VINTED is interesting…

[ChristineR]

Since I posted yesterday I went down a major rabbit hole with Vinted, opened an account, and bought several items.  I plan to list some items today on there $30 or less.  It has a fast and furious feel to it compared to Ebay.

The app is super simple and meant for casual sellers.  NO seller fees at all, currently FREE shipping, a small buyer fee.  They will ship anything under 4 pounds and I think a 12 12 12 box and even larger is ok.  You can also easily make a bundle.

There is a lot of haggling.  It might be a cool place to source because it’s super fast to list.  I imagine people are just throwing a lot of bins and garage sale stuff on there quickly and willing to take a pretty low price.  Some probably live in areas where they can get things less expensively than here.  The descriptions are terrible, categories are minimal, and you really have to look though a bunch of junk.  I’m looking for original paintings for example and I have to wade through a bunch of unrelated stuff. However, these are likely young people who might miss something or undervalue it.

If you are thinking of opening an account, don’t use your business name.  Supposedly if someone reports you as a “commercial seller” you get booted off the site.  I have to wait 30 days to change mine.  I didn’t know that when I opened my account.  Also you don’t want to be sharing on social media.

[ChristineR]

I read that Ebay should do well with item specifics once agentic shopping arrives.  Until then, they might really continue to suffer a thousand cuts from these easy to use app based selling sites, plus Whatnot, Instagram and other live selling platforms.

[ChristineR]

So I did list and buy a few items on Vinted.  I will list a few more this afternoon.  It was refreshing to see people viewing my listing and adding it to their favorites.  It was lightening fast to list compared to Ebay and even faster than Mercari. Vinted feels so ALIVE compared to Ebay.

I need to think about what I have on hand that would be really helped by free shipping – low dollar, lightweight items and relatively larger items maybe under a pound.  Vinted also showed me what items I had liked that ended up selling.  Some items are moving SUPER quickly.  It gives me a little window into what the young people are interested in and willing to pay for.  The algorithm seems to be pretty good at deciding what new items to place on your home page.  I wish I could cross post there but by the time they are added by Nifty, the free shipping offer is probably going to be gone. There are a lot of obvious resellers on there.

[MyCottage]

I’m going to have to look a little more closely at Vinted. What’s your user name there?

I’m currently running a sale on ebay for Labor Day, 20% off a lot of stuff. So far, one absurdly low offer, that’s it. I have always felt ebay has neglected ebay Stores and Store Sales, and of course, now they want us to pay per click to advertise our stores or sales.

I’m going to try to list a few things on ebay this week…we picked up some decent stuff over the weekend at a town wide yard sale….but I’m also going to bite the bullet and put up my first IG direct sales….I’m not expecting much, because I’m just starting there, I’m hoping if I start posting now I’ll be able to develop a bit of a following by Q4.

With Q4 comin up, ebay sales should increase on their own, but I just don’t have much faith in ebay’s efforts on our behalf. IF I were doing ebay Lives and selling, say, Pokemon cards, yes, I would probably be all in on ebay. But my gut feeling—could be totally wrong—is that for a lot of my stuff (not all of it)—buyers aren’t looking at ebay the way they used to….they are on IG, or depop, maybe Vinted, etc. ebay has thrown away so many opportunities to be THE place to shop for this sort of stuff, and at this point, I don’t think they will ever get that market back….it’s just too diversified now, and I don’t think ebay is really interested in it.

I would love to remain ebay only, but I’m not ebay’s preferred type of seller….

[ChristineR]

Unfortunately I used my business name before I knew they didn’t want “commercial resellers”.  Retrodecorandmore.  I also just saw a list of what they don’t allow after I listed my first few items and used bedding is on there.  I chose vintage patterned pillowcases first because I get them for $1 at the flea market.  There is a list of restricted items and some make sense but others not so much – like no party supplies.  People say don’t list a lot of new items.  I also heard it’s good to list at times of day when people are likely to be on – evenings and weekends.

My daughter (20 yo) says she is seeing a ton of online advertising for Vinted.  From what I gather, completed needlepoint and crewel is doing very well.  I’ll throw a few more listings on each day while the free shipping lasts.

Labor day weekend the retailers have great sales so I do remember that it is a tough holiday.  However, I only have two Ebay sales and I ran a 10% coupon, plus a 5% sale, made offers and listed.  A lot of long timers on Ebay Facebook groups are saying they sales are way down in 2026.  Some comments vary on the month of change.  For me it felt like visibility was poorer since January and I saw that in my promoted clicks traffic numbers.

Ebay management really has blown it.  They made a big deal about AI to the public and then a bunch of executives unloaded their stock.  Meanwhile they just have let all this buyer growth slip through their fingers and created ill will with sellers.  I’m so glad I started cross posting last year.  Unfortunately Nifty doesn’t have Vinted yet and Vinted doesn’t want software posted items.

[MyCottage]

I agree about ebay. There IS a market for a lot of what you and I sell….but ebay isn’t doing much to attract that market, or to make it fun to shop for this stuff on ebay. I have said for years that ebay could be doing much, much better if they would give store sellers better tools and more freedom. You know, ebay Motors got its start because a few hardy souls decided to try selling their cars on ebay. Management was pretty much dumbfounded to discover that people would buy used cars online. That sort of seller based innovation has been missing from ebay for years…everything is top down now, with Management convinced they know so much more than sellers. Instagram might flop for me, but the more I’m looking at it, the more I see sellers with the freedom to innovate (I don’t know about Instagram Stores, I’m talking direct sales, where the seller gets paid through PayPal or Venmo, etc.)

I remember I was excited—well, a little bit—when ebay first introduced their “Social Tool”…and I recall talking to an ebay team member about it, and she too was excited….all sorts of plans, what do sellers want? etc etc. And then….ebay seems to have basically forgotten about it, and it is poorly designed etc. (I suspect the same thing will happen to the new bundling tool).

I’m not about to abandon ebay, but I’m definitely looking at alternatives. ebay could still announce some new changes that will make me say “Wow! These could be game changers!” But so far….I’ve pretty much given up even hoping that ebay will really do anything that will excite me (as opposed to, maybe exciting Live sellers or Trading Card sellers….)

So, I’m selectively listing some stuff on ebay this afternoon, and tonight I’ll try putting up some things on IG. And I’ll keep  pushing both and see what happens.

I wasn’t aware of the Vinted limitations. Will keep that in mind. I’m thinking it might be good for sourcing right now….not that I really need more stuff. LOL

Keep on plugging!

[ChristineR]

Re the social tool I agree.  I wanted to just select a bunch of related listings and pin them all to one Pinterest board.  It really is useless as is and I have to share each listing with several clicks.  I get about 10% of my clicks from external – Google or Pinterest so it’s worth doing.

I just bought an original watercolor painting on Vinted for $8 today.  You have to look closely which is a little trickier on the phone.  It’s very Wild West though you can tell some people are experienced resellers.

I listed about 10 items today and it was lightening fast.  No sales yet.  I have a bunch of items favorited so I can see what’s moving.  It seems like the completed needle works I mentioned, kitsch, plus certain home decor items are popular.  It’s a bit hard to know how low to price because I’m expecting people to negotiate and they can ask for 40% off.  I’m putting in one offs, things with small flaws, things my daughter commented on, and things I got super cheap or regret getting.  I have a pro iphone and had to turn off a setting so it would do close ups inside the Vinted app.

I’m definitely going to continue to cross post on Ebay because the prices are good when I do get sales.  I may or may not try bumping promoted on certain items to 6% or so to see if it helps if I have the margins.  Someone said they went to 9% and sales improved.

Good luck with Insta.

[MyCottage]

I’m kicking myself for passing on a bunch of unframed watercolors at a yard sale this weekend. But agree about sourcing online. I bought an 1860s cookbook the other week on depop for I think it was $14 — I’ll probably ask $100 or more for it once I’m done researching it.

I put up a short reel and a post with a few items I’m going to include in an Instagram Claim Sale on Wednesday night. Hopefully, this preview will act as a teaser to whet buyer appetites LOL My understanding is IG basically shows the reel to non-followers, and the post goes to followers feeds. (Of course, whether anyone will actually see it, I don’t know, but IG does have analytics, so I can check later.)

My ebay Labor Day sale is ending in a few hours, with nothing to show for it. As you said, Labor Day weekend is probably not the best time to run a sale, since a lot of people are busy actually doing things, rather than shopping online.

Here’s hoping I get at least a sale or two from IG, but even if I don’t, I’ll keep posting more stuff. If ebay were going great, I wouldn’t bother.

[ChristineR]

I saw your post 🙂

No sales on Vinted unfortunately.  It’s a time suck but I’ll be looking for a few more things to source.  Handmade quilts are super hard to find here but those have strong prices even on Vinted.

A youtuber I love is starting a trend for Nemadji pottery and I’m trying to pick some up inexpensively.  I’d like to take some to the Fall markets.  I found one I’d like to keep for myself in a rarer color and the shipping was $20 USPS ground from the East Coast on Ebay.  It’s a 6″ vase.  I reached out to the seller and she said her measurements are correct but she’d refund any overage but wow.  Ebay really, really needs to work on the shipping cost.  It has me thinking about passing on a portion of my shipping discount for 4th quarter.  (Either that or upping the promo rate a bit.)  I need to look at my 2 and 3 pound labels and see if I can do a flat rate on either, but I think nearby buyers would be put off.

There is a lot of content on Youtube and Facebook about Ebay sales being way down in 2026.  Their numbers were ok for shareholders because I guess of inflation, the fee bump, and an uptick in trading cards and motors focus categories.  But with some of the AI listing tools, live selling, and Gen Z there is a lot more stuff coming online, which will push vintage prices down.  They really need to think about making some changes soon.

[MyCottage]

Yep, thanks for the like on my post!

ebay has a Webinar scheduled for this Thursday about ebay Live…I suspect they are going to announce that they’ve expanded the categories and have opened Lives up to more sellers…they clearly want to push a Very Live Christmas this holiday season. I’m going to try to attend the webinar, mostly just out of curiosity.

I too am considering increasing my promo rate for the Holidays.

I use calculated shipping on ebay with a 50 cent handling fee and a 20% discount from the rate charged to the buyer (recently increased from 15%). I might increase that rate again….or maybe even just give up the full seller discount and pass the savings on to the buyer….shipping is crazy expensive. ebay would be wise to provide some sort of real reduction for the Holidays, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’m also thinking of providing an ebay coded coupon —5, maybe 10%—to anyone who buys an item on IG. Run the coupon through the end of the year. (Of course, coupons stack into any regular discount sales I run on ebay, so I don’t want to go too high….just hoping the coupon gets them to at least look at my ebay store.

I have some of that pottery , I was buying it years ago, but have no idea where it is stored LOL

Will definitely keep my eyes open for more. Thanks for the tip.

I’m still trying to figure out just how I’m going to handle IG. For now, I’m planning on taking PayPal and using PP labels to ship, but I might end up opening a Venmo account as well. Also, on ebay I have one day shipping, but I see a surprising number of IG sellers have 50 to 10 day handling times, and I’ll probably go with something like that, but try to ship much faster. I’m definitely not going to promise one day handling, if ebay actually gets busy for Q4, I could find myself in trouble with that (I do all the shipping for both of us, so even if I have no sales, if Better Half has sales, I need to get them in the mail.)

I also see a lot of people using Pirateship. I don’t have an account with them…have you used them? (I have also seen sellers saying I ship through Pirateship, but if you prefer, I’ll list the item on Vinted and shipping will be 99 cents….Gotta love resellers’ ability to adapt LOL)

 

 

[ChristineR]

I like to keep it simple on shipping out.  I always buy my labels on the selling platform.  Just keeping my ear to the ground it seems like most people think Pirateship is not much cheaper in most cases.

Regarding Ebay it sure is hard to know what to do to make better sales.  My preference is for shipping to be a wash after materials (mostly I recycle) and then I offer various discounts to buyers adding up to about 20% max unless it’s a stale used item.  But I do get messages now and then about shipping costs and I also feel like in 2026 my items aren’t really getting seen with this level of promotion.  At my couple of online store reviews the tutor was really pushing the coupon, newsletter, and making a clearance section in my store.  He didn’t really push more promoting.

[MyCottage]

I wouldn’t mind paying a higher promo fee if they hadn’t changed the attribution rule….but I really don’t like paying the fee when there is no real reason to believe that the promo triggered the sale. But I am considering going higher just because its the holidays. Presumably more buyers, so shouldn’t need to increase the promo fee, but on the other hand, more buyers means nothing if ebay isn’t really showing my stuff because they aren’t happy with my 2.3%.

I’m guessing people are using Pirate Ship because buyers think it is the cheapest, whether it is or isn’t….but I’m not going to rush into it. The IG learning curve will be steep enough without it LOL

[Retro Treasures WV]

I noticed a coworker was putting a ton of small packages in the USPS bin at the front of our office so I asked him about it. His wife has been selling on vinted. She is killing it. It is a great place to sell $10-20 clothing. If it was on Nifty I would do it. It isn’t worth the effort for me to list there right now. I have my system pretty well ironed out to track orders across 4 platforms, but I couldn’t handle one that isn’t integrated into Nifty. Especially if it is not set up for inventory management or control (I’m looking at you, Depop!)

 

Regarding ebay Live, I was approved for it I believe early this year. I had no desire to do that and didn’t feel my inventory really fits the mold. I have no idea why ebay approved and recommended me for it. The ebay grant this year revolves solely around ebay live. Worst yet, you had to do a video submission to even apply this year. Ewww! I prefer my anonymity on the internets…

I talked with my older kids about it, and I decided to go ahead and apply. I did my video – the first online video I’ve ever done where I actually put myself on camera. My plan is if I get the grant I’ll start up an ebay live with my oldest kid as my employee. She’ll run the socials and ebay lives. It will be her own little sandbox. Maybe I’ll join in, maybe not. Who knows! As a Xennial who has lived my whole life in a constant state of rapid change, what’s one more change and adaptation?

I made it to the interview rounds and have my interview later this month. Boy I sure would like that $10k!

[MyCottage]

Well, I finally got my first Instagram reel and post put up, offering two things for sale…I don’t have great expectations, but if they don’t sell, they’ll go to ebay. I’m kind of feeling my way along…one thing about ebay, I know the process….IG will be a lot of trial and error I suspect.

At this point, I have no plans to try Live shows, whether ebay Live or otherwise, but I might give it a try at some point.

 

@retrotreasures, best of luck with the interview!

[ChristineR]

Sorry about Insta.  I know a lot of people use it but I feel like unless you pay to promote not many people get to see your post.

I have bought about 8 items on vinted and sold 3 so far.  A lot of sellers said they got a big selling boost when starting but I’m definitely not seeing that.  I priced with the anticipation of making offers to the buyer later, but now I’m thinking to just price it cheaply to begin with while you have their attention.  OTOH, under $10 I’m wondering if it’s even worth my time to ship fragile stuff.  Right now I put some mildly damaged bad vintage buys on there, also some textiles, etc. just to get my thrifted money back.  Some flea market finds I got very inexpensively.  If it’s fabric, at least it’s easy to ship out.  I am getting a little bit of a feel for what does better, like brass and vintage kitsch completed needlepoint works.  Hopefully I’ll sell off some more things before they start charging shipping.

I don’t care for the app design and the sellers I bought from did not mention flaws.  It is hard to see in the pics on the phone and easy to miss.  It’s also a time suck.  The platform must be getting really loaded up with stuff since it so fast to list.  I think there are a lot of resellers on there now with strong prices so I have bought less recently.

Good luck @retro! I heard somewhere that live selling is actually selling a community rather than the goods.  I definitely think there is something to that.

[MyCottage]

Yeah, I think this might not be the time to push IG….it might just take too much time and effort to to build up a following … with Q4 I maybe should focus on ebay—list, list, and list. Because, while I’m not thrilled with ebay lately, sometimes better the devil you know than the devil yo don’t, as they say.

 

I agree, sooner or later, Vinted will make changes that will reduce or remove some of the advantages it has now…might as well take advantage while you can…

 

I did get ten new listings up on ebay today, so maybe that show of activity will give me a boost with the algo.

[ChristineR]

So Ebay is absolutely terrible for me right now, and I’ve been consistently adding listings.  It used to be that would start a sales bump.  I’m TRS, running a sale, listing, making offers.  Pulling the levers and they are not working.  I think it must be that I still have some old recycled stuff on there and I’m only doing 20% off the retail shipping price.  Meanwhile, Poshmark really picked up this week and Mercari slowed down.  Vinted is not as fruitful this week.  Resellers are grabbing up things that are undervalued to flip and the things I’m liking have strong prices.  My 60% offers are getting rejected.  I did get 2 vintage easels for $4 though – seller listed as “frame holders”.  So I guess I’m guilty as well.

I don’t like selling clothes but I think I can price it lower because I don’t care about it.  I’ve actually had really good luck with the clothing I’ve put up.   It’s interesting.  I’m just selling some things I got for myself on clearance that didn’t work, some $1 flea market finds, and a few of my kid’s things that were hanging around.  The citywide garage sale clothing sold super fast for me (Johnny Was brand) and I just sold a tote bag from that garage sale day for $100 (same brand).

The thrifts are just not good lately and I need to give up the ghost on that and spend that time listing.  It’s nice to get out of the house and convenient but between the prices, the picking over and Goodwill sending things to corporate, it’s just not worth it.  Someone got to the Halloween before me this week to boot.  Sigh.  I still have a weekly flea market that is ok.  There is plenty here so today will be a big work day.  I should be thankful the thrifts are not good because I am truly making progress on the piles.  Plus I have 4 markets by December to unload stuff.

[MyCottage]

I can’t help but wonder to what extent “regular” sellers like us aren’t really getting a lot of visibility is because ebay is emphasizing Lives and certain categories, and promoting that stuff at out expense.

With way too much unlisted inventory here and really slow sales, and despite some of my favorite library book sales and town wide yard sales coming up, Better Half and I have decided we need a buying moratorium until we get this stuff listed (or taken to out of house storage)…Won’t be easy, I admit, but hopefully we can stick to the plan.

I’m probably going to cut some corners on my listings in order to list faster, and might start fooling around with AI to list some stuff (although NOT with ebay’s AI descriptions, which are pretty awful)

But it is frustrating….listing activity has usually prompted sales, but I’m not sure it’s doing that as much anymore….of course, maybe if I increased my PL rate, that might help. And if I get desperate enough, I guess I will.

Just got to keep on plugging…..but the days of just keeping the pipeline full….not too sure they aren’t over….

[ChristineR]

I know what you mean.  I feel less confident about sales.  Thank goodness 4th quarter is coming up.

I did a little AI research and it said someone estimates 60% of Ebay sellers are paying the minimum percentage and stubbornly staying on that.  I wonder if Ebay is trying to squeeze and get people out of that mindset.  Many sellers are moving on from Ebay supposedly instead.   Some Facebook sellers speculate that Ebay Live is taking a toll on BIN sellers.  Shipping costs are definitely an issue as well.

Today I listed a bunch of clothing from our house and used Nifty AI.  I still need to redo the titles but it was relatively fast.  I think it handles clothing better than vintage items. I promoted the clothing at 6%.

[MyCottage]

Yeah, Q4 should give us all a pretty good boost….although I do worry a little about the state of the economy. Since covid, the word I’ve seen used for the American consumer has been “resilient”, even if most of the spending is coming from the top 20% or whatever. I’m Just going to hope that Americans continue to be resilient, but even if they do, I also wonder to what extent more and more of them will be buying at B&Ms….a combination of high shipping costs, and the fact that shopping — often with friends— for used and vintage has become  something of the Great American Pastime….the thrill of the hunt, the ability to touch the stuff etc.

I think that’s one reason ebay is pushing livestreaming…because it brings in some factors similar to actual thrift store or yard sale shopping. It’s also why I think IG and other social sites appeal to buyers….if I’m buying something basic for the house, fixed price ebay is fine. But if I’m collecting or decorating or whatever, with IG you can get caught up in seller’s displaying their hauls, in chatting with other collectors….for many, it’s a whole lot more fun than just scrolling or searching through ebay. Over the years whenever I had a chance I tried to convince ebay employees to give sellers more ability to communicate with buyers, which is now one of the things ebay touts with livestreaming….but ebay has long feared doing anything like that because they are afraid sellers will get to know their regular buyers well enough that they will start selling off ebay. And of course, in doing so, they’ve helped to push sellers off the platform entirely, to sites where they can communicate with buyers and actually build a business.

Anyway, I could go on, but Q4 is coming fast, so I’d better get back to work here LOL

[ChristineR]

So I’ve sold and bought a few items on Vinted now.  Shipping is running .99-2.99 at the moment.  I did make two dumb cheap purchases without enough information or just not noticing the description. One of those sellers also did not describe a defect on a black item that couldn’t be seen in photos.  I just ate it.   It’s definitely buyer beware.  However, I also got some flea market priced good deals.  It’s definitely a time suck but attractive because our prices where I live in CA are high. I think a lot of resellers have hopped on and are scooping up the good deals and then putting things up high now.  Most of the items I find that I like are too expensive to flip.  Currently I’m looking for small paintings, hand made signed bowls, and a couple of other things.

I had some leftover household yard sale clothing I listed yesterday and two items sold immediately – my old REI brand clothing, so that was awesome.  That would never happen on Ebay.  My son’s Notre Dame sweatshirt went to England for .99 shipping!   Someone on Youtube said that if you list clothing then some people will check out your other listings and bundling is big.  I haven’t had that just yet.  The lightning fast speed of listing is really compelling but my iphone has a lot of trouble with close ups on their site. After the free shipping is over, I doubt I will be using this site much.  In the meantime, it’s a great dumping ground, even if only a quarter of my listings are selling.  I got through a whole Ikea bag of clothing yesterday!

Thrifting is just not fruitful so I am making some headway in my remaining piles.  I’m a little bummed to find flaws in some of the stuff I bought along the way…  There is a LOT left but Vinted is helping me process more of it.  A good deal of that lot I will donate if it doesn’t sell I think.   I’m trying to find all of the one off items and incomplete sets to throw on there.  I should really put some larger items on there.

Ebay had a little pick up but nothing like what I would normally be having this time of year.  Poshmark got really quiet and I think may be taking a pretty big hit from Vinted as they share younger buyers.

Someone posted the other day in a group “I’ve just had enough of Ebay’s s#$t.” and I think a lot of us are feeling that way.   I still love selling Ebay and I’m grateful for the sales I get but I’m feeling discouraged about not being in their focus categories, the whole live catch up distraction, and the changes they have clearly made to the algo this year.  It’s frustrating and really hurt my sales while I’m just doing the same things, taking lower prices, and paying higher fees.  This time of year usually things are really picking up for me on Ebay. :/

@mycottage there are some really talented Instagram sellers.  I’m even tempted occasionally and I know their prices are high.  One I like even shops in antique stores for her drops so she is getting some big prices on Insta.  I feel humble about being a decent but lesser photographer, stylist, etc.  I’m also not super skilled with the Insta features.  It’s so simple to find a cool piece and photograph it separately to sell on Ebay.  How people get a big following on there to begin with idk.  My posts only get about 200-300 views.

Regarding the economy, I always fear that after the after-Christmas splurges it will fall off a cliff when people get their bills and winter is here. This year I am feeling that way for sure.

I’m still grateful for the forum here.  The Facebook groups are full of whiners and show offs one upping the whiners.  I don’t want to pay for a private forum and I think a lot of those have the get-rich-quick guys.  I’ll stay in as long as it’s still up. 🙂  I miss the SL podcast but happy for R&J in their coffee shop & rental success.

[ChristineR]

In other news, the new store in our town is opening.  $1500 a month for an 8’x10′ booth and 18% of sales.  I’m so curious how that will work out.

[MyCottage]

Arrgh! I just lost my long reply! I’ll try again later…but be warned, I had a lot of trouble logging in here today, so not sure how long the forum will remain alive. You can find me on Instagram of course.

[Author]

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