Thrifter Spends $434 On Clothes And Not One Piece Came From The Goodwill Bins, Then A Cashier Tells Her To Just Take Items Without Ringing Them Up

Susan Parker

2 hours ago

The floor of her apartment was covered in bags of clothes, the pile trailing all the way out to the hallway. The Rogue Reseller, who goes by Sandra, had just spent $434 on clothes. Not a single piece came from the Goodwill bins.

She hit a Salvation Army on its 50% off day, then Kohl’s on its extra 50% off day. Nothing in her basket cost more than $4.50.

“Just Take It,” The Cashier Told Her At The Register

The store was packed that day, and Sandra says the checkout line was full of people waiting. The cashier looked at her overflowing basket and made a decision.

“Honey, you ain’t got time to pack all this. People need baskets,” the cashier told her. “Just take it.”

Some of the items were never rung up, Sandra says, and she is sure there was way more than $300 worth of clothes in that stack. Her advice afterward was short: “Be nice to your workers.”

Day Two As A Full-Time Reseller After Leaving Nursing

Sandra says she is a registered nurse, a single mom of four, and a former video editor who became a content creator. She sells on eBay, Poshmark and Depop, and she had just joined Mercari.

This haul came on her official second day as a full-time seller. She is trying to replace her nursing income, and she admits plainly, “I’m scared.”

“I’m going to have some faith,” she says, and she spent the weeks before learning women’s brands so she could go bigger.

Suede Shoes For $44 That Retail For $60

Her first find was a pair of real suede, real leather men’s Cole Haan shoes. She says she paid $44 and that they retail for $60.

She calls it retail arbitrage, and she says she did not believe it was real until she tried it. “Trust me, it’s real.”

Three-Dollar Shirts She Says Are Easy $25 To $30 Flips

She is mainly a men’s reseller, and a lot of the pile was the bread and butter that pays the bills. Here is what she picked out:

A men’s lacrosse henley for $3, which she says is an easy $25 to $30 item.
Polo Ralph Lauren sweatpants for $3.
Robert Graham shirts with a “flip cuff” and a crazy pattern under the cuff. She says each is an easy $30.
A green Kate Spade dress, plus a new-with-tags Eddie Bauer dress for $3.
Vineyard Vines “On the Go” performance shirts, which she says men love.

She also picked up wild prints because of the holiday party season. “People are attending Christmas parties. People are attending New Year’s parties,” she says.

A Ralph Lauren Wrap Dress For $36 And A $65 Offer On $85 Pants

While filming, a buyer offered $65 for a pair of new-with-tags white pants she had listed at $85. She had more than 30 pieces to list, so she accepted.

“We are making money while doing this video as always,” she says. Her wrap dresses are priced around $35 to $36 each.

Shoes And Jackets That She Says Sell Fast

An Adidas Gore-Tex shoe goes for $69, she says, and she paid $5 at Goodwill. The soles looked like they were never worn, so it was heading to the washing machine and then onto her listings.

A Uniqlo puffer vest or jacket, she says, will “sell the same day.” Brooks windbreakers cost her $2 each, and Fox Racing pieces would be “gone by tomorrow” on Depop.

She also learned something new. She had been selling men’s shirts for six months before she learned to spot the Tiger Woods logo on Nike golf wear, and now she looks for it.

Her Cleaning Rule For Logos

On Nike, Adidas and screen-printed polo shirts, the logo must be clean. She says it cannot be scratched, chipped or dusty, “just like fingernail polish.” For vintage pieces with a woven tag, she says the tag can look any way as long as it says Made in the USA.

She only buys shirts that look “crispy clean,” with no stained collars or yellowing under the arms.

“How Come Nobody Told Me About Ties?”

Ties cost $1 to $2 in every thrift store she visits, and an Italian pure silk tie she found could bring $15 to $20. She notes a whole bag of ties can make a decent amount of money.

Another lesson came from a pair of J.Crew pants. She says she sold a pair for $50 after buying a similar pair for $2, then found another pair at the thrift store, “like picking up $50 off the ground.”

What Newer Resellers Can Take From Her Haul

Sandra’s rules of thumb are simple and cheap to test:

Research brands with a quick search before buying, especially Gore-Tex, Brighton belts and Nike golf.
Shop sale days at chain thrift stores, where a 50% off day stacks on already low prices.
Price differently for each platform, since she once forgot to raise a Wrangler Sherpa jacket’s eBay price and had to sell it for the lower Depop price.
Reuse your skills. She says many people get locked into thinking “I’m just a cashier or I’m just a barista,” when they have many traits they can put to work.

She also bought two Y2K leather purses on the trip, and she has fixed up leather bags before. She redyed and conditioned some she bought for $2 each and sold them for about $30.

She says she got serious about her business and stopped wasting money. “I’m so blessed,” she says, “that I still have money to go out and buy clothes to thrift.”