By Flora Hutchison
Living in a climate in which we are constantly in and out of lockdown, unable to thrift, and with online shopping rates skyrocketing, a lot of us are finding ourselves in a position in which we have unused clothes sitting around gathering dust in our cupboards. Whether you've had a lockdown spring clean and wardrobe clearout, or were too tempted by online shopping in Lockdown One and now find yourself with lots of clothes you no longer wear, here are some options for what to do with all your unwanted items so that, like literal tons of clothes across the globe, they're not going to waste.
Thrift+
Thrift+ is a great site with a both charitable and sustainable mindset at its core. Founded under the idea of allowing charity shops the same online accessibility as fast fashion, it's an ideal place to shop as a buyer looking for good quality, secondhand designer and high-end clothing. In terms of selling, it's designed to make things super easy for you: you order your Thrift+ bag in the post, fill it with clothes in good condition over the next few weeks, and send it back to them to photograph, list, and sell your items. It completely eliminates the time and effort that goes into selling your clothes on other secondhand sites like Depop, where you'd do the heavy-listing yourself. While Thrift+ does take a third of the profit, another third goes back to you in the form of site credit, and the other goes to a charity of your choice, so both you and the buyer end up satisfied that you're making a difference. Although it’s not necessarily the site to go for if you're looking to maximize profit, it is the perfect fit for people wanting to do more of a 'swap', or for those less interested in the financial side of things who just want to donate some old clothes in a charitable fashion.
Vinted
Having seen numerous ads for Vinted every time I'm on YouTube, I finally looked into the site properly, and, as far as I can see, it's essentially a more seller-friendly version of Depop. Whereas Depop deals through Paypal and takes a 10% commission, Vinted gives you a ‘Vinted balance’, meaning the money you make goes into your balance instantaneously when a buyer purchases your item, allowing you to either keep it as site credit or withdraw it into your own bank account. It completely eliminates money security worries for both the buyer and the seller, but also still allows you to make full profit far more easily. It’s the perfect site for students wanting to sell anything from high-end to low-end used items, and seems super easy to use on either transactional side.
Obviously, there are also more well-known marketplaces like Depop and Ebay, which are perfectly adequate in their own rights, but I wanted to highlight Thrift+ and Vinted, as they both bring unique selling points to the market, giving you a wider variety of options depending on your priorities as either buyer or seller. Both these sites are playing an important role in the circular economy by eliminating waste and encouraging us to promote usership rather than ownership, an important step in diminishing our own fashion-related waste.
No longer will we let COVID inhibit our ability to thrift and charity shop, or sell our old clothes; with online marketplaces like these, we can come as close to the easy mobility of in-person transactions as we can until this all finally blows over.
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