Vestiaire Collective Is the Resale App for Designer Clothing

Selling on Vestiaire Collective

First of all, just because VC is pretty specifically for luxury fashion doesn't mean you can't sell other things there. A search for "Nike," for instance, yields thousands of results. You can certainly buy or sell, say, a preowned pair of Air Force 1s on this app. It's just not super likely that they'll sell.

In my experience, the people who shop on here download the app because they want designer or expensive goods; they're not really in the market for sneakers that could be acquired at Foot Locker. With apps like Poshmark and Mercari, I'm all about listing any-and-every-thing, since the user base is so diverse and you never know what might pop off. My Poshmark sales page has everything from Louis Vuitton to Shein finds on it, and I sell about equal amounts of designer and cheap-o stuff there. That's just not the case with VC. The app has a few special caveats for sellers that have fostered a culture where you have to know your audience and avoid wasting time listing things that aren't going to appeal to them.

But if you have some nicer things to sell and can only list on one app, this is where I'd recommend doing it, and here's why: You set your own prices on Vestiaire Collective. Traditionally, I would get rid of my fancier clothes using consignment apps, which will come and take your finery, list it themselves, and determine the price point for you. That is less work for you, yes, but potentially less money. VC functions more like Poshmark and other competitors in that it allows you to set the price for your item, reject lowball offers, and stay in control of how much you make. If you're pricing too high, you'll know eventually and may have to lower your price, but it'll be on your terms. Vestiaire Collective even sends you periodic push notifications letting you know that something on your page hasn't sold and could do with a discount. I also appreciate the extra data VC provides. Unlike some other apps, I can see how many people have tapped on an item's listing.

The listing process is tedious, though. It's actually one of the things that has prevented me from conducting a lot of sales on the app. Like other platforms, you upload pictures of your goods and fill out required fields, but both of these tasks are more involved than they are on competitors. VC wants pictures from multiple angles and ones that include any tags or logos and insignias, plus drilled-down info like the material your item is made of, its exact dimensions, and more. The listing also doesn't go live when you're done with all of that. Instead, it has to be approved by a staffer, which can take days. VC workers do a quick authentication by sight, remove the background of your lead photo for you, and sometimes send the listing back to you with a request for more information. This is not like Mercari, where you take a pic, upload it, and call it a day while you wait for sales to roll in. That said, perhaps this extra verification is part of why more expensive goods tend to do well here—another reason to choose this for your designer goods either in place of or in addition to other resale apps.

If you choose to go that second route, it's also convenient that VC is included among the available marketplaces on my favorite crosslisting app, Vendoo. All of that effort spent in making your VC listing can then be used to list on other storefronts at the same time.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

What happens after a sale?

A buyer on VC can nab your item outright just by hitting the "purchase" button, but often, they'll send you an offer first. You can accept, decline, or counter the offer, the same as you can on other apps. But unlike on Poshmark, if you accept an offer, it doesn't mean their card gets charged and that the item is purchased. Rather, they then get two days to decide if they want to buy the item at the price you agreed to. In my experience, people take a lot longer to buy things on VC. For me, it has not been a fast-money app.

Once someone makes a purchase, the app sends you a printable label, which you are responsible for affixing to a package and sending out. I don't love this. Poshmark and Depop generate QR codes that you're able to just show to the person at the Post Office to get a box and send your item out. As someone without a printer and without a stockpile of boxes or shipping envelopes, I'm not a huge fan of having to walk to the FedEx print center, pay to print the label, then walk to the Post Office, pay for a box, and ship. And as with any resale platform, you're also paying fees on top of this: 10% selling fees apply to the item price (with a minimum of $10 and a maximum of $2,000) and you also pay a 3% payment processing fee with a minimum of $3.

In most cases, you're also not sending the item straight to the buyer. Instead, it goes to VC, where it is authenticated. This is actually great for the buyer, even though it slows down the speed at which they get their goods and costs them $25 (another reason why buyers might only gravitate towards buying finer items on VC). On two occasions, purchases I've made have been flagged as inauthentic or unsellable. VC refunded my money. This can be a little frustrating, but it's good to not get ripped off.

It's not perfect, though. On the seller's end, a few months ago, I sold a vintage Gucci bag on VC I had already had authenticated when I purchased it elsewhere. But its prior owner must have taken it in to have the edges of the straps resealed with wax. The wax was flagged by VC as suspicious, and even though I knew the rest of the bag was entirely authentic, the bag did not pass the app's quality check and was returned to me. I sold it on Poshmark a few weeks later with no issue.

When my sales have worked out, though, it's gone smoothly enough. Money is deposited into my Venmo account a few days after the sale is complete. I don't love this, either, though. As I've explained in other resale app reviews, I use these platforms strategically, practicing a version of the "one in, one out" technique by only allowing myself to make purchases on these apps with the money I make from each specific app's sales. Vestiaire Collective does not maintain a balance for you like Poshmark and Mercari do. It simply sends you the real money you earn. That's not my favorite, but I know I'm being picky. If you just want to earn money for your goods, not necessarily turn around and spend it on the app again, this is no problem.

Buying on Vestiaire Collective

Because you set your own prices as a seller, you do get to at least attempt to get what your item is worth or what you perceive it to be worth. That said, I've noticed that plenty of people mark their goods down really low, even if they're designer. I have no idea why. Maybe their closets are just overflowing with Prada and Dior and they don't care about the money. I would like such problems, but I don't have much time to ruminate on what their lives must be like, because all these cheap listings being available means I am constantly snapping up ridiculous deals on VC. Best of all, the goods get authenticated, so I know I'm not being scammed and will be able to resell my purchases elsewhere with no problem when I'm ready.

VC is also a truly global app, which is helpful. Sellers around the world use it. Some of them, especially ones in Japan, are very obviously professional consignment and resale boutiques that use the app to sell their physical inventory online, but I've gotten shoes and bags from people in Portugal, France, Italy, and beyond. A lot of other apps are very domestic, which is good, because shipping doesn't take long, but bad because it limits the market. As a seller on VC, I know interested customers around the world can see my goods. As a buyer, I know I can broaden my search for the perfect item. Everybody wins.

I've had great luck buying upscale items at a wild discount on VC, then reselling them later or renting them out. I've eased away from selling on VC just because it's not quite as convenient for me as Poshmark, but when I have sold, I've made more money because the people who use this app are looking for quality goods and, in my experience, are more willing to spend to get them. Just because I am sorting all my search results by "price: low to high" doesn't mean other users are.

Should you sell on Vestiaire Collective?