A ThredUP Trial

Bubba is growing up fast.  I often feel like I'm constantly on the hunt for a new wardrobe for him.  And just when I think he has enough chino shorts or warm sweaters for the season, he'll hand me another article of clothing that doesn't fit.  In fact, just last week we discovered ALL of his jeans are too tight.  And I thought his wardrobe was in good shape for school.  UGH!

Most of the clothes I buy for him are new, and because he's not too rough and tumble, they're usually still in fantastic shape by the time they're ready for the "too small" pile.  So then I have tons of perfectly nice clothes taking up space in ginormous bins.  I've tried consigning, but it is ridiculously difficult to get an appointment at our local children's resale store.  And the last time I took bins there, they lost over half my items.  Not cool.  Ebay is okay, but a bit of a hassle finding the right size box, weighing it, figuring out postage, yada, yada, yada.  And the last garage sale I had was entirely too much work for the return on investment.

What's a mom to do?

Enter ThredUP.com.  Formerly a children's clothing swap site, ThredUP is now an online resale shop.  I'm not exactly sure where I first heard of the company, but I thought I'd check it out.  This is how it worked:

1.  I ordered a bag online.  Normally there is a $4.95 deposit fee for the bag (which is like a giant FedEx plastic bag), but currently the deposit is being waived.

 2.  The bag arrived in the mail.  The instructions for how to return your items are included inside, along with a copy of the guidelines for what they will accept.  Items not accepted are recycled, so I only sent them items I was confident could be resold, because I knew I wouldn't get them back.

3.  I loaded up the bag with Bubba's clean (yet too small) clothes and dropped the bag at the local UPS Store.  ThredUP is located in California, and the bag ships ground, so it took several days for it to reach its destination.  UPS provided a tracking number so I could make sure the bag was headed in the right direction.

4.  I received an e-mail from ThredUP informing me that my bag had been received and the items were being processed.  A few days after that, I received another e-mail letting me know my bag had been processed and how much money was deposited in my ThredUP account.

5.  I followed the e-mail link and could see all my accepted items available for sale and the price for each item.  I could even see which items had already sold.

6.  As you can see, I made an okay amount of money, probably similar to what I would have made from my local consignment store (the upside being, thredUP didn't lose my items!).  Now I can either use that credit to find new-to-us gently used items for Bubba, or I can cash out and have the money deposited in my PayPal account.  I really like that option!

7.  Would I use thredUP again?  Maybe.  I'm in the process of selling aforementioned too-small jeans on eBay, so we'll see how much I make off that auction.  The jury is out on thredUP, but it is a nice alternative choice for reselling children's clothes!  Hats off for internet commerce!

Let me know...what do you do with clothing your family has outgrown?

Disclaimer:  This review is my entirely impartial, unsolicited opinion.  No compensation or other consideration was provided by thredUP.  And I'm sure my friend Michelle at The Thrifty Homemaker won't like me too much for this post, since she runs a consignment store in Oregon.  If only she were nearby, I'm sure I could weasel an appointment at her shop! :)