When buying and selling on resale applications it is important to pay attention to the trends within them. Each is unique, and they all should not be treated the same. Over the course of my three or so years using Grailed, Depop, and Poshmark, the differences between the three have made themselves prominent. I would find myself only relying on one of them for all my transactions which led to a certain level of frustration when I felt like I could do better. This was only until I realized that I can utilize each website differently. Doing so has led to much success as I found myself starting to sell pieces at the best possible price while buying them at the lowest price available. Before I delve into where I find my best buying and selling success, I would like to stress that this is solely based on personal experience and there is not one website that will guarantee you more success than another.
“Each one is different than the other and should not be treated the same.”
Selling:
When selling my most success has easily been with Grailed. Since its 2014 founding, Grailed has become the go to resale website for our generation: taking over the plethora of buying and selling groups that occupy Facebook. Being at the forefront of this market has given Grailed a great amount of notoriety, as well as sparked my love/hate relationship with the application.
Grailed has given me all sorts of trouble in my multitude of transactions, but the one thing that bothered me most was their “designer steals under $500” notifications. While I might sound like a broke boy, I feel as if some can relate with me when I say that advertising designer steals under $500 as some sort of steal, is a bit outrageous. Maybe 300, but definitely not 500. Such a notification is unrealistic and deters people like me, the college bargain hunter, from entertaining Grailed.
Since these notifications started, I have also noticed the trend of progressively inflated listing prices. I like to call this the “hype surcharge”. The hype surcharge is when someone asks more money for an item they list on Grailed than it would sell for elsewhere. Although this hype surcharge makes Grailed less ideal for buying, it most certainly can be used to your benefit when selling. It allows you to get away with asking more for an item on Grailed because everyone else is. As proof, below I have attached two listings for a black Polo Bear Long Sleeve shirt in size XL. One listing is from Grailed and the other from eBay. Notice how vast the differences in prices are for the same item.
“Although this hype surcharge makes Grailed less ideal for buying, it most certainly can be used to your benefit when selling.”
$26 on eBay versus $54 on Grailed. That is more than double the price for the same product! AND the Grailed listing has almost 40 people who have shown interest, compared to only 7 who have placed bids on the eBay listing. The difference in interest shown towards the listings can be attested to the difference in traffic that each listing has received. While Grailed is predominately used by the youth, eBay is far more expansive. But many Grailed users fail to realize their other platform options and in turn, overlook a website like eBay. Take advantage of this lack of attention. Those who overlook and or are unaware of their options fall into the same trap I used to. Luckily for my readers though, you will now be a step ahead of the game, able to make the most profit off of your piece, and always be on the better end of transactions.
Buying:
While I have found tremendous bargains on every resale platform that I’ve used, the two that have consistently had the best bargains are Poshmark and eBay. Poshmark is a buying and selling platform that has been around since 2011. It was primarily made for women to resell their clothing but has expanded to the men’s market. However, since it is not at the forefront of men’s resale websites it lacks this hype surcharge, and therefore items are priced more reasonably. On several occasions I have found the same product listed on Depop or Grailed for significantly less on Poshmark. I too have found a lot of the female ran marketplaces on Poshmark sell men’s clothing too!
“On several occasions I have found the same product listed on Depop or Grailed, for significantly less on Poshmark.”
Founded in 1995, eBay is by far the platform that has been around the longest. EBay is also one of the largest used items buying and selling websites that there is. Not just for clothes, but for everything. This allows eBay to be a clothing resale platform that is highly overlooked. This lack of spotlight is what allows people to find better prices for pieces. As proof that these are reliably cheaper buying platforms, below I have attached the listing for two pieces I copped: one off Poshmark, the other on eBay. Again, notice how much cheaper these are than Grailed’s.
Yes, yes, I did find a Billionaire Boys Club hoodie for only $25…SHIPPED! That is more than 80% less than the price of a very similar item on Grailed. Although I got super lucky finding this, it is representative of how much less you can find listings for on one resale platform compared to others. You just must utilize all of your sources. While there is no guarantee the cheapest listings will be on Poshmark or eBay, there is almost a 100% chance you will not find what you want for the lowest possible price unless you explore all your resources.
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Baker's Rebellion 