individuals who have been displaced due to gentrification. Is there a shortage of second-hand clothing in the world?
How much clothing are we talking about?
It might be hard to visualize just how much clothing there actually is in the world. Here are some hard facts that might help us grasp the quantity:
• In 2020, the World Resources Institute reported, "One garbage truck of clothes is burned or sent to landfills every second."
• Every year, New York City alone throws away 400 million pounds of clothing.
• According to the Environmental Protection Agency, In 2018, 17 million tons of textile waste ended up in landfills. Those textiles can take up to 200+ years to decompose.
• 84 percent of clothing ends up in landfills or incinerators.
Our world is over-flowing with clothing... the quantity is indisputable, but what about the quality? Commenters often complain that thrifters and resellers take all the cute and trendy clothing, leaving behind half-empty racks with a limited selection of stained, damaged, and unwanted clothing.
However, we can't overlook the rapid rate at which thrift stores restock their racks and shelves. The Goodwill website states that "our stores tend to rotate in new products every few hours, every day."
Donated clothing is often new or like-new. The World Resources Institute reported that "The average consumer bought 60 percent more clothes in 2014 than in 2000, but kept each garment for half as long."
Fast fashion is partly to blame for the rapid rate at which people consume clothing. Fast fashion is defined as inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends. This kind of clothing is "in" one week and "out" the next, worn once or twice, or maybe even just for an Instagram picture. In her debut book, Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, author Elizabeth L. Cline finds that yearly, fast fashion brands produce one clothing collection every week, that's a total of 52 "micro-seasons." Weekly clothing collections encourage the over-consumption of clothing and the short lifespan of a piece of clothing in the original buyer's closet. These clothes often end up in donation piles or on the racks of fast fashion consignment shops like Plato's Closet.
Damaged, stained, and heavily worn is often donated to thrift stores. However, these clothes don't usually make it past the sorting process and onto the sales floor. Sam Zhuang, a Depop seller and avid thrifter, worked as a temp at her local Goodwill. She explains, "We would get truckloads of items daily (partly why I and another person were brought in as temps). That was in addition to the existing stock that was already in the back. Due to the sheer volume of donations, we were instructed to throw out anything with any sort of flaws, no matter how small. We also sorted through these items and were instructed to throw out items that weren't in season of "high demand." I also remember seeing a nice Vera Bradley bag that my manager tossed in the trash because of a small stain that most likely could have been stain-removed & washed."
If we exclusively look at Goodwill, where resellers and thrifters like to shop, only about 20% of donations are actually sold. Roughly five percent of donated clothes are sent to landfills. Across the US and Canada, there are 3,300 Goodwill stores. Once a clothing item is on the sales floor, it has about four weeks to sell. If an item doesn't sell in that period, it's sent off to the Goodwill outlets or "bins," where Goodwill rejects are sold for 99 cents per pound.
After these processes, the barrage of left-over clothing is either sent to recycling plants, third world countries, landfills, or waste incineration plants. Recycling plants use clothing scraps as furniture and building insulation. Although promising, it's important to note that the textile recycling industry is still in its infancy. When second-hand clothing is sold to developing countries, it harms local economies and textile jobs.
Who are resellers?
Youtuber & avid thrifter, Alli Vera, tackled this topic in a video titled Why I Quit Depop & The Gentrification of Thrift Stores + pros and cons to reselling w/ tips, she urged her viewers to comment about their experiences as resellers. The comments overwhelmingly show that resellers come from all different kinds of backgrounds: whether that’s low-income African Americans or other people of color or college students trying to help pay for their education. Reselling allows people to work from their home on their own schedule, for disabled people, “un-hirable” people or people that struggle with their mental health, reselling offers an alternative to a traditional job, which is especially helpful during a pandemic where unemployment rates were at an all-time high.
Hannah Valentine (@shopghostsoda) has amassed a following of 15.8k on Instagram. Valentine herself identifies as a disabled person who uses reselling as her main source of income. She often posts on the topic of reselling, debunking certain myths about the practice. She gets online backlash and mean comments on a daily basis, “The most common negative comments I see are on Instagram are usually along the lines of I’m "taking clothing from poor people “or "I’m gentrifying a resource meant for lower income people”…When I first started getting them, they made me feel insecure about my job and my passion, but now I use hate comments as an opportunity to educate rather than take them personally because most times the person doesn't know much about the subject.” The worst kind of comments are the ones that claim that resellers are evil- even going as far as to encourage resellers to commit suicide.
Although there are criticisms regarding reselling that are valid, that kind hate is never valid. Most resellers aren’t vultures, and there are certain standards that resellers have, or need to have if they don’t already, Valentine explains “While in general, thrifting to resell not only helps the planet but also the community, there are some things to keep in mind while thrifting. If a store looks like some sections are lacking in quality, modern clothing (which is rare because of the sheer amount of donations), any ethical and logical reseller will leave that section alone. Winter coat sections and formal wear sections should be looked through with caution because stuff like that is rarely donated. If you are thrifting at a goodwill outlet store or a "bins", it's free reign, take as much stuff as you can because this is the last time clothes have to be purchased before getting thrown into landfills.” As an ethical reseller, it is important to be able to recognize the sections at the thrift store that you should avoid. According to the blog Imperfect Idealist, resellers should “Avoid buying high-need items low in stock. There are some items that are in higher demand, and those tend to be: plus size clothes, professional clothes, winter jackets and kids clothes.” It is important for resellers to shop mindfully- avoiding sections that are clearly low in stock and resellers should never be leaving the thrift with an overflowing cart- the general rule of thumb is to not be greedy.
Still, commenters have more grievances with Depop sellers, often comments criticize resellers for how they price their items. Although I, too, have seen some ridiculously over-priced items on the app, as the saying goes, "something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it." The majority of sellers base their prices on their labor, demand, rarity, and condition. Resellers have to charge a certain amount for the selection and service they provide-otherwise, they would be operating at a loss.
Commenters focus on the fact that resellers are getting these items for only a few dollars and then reselling them at a higher price point. Resellers dig through thrift stores to find stock for their shop, wash and/or repair the items, style them, take pictures of them, measure and describe them and then wait for that item to maybe sell (it’s never a guarantee that it will sell). The price of any given item covers that work in addition to fees, shipping and then the cost of the item itself. At the end of the day, resellers are just trying to make some extra money to pay for college, bills and/or to supplement their income. Resellers are considered “gig workers” or workers who get paid per task, sale or project. A 2018 annual survey done by Vox that polled 11,000 people found that “the vast majority of gig workers don’t make a living from it — they just do it to make some extra money.” Lusia Ramirez (@luisaram) has been thrifting since she was 15 years old, she started reselling once she turned 18. Ramirez was born and raised in the Inland Empire of California and is currently a first-year student at UC Santa Barbara. She started reselling on Depop as a way to help pay for college, although Luisa hasn’t gotten any hate comments first-hand, Lusia thinks that resellers are facing backlash because “people are mad at the system. Instead of getting mad at resellers I think people should start to question their loyalty to capitalism because we’re all just trying to survive and make some profit.”
Whether you agree with the practices of resellers or not, shopping second-hand whether that’s thrifting yourself or purchasing items off reselling apps like Depop, Poshmark, Mercari or Vinted, there is overwhelming evidence that supports a bright future for the second-hand market, one that creates a circular economy and protects the environment from any further damage.
bottom of page