Clothing Reseller Survey 2025 Results

We just wrapped up the first-ever Ultimate Thrifting Clothing Reseller Survey, which ended up being a great success and the results have been really interesting. We’re extremely grateful to everyone who participated; we couldn’t have done it without your support. Our goal was to better understand who clothing resellers are and how they operate their businesses, and to extract meaningful insights from the data. I believe we were able to do that, and I’m excited to share the results with you in this blog post.

All survey data was kept completely anonymous. These were the questions we asked:

1. Are you a full-time reseller, part-time, or not a reseller? (We wanted to keep survey results to resellers only.)
2. In which country do you primarily operate your reselling business?
3. On average, how many hours per week do you work on reselling?
4. On average, how many items do you sell per month?
5. What is your average profit per item in USD?
6. What is your average cost per item in USD?
7. What platforms do you use to resell clothing?
8. How do you source inventory?
9. How many items do you have actively listed?
10. Where do you store your inventory?
11. Do you cross-list?
12. How do you feel about your future as a reseller?
13. What is your approximate annual net income in USD?
14. How old are you?
15. What’s your gender?

For questions that asked for a value, we either used a slider or range of values. This was done to keep questions easier to answer and not require a lot of research; we wanted to reduce friction to collect as many replies as possible. Survey participants were recruited mainly through the Ultimate Thrifting newsletter and the Ultimate Thrifting website, and all were based in the United States or Canada.

Who are Clothing Resellers?

We used people’s answers to whether they resell as a full-time job or on a part-time basis to divide them into 2 groups.

Most of the part-time resellers who participated in the survey were female and in their 30s to 50s (with an average of about 48). They worked around 15 hours per week, sold an average of 30 items per month, and earned a profit of about $15 per item. Their median income was only about $3,500 USD per year, and their outlook on their future in resale tended to be mixed, with over 35% feeling unsure about whether they would continue. As you might expect, the more a part-time reseller earned, the more positive their outlook; the resellers earning low amounts skewed the outlook to be more negative.

Full-time resellers had more of a male presence and they were younger (with a median age of about 35). They worked a lot more, averaging 25 hours per week, sold a lot more items (closer to 100), and had a slightly higher average profit per item of approximately $17. Their outlook was more positive (80% had a positive outlook) and they earned more, with an average income of $30,000 USD. Full-time resellers were cross-listing on more platforms and using more venues for sourcing. And, as you might expect, both inventory quantity and sales volume were a lot higher for resellers.

Key Resellers Trends & Patterns

Some important differences were visible between the U.S. and Canada. On average, U.S. respondents earned about 2.5 times more than Canadians. American sellers were also commonly using platforms not available to Canadians, like Depop and Mercari, whereas Canadian sellers relied more on local Facebook Marketplace transactions.

There was a clear correlation between time invested into resale and profit. It’s probably unsurprising but it bears repeating: more hours means more listings and more sales. Similarly, the number of items sold per month was one of the strongest predictors of annual profit. If you want to make more money, you have to increase your volume, and you must put in more time to move those items. Every respondent to the survey earning more than $40,000 per year was selling at least 50 items per month.

Age had an interesting correlation with resale performance. The highest earners were all in their 30s or 40s, and the results suggested that tech-savvy, middle-age resellers were leveraging new platforms and strategies more effectively. Gender did not correlate to performance; only age did at the demographics level.

Every top earner in the survey used multiple online platforms. Of all survey participants, 75% cross-listed on multiple marketplaces. There was an indication that the more platforms someone used, the more income they earned. eBay and Facebook Marketplace were the most popular platforms, with Poshmark a close third.

When it comes to sourcing, 90% of survey participants used thrift stores to at least some degree to acquire inventory. High earners diversified more, with some of the most successful sellers also using estate sales, bins, retail clearance, and other sources to find products. The highest earner in the survey leveraged liquidation pallets and estate sales. Low-volume part-timers, on the other hand, used almost exclusively thrift stores and the occasional garage sale.

We saw sellers generally divide themselves into 2 pricing models: high-volume and low-margin vs. low-volume and high-margin. Neither group performed significantly better than the other—it was just interesting that most participants seemed to favor one approach over the other.

Advice for Resellers

So what can we learn from the survey, especially as clothing resellers eager to improve our performance? Here are some evidence-backed tips that can be derived from the survey results (assuming your goal is to increase your income as a reseller):

1. Increase your listing volume. Resellers who perform well are listing more and selling more.
2. Use multiple selling platforms. High earners are typically using 3-5 resale platforms.
3. Cross-list your items. All of the top earners in our survey participated in cross-listing.
4. Try other sourcing channels. If you just use thrift stores now, experiment with estate sales, Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist to pick up some bulk lots, or even give wholesale opportunities like liquidation pallets a try.
5. Increase your hours. Clothing resale performance correlates strongly with how much time you spend doing it, so put in the extra hours once you have a sourcing and listing strategy that works and scales.
6. List more. Buy more to sell and get it listed. Full-time, high-income resellers have a lot more active listings than lower-income resellers.
7. Cultivate a positive mindset. High-income resellers consistently had a “good” or “great” outlook about their resale future. While this might be a result of their success, a positive and growth-oriented vision can drive persistence and long-term success.

Conclusion

With so little data available to the public about clothing resale as a profession, it was great to see real data from active resellers. We’re excited to contribute our findings to the larger resale community, and hopefully this article gave you some insights that you can actually use. If you take anything away from our survey work this year, remember that listing more matters, time invested makes a big difference, cross-listing helps, and your attitude plays a bigger role than you might think. All of these things are within your control, so get out there and grow your business!

Once again, we really want to thank all of our participants. We had 20 in total from across the United States and Canada. Some provided an optional email address for inclusion in our survey contest; the winner has been notified but hasn’t yet responded to our messages.

Happy thrifting—and even happier selling!