Online Thrifting

Over the course of the past year, I have lost 55 pounds. I started out my weight loss journey in a size 16, and now I wear a size 6. As you may well imagine, not many pieces of my clothing have made the transition with me. While it is fun to buy new clothes, it is also expensive. I loved the idea but not the price tag. I was especially frustrated at the cost of winter coats, although I desperately needed a new one.  My strategy for buying winter coats in the past has been to wait for the “take another 25% off clearance” sale in late winter; however, this time I really couldn’t wait that long to have a suitable winter coat. As I shopped in retail stores, I found that the sale price of most coats I liked was still over $100 – and I am not very picky. I just wanted something warm with a hood. With that in mind, I decided to check out a thrift website I had heard about called ThredUP.

I did find a winter jacket, and by the time discounts were applied, it only cost me about $8.00. Now that’s more like it! I ordered a few other items, and my first experience with ThredUP was a rousing success. My ThredUP winter coat was very lightly used. I just wanted something warm, to wear on the playground at the preschool. I didn’t even care if I liked it, honestly. The bonus was that I did end up liking it!

My old coat and my new, $8.00 coat!

A month or two later, I decided to order again. I was a little bolder this time, and ordered a few more items.  When all was said and done, the ThredUP people declared to me that “YOU SAVED $885.14! Now you can splurge on what you love most. Lattes, manis, date nights....” OK, now for people like me, you will laugh at this kind of statement. I didn’t save anything. I spent money. I may have spent less than I would have otherwise (in fact I did), but spending money is not the same as saving money. Nonetheless, I was pleased with the bargains I found. I spent $72.45 for 16 items of clothing, some brand new still with tags, some gently used. Oh boy, was it ever exciting when that box arrived!

My second ThredUP box and some of its contents.

Opening the box was like opening a treasure chest. I don’t show all the clothes that I received in the above picture, but you get the idea. It was so much fun!!I will say that ThredUP hits a homerun with their presentation. The clothes arrive wrapped in tissue paper and sealed with a sticker. When you open the tissue paper, the clothes smell fresh and clean. Each piece of clothing is neatly folded and has a ThredUP tag on it. It is fun to finally touch the items that you have only seen in pictures and to begin to figure out whether they live up to your expectations. Most of my items exceeded my expectations.

There are both positives and negatives to ordering used clothing online. My experience is with ThredUP, so that is what I will use for examples.

Positives

1.       The selection is outstanding, and the search engine helps you save time finding items you are looking for.

2.       You can shop from your couch in your comfy clothes.

3.       ThredUP features many name brands, so if you have your favorite brand, you can be sure of the quality and sizing of the clothing you purchase.

4.       As you begin shopping, you enter your size preference and only see clothes that fit your criteria. This eliminates the disappointment of picking something out only to find that it is not actually your size. Bonus for me, they carry petite sizes.

5.       The clearance sales were fabulous. Many items were 99 cents, and I had a “10% off your whole order” coupon to boot.

Negatives

1.       The biggest negative is that you can’t try things on. This would be the same regardless of whether you were ordering new or used clothing online. Not all companies size their clothes the same way, and that can be frustrating. For example, I ordered several pairs of capris and pants. They were all size 6 and they all fit perfectly. The one skirt I ordered in a size 6 was too small.

2.       Returns can be troublesome. While you can get free shipping for returns, as long as you take store credit for the items returned, I felt like returning a skirt that only cost $1.80 to start with was kind of a waste of my time. There were actually three items in my box that weren't quite right for me. I was lucky, because my daughter purchased the two other items that didn’t fit. They fit her and she liked them, so that worked out. I might have returned items if I had three of them to return, but as it is I have not returned the skirt that didn’t fit. Maybe I will donate it locally or try to sell it on consignment. It is brand new with tags. (Does anybody want to try it?)

3.       I have not been able to find washing instructions on the ThredUP site. For most items that didn’t matter, but there was one that said “dry clean only” which I typically don’t buy.

4.       You have to wait for the items to arrive, but it took under a week so that is not much of a negative.

5.       Also, you pay shipping for orders under $79. Again, that's not much of a negative. Shipping was $5.99 for my 16 items, so it added about 38 cents to the cost of each item. 

6.       If you wait too long, items will disappear from your cart and be purchased by other people. I guess the same thing could happen if you left an item at a local thrift store overnight. 

Here are some of my bargains, some of the reasons I am very pleased that I ordered from ThredUP.

Outfit on the left: total cost of $8.00.
Outfit on the right: pants were brand new with tags.
Cost of entire outfit:$12.50

(Shirt not from ThredUP) Four pairs of capris for a total of $9.50
Brands/retail cost, left to right:
Rafaella/$60; Talbots/$99; Dalia Collection/$36; Talbots/$99
(But seriously, who pays $99 for capris?)

Petticoat Alley Jacket/$60 (cost $5.75); Fila hooded jacket/$74 (cost $7.50)

(Leggings not from ThredUP)
Champion track jacket brand new with tags/$11.50 (cost $4.50)
(Me, looking like I could go running at any moment. Ha. Not happening.)

The bargain hunter in me really kicked in, and I had a lot of fun finding many fabulous deals. Otherwise, how could I have saved $885.14? I would definitely shop at ThredUP again, although I don’t need any more clothes at present, so I won’t be doing that for a while. If you decide you want to try them out (first timers only), use this link: ThredUP to get $10 off your first order. (Just so you know, if you use this link to make a purchase, ThredUP will also put $10 in my account for any future purchases I make.) While I had a fabulous ThredUP experience, I do not have experience with other online thrift stores. There are many of them. It would probably be fun to try some different ones as well. If you have favorites, please let me know in the comments. What I liked about ThredUP was that they were very emphatic that their items were like new or very gently used. That statement was born out in every item I purchased. All were in excellent condition, arrived quickly, and supplemented my wardrobe just the way I wanted, for a very reasonable cost. I call that a WIN!