I don't think there's anyone who hasn't seen that advert for Vinted on the telly, the one that goes "Don't use it? Sell it on Vinted!"
One of our colleagues saw this advert and thought, "you know what, I will!" And she said it's perfect for making some extra pocket money, racking up nearly £150 in sales just in time for Christmas.
Rebecca Koncienzcy, 37, from the Liverpool Echo, said the secondhand selling app has 'changed her life'. Now, she's been sharing her tips and tricks to getting the most money for your unwanted wares. Better than them collecting dust, right?
READ MORE: Car boot sales in Manchester where you could rake in hundreds of pounds from your clutter
She said: "I had seen adverts for the app online but didn’t know much about it and now that I am a grumpy 37-year-old I am falling into the opinion that some of these apps are best left for the young. But some of my younger colleagues encouraged me, like the time I helped my nan use the microwave - she is still wary of it. They told me that I could definitely do it, it was easy and not too many steps.
"So I downloaded the app and it has changed my life and it was as easy as people make out. After a month I had made nearly £150 and here is what I learned since opening the Vinted app for the first time in November 2022."
You have to sell for cheaper than you think it’s worth
Vinted allows you to keep 100% of the money and the person buying pays for the shipping. The shipping costs is where Vinted make their money - by taking a slice of it.
With that in mind, you have to consider the person paying for postage costs on top of the item they are buying. Vinted is renowned for bagging a bargain and part of that is the rock-bottom prices people list their items for.
So don’t go into it thinking you can just knock a few quid off what you bought it for, even if it is brand new. In my experience, Vinted is very much about selling items you no longer want or need, fast, and things pitched at unrealistic prices just won’t sell. In fact, when listing your item, which is super easy, it gives suggestions based on what people are selling similar items for - use that, trust me.
I sold items for a few pounds each, with a few exceptions (a gold ring for £12, an unopened Nintendo Labo set for £20), which sometimes felt painful when they had the price tag on them. But, I don’t have designer clothes, I have heard about people getting a fair price for second hand labelled items.
People will buy anything
Well, for the right price. But in the run up to Christmas people bought loads of books and clothes I never thought anyone else would pay for.
I had a collection of pyjama sets I had never really worn - sensory overload from the fluffy material - and one person bought them all off me in one night. Recently someone bought a tatty old book I had about tying knots, or some well read Taylor Jenkins Reid books for £2 each and someone else picked up a very battered copy of Plato’s Republic for £1 - yes, I can be cerebral too.
I sold a handful of old baby clothes I still had mixed in with my toddler’s clothes, and baby blankets went in one lot for a few quid. I have to admit, I did start feeling like a marketing genius when I started adding to the descriptions that they came from a pet-free and smoke-free home.
People will make offers - and sometimes they are wild
On Vinted someone can just buy at the value you list it for, or they can message and ask more about the item or make an alternative offer. Sometimes these offers are a little cheeky, but if you don’t ask…
One person contacted me about the unopened Nintendo Labo I had for sale asking what was my best price for it. This confused me because I thought I had listed it for the best price.
After telling them this they said could I knock it down from £20, I thought about how it had been collecting dust for two years and said I would take £15 only for them to come back with a counteroffer of £13. But in the process of these messages, someone else bought it outright for £20, and sitting back, phone in hand, channelling my inner Alan Partridge, it was needless to say, I had had the last laugh.
But many times I have had a book up for sale for £2 and someone has asked “will you take £1.20” and I have taken it.
There are some things you can’t sell
You can't sell certain things on Vinted unless they are new, sealed and/or with tags. This includes bedding and cosmetics for hygiene reasons. So that bed set you bought and never used, if you took the tags off, best popping it in the charity pile.
Which brings me to charity guilt...
I am aware that selling things means I am not bagging them up for charity, but I think there is a decision to be made as some of the things that still had tags, or I had only worn once (or never - don’t judge, we all have them). I still have a toy pile which I give to a special needs school and a charity bag of clothes because I have always given to charity, but there has sometimes been a concern they can’t sell them all and being able to sell directly to someone who wants that specific skirt or jeans makes logistical and environmental sense - or at least that is what I have rationalised in my head.
It has made me reflect on the number of things I need and made me think more carefully about what I am buying and why because I don’t want to be listing it on Vinted in a month's time.
Would I recommend?
Listing items is easy and once sold you print off the label (some don’t require printing) and bag it up and pop it into the selected drop off point which is usually a nearby shop depending on what delivery service the buyer has chosen. Then forget about it and the money goes into your Vinted account and you can withdraw to your bank account at any time.
Remember if you make a lot of regular money on the site or you make over £1,000 it is something you have to declare to HMRC, you can find the self assessment details here.
But yes, I would highly recommend. We are currently moving home and I have been selling things we don’t want to take with us whilst also making a little extra pocket money for the move, which in these times is incredibly welcome.
My husband now jokes that he can’t leave anything unattended on surfaces now for fear that they end up listed on Vinted. I mean, he shouldn’t be leaving things around the house anyway, I have told him to put things back where he found them and everything has a place, and some places happen to be a listing on Vinted.
READ NEXT:
-
Boots giving away free makeup to shoppers who spend £15 online
-
Aldi shoppers rave about ‘gorgeous’ candle that’s £275 cheaper than Jo Malone
-
Shoppers love ‘warm’ £8 Amazon buy that’s ‘tons better’ than M&S
-
Shoppers can get ‘unlimited’ coffee for £12.50 in January with money-saving deal
-
Sign up to our Happy New You newsletter and make a fresh start in 2023
