These online resellers bring in hundreds of dollars a month. Here's how they do it

Miami Herald

9 hours ago

PHILADELPHIA - In Society Hill, Angela Tate makes an extra $200 a week on average, on top of her full-time job.
Across the river in Haddon Heights, New Jersey, Katie Repko brings in about $500 to $700 a month while taking care of a newborn.
In Philadelphia's Far Northeast, Kristin Doll made $75 in minutes - with just a photo of a discontinued "Aquamarine" Bath & Body Works lotion and a few clicks.
These Philly-area residents have found success with an often-hit-or-miss side hustle: selling stuff online.
"My best week was probably around $400, while working full-time," said Tate, 34. She is now scaling back her nannying career to focus on building her Closet Happy Hour social media pages into a full-blown online business.
On the secondhand market, Tate said, "there is money to be made, and I love it."
As persistent inflation has tightened household budgets, more U.S. consumers have taken on side hustles in recent years.
Reselling clothing, accessories, furniture, home decor, and other items can be an appealing way to bring in extra cash. It can be done from home, and many resale websites and apps now assist with the process, though some take a cut of sellers' revenue. Analysts expect the secondhand market to grow even more in the coming years.
High demand for secondhand
Successful resellers say the gig requires time, effort and patience but can pay off, now more than ever.
Repko, a 36-year-old who has been reselling since college, said demand recently exploded, driven by Gen Z and millennial consumers who want to save money and reduce waste.
"Why spend $300 on something when you can spend $50 on it after somebody wore it once?" Repko said, describing the mindset of secondhand-market devotees, including her Retail Rescue Consignment followers.
Across seven platforms, Repko currently has about 3,000 listings - mostly women's clothing, accessories, and shoes. Local customers can try on items at her home before they purchase.
Repko has become so skilled at reselling that her friends, relatives, and neighbors now enlist her to sell their unwanted items, letting her keep a cut of the sale. Repko said she is currently selling for 36 other people.
Drew Lazor also sells for friends and family. The 41-year-old Philadelphia freelance writer turned his pandemic sneaker-resale hobby into an online consignment shop for things people in his life would otherwise throw away.
"If I have a T-shirt that I don't want, I sell it to someone else. I make a little bit of money. I declutter my house, and it doesn't go into a landfill," Lazor said. "That's a win across the board."
Struggles of the resale market
For every online-marketplace success story, there are countless tales of people who post items and get few takers. Some also deal with sophisticated scammers, including those who use AI chatbots.
As an apartment dweller in Media, Pennsylvania, Chelsea Williams said, she wishes she could sell home decor, clothes and shoes at a neighborhood yard sale, instead of dealing with the back-and-forth of Facebook Marketplace.
She has made about $200 selling furniture and home decor there, she said, and no more than $50 selling clothes.
"You have to stage the clothing," said the 35-year-old, who works in accounting. Household items, on the other hand, can be easier to sell with "just a picture of a box saying 'coffee maker.' "
In Philadelphia's Northern Liberties, Julia Duong recently made $60 selling an Instant Pot on Facebook Marketplace that she bought for $100, then barely used. When it comes to clothes, she often ends up just giving them away.
Regular resellers said they have learned to be patient, keep posting items, and utilize multiple platforms.
At the right price, "everything sells eventually," said Alexandra Yeganeh, a 34-year-old stay-at-home mom in Philadelphia, who has sold thousands of items. "Some things sell in the same day. … Some things sit for years."
How to make money selling online
Successful resellers say confidence and persistence are key.
"Setting up the infrastructure to do it is very tedious. It takes a while to get momentum and get rolling," said Lazor, who would recommend starting on "tried and true" eBay due to its ease of use and number of shoppers.
"There is definitely no reason to be intimidated," said Doll, a 38-year-old dental assistant, who made about $1,000 in a few months selling clothes, home decor, and skincare items on Poshmark and Mercari. "You can put things up. You can delete them. You can relist things. You have nothing to lose."
Buyers are drawn to listings with high-quality photos, in good lighting, from different angles, and modeled on a person if possible, resellers say.
In the description, be up-front about imperfections, including photos of small marks or tears, so buyers don't complain that they were misled, Doll said.
To set a price, resellers said, they look for similar listings using a reverse image search to get a sense of the going rate. Prices should account for wear and tear, and high-end clothing with original tags can command a higher price.
Certain items might sell better on a specific platform.
Yeganeh said she goes to Facebook Marketplace when she is selling larger items she would prefer to have picked up in person, like furniture. Children's clothing and baby items tend to find new homes quickly on Marketplace, too, she said.
eBay, meanwhile, is where Yeganeh said she sells collectible items or anything that might appeal to an older generation. Depop is her go-to for listing trendy clothing and "anything '90s."
Tate and Repko have found followings on their own resale Instagram and Facebook accounts. Tate teases "curated drops" - such as summer neutrals or wedding guest dresses - on her Closet Happy Hour Instagram and Facebook pages and posts during after-work hours or on Sunday nights.
"You want as much visibility as you can get," Tate said.
Resellers said the extra cash goes toward everything from groceries to bills to concert tickets.
And, yes, sometimes, other items on the resale market.
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