Swapping your old stuff for FUN TOKENS 💸 (and space)

Here it comes! A New year! Fresh starts and minimalist hopes and dreams. What better time to sell yer stuff online.

I got obsessed with selling second-hand baby clothes on Vinted - here's what I learned. Or in other words... can I just info-dump about Vinted on you for a bit? Ok good. Thanks.

**This post is nothing about illustration. It’s just all about selling stuff on Vinted. 😆**

Right. Since 2021, I’ve been in this exciting whirlwind relationship with Vinted.

It all started when I wanted needed one of those stretchy wrap thingies to wrap my baby in. Essentially, a long stretchy bit of fabric. A long (overpriced) scarf. The specific one I’d set my heart on was advertised with photos of hipster millennial beanie-clad parents sipping their flat whites and laughing, one hand on their tiny wrapped-up baby. Yesss. That one, please. I want that to be me. I will look SO cool.

It’s £60 plus postage.

Wait, WHAT!?

Something about spending £60 on a bit of (very well-marketed) stretchy material got me all fired up.

So I had a little look at Vinted for the first time ever. Those bijillion telly ads worked.

Just 3 minutes in and BOOM - I found THE stretchy wrap, in exactly the colour I wanted for just £20 including postage. A third of the price!

YAAAAS.

The baby sling wrap thingie of millenial dreams arrived and it was everything I’d hoped for and more. Immaculate. All of the original packaging. Posh label an’ everything.

The smugness I felt patting my tiny sling-wrapped baby with one hand while walking around wearing a beanie hat? Priceless.

That was it.

I was hooked. And then I started SELLING stuff. Babies grow ridiculously fast. And walking to that corner shop to post Evri parcels kept me sane. The tiny daily Vinted tasks gave me a feeling of accomplishment that I craved during those hazy newborn days.

Since 2022, I’ve sold over £1,500 of stuff on Vinted.

Here’s what I’ve learned!

✨ I got obsessed so that you don’t have to ✨

Vinted, like all apps, has an algorithm. And humans who are doing the buying. There are things you can do to make the algorithm *and* the human beings happy so that you sell more of your stuff and make more money (to spend on more Vinted items, obvs.)

Batch-your-selling

Make a big pile of items to sell. I found that 15-40 items is…
A: A manageable amount of stuff to post.
B: Seemed to keep the algorithm happy.

Batch the photos

Take all of your photos at once. SNAP SNAP SNAP.

Photo tips:

You know all of this already, I’m sure. But just in case…

1. Natural light is best

2. Put clothes on a hanger whenever you can - yes it’s fiddly and annoying, but clothes usually look loads better hung up.

3. A clear, uncluttered background = you’re winning (Using a hook on the back of a door means you can display the item on a hanger AND have a clear uncluttered background. Get in)

4. More is more. Take a zillion photos of each item. Get the label, a close-up of the pattern, the stitching, the front, the back, hood up, hood down. Whatever. Imagine you’re in a shop sussing out an item. Take the photos you’d like to see if you were buying this thing. Be nosy.
   Take more photos than you think you’ll need!
   
   The algorithm and the humans BOTH like to see lots of photos.

Batch your words

Description time! Urghhhh describing your items is boring, I know.

But…

Words guide people to your items. Put yourself in their shoes and guess what they might be typing in and searching for.

Think of it like SEO (search engine optimisation). Even 1 sentence in your description is totally worth it! How will people find your item if there aren’t any words?

Include misspellings of the brand name eg, Baba+Boo, Baba & boo, and Baba and boo.

Have a copy-paste bit saved in your notes for quickness. I have this:

All from a smoke and pet-free home :)
Happy to put together bundles - I’m selling lots of baby clothes so please do have a look and save (bundle discounts are switched on!)

It makes the whole description thing much easier. All you have to think of is one sentence. And even if you write nothing extra, you’re still encouraging buyers to have a look at the other items you have listed in your ‘wardrobe’ ← that’s what Vinted calls your shop.

Switch bundle discounts on

Every little helps. Bundles = selling more of your items, less postage faff, and happier buyers. You can choose how much discount you give for X amount of items. It’s optional but I definitely sell more when bundle discounts are switched on.

Profile > Bundle discounts > select your options there

Make sure your postage options aren’t going to ruin your day 😅

STORYTIME. For my first-ever Vinted sale (a pair of Dr Marten hardly-worn sandals, since you’re asking) the buyer had selected Yodel.

No problem! I thought. Until I discovered that my nearest Yodel drop-off point was a 1-hour round trip. 🫣 Oops. An hour of stupid driving later, and I vowed never to do that again. I did the stupid thing so you don’t have to.

Switch off the postage options that will be a pain in the bum. For me, Evri, InPost and Royal Mail are fiiiine and everything else is switched off. TBH, Royal Mail is annoying so I should probably switch that one off too. There’s always a big queue and the Post Office is in Asda so I end up buying crisps I don’t need.

Anyway. Your postage option settings. Here they are:

Profile > settings > postage > delivery options

List ‘em Fast and Furious

Go go go!

Once you’ve got your photos done, words ready, postage options tweaked, it’s listing time. Yessss. Let’s do it!

When you list lots of items at once, the Vinted gods are pleased.

Make sure you list a good amount, and include a mixture of different brands to increase the likelihood of Vinted putting your items in front of more buyers’ eyeballs.

Algorithm-wise, Vinted seems to have a flurry of activity whenever you list stuff. Listing stuff makes things happen and gets new eyeballs on your items.

Pricing Your Items

This bit is depressing. Vinted is the car boot sale of the online selling stuff world. If you’re not in the UK, maybe a yard sale is the nearest thing? Basically what I’m saying is, people are on Vinted for the bargains! That’s what makes it so addictive.

Postage adds a good chunk of £££ too, so sometimes even a £1 item can cost a buyer almost £5 to receive.

Lowering the bar and treating Vinted as an eccentric hobby makes the whole thing less painful and more fun.

All Vinted money is bonus money and you can spend it on more Vinted stuff 😆.

🎶 the ciiiircle of liiiii-iii-iiiiiiife 🎶

That being said, DO NOT BE FOOLED when you’re listing an item and Vinted shows you ‘similar items sold for this price’ when you’re about to add the price.

Vinted will try and trick you into listing your item at the most rockiest of the rock bottom price. Fancy Baby Boden cardigan with owls on? Ohhh those are selling for…ummm…£1.50. NO THEY AREN’T, VINTED. DON’T EFFIN’ LIE TO ME.

If you know your item is a posh brand, have a quick search before you list just to see what’s going on with other items price-wise.

You can click on an item and scroll down to see more details like when it was listed. If an item has been festering on vinted for months/sometimes years(!) then you know the price is too high ‘cos nobody’s bought it.

Also…

Buyers will also make you silly offers and try to haggle.

You don’t have to accept offers if you don’t want to. If an items been listed for less than 24 hours it’s usually best to let it run a bit first.

You can even add a bit to your copy-paste description if you find the haggling annoying. “Bundle discounts are already on, no offers. Piss off” or something like that should do the job.

Me? Angry? nooooo never.

Here’s a very vague baby clothes pricing guide:

Supermarket/Primark baby clothes = £1-£2

A brand-you’ve-heard-of baby clothes £3-£10+ depending on how fancy it is

Bundle up

Things like baby vests/tights/socks/leggings sell brilliantly as bundles and it’s an AMAZIN’ way to shift a load of fiddly small baby clothes in one go.

Brands that do well

You’ll have your own favourites, but keep an eye out for clothing names that do well on Vinted. For the baby stuff I noticed that brands like Baby Gap, Zara, Frugi, Mini/Baby Boden, Marks & Spencer, Next etc etc. do really well. Whereas the supermarket clothes (even though they’re SO cute) are almost impossible to flog and end up lingering in your wardrobe until you give up and donate them 😅

Algorithm-wise, Vinted will show your items to more people if your item is by a popular brand. Buyers can follow brands, and Vinted will also show them stuff similar to what they’ve looked at in the past.

The more you can get your items to pop up, the better. And if your items can entice buyers to look at your entire wardrobe, you’re winning. (Bundle discounts, and a description that says COME AND LOOK AT MY OTHER ITEMS OR ELSE aaall help to do just that.)

Ultimately, selling stuff is a numbers game. More eyeballs on your wardrobe = more sales.

You can pay to play, too. Vinted offer wardrobe spotlighting and a “bump” thing where a specific item can be promoted. I paid to bump when selling a £500 item and it worked a treat but I wouldn’t ever bother for cheap an’ cheerful baby clothes.

A note on offers & haggling

People make offers, and sometimes you’re like YES. BRILLIANT! Accept their offer and…. **tumbleweed**

It’s the Vinted version of Facebook Marketplace’s “IS THIS STILL AVAILABLE?” **radio silence**. So blimmin’ annoying.

In Vinted, once somebody’s made an offer you can accept their offer and reserve the items for them. Reserving the items and then messaging to say “great! I’ve reserved those items for you.” usually does the job and jiggles them into action.

If they’re still silent, it’s worth following up one more time before giving up and un-reserving the items so other people can buy them.

Optimising your profile

Humans buy the stuff. Humans check profiles to make sure everything looks legit. Stuff the humans will look at

1. Your Vinted rating - make sure you send things wen they sell otherwise you’ll get automatic bad feedback and “autofeedback: sale not completed”
   Human thoughts: Is this person going to rip me off? Are they reliable? How much stuff have they bought/sold on Vinted?

2. Your photo - optional but nice

3. Whether you’ve written anything in the writing bit

4. Your Wardrobe
   If all of your other stuff looks good, they’ll go here. BINGO!

WARNING: There are some scammers on Vinted. If you’re buying something a bit pricey, be vigilant and do check their profile / reviews etc. If something seems fishy and/or too good to be true… it usually is. Trust your gut! You can also message the seller to ask more questions and make sure they’re a human.

Postage tips

On Vinted, anything goes 😅 you can recycle old packaging, wrap stuff in bin bags. You name it.

My preferred method when selling a zillion items = buying eco friendly mailing bags. You can get them online. They’re cheap ish and make the whole thing nice and quick and easy.

Printing / labelling

Evri and InPost lockers give you the option of scanning a QR code so that you don’t have to deal with printer rage at home.

Evri prints you a label in-store, and for InPost lockers you just leave the un-labelled parcel in a locker. (It’s a bit scary. HOW WILL THEY KNOW WHERE TO SEND IT!? But send it they do.)

Scanning the QR code for the Evri printer can be stupidly fiddly but once you get the hang of it, it’s fine. Going to the corner shop at a quiet time = wise.

Make sure you write a note on the parcel so you know which item is which if you are doing the QR code printerless option.

When things go wrong

Items do go missing sometimes but Vinted are good at refunding the buyer so nobody is out of pocket. It just means that your item is floating around in the world somewhere, but you still get paid.

Bad feedback. Once I forgot to post an item and I got 1 star auto-feedback. THE SHAME. Just don’t forget to post stuff and you’ll be fine. The bad feedback is quickly outweighed by the good if you have a nice amount of good ratings. Dinny worry.

BISH BASH BOSH

OK final note to say all of these things aside, the thing I love about Vinted is that it tends to work even if you’re really slap dash and just whack something on there in 3 minutes.

Ignore everything I’ve said and you’ll still sell stuff.

MAGIC.

Merry 2nd hand buying and selling.

xx Katie