Thrifting for profit costs more than you might think.

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I source for my reseller business almost exclusively online, even though I absolutely love thrifting. Here's why.
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[@Aliymarmarplus2]

I know why you get everything delivered. I have 5 kiddos ages 6 months, 2.5 years, 9, 11, and 17. I order way more than I would once they are all I school but I still do go thrifting. It is something I enjoy so I don’t really count it as “work”. Yes I know it is part of it but I don’t have to do it I choose to. I can say though since I do have so many kids I am less sensitive to bringing them with me. I bring my 2.5 year old and my 6 month old with me all the time. Of course it’s much easier/enjoyable without them but I can still do quick trips and then every once in a while I’ll leave them with my husband. I don’t even think I would ever be able to give it up completely since I enjoy it so much!

[@cassandra7377]

I wanted to clarify you comment of having the boxes delivered and not spending any time on that process. Sometimes you have to comp the brand or manifest for that pallet and that does take time, which is money. This is especially true if you are doing online retail arbitrage or something like ThredUp

[@Ohyeahrachie]

This is true depending on what you are ordering. I guess I didn’t think about that because I really don’t do any of those things. It’s been a long time since I have done RA and I find trying to source on ThredUp kind of annoying to be honest. And besides the BBTB pallets I don’t usually do manifested boxes either, and even those I just quick glance to see the assortment of items. Definitely a great point though!

[@pam6426]

Thrifting is great if you do it for enjoyment. Once you add your hourly rate and gas, thrifting is not an efficient way to run a business. I would love to see your 90 day update.

[@dawnmole5517]

I go to the pajamas FIRST!! I often find Lake pjs!!! And Eileen west nightgowns are some of my best sellers!

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Oooh thank you for the brand suggestions! I will keep that in mind next time I pop into a thrift store!

[@dawnvt7217]

I have found that following Rachels model is more profitable. Unfortunately I still work a big girl job (I need the medical) but reselling is going to pay for my son’s college. Im so excited to do this for him! Thank you Rachel for all your info! 💕

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Aww thank you, I’m glad it’s helping you achieve your financial goals!

[@lindadorman2869]

I always source by thrifting because I prefer to choose each item by condition and quality which you can only do by inspecting it. I started reselling 4 years ago to supplement my retirement and it works for me as I can control taxable income with complete schedule flexibility. We have many stores in Chicago and the prices are fair. 3500+ active listings with avg sale $38, ACOG $4, avg profit per item after fees/expenses $25.

[@jenniferraybaud8827]

Insightful video! ⏰💵 I'm in a totally different life space as an empty nester so I enjoy taking my time hitting garage and estate sales with girlfriends for sourcing. It's part social part money making and I love it! Reselling can really fit a wide variety of lifestyles. No doubt. Continued success, Rachel! ❤

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Aww Jennifer that’s amazing! Nothing wrong with hobby reselling and thrifting, quite frankly I’m a little jealous! ❤️

[@bigfootfindsreseller]

I feel like I can calculate my risk better when I’m picking the items I resell. My money goes so much further at the bins and I can’t beat that cost of goods. I’ve had past success with wholesale boxes (to supplement) but sometimes the company’s aren’t selling good quality or profitable brands. All Summer I’ve not found one box online I wanted to take a chance on. The brands I seek aren’t always available wholesale. I still order bulk boxes when it’s not too much of a financial risk. My online shop is filled with items I thrift for and you’ve reminded me here how much time and sacrifice I make to operate my reselling business.

[@mymodestlife43]

I enjoy picking out my own items. Mystery boxes haven’t been great for me. Too many flawed items and heavy perfume smells in what I’ve ordered.

[@Chicago48]

I agree. I don't have space to have pallets and mystery boxes. You need a storage unit to do it that way.

[@marina_dj1]

Thanks for this video. I currently do both as a part-time reseller but feel the boxes are a better business strategy. I may leave thrifting for pure enjoyment and take away the pressure of needing to find things.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

It’s such a relief when you can go back to doing it for fun and not actually relying on the inventory!

[@hausofdezi]

I can definitely see this point of view, and lean towards it now with my own business. Getting mystery boxes has been a good way for me to guarantee some decent inventory and take the worry out of thrifting. It’s made it so I can be more selective and not feel like I have to come home with a full cart all the time, regardless of what’s available. It’s also opened up my brand knowledge while I’m in the thrift. Ive learned tons of new brands from mystery boxes. Now with two young kids and very little help I don’t think I could sustain a business with thrifting alone. It would cost me either all of my free time with my family or I’d be paying a ton for a baby sitter several days a week. I do still thrift about 2 days a week, maybe for 3 hours total. It’s worked into my week around other appointments when I’m already out and child free for a few hours. I honestly don’t know if I’d be as into reselling as I am if I only ordered mystery boxes, but I think I’ve found a good balance for myself between thrifting when I can and getting boxes to fill the void. I do think boxes stress me out a lot more though. I’ve never had a bad thrift trip that lost me $300, but I’ve had several bad boxes that were total washes.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

I feel this. Thrifting is fun and only stressful for me when I am relying on the inventory to sustain. I will agree with you too that when a whole box is bad, it has a higher impact than just a bad pickup here and there.

[@twilapatten425]

Totally agree. You can lose track of time or spend a lot of time thrifting. And be out gas money too

[@Ohyeahrachie]

For sure! It all adds up!

[@yuliyas76]

I definitely see your point. After watching the video I went ahead and ordered a Helpsy box of J Jill. This is my bread and butter brand that I do very well with. I just opened the box and I want to cry. It is horrifying . 4 items out of 40 will go to trash - I can't even donate them how bad the wear is. 12 solid short sleeve t shirts. 1 dress . Half items ( 19) are XS / S Petite . I would not picked up a single item out of the box if I was thrifting in the wild. I guess, it is a chance getting a second hand box. But I can't take these chances and lose so much money. But happy to hear it works for you!

[@Ohyeahrachie]

I am sorry the box you got didnt work out for you :( It definitely takes some trial and error to figure out which ones are worth grabbing and relying on.

[@MaryM-cb8xt]

Fun Experiment :). My hybrid version of this is to select individual items from ThredUp. People lower prices a lot when their kits are expiring.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Haha me. I do that! My attention span does not allow me to source on ThredUp. I have tried and always end up just scrolling into a deep abyss without actually buying anything. 🤣 but I’m sure if you have an eye for it, it’s an excellent way to source!

[@1USALady]

What does that mean, "When their kits are expiring?"

[@MaryM-cb8xt]

@@1USALady People send in clothing to sell on ThredUp, and it's posted for a specific consignment time period. After that time period passes, they don't receive a payout from Thredup for their item. Because of this, people cut their prices dramatically when that date is getting close, so they receive some sort of payout, even if it's low.

[@HowToBeABookworm]

@@1USALadyThredUp only gives 30-45 days (depending on the merchandise) for the items from your clean-out kit to sell. So at the end of that time period, people lower prices so that they get something rather than nothing for their items.

[@deborahwilliams7072]

My former Sister in Law lives in Gainsville. I love visiting her and thrifting all over. I’m also old enough to take advantage of senior citizens day😀

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Haha that’s awesome!

[@ChristyFoundIt]

I have my popcorn ready and am excited to see the different opinions in the comments! I’m just a hobbyist that does reselling for fun money and the tax benefits of maintaining my small business. I’m a “thrift store only gal”, but it’s hard to argue that if one were really trying to maximize your return on overall investment (time, energy and money), you may have the better solution. Thanks for another great video!

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Haha I have my popcorn ready too, thankfully everyone has been super respectful so far!

[@dawnmole5517]

I’ve only been reselling for 4 months but in that time I’ve sold 165 pieces and over $6K in sales. I have a local honey hole I go to once a week and i usually leave with 35-60 items every week. I spend about 2-3 hrs in there to get those. Prices are flat- all shirts one piece. All jeans one price, etc. my avg COG ends up being around $4. They often have crazy BOLOs. For example, this week; I found a Fendi skirt in there. 🤯 For now, I enjoy picking out my own items but I can see how using that time is costly as I live 30 mins away from this thrift store and at least 45 mins away from any others. Very interesting experiment and my first video of yours to watch! 😊

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Thank you for your perspective, and so glad you found my channel! Thanks for watching!

[@ZumbaWithMayD]

I love this experiment! I can’t wait for the results! The thrifts we have in San Francisco is always picked clean or too expensive.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Ouch yeah I imagine it would be hard to thrift out there!

[@lovinglifefreely]

My closet Goodwill is 45 minutes away & others are further. I purchase mostly online also & I have folks who have bins they source at for their business look for items for me while they are there & it get shipped to me.

[@picklemedillard]

I agree with this video. I love thrifting and I think it helps me discover new brands but ordering mystery boxes has been a way to always have guaranteed inventory on hand and I have become better at picking the right boxes for my business. Sure, I may end up with a dud box once in a while but through trial and error I have learned to account for that and limit my buy cost per item. I've gotten burned with $30/piece boxes of supposedly amazing NWT brands while I've become profitable on $10-15/piece boxes. I now limit my buy cost to mitigate the risk and have a plan in place on what do with some of those items I don't keep or are unsellable. I wouldn't be able to run a full time business if I weren't able buy inventory in bulk. I now make a day out of it and go thrifting once a week on their sale day in my area and use that to scratch my thrifting itch while knowing I still have inventory to list at home.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Yes this is basically my strategy too! I can’t imagine how I could sustain the volume of sales I do without getting my inventory shipped to me. I still thrift now and again to satisfy my needs lol but it’s a lot more fun when I don’t rely on it.

[@user-zk2pz6hs5d]

Our local goodwills remove the sales color the morning the sale starts. It criminal and deceptive, I no longer shop with them.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

That seems counterproductive on their part. You would think they want to sell the oldest stuff to make room for new stuff.

[@heavensentssmokingchannel9847]

You’ve gotta do what works for you, it only takes me 20-30 minutes to go through a whole thrift store , so if it takes you an hour and a half to go through one of your goodwills you’ve either gotta do it more often to get faster (which is what I’ve done for a couple years now) or you should keep ordering in bulk cause that would make more sense. I think technsports mentions he’s in and out of the stores pretty quickly as well. Plus the more you thrift irl you’ll learn more things to pickup and you should be able to hit 40 items a lot quicker. Good video tho Rachel

[@Ohyeahrachie]

I definitely consider myself pretty efficient, I’ve been a reseller for 20+ years and exclusively thrifted for most of them. and an hour and a half isn’t enough time for even half of the racks if you want to actually look through everything. The goodwills here are pretty big, to get what you want in 20 min you would have to know which 2-3 racks you want to check and that’s it. Plus too sometimes checkout itself takes 20 minutes or more. I could have easily picked up 40 items at any one of these stores in a hour I suppose, if I wasn’t being super particular about what I was buying.

[@sheilamaloney3932]

Just found your channel and subscribed. Great video. I always think sbout hours and time and opportunity cost when people are thrifting almost every day.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Thank you for watching, so glad you found my channel!

[@MariahGage-yt9ex]

I can't wait to see the 90 day update

[@Ohyeahrachie]

I’m excited for this one for sure!

[@hopefulStrawberry]

I love this experiment, will you all look at the cost per item vs a box and overall profit in the 90 days. it would be interesting to see those stats as well.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Yes! I’m so looking forward to some cool comparisons for the 90 day update!

[@mom67lovesu]

Rachel I am so thrilled that you are doing this experiment! There are a lot of factors that people don’t think about like you said your time with family. Thrift stores around our area are getting pretty expensive. It’s a far drive to consign items as well. Plus it can be overstimulating for my daughter who is on the spectrum because some customers are rude and bump into her…plus people are on their cellphones screaming into the phone! I have to drive her in order to get merchandise. Gas is pretty expensive here.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Exactly there are so many things to factor in when you aren’t guaranteed to find anything worth the time you are spending looking!

[@user-cl2xh3jq5i]

I think this is a really cool comparison and will be interested to see what the results look like. Like you, I switched clothing sourcing from thrift stores to buying boxes from liquidators.....its way more efficient timewise and now I focus the few thrifting hours I have available to focusing on books which is another area I'm passionate about but can only do on Saturdays as I have a regular 9-5 job.

[@FUNNYBUNNI1]

Great video! I am certainly one of those folks who LOVES the thrill of thrifting…it is my therapy LOL but I do see the cost benefit of just buying wholesale online

[@untamedthread]

Great video! I often wanted to track all of my time to really see how much it all costs. Inventory management is another huge time sucker IMO. From the photos, descriptions, listing and then keeping track of when to delist and relist, organizing inventory, deciding when to donate stuff that doesn't sell or send to ThredUp and then that whole ThredUp process... ugh! We make pennies! 😂 But we love it!

[@Ohyeahrachie]

This is so true! I kinda put this stuff off til once or twice a year and then it ends up being a huge undertaking.

[@marshamellow2023]

I only resell part time but it became readily apparent that time was not my friend. Along with the fact I hate thrifting. In economic terms, its called Opportunity Cost or the result of choosing one alternative over another. Thrifting vs. wholesaling. I buy wholesale boxes. I recently bought a box of 50 items and made my money back after selling 6 items. I also have boxes that I can't give the items away. Some bring a good return and some don't bring much of anything.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Such a good point because at the end of the day you saved a lot of time acquiring what you might make good money on or might not anyway.

[@francineoye8204]

I don't enjoy thrifting in my area....prices are high and by the time I get there, I can't find much worth reselling. I'm not an early person! If I lived in LA I might have better luck. The bins closest to me has very limited hours and honestly, I have only gone once and I didn't find anything that great. The bins in LA are way better but by the time I got there with all the traffic, I would not have a lot of time to shop! lol. I really enjoyed watching this experiment. If I had thrifts like yours, I would probably go just to supplement the mystery boxes.

[@Ohyeahrachie]

For sure that’s why it’s still fun at all for me to be honest, I do actually find some great things. But it’s impossible to scale a business when it’s not a guarantee you will find anything worth all the time you spent getting it.

[@thepoconoposher]

I'm so glad you made this video! When I stumbled on your KZbin channel I had only ever purchased 1 wholesale box. Now I've purchased a bunch. It has become pretty much my main source for inventory. I do occasionally go to the thrift, but the closet Salvation Army/Goodwill is a 40 minute ride one way. For Goodwill I actually have to leave the state of PA and head into NY state, gas galore plus an hour and a half of driving for just 1 store! My last trip I was in Salvation Army for 3 hours and found 2 pairs jeans. It was a total waste of my time. I think the lack of options in my area make sourcing way more difficult, the thrift's are packed all the time and always are ransacked. I love to thrift, but I have definitely cut back. Not to mention my pile of why did I buy this and how did I not see that flaw! I also find listing NWT/NWOT items much easier, plus no driving/sitting in the laundromat, not to mention that cost! Thanks again and I can't wait for the 90 day update!

[@teresawhite9413]

Some of my best sales were from the PJ section. I’ve sold 2 HA adult sets. Anthropologie PJs do well. My GW prices everything up except PJs. There’s a GW a few blocks from my post office so I usually stop in on the days I ship. I’m trying to phase out of reselling so I’m super picky about what I buy. Only items I can reasonably list for $50+. Luckily my family doesn’t rely on my reselling income so it’s more of a hobby for me. Although, currently I have over 1K listed items so I guess that’s a big hobby. Can’t wait to hear your results on this experiment!

[@Ohyeahrachie]

I’m definitely going to make a point to check the PJs when I go. And yes 1000 items is quite a big hobby! I usually sit around 1200 as a full time reseller!

[@1USALady]

What brand is HA please?

[@AlexisHolloway-wi5er]

You should try jtc auctions mystery boxes I've had some decent luck with them and its not so oversaturated when it comes to listing

[@francineoye8204]

I didn't see very many profitable brand in those boxes unless you are a live seller and do a big volume...

[@Ohyeahrachie]

I looked at the site, anything that’s overstock and shelf pulls is a little scary for me, because it’s the stuff that the retail stores are unloading that didn’t sell. Maybe one of these days I’ll get up the guts to try it lol

[@virginiavictorio1369]

The stuff that you unbox isn't even nice stuff. At least with thrifting you know what you get, you know what to price them at. Some of your content with bad buys are, you get what you pay for. You get some nice anthro pieces but some of that stuff are hideous. Do you sell everything that you buy from those? If not, where does it go?

[@Ohyeahrachie]

Keep in mind I typically only do unboxing videos for my channel when I am trying a new box for the first time. 80% of what I buy to resell are tried and true boxes that I know to be good profit, so if the new ones are a bust it’s not a huge impact to my business. Hand selecting items at the thrift store is definitely better for quality control and desirability overall but there is no way I could source as much as I would need to sustain a full time operation. I process 300-400 new items every month. Many of the boxes, especially the secondhand ones, if the items are not sellable they get donated, or if they are in good condition but not worth my time to list they get sent to ThredUp. I definitely take into account the time it will take to list the items I get in boxes too. Overall even if I list only half a box on average, the profitability vs the time spent is better majority of the time.