Savvy clothes seller Callum Massey has revealed what it's like to make a fortune of as much as £250k on fashion marketplace Depop. He began his business during his second year of his English Literature degree at the University of Wolverhampton to make extra cash.
Fast forward to now, the 24-year-old says he has made a quarter of a million pounds from selling clothes online with a 54 per cent profit margin - and even has plans for a new business. Callum is currently preparing to invest his profits into a new monthly sock subscription service to run alongside his two Depop shops.
From selling keyrings on Depop to scouring car boot sales from vintage clothing, Callum claims he has an annual revenue of £56,000, of which £30,000 is profit. But despite his wealth, he admits to having no plans to move out of his parents' semi-detached home anytime soon.
Speaking to the SWNS news agency, he explains how he did it. "It started out when I was in the second year of my English Literature degree." He said. "I drop-shipped keyrings and patches but I was only making £1 profit at a time.
"Then, when I was waiting between lectures, I would go to charity shops and look for sportswear to sell. I'd also go to car boot sales to find vintage clothing and sell my own stuff too. I was working part-time for Curry's PC World as a shop assistant two evenings a week and every weekend."
Eventually, Callum had to quit his job at Curry's PC World and focussed on graduating from university and continuing his booming business. When he graduated in 2019, he went full-time selling online and says that summer he made "£1,000 profit in one month for the first time."
He added: "I lived with my parents and kept all my stock in the garage so I had hardly any overheads. Then Covid started and I just kept saving and my TikTok account blew up and took me to £12k sales in just one month.
"That was definitely a one-off and demand has decreased since Covid. A lot of people were out of work and joined the app so there was more competition. Vinted has also devalued vintage clothing because there are no fees on there but Depop charges 10 per cent."
While Callum still lives at home with is parents, he now also rents two offices to work in and store his 1,500 items of stock. He states he has no plans to move out and enjoys spending his money on holidays and festivals.
Callum says that while things have quietened down he "sold 200 items last month for £4,500 in total and £2,500 of that was profit. It's a really good profit margin but it is not the most scalable business because everything I sell I have to replace."
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The Depop entrepreneur will soon launch his new sock subscription business, Sock Box, where customers will get a new pair of socks every month. Explaining the new venture, he said: "I'm going to carry on my Depop shop but Sock Box will be entirely separate from it.
"I want it to exist on its own on my own website rather than on Depop. I have no major problems with Depop but I do think they need to find a way to showcase just how valuable and rare some of the items on the site are."
