is a 'resale' shop a viable business opportunity?

[dfagdfsh]

laying out the capital to set up (and run) a brick and mortar store is also insane. your overhead in running a real location would consume 150% of your profits.

 

[bringusingoodale]

I'd shop in a place that was "SF approved."

But as others have noted, the vast majority of men do not care about clothes as the forumites on here, as one should expect since this is a hobbyist forum about clothes and men's accessories.

 

[HomerJ]

Don't listen to the naysayers.

1. open shop
2.
3. profit!!!

 

[SpooPoker]



In other words, put your store near SpooPoker's mansion and you should be set.

Ill be monitoring this thread closely.

 

[stevent]

OP - check out this store
http://www.inanyc.com/

They are on eBay as well, I bought a suit from them, was told no stains and there were like 10 small ones on front and their yelp reviews are bad, but given the amount of stores they have, they are clearly making money...

 

[Gus]

Big difference between a consignment shop and thrifting to find your inventory

 

[Douglas]

This is a terrible idea. Proceed at your own risk.

 

[Thomas]

no joke, in my inbox is a message that Resale is the new Retail!

Today Threadflip launched a new fashion marketplace....

 

[LA Guy]



Big difference between a consignment shop and thrifting to find your inventory

This.

There are consignment shops, and there are models like the original Filene's Basement. These are workable, and there are people (myself and others) who might be able to give you some pointers, but really, sticking with menswear would most likely be a disaster.

The only thrifters I know who have done well doing anything close to what you are thinking about are guys who really, really, know their vintage, and drive around to thrift stores and estate sales all of the time. One guy I know is stellar at this, and actually is the VP for a medium size chain right now. There is a reason that high end vintage costs so much. Someone has to find all that stuff, and gas and even cheap hotels add up.

 

[LA Guy]



OP - check out this store
http://www.inanyc.com/
They are on eBay as well, I bought a suit from them, was told no stains and there were like 10 small ones on front and their yelp reviews are bad, but given the amount of stores they have, they are clearly making money...

Off topic, but if you are looking for traditional clothes, consignment shops are useless. If you are looking for designer pieces from years, even decades, ago, they can be a goldmine, but you really have to know your stuff to know what are the deals, and what are not. And, to really get the deals, you have to know stuff better than the consignees *and* the consignment store. That's a lot of expertise.

Also, I would never buy anything from INA unless I was there in person. Fun the browse though. Lots of old Cloak, Versace, Mugler, whatever, shows up there.

 

[Macallan9]

You should not be doing this if for no reason other than that you clearly don't have working knowledge of how to run a business. There are just so many factors you have obviously yet to consider, only a fraction of which are in this thread.

If you really think this idea would work, you should draft up a business plan, map out everything (where product comes from, how pricing will work, 5-year plan, 10-year plan) and float it to a consultant that can work out the kinks.

I highly, highly doubt this would be a successful venture though. Plenty of the online resellers can't even sustain their businesses anymore and they have lower costs than you and a larger customer base.

 

[Steve Smith]



If you really think this idea would work, you should draft up a business plan, map out everything (where product comes from, how pricing will work, 5-year plan, 10-year plan) and float it to a consultant that can work out the kinks.

lol. Where do you find consultants with expertise in small resale shops?

 

[Sebastian_Flyte]

"Hip" neighborhoods are full of stores who aren't doing as well as they hoped, sit on prime real estate, and have an extra back of the shop or corner for you to squeeze some racks in to and man.

I'd say try talking your way into a situation like that and see if, between the foot traffic and online, you can make a profit off of it, can find merchandise, and think it could work out. Lets you try the business out, pay a pittance to the show owner and deal with 1000% less of a headache than opening your own shop and business from scratch.

 

[Superfluous Man]

Forgive me for the hijack but as a soon-to-be busto college student, I'm exploring the idea of flipping clothing for a little extra money. Other than the thrift thread are there any other good resources out there for learning the craft, spotting fakes, ways of reducing operating costs like eBay fees, etc?

 

[loralee]

I just wanted to chime in here. I'm new to this site but this selling of thrifted items is something I've started doing recently.

I didn't set out to do clothing. I actually just started scouting thrift stores like the salvation army for furniture to restore for proft etc. While I was there one day I found a vintage sewing pattern for 50c I hocked off on Etsy for $20 and then one day I browsed through the thrift stores I frequent and realised that in my area people donate some good designer clothing that I knew I could resell online for profit easily so I only went towards clothing because I saw an opportunity. And its a good chance to kit out my own wardrobe with some really cool stuff Just a few days ago I went on one of my buying trips in the local stores and I got at least 25 items. My house is like a factory I have piles for "to wash" "to mend" "to photograph" so you need plenty of space lol.

I am making profit. But it takes time and I don't work outside of the home or study at the moment so I have time. I work from home so I have time to scout the thrift stores early in the morning when other people who might be interested in that clothing are at work. I have time to prewash it and handwash it if necessary, I re-sew on buttons etc. I don't buy something if I figure I can't recoup the costs of my work to give it some stain treatment or re-sew a button. I don't buy every designer label I see I weigh up the price.

Most of the time I am buying stuff that is immaculate, I wash it to get the thrift store smell out and then I take some good photos which I edit real quick in online photo fixing tools to fix any photo flaws (I'm not the best photographer). All of this happens when my other at-home work is quiet so its effectively my downtime.

Its not uncommon for me to resell a $5 item for over $35, or a $15 item for $75. But I have researched and I know what people are buying. I use my android phone to research resell prices while I'm in the store before deciding whether to purchase if I'm not sure about a certain label.

I occassionally sacrifice one mid range item for $1 reserve to bring attention to my more expensive items. I'm learning to give lots of descriptions and measurements in my listings.

However, would I see any opportunity to make money at this if I had a physical store? No way. Maybe if I set up a rack in someone elses store space but if I was paying rent somewhere and other associated overheads there is not a chance I would make a cent. The profits are low so I have to keep my costs low.

Just my two cents Like I said I'm still new to doing this and I think I'm lucky that I'm in an area where people donate expensive clothes and it sounds terrible to say, but in the stores I frequent, the staff are usually volunteers that would have no clue what a designer label is they just turn the clothes over quickly like they're told to. And I have been known to barter