Reselling Lilly Pulitzer: WHITE label vs PINK label

Hello!

I think these are my favorite posts to write. When I was trying to figure out what brands to resell, something like this would have been super helpful. Hopefully at least one of you gets some info out of this… 😉

It’s probably pretty obvious to say that Lilly Pulitzer is a great brand for resale… kind of a “duh”, right? But actually, I’ve had to sit on and take low offers on a lot more Lilly than I would have liked and it’s usually due to the label.

There are a couple of generations of Lilly: white label and pink label. White labels are older and pink labels are newer. I’m sure there are plenty of people who have luck with white labels, but I am not one of them. I’ve started to be a bit more choosy when it comes to reselling Lilly Pulitzer and heavily favor the pink labels. Sometimes the new stuff doesn’t have an actual label, but more like a script written inside the neck. That’s great too!

I’ve also found that in order to make big bucks on a Lilly, it needs to look like a Lilly. If it looks like any other brand, or someone couldn’t guess right away that it’s a Lilly, it will give you a mediocre return. I’ve learned that the hard way too. Bottom line: people who wear Lilly want to look like they’re wearing Lilly.

Here are a couple of my favorite Lilly Pulitzer resales…

Cotton flamingo dress- bought for $3.50, sold for $70.

Travel cases- bought for 99 cents, sold for $45.

I have the best luck selling Lilly Pulitzer on Poshmark. If you need tips for selling on Poshmark, check these posts:
Poshmark: Review
Poshmark Tips & Tricks: NEW! Sending Offers to your Likers
What You Need To Sell On Poshmark

Sell any good Lilly lately?? Leave me a comment!

Credit for the Lilly Pulitzer background image goes to Canadian Prep

Finding Your Thrift Store Unicorn

Ever since I started reselling, there have been a few coveted items that I always hoped to find, but really doubted that I ever would.

At the top of that list? Hunter rain boots! I didn’t care if they were women’s, kid’s, whatever! Yes, it’s a brand that holds its resale value really well but truthfully, I was looking at it like more of a personal challenge.

So… GUESS WHAT I FOUND THIS WEEKEND?

This is why it’s important to make building your inventory a priority. Thrifting doesn’t need to take a long time, but frequent trips will bring you the most value. It can take me just a few minutes to hit the key spots around the store.

Need more guidance in thrifting for resale? Sourcing Inventory: Thrift Stores

Money Maker: Vintage Children’s Books

Hey everyone! Back with another quick money maker post for you! This time I want to talk about vintage children’s books. Books are a bit of a rabbit hole for me… meaning you can really get suckered into thinking about all the different editions, formats, etc. I’m a big fan of keeping it simple, and when it comes to books, children’s books are a super simple sale.

Here are some great sales I’ve made from children’s books:

Disney’s Gummi Bears: purchased for $1.15 and sold for $18.99

Vintage paper dolls book: purchased for $1.15 and sold for $28

Bony-Legs: Acquired free and sold for $16.99

The Wuzzles: purchased for $1.15 and sold for $10.75

When selling books it is very important to protect them possible inclement weather during the shipping process. Books should always be double bagged! I like to use simple clear plastic bags inside a durable polymailer.

clear plastic bags for inside

durable polymailer bags for shipping

Lastly, make sure that on EBay, you change your shipping selection to Media Mail! When an item is purchased you must ship it exactly the way it was advertised. You can’t choose the cheaper option (media mail) if your buyer pays for first class!

Each of these books were listed on both Kidizen and EBay.

Read reviews here: Kidizen   |   EBay

Sign up for Kidizen here: http://get.kidizen.com#trw8q

This post contains referral and affiliate links.

Money Maker: Tommy Bahama

Recently, someone came to me asking for help with selling her father-in-law’s clothes. The majority of his clothes were Tommy Bahama, which of course I’ve heard of, but when it comes to resale, it was a new brand for me. Tommy Bahama is known to be a great resale brand when it comes to Hawaiian shirts, however, there weren’t any in this batch.

So is Tommy Bahama worth reselling?

Well, I had the most luck with bundles. I recommend this a lot. Grouping things together allows the buyer to feel like they get a deal while you get to move more inventory. It’s a win-win!

My best bundle sale was 10 pairs of shorts which sold for $99.99 (with free shipping)! And two of those pairs of shorts had a couple of bleach spots!

Making a sale for almost $100 is certainly nothing to scoff at, but keep in mind there was no initial investment in these shorts. If you have 10 pairs of Tommy Bahama shorts just laying around in your house, then YES list them! But are they worth buying to sell them? Let’s look at the math.

In my local thrift store men’s shorts are $3.99. Let’s make it easy and say $4. Ten pairs of TB shorts would cost me $40. After fees and shipping, that $99.99 sale became about $80. If you didn’t offer free shipping, then you are looking at about $88.

Spending $40 in order to make $80 is great. Doubling your money is nothing to scoff at!

BUT, would I have bought these in the store in order to resell them? The answer is no and here’s why:

1- They were bulky and took up A LOT of space. (For me, space and time are two non-monetary ways I consider items to resell. I’m actually kind of a minimalist if you can believe it!)
2- I prefer to at least triple my initial investment. That’s just my general rule of thumb. So yes, doubling my money would have been wonderful but that’s just not enough for me. 🙂

All of the Tommy Bahama items were listed on both Poshmark andEBay, but they all sold on EBay. See my reviews here: Poshmark   /   eBay

Have you ever had any luck selling Tommy Bahama? Drop me a line!

How To Ship A Racket

When I first started reselling, I was very adamant about only listing items with easy shipping. Soft and lightweight things, like clothes, are extremely simple to mail. No worrying about boxes, broken items, or high shipping fees. However, if you keep this line of thought for too long you are leaving good money on the table! Unless you are consistently listing very high end clothing pieces, there is almost certainly a cap on how much someone will pay. But stuff, that’s a different story!

Recently I sold a vintage 70s squash racket. Weird, right? Even weirder is that it went to Brazil and the buyer paid over $50! With just a couple of extra steps, shipping something this rigid (it’s not like I can fold it up!) is really no biggie!

Here’s how I shipped it! (Warning: crappy nighttime pics ahead!):

• First, I used a thicker box to create 2 sleeves. I created one for the actual net part of the racket, then a slimmer one to put the wooden handle into.
• Then, I used a thinner and more pliable box to place the racket into. Note: I took the cardboard sleeves off during this picture.

• Put the sleeves back on and just wrap the top box around the racket until you are creating a custom box. TAPE TAPE TAPE!

  

Voila! Now, maybe some of you wandered onto this post because you were genuinely curious how to ship a racket. If so, hey! Hope this helped! But regardless, I hope you can see that selling “tricky” things is really no big deal at all!

Have you sold anything “tricky” lately?? Drop me a comment!

Happy selling!

Sourcing Inventory: Thrift Stores

Once you get started on the resale journey and feel the satisfaction of making those first few sales, it’s time to start thinking about your inventory. In a perfect world you are listing something everyday. Yep. That keeps you “fresh” in the algorithms and in the newly listed sections.

Unless you have a secret room full of valuable treasures, you need to replenish your inventory. After your own home, thrift stores are the next logical place to start.

Here are my thrift store tips and tricks:

• Use a cart. I like to shop first and evaluate later. So if something catches my eye and I don’t notice any glaring problems, I stick it in my cart. Once I’m done shopping I find a quiet area of the store and look at everything very carefully. Be nice and return any unwanted items where they belong.
• Check the new racks first. Thrift stores are putting out items non-stop and the newest stuff is usually hanging on wheeled racks in the walkways. Keep an eye open for when new racks come out and check them out as quick as you can.
• Try to look at as much as you can, but understand there is no way you will see it all. How much you shop/see will probably change each visit, but I never attempt to look at everything. That’s just crazy!
• Think about your return on investment before you check out. Okay, this one comes with some experience, but if I choose to buy an item it’s because I’ve looked at it and said “I can make ___ dollars on this as a FINAL profit.” Final profit means you’ve thought about initial investment (how much are you paying for it?), fees (how much will you have to pay to sell it?), and shipping (how much will it cost to get to my buyer?). I ballpark estimate all of these answers, but definitely take a moment or else you might find yourself losing money.
• Go as often as you can! Sometimes that means a quick stop when you can only cruise the new racks, and that’s okay! Going frequently helps to hone your picking skills AND you have a much better chance of snagging the good stuff.
• Lastly, have fun! Seriously! I’ve shopped around other resellers who really make the whole experience a drag for everyone. Wait your turn, be nice, and if you didn’t get what you wanted, there’s always next time!

Now that you’ve got some ideas, check out my reviews for where and how to sell.

Kidizen – children’s clothing, shoes, and accessories

Poshmark – children’s, women’s and men’s clothing, shoes, and accessories

EBay – almost everything