Why Poshmark Wasn't Right for Me

by - February 25, 2019

When it comes to selling your clothes, there are a lot of options out there - you can sell on Poshmark, sell or donate on ThredUp, or try your hand with second-hand places like Plato's Closet. Ever since I changed jobs, my closet has been undergoing a transformation. Since I wasn't working in an office setting anymore, a clean out was in order. I started in November, focusing only on my strictly-for-work clothes. I decided to post some of them on Poshmark in an effort to make a little holiday cash. Three months later, I had only sold two items and deleted my entire closet. In this post I'll share why I joined Poshmark in the first place, the pros and cons of the site, and why it ultimately wasn't right for me.


Why I Joined
Many of the items I had purged from my closet were basically new, only 1-2 years old. Some had only been worn one or two times. All were still in style, and I thought I'd be able to make a little more through Poshmark than by taking the items to our local Plato's Closet or Uptown Cheapskate. I've used Plato's Closet before and was pretty disappointed in the experience so I knew I didn't want to go that route. No one I know has ever used ThredUp, but I do have several friends who use Poshmark both to sell and buy. They've all been successful and recommended the service.

Pros
Poshmark is free to join and easy to use. You just take a picture of what you're trying to sell, fill in some details about the item, and hit post. If you do sell something, Poshmark provides a you with a shipping label and only keeps a minimal fee from your profit.

Cons
You have to share your listings repeatedly. It's recommended that you share your closet every day, and while that doesn't take a long time, I wasn't really aware of that aspect of the site when I joined. I was looking more for a place to list my items and basically forget about them. It's also recommended that you participate in what they call "parties." I'm not sure what those are exactly because I never did one.

Another con for me was that shoppers could make counter offers on your items. I was already listing my items at half or even 75-percent off the original ticket price and only pulling an average of $10 per item. I'm sorry, but when someone offers $5 for something that was originally $60 and I'm asking for $20, that's going to be a no from me.

I'm including this next one because for me it was an issue, but I recognize that for most people it won't be. When you sell an item, you have a few days to get it in the mail or the buyer can cancel. With the way I plan my weeks, I only go to the post office once, so my timing and Poshmark's timing didn't mesh well. It is important to note that I did not lose any sales because of this, but my last sale was made while I was out of town so I missed their mail-by date by several days. I did notify my buyer of the delay and they were gracious about it, so there's that.

Why It Didn't Work for Me
Basically it boils down to this - I didn't want to spend time every day, no matter how minimal, resharing items I had already posted. I also didn't want to spend time joining parties to sell my stuff. And I didn't want to haggle with people over prices.

This is not a knock against Poshmark. I think the concept is brilliant, but it does take effort. Obviously it works for other people, but out of about 25 items listed I was only able to sell two in three months, and I only made $25.

One of the biggest deciding factors for me in the end was that I was tired of having clothes I no longer wanted taking up space in my closet. So after I spent the better part of 20 minutes deleting each individual item out of my Poshmark closet (there is no 'delete all' option), I contacted an old work friend to see if she wanted to go through it all and then donated what was left to a local organization that helps women. I still can't figure out how to deactivate my account.

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