I turned £22 into £80 by selling my charity shop buys – how you can do it too

WE all love a good rummage through the rails at a charity shop, but have you ever considered making some cash in the process?

I’m a big fan of buying clothing second hand, and I regularly buy items from charity shops, or from second hand sites like eBay, Depop and Vinted.

But it wasn’t until recently that I started to wonder how much money I could make by selling some of my charity shop finds online.

With a growing number of apps and websites for reselling clothes, it is now easier than ever to sell second hand clothes online.

With this in mind, I hit the charity shops of Hove with a budget of £20 to see what designer bargains I could find, and how much I could make by selling them online.

What did I buy in the charity shops and how much did they cost?

First off, I visited the British Heart Foundation in George Street, Hove.

While browsing the women’s clothing, I found a pair of high rise skinny Levis jeans in a size ten.

I immediately recognised the blue denim to be Levis and took them straight to the till.

At just £8.99, and in pretty good condition, I thought they were a steal.

After an unsuccessful look around the Chestnut Tree House and YMCA charity shops, I headed into Barnardo’s.

In here, I picked up an age 4 green Ralph Lauren polo shirt for £2.

It’s in pretty good condition, apart from a very small black mark on the left side of the top.

I also picked up a All Saints women’s dress in a size small for £6.

Famous for it’s cool leathers, suede jackets and beautiful dresses – I decided the dress was too good to be left behind.

Finally, I picked up an XL men’s Hugo Boss, long-sleeved polo shirt for £6.

All four items cost me £22 in total.

Because I went over budget, I knew it was important to make sure I could at least get the money back that I spent by selling them online.

How much could I sell my charity shop finds for online?

Levi Jeans

Levis is a popular brand on second hand selling sites like Depop and Vinted.

Both sites are great for selling everything from sportswear to high street brands and designer gear.

I tried Depop first, and typed in the exact style of Levis jeans – High Rise 27 – I had bought from the charity shop into the search bar.

I found that the exact same style were on sale for between £20 and £40 – and they were also second-hand.

This was the same on Vinted.

I also checked eBay, and found a pair of Levis jeans in the same colour and style had sold for £24 on September 5.

This means I could make around a £16 profit from selling the £8.99 pair of jeans I found in the charity shop.

I was also shocked to Levis still sells the exact same style of jeans online for £110.

So if I decided to keep the jeans, rather than sell them on, I would have saved a whopping £101.01.

All Saints dress

All Saints is known for being pricey, so I was thrilled to have found such a lovely dress at a low price.

The original retail price for the dress was £168, meaning I had already saved £162 by buying it second hand.

After a browse on Depop, I found the same dress on sale for £65.

But on seller on eBay had sold the dress for £23 on August 30.

I could therefore expect to make about £17 profit on my charity shop purchase.

Hugo Boss long sleeve polo shirt

Hugo Boss has been making luxury clothing since 1924 and the brand is loved by celebs from Kate Middleton to Taylor Swift. 

So when I found the men’s shirt in the charity shop £6, I was pretty excited to see how much I might make by selling it on.

Hugo Boss is still selling a very similar polo shirt for £99 online – £93 more than I found it in the charity.

On Depop, a very similar polo was on sale for £30, meanwhile one had sold on eBay for £44.99 on September 5.

If I was to sell the polo shirt, I could realistically expect to make around £38 in profit.

Kid’s Ralph Lauren polo shirt

It can be a bit trickier to sell kids clothing second hand.

Apps like Depop and Vinted are popular with students and twenty-somethings, so there isn’t much of a market for children’s clothes.

But online giant eBay has a huge second-hand children’s marketplace.

I couldn’t find exactly the same polo shirt for sale on eBay, but I found a blue one in the same style had sold for £7.50 on September 5.

As I paid just £2 for the polo shirt from the charity, I could expect to make around £5.50 in profit.

My verdict

No doubt there are bargains to be found in the charity shop – particularly if you’re a fan of big brands.

And there is also money to be made – I could expect to make around £78 in profit by selling my finds online.

But there are things to consider when you choose to sell clothes online.

For example, some platforms charge sellers a fee or take commission.

On Vinted, the seller pays nothing and instead, the buyer pays a fee of 3-8%.

Depop doesn’t charge a fee to list an item but you pay 10% commission on anything you sell.

You can list up to 1,000 items a month on eBay for free.

You’ll pay commission of 12.8% on what you sell, plus a 30p fee.

But even taking these extra charges into account, it’s still worth having a little look to see how much money you could make by selling on your charity shop finds.