Penrose Trading Co Looking for Used Clothes
Used clothing is one of the categories that does best on EBay. After all, clothing is one of life's necessities, Consequently, demand is always strong for clothing. Shoppers come to EBay to find deals and the best deals can often be found among used clothes. So, if you've got clothing in your closet you're no longer wearing, you should consider consigning.
However, before you call me up and invite me over to go through your closet, you should probably understand a bit more about the used clothing market. It will come as no surprise that there are two major determinants of value in this market. The first, of course, is condition. Even a Yves Saint Laurent dress that is torn or dirty will not sell well. Your clothes should be clean, free of odors, and without rips, tears, or holes. All of these things generally disqualify your item from resale or, at the very least, mean that you might be best having a yard sale or donating it to your local second-hand store. The second major determinant of value is brand. After all, we are talking about fashion. Fashion is all about what is IN, what is NOW, what is HOT. This means style, of course, but for our purposes style is not as important - with 138 million active users, there probably is someone out there willing to wear just about anything (except perhaps men's pleated slacks....). What we are concerned with is label. Some labels sell better than others. This is fairly obvious. Chanel is far more desirable than the Gap. In fact, we can divide all brands into about four categories. Those categories are:
Mass Produced / Casual: Gap, J. Crew, Old Navy, Under Armor, LL Bean, Ann Taylor, etc. There is certainly a market for brands of this quality on Ebay. For example, as of this writing, a search for "Ann Taylor dress" filtered for sold listings only returns over 7,000 entries (EBay search results show sold listings within the last 90 days). There are a staggering 70,000 current listings using the same search term! However, note that the highest price achieved among those sold was $149. The vast majority sell for $20 or less. I would strongly recommend that for these brands, you consider a yard sale or just donating them to your local thrift shop. I generally will not accept these brands on consignment.
Quality Mass Produced: St. John, North Face, Patagonia, Coach Yes, Coach. The reason Coach appears in this category is not because it can't sell for what is objectively a good price, but rather because owners can be very disappointed and disbelieving at the difference between what they paid and what their item will bring on EBay. I don't have an explanation for why this is so. But it is. So, while I am happy to sell Coach, you may not be happy! Of 800+ sold Coach items in the last 90 days on EBay, more than half went for less than $75. Just be aware. These brands are the ones where it starts to be worth it for both you and I. They will sell high enough to cover fees, etc and leave both of us with a satisfying payout. If you have items in this category that you are looking to sell, give me a call!
(Note that this listing was for a new dress than retailed for $200. It sold for less than $65. I'd be happy to accept this on consignment, but let's just make sure we have our expectations right.)
Luxury Brands: Ralph Lauren Black Label, Oscar de la Renta, Betsy Johnson, Zimmerman, etc. Very expensive clothing new and can easily run several hundred dollars used. The High Fashion category is quite honestly going to be quite rare and so this category is really what I hope to find when I talk with potential clients.
High Fashion: Christian Dior, Issey Miyake, Chanel, Ralph Rucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Halston, Commes Des Garçons, Valentino, Oscar de la Renta, etc. These brands can easily reach the thousands of dollars for a single item of clothing. In fact, you might be better off approaching a national auction house if you have some of the higher-end items, especially the handbags, where authentication can more easily be obtained. This is not to say I wouldn't be happy to help you with any of these brands! EBay shows 397 sold listings in the last 90 days for "Chanel dress", well over half of which sold for more than $500. So, don't sleep on EBay here. I may be able to sell it for you with more ease and more quickly than going to an auction house might involve.
Please keep in mind that there are many other brands in each category. Because I haven't mentioned Steve McQueen, for example, doesn't mean that I wouldn't place his stuff in the High Fashion category and thus understand the tremendous re-sale value there. But I can't possibly mention every brand and just wanted to name a few in each category so you have an idea what does and does not sell well on EBay.
If you are ready to consign, please contact me! I am in Edinboro, PA and depending on what you have, am happy to travel throughout NW Pennsylvania and perhaps into NE Ohio.