She's On The Money - Tips For Selling Secondhand

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

On this special episode Georgia King is joined by SOTM co-host and secondhand selling QUEEN Jessica Ricci. Why you may ask? Because that's what today's episode is all about! This is one of Jess' side hustles and she couldn't wait to share her tips with you on how to convert that stuff laying around into cash. But in true SOTM style, the girls also go headlong into a chat about the post-pandemic landscape that has really spurred on the growing secondhand economy we find ourselves in now. Listen in and take note!Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.The advice shared on She’s on The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She’s on The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are Authorised Representatives of Infocus Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL - AFSL 236523.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My name is Georgia King and joining me for a very special Wednesday episode today is the lovely Miss Jessica Ritchie. Hello. Hey girl, how are we? Very excited to be here on a Wednesday. It is very, it's random, but it's not that random. Let's explain why. Today we're talking all about our top tips for selling secondhand and there is no better expert in this space

than your good self, Jayru. Stop. I'm so passionate. Victoria was so kind and said to me, come in, take the stage, talk all about it because turns out I'm wildly passionate about selling things secondhand. Wild passion is what we're all about here. All right. So let's get into it, guys. As the cost of living really begins to sting, the secondhand economy is booming with many Australians coming to it for the very first time. And it's not just economic instability driving the secondhand market. Perhaps you're motivated by environmental factors or waste minimization, or maybe you're after a unique piece of vintage. Maybe you've loved a dress from a particular season and you didn't want to pay full price for it, have definitely been there.

You can often find these pieces in specific buy-sell communities online. So today we're going to be going deep into what Australia's secondhand market actually looks like. And in the second half, we are going to be diving into your top tips, Jessica Ricci, as to how you can actually make a decent amount of money by selling secondhand. Derek, let's get into it. Tell us a little bit of your story here. Why are you such an expert in this space and what has your experience been like? I feel like I really grew up going to secondhand stores. I grew up in a single income family. We did not have a lot of money and we very rarely got new clothes. And I think when I was younger in the early to mid-90s, there was this big stigma around shopping secondhand and going

to op shops. And I have really fond memories of my mum and I going down to Savers in Footscray and spending a few hours like sifting through everything. And it was really fun, like finding cool, unique things. You could find brands you knew. But I do remember at the time feeling, I don't want to use the word ashamed because it's not the right word, but I think I was just conscious of the situation I was in. Whereas fast forward to today, it's cool to buy things secondhand. You want to tell your girlfriends you've got a bargain. I think there is nothing better than finding something you've wanted, which you mentioned before, and, you know, getting a bargain on something that you knew you wanted to purchase and doing good for the

environment. I think it's a win, win, win, win. And there are so many platforms out there now that facilitate it. It's not just about going to an op shop. You can go to Marketplace. You can go to Depop. You can go to all of these different websites to find and purchase or sell things that you have or things that you want. Would you say Depop is your main space, the main platform that you use? Yeah, I reckon. I just like the convenience of it being a young female. I like that I can post things out. My one qualm with Facebook is that the person is generally coming to your place or you're going to their place. And I'm very conscious of personal safety. And so sometimes that gives me a little bit of anxiety. I like Depop because the fees are relatively low,

but there are heaps of other platforms. There's Poshmark. I'm sure there are lots of other apps. Carousel is another one, I think, but I personally generally use Depop. Amazing. I'm definitely not the only person that thinks that though, George. About 86% of Australians have saved pre-loved or unwanted items from ending up in landfill by on-selling them in 2021, which is crazy. And in the 2019-2020 year, Gumtree reported 90 million items changed hands. Is that just in Australia? I think so. I'm pretty sure Gumtree is just an Australian platform. So that's a lot of stuff. Obviously, people are selling multiple items and things like that. And I have a little breakdown for you of the most common pre-loved items. So top of the

list, clothes, shoes, and accessories. Makes sense. Don't think anyone's surprised there. A second was books. That is surprising. I thought so too. But when you think about it, a book will run you like 45, 50 bucks. That's true. And I mean, you do reread your books, but I feel like you need a bit of a gap in between. Definitely.

So getting them a little cheaper is definitely the way to go. Music CD and DVDs. What's a DVD? I was really surprised that that was up so high, but maybe people clearing out their stashes. Yep. Then we've got electronic goods, games and toys, home decor and furniture, and tools, gardening and DIY items. So if you can buy it, you can sell it, really.

I think there's a market for everything if you look hard enough. Absolutely. I feel like home decor, that was a really big thing during the panty day. I saw everyone just going crazy, making their homes more beautiful, but doing it economically via Marketplace, which makes a lot of sense. J. Rick, I've got some more stats for you. Lay them on me, stats gal. Stats gal.

So Facebook Marketplace has seen a 72% increase in secondhand listings in Australia in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year. That's absurd. I mean, it makes sense because as you said, off the back of the pandemic, how many people sat at home with nothing to do and cleared out their homes and got rid of it? The other thing, Jay Rick, is that some brands are now offering resale of their items through their own website. So that's a new thing that we've seen crop up. Resale is a major conversation in the fashion industry and one of the fastest growing consumer behaviors, which is super interesting. In the US alone, over 33 million consumers bought secondhand apparel for the first time in 2020. The resale market is projected to double in the

next five years, reaching 77 billion. So that's massive. That is absolutely wild. And it makes a lot of sense because coming back to that economic pinch, it's affecting all of us, everyone in the Shades of Money community, George, you and I, we are all feeling it. And that's why we're doing this episode today. So George, back in May, Anglicare released an analysis of life for many Australians on minimum wage or relying on government support. And it's really harrowing with living costs spiralling. We've all seen essentials like food and transport and petrol shooting up and housing is more expensive than ever. According to the Anglicare study, almost 1.5 million people are looking for work with record numbers of people taking up second

jobs. People on the lowest incomes, even those working full-time, are being priced out of their own communities. Some figures to kind of back that up. A full-time minimum wage worker is left with $29 after essential weekly expenses, not including the cost of healthcare or utility bills, which is nothing really. A family of four with two full-time minimum wage workers have no income left after expenses. And a single parent on the minimum wage is short $195 per week, even when accessing benefits. That's just crazy to wrap your head around, isn't it? And we complain all the time about how expensive petrol is and, you know, it's $13 for a lettuce. But hearing stuff like that, like the rising cost of living really is impacting these people in the lower

socioeconomic situations. And it's really heartbreaking. But I guess to switch this around to a more positive note, I guess what we're going to be talking about in the second half of the episode is all of your tips and tricks for making and saving money in the secondhand space, J-Rick. So hopefully it's a little bit more upbeat in the second half of the episode, guys, but we are going to take a break here, but don't go anywhere. Alrighty, straight back into it, Jessica Ritchie. This is the moment everyone's been waiting for. please lay on us your hottest tips for buying and selling secondhand maybe selling secondhand we'll start with that okay all righty the first and I would say personally the most important

lighting and composition oh okay it's everything sure not to sound in so many ways yeah I know right you know I'm all about the Instagram but truly if people can't see an item in a good light quite literally they're not going to purchase it so when you're shooting your content or when you're shooting your items, I would say natural light is your friend. So shoot it during the day, have a window in front of you and use that natural light to kind of make sure that the full frame is lit. So you can lie your items down on a bed. You could hang them on the back of your door or in a clothing rack. You can get a clothing rack at Kmart for like 10 bucks if you're selling clothes. Try and have a background as well that is really simple. We've probably all seen those

photos on Facebook Marketplace where someone's selling a pen and you can see about 5,000 other things in the background. And it's very distracting. So keeping it clean and simple and well lit is really, really important to make sure that people can see the product clearly. It's appealing. It's interesting. You pique their interest because we're very visual creatures as humans. And so we will tend to scroll past things if they don't grab our attention immediately. Mm-hmm. That's kind of a similar thing as well, Jess. I know when people sell houses, they're encouraged to make it as minimalistic as possible so that people can see themselves in the home with their own tastes inserted. Back when I used to work in real estate,

we actually used to instruct people to remove family photos, personalized items, signs, things like that, because you're absolutely right. It's trying to put the person in your shoes or your house in this instance so that they can picture themselves there. Uh-huh. Interesting. What else have you got for me? This one's a little counterintuitive, but I'm going to say price your items slightly higher than what you're happy with so people can negotiate you down. Because everybody loves a bargain. I love a bargain. I will never buy anything without seeing if I can knock five or 10 bucks off. No shade for anyone trying to try and do the same thing. So if you

start a little bit higher, you can kind of negotiate down to your happy space. But be careful because if you overprice it really ridiculously high, people just aren't going to be interested. They're not going to inquire. They're not going to waste their time. So I would say mark it up maybe five or 10% so that you've got room to come down. And I mean, maybe you'll be lucky and someone will just take it at the price that you've listed it as. Yep. Okay. From a buyer's perspective in that situation, if I'm like, hello, Jess, is this item still available? And you're like, yes, George, it is. And I'm like, how about you take $15 off and then you've got a sale. And then you say, no, should I just buy it? Like I'd be

kind of embarrassed from that point to be like, yeah, no, that's cool. I'll buy it anyway. This is like a live reading of my Facebook marketplace messages. I don't think there's anything to be ashamed of. I think if you're selling secondhand, you know that people are going to go back and forth. You know that it's going to be a little bit sometimes of an arduous process. And I think that's the thing is like you're making money, but sometimes you've got to sift through some time wasters or some people who want to pay $1 for something that costs $1,000. It's a bit of a negotiation. I think if you go to someone and you say, hey, can you knock 10 box off and they go no you go okay you can either negotiate back and say oh would you do five I can

grab it today I find that if you put a little incentive there that kind of works yeah I can grab it or I can transfer you so to like lock it in and then pick it up tomorrow but also if you are only prepared to pay a certain price and they won't meet you at that price just walk away like unless it's an essential item that you absolutely have to purchase like your washing machine's broken and you need a new one, I think be prepared to walk away because sometimes you can get sucked into that instant gratification that you get with traditional shopping and you just want to buy the item and you're like, oh, it's on sale, kind of, so I'll just get it. But it's not serving you to purchase it if it's not at the price point that you kind of were prepared to pay. Yeah, true.

I feel like there's also kind of a fear from a buyer's perspective that someone else will buy it before you because there's, you know, maybe only one of that thing on Facebook marketplace for you to grab or whatever selling platform that you're using. So there is a bit of fear-driven spending there as well. Yeah, actually, that's a really good point. That's super insightful. And that's where I find that saying, oh, like, can I transfer you the money ahead of time and then I'll come and pick it up is a good way to lock it in or letting them know that you'll come pick it up in the next 24 hours. Because a big thing on these platforms, if someone's picking something up that I found is that sometimes people are a little bit time wastery and they'll say,

I'll come tomorrow. And then they don't. They're like, I'll come the next day. And then they don't. So like being upfront with those conversations and letting them know that you want the item and you're ready to go can definitely work in your benefit as a seller. Nice, nice, nice, nice. Okay. What else have you got for me? If you are selling items, I would say offer a discount if people are purchasing multiples. It's a really good way to clear some stuff out. And it kind of goes back again to that mentality of people love a bargain. So for example, on my Depop, I have a thing in my bio that says discounts on multiple products, like DM me to find out more. And if people are buying, you know, three or four items, I'll knock like 10% off or so. It also means from your end

as well, it's just a lot more convenient for someone like one person to come pick up four items rather than four people come and coordinate different things. So that's really beneficial. I would also say my last kind of thing on price is to do your research and see what other people are selling the same or similar items for because like you said sometimes you are the only person selling a specific piece but you can see what the general market is saying and let that kind of inform you because even if you paid $500 for a dress if everyone else is selling the same dress for $200 even though $250 is half of what you paid you're still not going to sell it to anybody because they can get it cheaper. So it's a bit of navigating what you want versus what you paid

versus what the market says it's worth. And doing a bit of Googling or a bit of researching or a bit of perusing on, you know, Marketplace or Depop or wherever is a really good way to get a gauge of that. Sure. You're such an expert at this. I'm loving picking your brain. You have so many tips. You are so kind. What would you say is important from a description point of view? Because I feel like when I'm scrolling and it's like pink dress worn once and that's it. Whereas if it's like lovely lace detail, Scanlon, Theodore, you know, there's lots of detail and they're like brand new worn once or whatever, you're much more inclined to purchase. Is that? That's the copywriter in you, I think, coming out a little bit. Tell me a story. You're absolutely right though. I think

even more so than like an enjoyable reading experience is SEO or search engine optimization for our friends who aren't, you know, in the social space. And that just means making your item easier to find. So thinking of it in terms of a platform like Marketplace, for example, let's say I am looking for a particular dress that I saw in an age collection two years ago. This is very specific because this is something that I did. And I have been looking for this dress for ages.

I will type in age dress size 8. I will type in age blue and white dress size 8. I will type in age Catalina dress size 8. age maxi dress, age this, age that, you will search a heap of different relative terms because everyone kind of lists things differently. As you said, some people might be like pink dress and someone else might be really descriptive. So as a seller, if you plug as many of those keywords and phrases into your description as possible, it increases the chances of your searchability significantly. And that just means that if you have a particular item that someone

is looking for, hopefully you hit one of those key phrases on their head. And when they Google it, you come up relatively close to the top. Yeah, nice. So being really descriptive. Also, just from a administrative perspective, put as much info in as you can. So the size, the condition, if there's any fit notes I'll usually put for clothing, like runs big, runs small, and the pickup suburb as well, because otherwise you will be fielding a lot of messages from people saying, hey, what size is this? when you could save yourself a lot of trouble just by putting it into that description at the start. Okay. That's a hot tip. And I feel like using brand names as well is super helpful.

I helped my mom sell a Zimmerman dress that she bought for a wedding and literally it was up for, I think, 20 minutes and I had like five messages. Amazing. Crazy. And that's a really good tip. And we were actually talking about this before with our producer, Annalisa. There are specific groups on Facebook. If you're listening to She's on the Money, hopefully you're in the She's on the Money Facebook group. If not, search Cheese on the Money to find us. But there are a lot of groups for popular brands. So Zimmerman, Mecca has a group, Dish has a group. Even for things like toys, my niece is really into Squishmallows, so I joined the Squishmallows group. Like there are groups for everything where people will buy, swap and sell. And so if you have a product that

belongs to one of those more popular groups, and this often works for more expensive items like Zimmerman or for harder to find items or trading items like Squishmallows, you can join a group and there will be people in there who are specifically interested in that brand or product. So I would definitely say have a Google or have a search on Facebook and see if there are any groups that are dedicated to buy, swap, sell for the products that you're listing and search if there's a buy, swap, sell page for your local area because a lot of those have popped up over the last few years where it'd be like, Melbourne girls, buy, swap, sell. And it's just a bunch of people who are looking to buy and sell items secondhand. And they're close to you, which

means that they're more likely to come pick stuff up or it's easier for you to drop them off. That's so good. Speaking of picking things up and dropping them off, from a safety perspective, how do you navigate that, Jess? I think it's something you definitely need to be conscious of. And like I said before, it's something that I'm hyper aware of. Personal safety is something that I'm really passionate about and it's something that makes me a little bit anxious. So definitely where possible, meeting in a neutral location. Maybe you both work in the city. So you say, oh, like let's meet, you know, at this coffee shop or, you know, on the corner of X and X near our offices. So meet them there instead of right at your house. If they do need

to come to your house, make sure that you're meeting them maybe on the street. You can stand out in the driveway with the items that you're not in the situation where they're right up at your doorway. And if they are coming to the door, or even if they're not, just letting someone know that someone's coming over to your house. I will always text my partner if he's not home and say, hey, like someone's picking something up at X time, or I'm just running to someone's house to pick something up with, you know, the address. And I'll usually say, oh, I'll just drop you a text once they've grabbed it. And it's just, again, that consciousness of knowing that someone knows what's going on that gives you a little bit of peace of mind. Or you can use services like

Sendle or sell through platforms where you are posting the product out rather than meeting with a person face-to-face. Yeah, brilliant. When it comes to, say you've had a dress for a really long time and it's still like in very good condition, but there's a little fake tan stain around the neck. We've all been there. I mean, if you want to make money, surely we're lying about that, but that feels immoral. How do you navigate that? I think it's really important to be upfront with people because ultimately if I sell you a dress, Georgia, and you come and pick it up and you go, oh, I can see a big fat fake tan stain on the inside, you're not going to be pleased, you know, that you might not complete the transaction or you might get home and complain.

So if you're selling through a platform, if you complain, you can be booted off. There are all of those little factors to consider. I think if there is something on the inside, describe it, take a photo of it as well, because more often than not, it's, I think, more powerful for someone to be able to just see the problem themselves and decide if it's an issue for them. If the fake tan's on the inside of the dress, I actually don't care because you're not going to be able to see it. But if you spilled it all down the front, then we're going to have a problem. So I think being really upfront and you can kind of say, hey, like I'm selling this dress for half of what I paid for it because of that condition issue. I don't think it's a good idea to put yourself in

a situation where you're not disclosing those things because it's only going to come back and bite you in the butt with marketplace are there reviews that go up there as they actually are now yeah I don't know where they live if I'm being honest but when I have purchased things from people I have definitely had a thing pop up that said like rate your experience so they are collecting the information and I think there is something in the privacy policy that allows them to restrict your ability to sell I assume if you get a heap of bad complaints I don't really know how it works. But yeah, definitely being conscious of that and other platforms like eBay or Depop or what have you have a rating system. So I obviously have five stars, very proud of it. But yeah,

those things are worth keeping in mind as well, because if people are looking to purchase from you, they're probably going to check and see if you're legit or not. Yeah, 100%. In terms of increasing the reputability of your own profile, is there anything you do in terms of packaging the product that you're sending out? Like, are you tissue papering these? I knew you would. I do. I need pics, please. Oh my gosh. I think it's just a nice thing. I remember when I, and it's totally an above and beyond and you definitely don't have to do it. But a lot of the time I'm sending out items that are a little bit pricier. So things that, you know, are maybe a couple of hundred dollars. And I just think it's nice to one, protect them when you ship them,

because we've all seen Australia Post be a little bit rough on the products that they're handling. But also it's just kind of a nice experience. So I do. I bought a pack. I think I got it from Officeworks. It was like 200 sheets of tissue paper for like $20 or something like that. So it's like a cent a sheet. That's probably not right now.

But it was very affordable when you break it down. And I also save all of my little, you know when you order from Mecca, you get like a little sample sachet. I save those. And when people, if people spend a certain amount of money, I'll just chuck one in with their order. I want to buy from you, girl. Anytime. Anytime you're welcome in my shop, Georgia King.

What an angel. But I think where you can doing those little things are kind of nice, especially for someone like me. I've sold like 300 items, I think, on Depop. Like it's definitely a bit of a side hustle for me. And so doing that just makes the experience more enjoyable. You don't have to do it by any stretch of the imagination. But I think if people are spending a lot of money and if you are kind of doing it regularly, it's just a nice thing to do. Set yourself apart. Brilliant. Before we head off for the day, J-Rick, for anyone who's listening and is like, yeah, I'd love to sell 300 items, but I don't have anything to sell. Like,

how have you done that over the journey? How can you be strategic about this and flip things for a profit? I think you have to be harsh. The average person has so many items in their home that they are not using that you're holding on to for sentimental value. Or, you know, maybe it's something that used to fit that doesn't anymore. And you're like, oh, well, I'm going to get there again. I think you just need to kind of take a step back and go, would I rather have 50 bucks or this dress? And if the answer is 50 bucks, list it, sell it, get rid of it. You will feel good when you start clearing things out. And sometimes it's nice to do like a big Marie Kondo style, like, does it make me feel good? Does it align with my values?

Cleanse and list it all at once in a big bulk selling spree. Or it can sometimes just be, oh, I tried this thing on and it doesn't fit the way it used to. I'm just going to get rid of it because there's no point in it sitting there. But I think don't hold onto things. And that's something that I found really hard originally was I would go, oh, but I love this dress. It's so pretty. I feel so good when I wear it, but I haven't worn it in four years. And so it's going to just sit in that closet for another year, not getting any love or any use. Or I could have the cold hard cash, which let's be honest. That's better, baby. Yeah, we all love it. She's on the money. Exactly right. So doing that, I've seen people do the hanger trick for your closet where

you flip all your clothes around so the hangers are facing backwards. Okay. And then when you wear an item, you flip it back the correct way. And so in three or six months, you can look at your closet and go, okay, all of these backwards hangers haven't been worn. And that's an easy goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. Yeah, that's a clever trick. I swear I have a wardrobe full of clothes and all I wear is this jumper every record. You guys are like, gee, you need some new clothes. I've got them. I just don't wear them.

Okay, J-Rick, I feel like that's the perfect place to finish it. I know I'm still trying to sell my year 12 formal dress and now I've got all... Oh, my God, have you not had any luck with that dress? No, mate. I need to take your tips on board. Please give me the dress and I'll see if I can sell it to you. Oh, my gosh, if you can, you can take 10% as a profit.

Oh, my God, I don't know. No, but thank you so much, J-Rick. A pleasure having you on the Wednesday show. It's an absolute joy and I think the girlies will love it. Alrighty, guys, please remember that the advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision. And we promise Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of In Focus Securities Australia, Proprietary Limited, ABN 47097797049, AFSL 236523. 523 and like we said if you're looking to join a facebook group we've got a she's on the money one

search she's on the money to find us and if facebook's not your thing you can find us on instagram you can find us on tiktok everywhere find us on all of the social media platforms search she's on the money aus we will see you on friday guys see you then