Secondhand Shopping Online (eBay, Depop, Etc) - Topic of the day 8/11/25
For many reasons (cost, greater selection, lack of physical retail) secondhand shopping online has become a common (unavoidable?) experience in clothes shopping. What is your favorite secondhand site - ebay? Depop? Grailed? A super private Slack (drop the link)? How do you use it/them most effectively? What drawbacks are there to your site of choice? Is there anything that's worth not buying secondhand?
43 Replies
@seth he uhhhhh makes me mine secondhand auctions, I'm not allowed to say more
Vinted Vinted Vinted :letsfuckinggo: :letsfuckinggo:
Once you learn boolean search syntax eBay is incredible
thredup sucks unfortunately chase and amex feed me so many offers that if you know any sort of iykyk brands you can find really good deals
depop is probably the most trendy and best variety for genzie women
posh is if you need to shift stuff to millenial women
and ebay is probably generally the best for generic searching
trr generally sucks ass and is my least favorite lol
Been using Marrkt more since it's UK based. Still do Grailed and Depop. Have a Vinted but haven't bought anything on it yet.
Also shout out to Styleforum buy/sell. Still great. Still niche as hell.
ebay goated
depop high variance
poshmark mega high variance
grailed
yjp
trr
clothes good
if they made sf bst good i’d be all over it
it’s just a fucking slog
I just follow a couple #menswear dwarfs
ebay does some wack shit to their searches and I’m still not fully convinced I’m getting everything I should be getting when I do boolean searches but it’s still head and shoulders above basically every other option, if I see one more “… X japanese brand” my head is gonna pop
Single biggest tip is probably to think about different ways someone who isn’t terminally online about clothes might describe an item, this is where the boolean jutsu hits hardest
Love ebay, dont mind scrolling through my general search terms cause i get exposed to weird stuff in the process
I've found amazing stuff this way
This for $60 was one last year
https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1135916565183856660/1267933869295009934
These two for $35 each
https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1135916565183856660/1266448366817120296
https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1135916565183856660/1274420858969915484
$50 for these
https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1135916565183856660/1351385590511435890
All found with very general search terms
i am adding nothing new by saying this, but ebay fucking rules
honestly same. for saved searches i use boolean searches, or for something hyper specific. if im just looking at something generally i love a generic search term
I lurk here, but I've been thankful for regulars advocating for secondhand purchases. It's easier to experiment with brands and fits when it costs me a fraction of the new price.
Ebay is the best in the US. I don't know how it's possible for a dedicated 2nd hand clothing site like Grailed to have less size & category filters than ebay
Vinted is the big one in germany/the EU but there are interesting niches to other apps. For example there is a surprising amount on Aero Leather Jackets and RRL on Kleinanzeigen, a german reselling app.
Would be interested to know of other sites in the Uk beside ebay/vinted/depop
I like trr because their sort function is pretty good and my measurements are uncommon
Grailed just sucks and refuses to ever improve their platform but still raises fees/removes protections
But it's still the biggest
Beyond that, depends on your niche, but depop is getting pretty big and the markets getting better. Poshmark is good for a lot of basics and office clothing too.
Proxying is about to get hit pretty hard with removal of de minimis but there's japanese auctions, vinted, and vestiaire.
eBay great for a lot of things once you get filters set up
TRR has been raising shipping pricing egregiously but its still great for a lot of cheap finds
Probably the best one for like suits and other formalwear, and office clothing
Grailed is only good a this point for buyers, and even then only if you (the buyer) are looking for a specific brand.
yeahh its usually just a point of desperation at that point for most sellers bc it didnt sell on BST listings
To people here saying they love ebay: this may be a silly question, but how do you do ebay? You build up a huge search term, bookmark it, and scan for new listings? Anyone have guides on building a good ebay search? Catching fakes/finding reputable sellers? I've never used ebay before.
The biggest challenge to me is maybe even knowing what brands to look for in the first place. Browsing on Grailed is a little more approachable because it feels more curated and easy to discover pieces just clicking around. To me ebay seems like you need to know what you're looking for.
Probably eBay's greatest strength is its saved searches
It's also really good for looking for like random stuff in a certain category once you get good at boolean search
Like if you're looking for say jeans that fit a certain way in a specific size you can create a boolean search to only catch what meets that criteria
But some of it is also just dumb luck as in my message above
buy private
no taxes, no hassle, work shipping into deal
when you're buying and you create these searches, do you use them actively or passively? Like do you normally find what you want available immediately and grab it or is it something you keep an eye on over time to see if anything good pops up? I'm sure it varies depending on what ur looking for
buying private if you don't know what you are doing is a horrible idea
also no hassle is laughable with lots of sellers lmao
shit maybe i was the hassle all along!!!
youre right about the hassle though, but i dont mind it considering its usually 20-30 bucks saved
sure im not opposed
i buy private
You get email notifications whenever something hits
its just an easy way to get scammed/get reps/deal with bullshit with no recourse, espicially if you don't know the seller
Agree, i shouldve added buying from mutuals/people you have mutuals with
but for the seller it's usually better to sell on an app
Depends on the item for me. I’m looking at buying a leather jacket in the future, so have various saved searches which I look at now and then and passively check the email notifications. If it’s something I’m wanting sooner or am trying to find more regularly (i.e pearl snaps, ocbds etc) I actively use the saved search to help me filter out shit I don’t want
Basically a combination of passively being notified and actively using it as a easier, reliable search method
depends how much you can and want to monitor it
i love buying shit on discord
and in general find second hand shopping more of a thrill
Ok I’m sold. Boolean these searches till I eBay
depop is good for doomscrolling and some weird finds I would never think to look up
poshmark seems like it skews older and less chronically online, so there are some deals that slip through the cracks
I hate most things about grailed
I hate everything about mercari
eBay is eBay
I get most of my stuff from Vinted and willhaben (which is basically Vinted but for Austria) and I‘ve been able to find basically everything I‘ve looked for so far
For my EGL stuff I go on Lacemarket which is a site specifically for EGL fashion though most of the prices on there have become obscene in the last few years :nooooo:
(Still some deals to be made on like page 21 or sth tho)
Marrkt
Derek Guy has some good tips on building good eBay saved searches here
https://x.com/dieworkwear/status/1896369774776795443?t=V6FZyre2TV_txe6RQWeodA&s=19
https://www.threads.com/@die_workwear/post/DAy9Njjz0SE?hl=en-gb
derek guy (@dieworkwear)
Let's start with knowing how to use eBay's full power. There are two parts to this.
The first part is knowing how to use Boolean searches. I've typed up a little cheatsheet. If you bookmark this tweet, you can save it for later.
X
Threads
Derek Guy (@die_workwear) on Threads
OK, now you know how to do a Boolean search on eBay. Once you've searched for something, I want you to click the box for "include description." This allows your search to cover auction titles AND descriptions. Why is this important? Because auction descriptions have a lot of info
Thoughts on gem.app? I've found I mostly just get ebay results but without booleans
Trr my goat
didnt know about the parentheses tech thats good to know
i use it as my main searcher now
for grailed and the like at least
I am heavily biased, ebay.