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???
I actually bought some items from Thred Up! I could have got better quality at the Goodwill! I bought a clutch purse for the color! It was so worn I would have thrown it away! A brown skirt that had a gaping hole below the zipper. Sending it back at my expense for a credit that I would never use wasn’t an option! The only people that make money with Thred Up is the owners!!!
It is now January 2019 and this topic has only grown as times passes. And I’m so glad I found you because now I know that I won’t be using ThredUp! All of a sudden their ads were appearing all over my FB pages and elsewhere. I thought, like another poster here – Toni, wow, what a great idea, wish I would have thought of it! But after reading about what’s happened to all of you, I’d be a fool to try it. I had set up my p/w and was looking though the site when a little voice in the back of my mind said “reviews”! My husband will be happy to know he finally got through to me 🙂 First review site I opened was yours. Seems like such an awesome bunch of women here – from all over – we really don’t deserve to get scammed like this. Talk about ruining a fantastic idea! Thanks Kimberly for the warning!
Thanks so much, Terry! I’m so happy with all of the women from across the country that are sharing their stories to tell others what it’s like. I’m glad you listened to your inner voice, too! It’s so important in all aspects of life! Hope you can find a great home for your clothing!
“Contrary to popular (naive) belief, less than 20 percent of clothing donations sent to charities are actually resold at those charities…. generally, the other 80 percent is sent to textile recyclers who then determine the next cycle of the garment’s life. Almost half of the donations will be exported and sold in developing countries, while the other half will be recycled into rags and household insulation.” https://nylon.com/articles/donated-clothes-fast-fashion-impact
Angela, I’ve heard the same. I didn’t know the numbers, but I’ve heard that most clothing donated to charities that pick them up in bulk (rather than reselling directly in their store) ends up in textile recycling.
thredup is not a place for making money(i cant read all the comments;)…i had extremely uneven results and the listings of my stuff was inaccurate.but thought it might be fun to have some credit .the first thing i purchased was a norma kamali dress,which i had checked on the NK website and it looked good.i wore it around the house briefly for a trial.2 months later i had an event and got out of the car for an errand before and the thing rode up my crotch continuously.=verdict no more than 6 steps without public indeceny!(i borrowed scissors,cut it into a skirt and bought an overpriced shirt at macys(YUCKK!)but made the event;)
ok,my fault i should have given it an outdoor run immediatly after purchase and then returned it.my second purchase (still through credit) was a “rashguard” size medium.it was photographed on a dummy and looked normal–i was thrilled.it arrived…i tried it on and it was super tight and only came to the end of my ribcage.in the photo it appeared to reach below the hips.its a factory mistake or offsize or its for a teenage boy…more likely someones mistake they pushed off on thredup-who didn’t catch the mistake and send it to charity or whatevr.i’m getting charged shipping,not sure if its both ways,if it is thats $16.its a great idea,just not for me. next stop;salvation army.(BTW,the ceo of goodwill was indicted for conduct unbecoming a charity)
They also have stores now where they no doubt sell the items they did not accept! I just received my payout which came out to a negative in order to return the unaccepted items. What a fool I am for sending my good, expensive clothing to them. Lesson learned. Never again. 32 cents for a Betsy Johnson dress. Good grief. I do plan on lodging a complaint with the BBB.
I wish I had found your review on Thredup before sending them two overstuffed large bags of great clothes and shoes I no longer want, waited for what seemed like weeks and weeks only to just be disappointed/insulted and given an option of $11.40 for if/when 7 items would sell or accept a $5.40 upfront earnings – I’m going to tell them to keep the money. Not only will they profit from items their keeping but also on unaccepted items that are sent to their textile recycling partners and repurposed into new, useful products, also making a profit.
I would rather continue to donate to Salvation Army and other non profit organizations like I have in the past. This has a better and empowered feeling of helping others then knowing the money they would profit from this scam of a business their running.
Albie, I wish you had found all of these stories, too. I’m definitely surprised at the volume of people sharing their payout amounts and upset about the process. I love that you want to continue to do good by helping non-profit organizations. Good for you!
Great article. I normally sell my better clothing items on Ebay. Items that are not good enough to sell on eBay I donated to a local charity. Then a friend recommended thredup. I sent my first bag of clothes of items that I didn’t want to fool with on eBay but thought I could get a little money on thredup. I was shocked at the values of 50 cents per item that I was getting. As you stated in the article, they do pay better for brand-name clothing such as Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger. Since I began cleaning out more and more of my closets and it was more then I had time to sell on eBay, I began sending them more. More recently I sent them a couple of just okay handbags not thinking that they would accept them. But I would take a chance anyway. One of them had markings on the outside, and they accepted it and it also sold. Strangely enough that prompted me to clean out a few more of my handbags. So in the latest box I sent them was a Coach leather handbag, a reptile print Barr & Barr New York handbag that was leather and a Tignanello leather handbag. I couldn’t wait for these bags to be process so I could see what they would sell them for. After my bag was processed, I found out that they discarded these items has not worthy to be sold on their website. I was Furious. I am left feeling like there business is a fraud and a bait and switch. I feel that I was very stupid and not paying the 10.99 fee do you have those items returned to me, but after they accepted the previous handbag I thought these three would sail through no problem. I am done with thredup and my mission now is to tell everybody how not to be duped by them.
Ugh!It’s like a crap shoot deciding whether to pay the amount to get the items back. It would be so frustrating to donate high quality leather items only to have them discarded. Why would they be discarded?!?! Good luck in your other selling avenues, though. It sounds like you were on the right path!
This turned out to be the worst online consignment for selling your clothes. Firstly they hook you in and you earn a few dollars. Apparently they changed their rules about consignors making money. They charge for early processing, return of unwanted items and then low ball whatever they keep so they don’t have to pay the consignor. It’s all about THEM making money from your items without THEM having to spend any money. I now either donate or consign at a local consignment store. If I have designer items, I send them them to Real Real and make decent money. Be aware of these scam artists
I wish I had read this before sending clothes in! I sent a full to the brim bag in with very gently used girls clothes, most of which was Gymboree, heartstrings, etc. the took two tops that were a Walmart brand?!?!. I also sent in a cocktail dress. I had bought it from them about 6 weeks prior but missed the return window. It still had tags on it. A dress I paid thred up 70 bucks for they paid me 2.40. What a scam!! I would really like to know what really becomes of the very nice brand name clothes they don’t except.
Wow! You paid $70 for it and got $2.40 in return? That is laughable if it weren’t so true and affecting your pay out. Just, WOW!
I’ve gotten nothing for my bags at times but have also scored. I sent a michael kors bag that I got at a consignment store for $40 a year ago and recieved $67 for it. I was quite happy.
I think everyone also needs to recognize that thred up is offering massive discounts for first time customers. They also offer free shipping for orders over $79. Shipping is expensive.
If they offer you half or ever $25% of what they’d sell the items for, they wouldn’t be in business.
I HATE THREDUP and filed a complaint with the Better Busines Bureau! They accepted my entire bag, never offered me the chance to put it on consignment, paid me $15.35 and I got to watch my items sell (every last piece) for over $265.00!!! How are they still in business?! ThredUp = FRAUD!!!
I agree with many of the above reviews. They also make it difficult to put a review on Google or Facebook too. You have to use Trustpilot.com to post and they will have access to all your contacts.
I have used Thred up now four times and each time I send clothes, I feel as though I am getting paid out less and less for quality clothes ,including designer items, that are in excellent condition, (as they state next to the item).
I will not be doing this again. I would rather donate clothes then pay 10.99 for a bag and get such a small amount of $$ in return, that its not worth my time and effort.
Patty, I agree. Thankfully I am in a position, like so many others, where I don’t want to throw out clothing snd want to repurpose the clothes. Getting paid a nice chunk of change would be nice. But if I can’t get that, I’d much rather donate them directly to someone in need and forgo a few dollars of profit when it could help someone less fortunate.