ThredUP Reviews: Is the Online Consignment Store Worth It?
Getting rid of clothes and want to try to make some money from selling your clothing online with ThredUp? Consignment stores are the best way to easily get money for your old clothing. What if you don’t have a consignment store near you, though – or the time to go to a thrift store? ThredUP is an online consignment store offering to buy your clothing and sell gently used clothing online.
But is thredUP worth it?
After I saw the online resale shop promoted on nearly every blogger’s site that I knew, I was intrigued. Why were so many people suddenly writing about thredUP clothes and how wonderful the online consignment store was?
So I decided to do a thredUP review that wasn’t sponsored.
I had a lot of really nice clothes that I no longer fit into anymore and I wanted to make some money off of them. So I decided to try to sell clothes to ThredUp. Here’s what happened.
This article has been updated most recently in March 2021. Over the years, there have been more than 200 comments of real-life ThredUp reviews from other people who sold clothes to thredUP and how much money they made. Be sure to scroll down and read their comments, too!
ThredUP Consignment
I tried selling some of my Express clothing on a private Facebook group for my HOA community. A few things did sell for about $30-40 profit. I sold Forever 21 dresses for $5 each, and my Express clothing for $10 each.
There was still a huge pile of clothing left, though, including Express pants, shorts, tops and more. And it was all in really good shape. Some stuff was barely worn. I am pretty gentle with my clothing. In fact, there are still things from high school in my closet that I can wear. That’s how little wear and tear my clothes get. Especially my dress clothes (I work from home after all. My dress pants might get worn 10 times a year.)
I wanted to make some money from selling my clothes. That’s when I heard about ThredUp.
What is ThredUp?
Before I start telling you about my experience selling clothes to ThredUp, you might be wondering what ThredUp is.
ThredUp is an online thrift store. Or you might call it an online consignment store. Either way, it’s a website that buys used clothing from you and sell clothes to buyers online. You can just sell to the website, or you can just buy from the ThredUp thrift store. You don’t have to do both.
You can buy discounted clothing via their website, www.ThredUp.com, or via the ThredUp app.
It is a sustainable way to buy clothes, since you are purchasing previously worn clothing.
Selling Clothes on thredUP
So, I ordered a free Clean Out bag to sell my clothes to ThredUp. (In April 2020, the Clean Out bags or mailing label for your own box are free. However, the secondhand resale shop once charged for these bags. So be sure to look on their site to see their current policy, which changes frequently, in case there is a ThredUp clean out kit cost.)
I filled the Clean Out bag with what I couldn’t sell on my own and hoped for some money for selling my clothes. I knew that ThredUp is very picky when it comes to accepting clothing, but they don’t send your clothing back that they won’t sell unless you pay them a fee. For instance, I had some clothes from Synergy Organic Clothing, too, but I knew (based on thredUP’s guidelines) that there was likely no way they’d take them. I decided to keep those items to donate to charity instead.
ThredUP will take women’s clothing; children’s clothing – both boys and girls; handbags; shoes; plus size clothing and maternity clothes.
How Does ThredUp Work?
Once you decide to sell your clothes to the online thrift store, you will request a ThredUp Clean Out Bag. This is a large bag that they send you that you will stuff with all of your clothes that you want to try to get money for. Alternatively, you can use your own box and request a free mailing label to send them your clothes. Up to 15 lbs. can be in each package.
Not all of your clothes that you send to ThredUp will be bought. In fact, ThredUp clearly states that with their Quality Standards they only accept an average of 40% of clothing sent to them. So your odds of actually making money on a piece of clothing is 4 in 10. While you might *think* that your clothing will definitely be accepted because it’s in mint condition, don’t be so sure. (You’re definitely going to want to read all of ThredUp reviews in the comments section for real-life stories about this!)
Will you get back the clothes that ThredUp doesn’t accept? No, not unless you pay for the option, which is $10.99 (April 2020 pricing). Otherwise, the great quality clothing that they say they won’t take will be given to other sellers to sell, or used in their ThredUp Rescue Boxes. Poor quality clothing will be given to textile recycling partners to recoup money.
Clothing that is accepted for sale will be on consignment for up to 60 days (for what they call Value or Mall brands) or 90 days (for Premium and Designer brands).
You get paid if your clothing sells.
What if your clothing doesn’t sell? What does Thredup do with the clothes?
You can choose to reclaim your clothing. Otherwise the clothing becomes the property of ThredUp.
ThredUp Estimator
When I sold my clothes to ThredUp, there was no examples of the payout. Now, there is now a Payout Estimator on the thredUP website. It gives general examples of what you could expect to receive from selling your clothing.
I think you’ll be shocked if you put in some of your clothing brands into they calculator and see how much is being offered. In a search during April 2020, here’s what the ThredUp Payout Estimator was saying:
- JC Penney Khaki Shorts: $0.48
- Old Navy Jeans: $0.90-$1.47
- Express cardigan sweater: $1.08-$1.26
- LC Lauren Conrad Casual Dress: $1.92-$2.43
- Athleta Active Pants: $7.09-$7.87
- Calvin Klein Cocktail Dress: $11.88-$15.00
I can’t fathom getting paid $1 or $2 for a piece of clothing rather than donating it in my community to an underprivileged women trying to reenter the workplace.
ThredUp Processing Time for Clean Out Bags
After I sent in my big bag of a clean out kit, I waited. And waited. And waited.
Yeah, it took about 30 days. I sent my bag in on August 6. My credit wasn’t processed until September 10.
Over the years, nothing has changed. In fact, it might take even longer for ThredUp to process your donation.
As of April 2020, ThredUp processing times are up to 7 weeks. That’s almost 2 months before you even know if you can make any money! Of course, if you want to pay the company some money, they’ll let you know sooner. If you want to pay $16, then your clean out kit will be processed in one week.
Does ThredUp Sell Shoes?
Yes, they do!
ThredUp takes shoes, including women’s and kids. For children’s shoes, they take both boys and girls.
I’ve personally found quite a few good pairs on never worn Vionic shoes on the site. Just like everything, their shoes used to be a better value. Now a lot of the shoes I like are about the same price as I could get on the company’s website with a good sale.
Does ThredUp Take Men’s Clothes?
After seeing how awesome the clothes and shoes are that come in the mail from ThredUp, my husband often asks if he can buy clothes on the consignment store.
Unfortunately, no he can’t.
ThredUp does not take mens clothes or shoes, so they won’t pay for men’s clothing and they do not sell men’s clothes. I don’t know why they don’t sell men’s clothes. Maybe men just don’t shop as much online? I think it’s a wasted opportunity for donating clothes.
ThredUp Payout Options
If your clothes do sell, you can get your payout in three different ways (after a 14 day window has passed):
- PayPal credit (with a 2% processing fee deducted)
- Cash back via Stripe
- Shopping credit at partner brands, such as Athleta
Related Posts:
- ThredUp Goody Boxes Review – What’s Inside
- Buying Clothes on ThredUp’s Sale Site
- Sustainable Fashion on Amazon
ThredUP Reviews for Selling Clothes
After I sent in my bag and waited for a while, I was shocked at the payout they said I would get. My massive polka dot bag of high quality, name brand clothing only scored a grand total of $7.40 of thredUP credit (back then, they used to give you credit in the store as an option). That’s all.
WHAT?!?!?
Yeah, I was pretty upset.
That’s less than $2 per item.
Here’s what was accepted – only 4 items.
For less than $8, I would have rather donated all of my things to a local thrift store who could have made three times that money for worthy programs for the needy.
The amount was truly an insult.
Especially when the pants were now selling for $18.99 (that’s just ONE of the items):
Wondering what clothes I sold to ThredUp? Here’s the clothes that I sent in a Clean Out bag. They all had no rips. No sweat stains. No pilling on most items. Hardly any wear or tear on most. All were Express except for the lemon dress:
Is ThredUp Legit?
Once you receive a very low amount of money for great clothing that you sent in, or you find out that most of your clothes weren’t accepted, you will likely start asking yourself is ThredUp legit?
Many people have wondered that. Especially not knowing why clothing is rejected or where the clothing is being sent.
As the world’s largest fashion resale platform, ThredUp is partnering with many notable fashion brands in collaborations. In 2020, the online thrift store had partnerships with the Gap, Macy’s, Banana Republic, Athleta, J.C. Penny and J. Crew.
According to Forbes, the company received more than $300 million in funding.
From a business standpoint, yes ThredUp is a legitimate company that employs hundreds of people and receives investment funding.
Is Thredup Good?
Now, that’s a very personal question with a very personal answer. Whether you see it as good or not depends on how you use the online thrift store.
Will I ever use thredUP again to sell my clothes? No.
I would rather sell my clothing in local stores, through online groups that I know and love, or donate to worthy charities.Thre
Most ThredUp reviews that I read all end up with the same story of people expecting to make a decent amount of money by selling their clothes, but being shocked with how much they actually receive months down the road.
So it depends on your expectations and how you are using the thrift store.
If you just want to get clothes out of your house, it’s a great way to get rid of them without having to drive to a consignment store or donation center. Keep in mind, many donation centers will pick things up at your door, too, if you arrange for a pickup.
However, if you think that selling half of your wardrobe will help pay for a vacation or pay off debt, you might be sadly mistaken. If you are comparing ThredUp vs. Poshmark, you will likely find that Poshmark will give you more money. Here’s more websites where you can sell your clothes online.
You also better have ponied up for some high end brands to begin with. They are very label conscious and brand oriented. I personally don’t like that, because paying a high price for name brand clothing doesn’t mean anything.
I want great clothing, no matter what the brand tag says.
Is buying clothes on Thredup good? It depends.
There are a lot of really great prices to be had. It depends on if there is a sale, and how much the seller is pricing their clothing, shoes and accessories for. However, I have found that the really good deals of name brand clothing that used to be plentiful a couple years ago are now long gone. Much of the name brand clothing is priced higher than what I could buy it for with a sale or discount in another store or online website.
However, there are deals to be had, definitely. And I do buy some clothing in the thredup clothing store.
If you want to see what thredUP is like, I’d suggest buying clothes with the company before trying to sell them your clothes to see how it is.
Have you ever used thredUP? What did you think???
Agreed. I tried it once over a year ago, and it seems they were paying better percentages.I made about $40 on 14 items most of which were posted at between $10 and $15. Fast-forward one year. They changed their payout percentages. This time, they accepted 17 decent, brand-name items, (that I could have easily sold for $2-10 each), and I made a total of $7.48; subtract the bag fee, I have $2.49 credit. For 17 items!!!! That’s as good as donating. I won’t be sending anything again. Most of the items had a description of “excellent condition, you might mistake it for brand new.” Very disappointed.
Wow! That’s crazy! Yeah, you can schedule a free pickup from many community agencies, including Salvation Army, and they’ll take things off of your hands for free. Sorry you only got a $2.49 credit! Thank you for sharing your real story, too. We all appreciate it!
The website will not even let you look at the clothes until you register. Pass. I’ve decided this website sucks.
Thank you!!!! I had been looking for something to with some rather nice business clothing which is too small for me (the local women’s shelters/help sites don’t want them because they’re small sizes) so thought I’d check out Thredup – just knew there was something strange going on when I could click on NOTHING without first entering my email address! Run far away from this site!! Thanks again!
Karen, Thank you so much for being so conscientious in trying to help others with your clothing! I love that! There are so many people that could use some nice clothes to get ahead in their job and they just can’t afford it. It breaks my heart that there are people who really need some new clothes out there and they could get them for less at thrift stores and community agencies from donations. I hope you find a great place to donate the clothes to help out those who need them!
thanks for the critiques…., I,too,was burned.I sent them a heavy linen gudrun shodden kimono jacket worn once . cost over $100…..they gave me less than $10 for stand first said they wouldn’t take it because it wasn/t a designer brand………..bad site & business. Karen R.
Thank you for this post. You just saves me the disappointment of sending my clothes to ThredUp. I’ll take them to a local consignment shop instead. Thanks so much for taking the time to help others make the right decision!
Awww, thanks! Glad that I could help you with my experience to make the smart decision for you! 🙂
I will not be recommending thredup to anyone!!! I sent in close to $1000 worth of clothes (designer), many with the tags still attached and never worn, they decided to pay out for those items $51 but minus the shipping and other fees a total of $41!!!???
Then selling some of the items for up to $21!! Do the math, I sent in about 8-10 items, resale $18-21 per item……I now have from thredup for these items a whopping $41!!!???
I will be taking anything I have in the future to the resale shop down the road from me who gives their profit to special needs children. This is a complete ripoff!!! AVOID THEM! DO NOT USE THEM!!
I applaud your effort to help local nonprofits and charities. I, too, want my donations to help people close to home, and get more money than what would be received by sending the clothes to a for-profit business. $41??!?!?? WHATTT????????
I’ve donated 5 bags to ThredUp. I didn’t expect to make any money from the clothes I sent them, but I liked their mission and it was easier than taking my used clothing to Goodwill. Everything was fine until last week. I got a mysterious message from ThredUp that they were putting $23 in my PayPal account, for what, I had no idea. It wasn’t bad, just odd, no explanation. Then this morning I received the following e-mail:
I wanted to apologize to you directly for an email you may have received from us this morning.
The subject line of the email was in poor taste and does not reflect how we talk to our customers or anyone for that matter.
We value each and every one of you hugely. We strive to bring you great deals everyday and make your life a little brighter. This morning’s email missed the mark by a mile. I am sorry.
The send was stopped as quickly as possible, once the mistake was identified. And we are improving the process by which our emails are approved.
If you received the email, we hope you can accept our sincere apologies.
We know better, and we will do better for you in the future.
Anthony
So, I think I’m done with ThredUp, something weird is happening at that company.
Anthony, that is weird! They sent money to you? Hmmmmmmmm. Hopefully you can contact a non-profit near you that might come pick up your donations at home or work? That would be awesome 🙂
Elissa – I got that apology email too. It’s in regards to a promotional email that they sent out earlier that day with the poor taste subject line of: “Fuq overpriced handbags”. A lot of people took offense to that, which is why they sent out the apology email. I used to do well selling and buying with them, and now everywhere you look it’s terrible reviews. It’s like they hooked me with a decent payout for my first clean out bag, and they only paid me $4.50 for subsequent bags with quality baby clothes and maternity items. Luckily this was all before the $9.99 processing fee took place!
Yeah, a processing fee really eats up the profit. Wow. Glad I tried it before the $9.99 fee!
I sent in quite a few items expecting to make some money. Most of the clothes and shoes were from Forever 21 and H&M. They chose about 8 to resell. My payout was only $3. I lost that to cover shipping anyway. It was a dissapointing experience. Next time I will be donating to local charities.
Wow. So you lost money to donate clothing? That is sad. Especially when local charities could have made way more money for their non-profit work. Now you know. Thanks for being committed to donating and helping others out though! 🙂
Thanks for this review. I have so many clothes that are in good condition that I’d like to try and sell. I was considering Thredup but I didn’t really like that I have to pay them to return my stuff that they don’t want to accept. I’ll be trying something else now.
Krystal,
Glad I could help! Yes, I had more success selling on my own. Hoping you do, too!
I’m glad i found this site because i was going to try thredup but now no way. Thanks for the info
Thank you!
I thought I was the only one who was deeply insulted! I sent an entire bag full of new and on trend items and made $12. What a hard lesson to learn! I ordered another pretty polka dot bag (free) & am going to use it to donate locally or sell on Poshmark! Thanks for the pretty bag ThredUP! Lol What a racket!
Linette Lacina
Linette, Obviously you are not the only one! Would love to hear if you make more money on Poshmark and how you think the two compare.
I had bad experience selling clothes . I sent a lot of clothing for a baby boy between 3- 18 months. Also some of mine really good dresses . It was a lot of clothing in really good conditions, no stains . some were sets. And they send me what they accepted and they just accepted the ones with tags as a consignment for a payout for .50 cents to a 1.00 dlls. Total was 7 dlls. The clothes accepted was only 4 items and they pay me 3.20 cents. terrible!!! I saw they separate the sets the shirts with the cute shorts for babies. The worst thing is that I saw a lot of of my items that I sent were in the selling list but not as mine!!! some of them were listed as clearance. It is like they keep them (recycling ) but in reality they are selling without paying to nobody else. I am really upset . I will never send clothing again and I will not buy anymore from them. So disappointing. Hopefully many people see this and the store disappear.
That’s so sad. Yes, it’s interesting to find your clothes for sale on their website, and see what they sell them for. The clearance thing, though, wow! I’m so sorry you found out this way, too.
I agree with all of your comments!! I sent in a review to Thredup in response to their new, “Reject Boxes.” My comment was:, “I now know where my clothing disappeared to. What happened to donating Thredup?” They responded like they didn’t know what I was talking about. Looking forward to donating locally!!!
Moira, you know, I didn’t even think about that! Yes, everything not for sale is supposed to be donated I thought. Wonder what the difference is between selling, reject boxes and donations?
Another BIG RED FLAG that pops into mind is they DON’T SEND ANY DONATION RECEIPTS for tax purposes or whatever… I honestly think that they don’t donate ANYTHING! They sell EVERYTHING! It’s a deceitful and underhanded business and I will never buy anything from them nor sell(GIVE) them a single item!
I also wanted to say I wish I had found this review sooner! I was just browsing around trying to see if my experience was the norm for most people who have tried the site and came across it. I hope more people see this before using them!
Same thing happened with me! I sent in a huge bag. Some items still had tags on them and weren’t accepted! I made 5.40 and not really, because they now charge 10 dollars for the bags they send out of what you make and wave the the rest of that fee if what they offer you doesn’t fully cover it. I just thought I would give it a try and sell some things to make room for our new baby that hadn’t sold on other sites I use. I will never use Thred-up again.
They charge $10?!?????? Wow. It’s crazy. So sorry you had to find out this way, too.
So this morning I saw a commercial for threadup. I had never heard of it and thought what a great idea!!! I’ve used consignment stores locally. I thought what a great consignment spin off idea but on a grander scale! Kind of hated I hadn’t thought of it first. So I Google threadup and look at reviews. Wowwwwww! Thank you all for saving me from what sounds like a great idea, turned scam!
Toni,
Glad you looked online. Everyone should make up their own mind if it’s right for you or not. I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment! Thanks so much, and good luck to you!
Thred up is a rip off they took a large bag of clothing I had new with tags on Under Armor there were 15 items and they just kept it all I did not get even an insulting credit.
Yes I wish I had seen this also ahead of time I sent in about 500 worth and they gave me 10.81 but charged me 10.99 to return bag huge rip off they make sick profits off those trying to get a few dollars will never use or recommend
Wow. That means you actually had to pay money to donate $500 worth of clothes?
I also tried the selling with them I was extremely disappointed they refused clothing I just bought that had tags on it so glad I pd the fee for them to return refused clothing. I ended up making nothing I wasted my time and effort for 17 bucks I would never recommend this site to anyone
Danielle,
I agree. I would rather donate to a charity or gift the clothes to a friend or relative rather than go through the hassle and then the anger of getting a few bucks. Better to just give to independent charities who need the donations to help people.
Seriously wished I would have seen this before I did my clean out 17 dollars for 5 pairs of like new jeans 7 dresses and several tops dosent even show three if the dresses I sent and they are going to make 180 off of the clothes they listed and gave me 17 bucks for.
Yep. Someone is making money of off these clothes. I can’t predict values and what anyone sells anything for, but as with anything, cutting out the middleman (or reseller) will almost always give you more money in your pocket if you sell yourself.
one of the ways they can make money is the way some (all?) donation thrift shops do. by wholesaling what they cant sell to people who ship the clothes overseas.
Agree. Yes, when donating to any organization that says they give the products to charity, it’s ALWAYS important to confirm if the product is going to people or if the clothing, etc. is just being stripped down for its parts or sent elsewhere.
Three up charged me $200 for a bag with a broken zipper. I bought eight Clothing items for almost $100 each. Every item was stretched out, stained and or faded to extreme. Then I paid to ship the items back, and was charged a fee plus they kept the “tax” that I initially paid. I was expecting “new” clothing like they advertised but everything I received I was embarrassed for Thred up for sending it after they praise themselves of their “high quality standards”.
They didn’t return your tax? Is that even possible? Yeah, those are some expensive clothes to buy to be disappointed.
I wish I had read this before. I went two bags one filled with newborn clothes that my granddaughter never wore and only about 10 items were posted and one of my clothes with 8 of those selected. It was great to get everything out of the house but I would not ace wasted time sorting and examining thoroughly if I had known so little would be consigned.
Thanks for info! Just saw their commercials. You can Most Importantly donate to services that come and pick up for free with groups (forget the name) that give (take) most anything for Womens/Childrens shelter (for domestic abuse) I think its called “Hope” here in GA. Its all tax deductable, and you’re really helping these poor Women/Children that left their homes w/Nothing!! WOMEN HELPING FELLOW WOMEN!! WHAT AN AWESOME CAUSE…It takes these women a lot of courage to leave in 1st place, and to leave everything they know & have!! My husband is a flight attendant & I have him bring home all nice toiletries from nice hotels.
Thank Y all for awesome info!
Dory
Yes! I love collecting the toiletries from travel, too! There is a wonderful organization called Clean the World that is based in Orlando that helps homeless and third world countries by recycling leftover toiletries in hotels. But bringing back new bottles and donating them to worthy local organizations such as women’s shelters is so smart, too.
I wish I would have read the reviews prior to sending the clean out bag. I sent in like new items that filled the WHOLE bag and my payout was an insulting $6.95! It took three 1/2 weeks to get $6.95. Customer service is of no help either so it’s pointless to even reach out to them.
So sorry about your small payout!
I wish I read this before ordering a clean out kit at 16$!!!! Will they still charge me if I don’t want to sell with them
I’m not sure. That’s a question for ThredUp. I’d reach out to them and ask about not sending in items. They are great to talk with I’ve found.
Thank you for all of your reviews…I received my bag today and at this point, I may fill it with the clothes and drop them off at the local thrift store. They give 100% of the sale proceeds to the local women’s shelters.
I had a similar experience. I sent in some excellent items , some spanking NWT that had been sitting my closet..even some designer. I was shocked beyond belief at what they paid out and the only donated 2 of the 30 pieces I sent in. And the nerve of them to up sell the items by Excessively more. My items sold quickly too..with 1 month of listings. They had the nerve to also charge for transferring your money. Awful rip off. What’s more they don’t even send m emails .. updates nothing… wry fishy business. They only want you to send in stuff then they don’t communicate after that.. they need to get shut down
Do you get a notification of how many items are donated? Was it only 2?
My name is Rose and I recently made a purchase I hope what I purchase is OK????
I also had a terrible experience with them. Out of all the clothing including a hardly used leather Coach purse and a only worn once dress that I paid over $200 for at White House blackmarket I got a just shy total of $40 credit. Super disappointing especially since they never supposedly accepted the dress to sell but I wasn’t going to pay to have it sent back. Never again.
Yikes! It really hurts when the items are like brand new and expensive and you get nothing for it. We all think that if something is in excellent shape, we should be monetarily compensated for it. I’m sure there were tons of people who would have loved to score your items in Facebook groups or other online selling apps!
Thanks for the advice. I just received my polka dotted bag and was getting ready to go through my gently used items but after reading this blog I am reconsidering this.
Kim, If you do decide to do it, just keep in mind what you’re likely going to be paid based on everybody else’s stories here. Only you can decide if it’s worth it for you.
I’m replying to the first comment listed. I just filled a bag with brand new and slightly worn clothing. Not happy with everything I’ve read. I don’t think I’ll send it to them. I don’t want $5 for $5,000 worth of clothing.
I started with them as a consumer. They took almost 2 months to send me my box and gave me a few days to return what I didn’t want. How does that work?!? Everything they charged me for was about $20 or more for used clothing!!! How do they get away for giving pennies for clothing, then selling for $20 each????
Anyone want me over start the same biz, but be a little more nice?!?
I am surprised by how much they charge for the items in those boxes, too!
I was very disappointed, I made $3.49, on 300.00 dollars worth of merchandise… Sucks!!!
I sent a few higher end pieces from st.john. One a suit, they listed the skirt but not the jacket. St John jackets on their site can get over $200.. But, I believe they went ahead and listed them because I saw the pants. Very disappointed, I guessthey grow by stealing.t
I would never recommend Thred up intact it should be called theif up. They will take what they want .They will sell maybe work 4 items and donate the rest. When you ask for them back not to donate they’ll send 1 item back and tell you your time is up..If my time was up why did I receive 1 jacket back. Doesn’t make sense..Do not let them sell your clothes as they will steal them