Friday, March 13, 2015

My Experience with ThredUp and Why I'd Use It Again

Spring cleaning is upon us y'all!!! 
Halleljuerrr!!! 

One of the first things I manage to tackle right away, out of necessity, usually happens to be the closets! You just gotta purge the bulky sweaters and long pants and swap them for short sleeves and Capri's! 
Often, I find that I also need to get rid of a few things - things that are no longer in style or no longer fit well. Possibly damaged or just plain "what was I thinking?!?" 
But then, the questions arises - "Well, what do I do with all of these things?" 
Some of the answers are no brainers - donate, garage sale, etc. 
But then I come to a pair of Banana Republic jeans, barely worn or an Ann Taylor Loft Jacket with tags on it, and I think - a quarter at a garage sale for this?!?! That just doesn't seem fun! 

Enter my newest answer!!!! 

ThredUp

Have you heard of this?!? 

"ThredUP is a fashion resale website for consumers to buy and sell secondhand clothing online. ThredUp is part of a larger Collaborative Consumption movement, which encourages consumers to live in a more collective, sharing economy"  -Wikipedia

Simply put, it works like this:

When I ordered my clean out bag there was a promo going on in which I was able to receive my first clean out bag for free. (At the time of writing this post, the bag deposit fees are still currently being waived.) Within a week, the polka-dotted bag showed up in my mail box, amply sized and waiting to be filled with gently used clothing! 

It was HUGE! I stuffed it to the brim! I have been on a health and wellness weight loss journey for over a year now and I had quite a bit to donate! Many things still had tags on them and many were barely worn! I also had items that didn't qualify for consignment. But, you may be wondering how do you know which items qualify and which do not? ThredUp has a super handy Clothing Calculator! All you have to do is read the tag, enter the brand name and the type of clothing item it is (cardigan, shorts, capris, jeans, etc) and then the calculator will give you an estimated pay out OR let you know that the particular brand will not be accepted. This way you aren't wasting time sending in clothing that won't be accepted. Those items I took straight to my local donation bin! 
**For a full list of items that will or will not be accepted you can visit this quick reference page: What Items Does ThredUp Accept?

After filling my bag up I sealed it up and slapped the pre-paid, pre-addressed return label on it and took it on down to my local post office! I could have given it to my mail carrier but I wanted a receipt because, seriously, this bag was huge! The mother load! 

This is where the waiting game began! I was so excited to see how much would be accepted and if the process had been worth my time and effort. I sent the bag off around the 1st of January and received notification from ThredUp that my bag had arrived on January 14, 2015. It said within the initial email that ThredUp is growing quickly and that because they are very detailed when reviewing and evaluating items for receipt, the process would be complete by February 13, 2015. Although I would have liked to have heard the good news of the dough rolling in faster - I also appreciated the care they took in order to accept the maximum amount of clothing that I sent! I'd hate for them to breeze through things and it effect my final pay out. 

Sure enough, February 13th rolled around and as promised I had an estimated payout amount delivered to my gmail inbox! 
I was very pleased! They accepted 35 items total and gave me an upfront payout of $65.50! 
WAY more than I would have earned selling items for a few cents at garage sale! 

Now, what in the world do they do with the clothing they do not accept? 
You have two options:
1. You can pay a fee upfront, of $12.99, and participate in their Return Assurance Opt In Program. In which they will return any items that are not accepted by ThredUp.
OR 
2. You can let them donate all items left over! Which, I did! 

Finally, what are your options for getting paid?!?! 
1. You can immediately use the funds you earn in order to shop the gently used selection of clothing and styles on ThredUp.
2. You can donate your earnings to their Cause Partner - Feeding America - through a simple process on the site.
OR
3. You can wait a 14 day grace period then have your earnings transferred to a PayPal account, which can then be used to make purchases online with any retailers using PayPal OR transferred out to your personal bank account! 

Overall, would I do this again? In a HEART BEAT! It was extremely simple and extremely organized! 
I have taken my clothing to second hand store fronts before and I have NEVER made the amount of money I was able to accrue with ThredUp, along with the quality service that was given! 

Until Then...


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