WE all love a good rummage through the rails at a charity shop, but have you ever considered making some cash in the process?
I’m a big fan of buying clothing second hand, and I regularly buy items from charity shops, or from second hand sites like eBay, Depop and Vinted.
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But it wasn’t until recently that I started to wonder how much money I could make by selling some of my charity shop finds online.
With a growing number of apps and websites for reselling clothes, it is now easier than ever to sell second hand clothes online.
With this in mind, I hit the charity shops of Hove with a budget of £20 to see what designer bargains I could find, and how much I could make by selling them online.
What did I buy in the charity shops and how much did they cost?
First off, I visited the British Heart Foundation in George Street, Hove.
While browsing the women’s clothing, I found a pair of high rise skinny Levis jeans in a size ten.
I immediately recognised the blue denim to be Levis and took them straight to the till.
At just £8.99, and in pretty good condition, I thought they were a steal.
After an unsuccessful look around the Chestnut Tree House and YMCA charity shops, I headed into Barnardo’s.
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In here, I picked up an age 4 green Ralph Lauren polo shirt for £2.
It’s in pretty good condition, apart from a very small black mark on the left side of the top.
I also picked up a All Saints women’s dress in a size small for £6.
Famous for it’s cool leathers, suede jackets and beautiful dresses – I decided the dress was too good to be left behind.
Finally, I picked up an XL men’s Hugo Boss, long-sleeved polo shirt for £6.
All four items cost me £22 in total.
Because I went over budget, I knew it was important to make sure I could at least get the money back that I spent by selling them online.
How much could I sell my charity shop finds for online?
Levi Jeans
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Levis is a popular brand on second hand selling sites like Depop and Vinted.
Both sites are great for selling everything from sportswear to high street brands and designer gear.
I tried Depop first, and typed in the exact style of Levis jeans – High Rise 27 – I had bought from the charity shop into the search bar.
I found that the exact same style were on sale for between £20 and £40 – and they were also second-hand.
This was the same on Vinted.
I also checked eBay, and found a pair of Levis jeans in the same colour and style had sold for £24 on September 5.
This means I could make around a £16 profit from selling the £8.99 pair of jeans I found in the charity shop.
I was also shocked to Levis still sells the exact same style of jeans online for £110.
So if I decided to keep the jeans, rather than sell them on, I would have saved a whopping £101.01.
All Saints dress
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All Saints is known for being pricey, so I was thrilled to have found such a lovely dress at a low price.
The original retail price for the dress was £168, meaning I had already saved £162 by buying it second hand.
After a browse on Depop, I found the same dress on sale for £65.
But on seller on eBay had sold the dress for £23 on August 30.
I could therefore expect to make about £17 profit on my charity shop purchase.
Hugo Boss long sleeve polo shirt
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Hugo Boss has been making luxury clothing since 1924 and the brand is loved by celebs from Kate Middleton to Taylor Swift.
So when I found the men’s shirt in the charity shop £6, I was pretty excited to see how much I might make by selling it on.
Hugo Boss is still selling a very similar polo shirt for £99 online – £93 more than I found it in the charity.
On Depop, a very similar polo was on sale for £30, meanwhile one had sold on eBay for £44.99 on September 5.
If I was to sell the polo shirt, I could realistically expect to make around £38 in profit.
Kid’s Ralph Lauren polo shirt
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It can be a bit trickier to sell kids clothing second hand.
Apps like Depop and Vinted are popular with students and twenty-somethings, so there isn’t much of a market for children’s clothes.
But online giant eBay has a huge second-hand children’s marketplace.
I couldn’t find exactly the same polo shirt for sale on eBay, but I found a blue one in the same style had sold for £7.50 on September 5.
As I paid just £2 for the polo shirt from the charity, I could expect to make around £5.50 in profit.
My verdict
No doubt there are bargains to be found in the charity shop – particularly if you’re a fan of big brands.
And there is also money to be made – I could expect to make around £78 in profit by selling my finds online.
But there are things to consider when you choose to sell clothes online.
For example, some platforms charge sellers a fee or take commission.
On Vinted, the seller pays nothing and instead, the buyer pays a fee of 3-8%.
Depop doesn’t charge a fee to list an item but you pay 10% commission on anything you sell.
You can list up to 1,000 items a month on eBay for free.
You’ll pay commission of 12.8% on what you sell, plus a 30p fee.
But even taking these extra charges into account, it’s still worth having a little look to see how much money you could make by selling on your charity shop finds.
