It all started with a pair of blue linen trousers from Whistles. The pair I’d had for years – and had happy sand-flecked memories of wearing on every holiday I could remember – had started to go at the seams and the local dry cleaners couldn’t fix them. Yeah, it was only a pair of trousers but I was pretty upset. Then I thought to have a look on this new pre-loved clothes platform I’d heard about called Vinted, and miracle, there were my trousers. And in my size. I immediately snapped them and so began my obsession with Vinted.
In the last few years, more and more of the clothes that end up in my wardrobe are secondhand and more often than not, bought on Vinted. As I type this, I’m wearing a black Whistles skirt (£10.19) which I pounced on after trying it on in-store and loving (I didn’t love the rrp of £89). My shoes are leopard print Mary Jane’s from Dune that were a bargain £12.87 (rrp £70). Even my jacket – a pale green Stutterheim raincoat – was a Vinted purchase (£60; rrp a ridiculous £220). It’s a rare day when I’m not wearing at least one thing I’ve found on the site.
My little boy is kitted out almost exclusively from Vinted too; his favourite tiger print pjs from Joules (£11.05), his navy Boden coat (£15.77), the stripy blue and white t-shirt he wanted because it matches his mama’s (£6.19). I’m particularly grateful to the site when school suddenly announce the kids all have to dress up for a theme week and (I’m looking at you, Tudor week…) and you need a white top and leggings (£2.77 and 99p respectively) to wear under your chain mail! The only thing I don’t buy for him secondhand are shoes because I worry about them causing issues for his growing feet. Several of my colleagues tell me their Gen Alpha teenagers buy everything from Vinted – bikinis included!
I’m not alone in my love of Vinted – the site now has more than 16 million users in the UK (eBay has 18 million by comparison). The site originally launched in 2008 in Lithuania, set up by two friends who wanted to offload old clothes. It didn’t arrive in the UK until six years later in 2014 and didn’t really gain traction until 2021. That’s probably largely due to the pandemic and our national obsession with clearing out our wardrobes.
It’s not just the fact that I’m saving money that appeals to me, I also like that I’m not buying fast-fashion and contributing to the ever-growing pile of clothing that ends up in landfill. According to Earth.org, of the 100 billion garments produced each year globally, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills. Buying – and selling – preloved clothes goes some way to improving the situation. According to research commissioned by Vinted, 39% of transactions on the platform prevented the purchase of a new item.
Where Vinted has the edge over eBay and the like is that there’s no auction – you like something, you buy it, it’s yours. There are also no fees and, once you’ve bought or liked a few things, the site’s algorithm is spookily accurate, suggesting clothes I didn’t even know I wanted.
Wardrobe wins
Some of my biggest successes have been things I’ve loved in the shops, not quite got around to buying – or haven’t been able to afford – and then found on Vinted. Like the M&S navy velvet blazer that I’ve worn on repeat and can imagine doing so for years to come. I also have a navy and gold 40s-style dress that I’ve worn so often it must have a cost-per-wear of around 1p.
I get a particular kick out of buying kids clothes secondhand. It feels so wasteful to buy new when they’re either grown out of almost immediately or gone through at the knee on the second wear. Hunting out bargains for my son really gives me that dopamine hit that shopping in person used to give me, with no side order of guilt.
Stains, holes and terrible sizing
For all my victories, there have been plenty of failures too. The expensive leather skirt that was just a touch too small to fit still haunts me. It hung optimistically in my wardrobe for several months, bar the occasional try on, before I admitted defeat and relisted it. Sadly there have been no takers so far so it’s still hanging there.
There was also the cute Little Boden pyjama all-in-one I bought my son (got to make the most of the fact I still get to choose his clothes!) but had to recycle it when even a soak in vinegar couldn’t get out the smell of mildew. While it’s mildly annoying when things go wrong, I take on the chin as part of the fun.
Making money
I started out as a buyer but I’m a seasoned seller now too. My Vinted profile page tells me I’ve made £128 in the last eight months. One thing I like about the site is how easy it is to upload things you want to sell – once you have your pic ready to go, it takes a few minutes at absolute most to fill in the various boxes and you’re done. And as a bonus, I get as much of a rush from selling as I do from shopping.
The way Vinted sorts its postage works well too. There’s no guessing the weight of your parcel and deciding how much to charge, you just say if it’s small, medium or large. Vinted then generates an in-app postage label with a QR code, which can be used to drop off or collect items from newsagents or lockers.
Cheap – but at what cost?
When everything is priced at under a fiver, it’s easy to press buy without thinking too much about it. While you can’t beat the buzz of a bargain, buying secondhand can lure you into a false sense of doing the right thing environmentally. It’s still not great for the planet if you’re buying bundles of clothes you don’t need or get around to wearing. Add in the carbon footprint of shifting your Vinted parcels across the country and it’s not the ecological dream you might think it is.
I realised I might have a bit of a problem when I was coming home to several lumpy parcels every day. It was time to put a bit of a pause on my secondhand shopping habit. Instead I’m trying to be more mindful about whether I really do need that pair of cream corduroy flares and have brought in a one-in-one-out policy which means I have to sell something I no longer wear every time something new arrives. Better go, the postman’s at the door – might be my cream corduroy trousers…
What I’ve learned from my Vinted addiction
- Don’t be afraid to haggle. Vinted has a clever ‘make an offer’ option that let’s you suggest a lower price.
- You can’t be certain what’s arrived in the parcel with your new clothing, (hello, bed bugs…) so I always wash everything at the highest temperature I can – ideally 60C. If they’re too delicate to basically boil wash, a steamer (or your steam iron) will do the same job. And if there’s any possibility of moths, it goes straight in the freezer.
- Stock up on stain remover for any marks. My colleague Katie Mortram, GH’s household advice editor, recommends Dr Beckmann.
- Take lots of pictures. I find the more you include the more likely you re to make a sale.
- Set your selling price slightly higher than you think so there’s room to give a discount
- If someone favourites something you’re selling, you can offer it to them at a lower price – I’ve found that nine times out of 10, they’ll buy it.
- Don’t worry about having to pay tax on what you sell. As a general rule of thumb, if you sold an item for less than you originally paid for it, you don’t have to pay tax on it.