My Real Real Experience – Selling

Hello! With all of my various closet cleans I know I’ve been saying for a while that I would do a post about my experiences with The Real Real. I finally started writing this weekend but the post got so unwieldy and long that I decided to split into two parts – selling and buying. First part – selling!

So I first used the seller’s side of The Real Real a few years ago – I had a bunch of contemporary items (DVF, Vince, that sort of deal) that I was going to donate, so I thought – why not send it in and see if I could get a little money? I sent my items with the prepaid label in a big box and basically forgot about the whole thing. I think total from my fifteen plus acepted I probably got $150 or so in my checking account, spread out over months. Back then, The Real Real (TRR) had really awesome pricing….for buyers, not sellers. I wasn’t thrilled but it was all items that I would have tossed anyway, so, oh well.

Over the last few years, I’ve seen prices rise steadily on TRR. So late last year, I finally decided to do a bigger clean out, with some more expensive items. Since the pieces were pricier, I decided to schedule a consignment manager to come to my home, who was excellent, and she took photos and a detailed inventory of all the items, gathered them up and sent them in for me. After the first batch were almost all sold, I asked her to come back and take a second batch. So far I’ve probably sold about thirty or so items in the last few months or so. My learnings and advice on selling to the Real Real:

Accessories tend to do best. TRR pays the highest amounts for these, especially for Chanel/Hermes bags and certain watches/jewelry – 80% if priced above $3,000 – which is a great rate compared to other consignment sites. The Real Real has a big audience and even though I like sites like Fashionphile and Anns Fabulous Finds I think TRR must have multiples more eyeballs in terms of shoppers. An item that might sit on one of the other reseller sites has a higher likelihood of moving on TRR.

You make nothing on shoes, especially used shoes. With the exception of certain brands and styles, Gucci and Chanel first and foremost) but it’s better than no money and a bunch of shoes taking up space in a closet.

The best value preservation in terms of accessories is Hermes. And maybe Chanel next? I haven’t sold much Chanel, only shoes. But yeah, both keep their value way better than any other brand, even Gucci, which is supposed to be “hot” on the site. And on that note…

Certain brands do WAY better than others. I was going to say that luxury does better than contemporary, but then realized this isn’t really true – it’s really specific brands that do better than others and there are some really expensive luxury brands that don’t do well at all (like Cucinelli for instance). On the contemporary side, the valuations can be quite bad unless they are a really in demand item brand (for example my Zimmermann pieces did pretty well and I recouped maybe 40% retail, which is pretty good, especially since I bought most pieces on sale).

The more you sell, the more you earn. This should be self explanatory if you read their commission details but yeah, if you sell a lot with them, you eventually get up to the VIP commission rate which is 70%. It is applicable for a year. If you only sell a few items (and they aren’t Hermes/Chanel bags/watches), keep this in mind.

The valuation (aka TRR’s pricing) can be all over the place. Once you send your items in – keep track of how they are priced! You’ll have a dashboard and I’d recommend checking ~once a day after TRR say they have received your items, because you can see the price they are going to use before they go live on the site. For example I had sent in a Loro Piana coat, a pretty coveted style in a small size, and they priced it at around $100, which I thought was ridiculous since the same style had sold for $800 on the site. I asked for a re-evaluation and they priced it higher. And if you don’t agree with the pricing, you can ask for the item to be sent back. BUT if you don’t catch it in time – the item goes straight on the site and then you have no recourse if they are sold! The only exception are handbags and jewelry – I think for certain brands, items, you go through something called “price approval” which means they email you for your approval on price before it is placed on the site, which is great. They did this for me with two Hermes bags.

Items either sell right away or can take a long time. I think it might have to do with people perusing the New Arrivals section? Universally across brands, categories, I’ve found that items tend to sell either right away when they are listed or tend to linger until they are marked down. A few exceptions, but otherwise true. For example, I think 90% of my items sold within a few days and the rest are just sitting there, looking sad.

Keep track of the state of your items. I had no issues on my end but I’ve heard stories from others who sent in pristine items that somehow arrived on the TRR side with rips, tears, pulls. If you have any concerns on this, I would try to see if you can schedule an appointment with one of their “luxury managers” that come to your home – they can take photos and document the condition so you have proof of the items condition when they left your home. And finally…

Be realistic. Yeah I know. You have awesome taste and it sucks to lose money and the world should compensate you for your decision to purchase zillion dollar shoes/dresses/bags at like, a 90% replacement value, right? I mean, you’re not even factoring in sales tax! If you are listing things on eBay for close to what you purchased them at and nobody is buying but you don’t want to lower the price…then The Real Real is not for you. You will be angry at the money you receive. Don’t go through the stress of selling if you know you’ll be super unhappy with the prices.

So – there you have it – all my learnings selling on The Real Real! Overall I would recommend the site IF you are an informed seller (and I think after you read my tips you will be!). I’d love to hear your experiences…and next time, I’ll write about my learnings and experiences as a buyer!