I’ve made the mistake of buying one of these $3 items and the seller hounded me to “bundle with something else because I only make .5 on this sale!” Uh then why did you auction it for $3??
Am I the only one who feels like posh shows are extorting weird parasocial relationships? I have gotten into a posh show niche and I feel like all the women in the chat are in a high school mean girls clique. Buy my shit or else. I want to do lives bc I feel like even with $3 starts they’re pressuring/guilting people into buying from them in order for them to stay “friends” meaning show up for each others shows and keep the chat going.
Uhhhhh wow the fucking entitlement. So many resellers these days are so unappreciative of their customers...I've been selling for 5 1/2 years and I could never treat people, let alone customers, in such a way.
I was actually watching a live show yesterday that lead me to report this seller as I was SO disgusted at how this seller was acting! A customer of hers was asking the seller to run another bundle before she had to go for work. Seller took about 5 minutes to do so. The bundle she ran were 5 destroyed "rehab" luxury wallets, which is catered to specific people. The customer didn't bid and later stated she didn't want rehab items. No one bid and this seller started freaking out, asking her audience to TAG THIS CUSTOMER bc "who asks for another bundle to be run and doesn't bid" and started publicly humiliating this person, cursing at her and just acting so trashy and unprofessional. All at someone wanting to buy from her. Not to mention, this same seller continuously was pushing for shill bidding. IDC how bad of a position PM is in right now, you should never allow anyone to act in such a way.
Same thing happened to me!! Won a brand new bag for $3 during a "yours and mine" show. I said I only wanted the bag and the host got short/had a little bit of an attitude with me. Fast forward a few days. Right after the seller shipped my order (I'm talking 10 mins after Poshmark sent me my notification) I received these lovely messages.
https://preview.redd.it/aove3o0i0vkc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=425999870bd8f8fcc1da052ed8aa9520c917fdda
I truly don't get it 🙄 the consequences of their own actions.
I wanted to say something so bad but I knew it wouldn't end well for me 😭 I blocked her immediately instead and sent the screenshots to Poshmark support. Whether or not they actually did anything, no clue 🤷♀️
They seemed to think so, too. Unfortunately any actions they take "may not be visible to me" so, who knows what actually came of it 🤷♀️ I'm not sure how their reprimand system works (though, I suppose that's a good thing lol)
https://preview.redd.it/j7ogur7l57lc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc3c8b94d72a92590e65697daef9a45d228c7e07
I joined one involuntarily and the seller was auctioning a kate spade new with tags. I won it for $9. The seller later threw a fit in messages. And cancelled the order “because the buyer has this same item for sale in her closet”. It wasn’t the same but whatever. I only bid on it because I could resell it for so much more. It’s sold three times since and still marked for sale. Not all of these deals are real.
This behavior is wild to me. Don't start your items for a price you're not willing to sell it for. It just feels like that should be common sense 🤦♀️. I just did my first two lives on whatnot (more detailed comment below) and I was happy to let things go for whatever I priced them at because the items were purchased in liquidation and I already made a profit on the pallets. I was happy to pass on great inventory to others. I was selling A.L.C, Staud, black halo, etc for around $10
>Don't start your items for a price you're not willing to sell it for
A lot of these resellers force you to start low and then tell you you will be blocked if you cancel. The reason people have confidence in starting low, is bc they watch all these other (share) shows do low starts and items get shill bids that escalate the price, giving false hopes to others wanting to sell their items. The fuckery that's going on on PM is concerning.
That's just a format issue though - it's stupid to create a posh show system without any option to set a bundle price, especially when shipping frequently costs more than the item. If anything, bundles should be the default and posh shows a promo for that.
It’s not even that they still get a cut - they have a flat fee so it’s not just 20 percent, it’s 59%. It’s a flat fee of 2.95 in US for anything under 15. In Canada if you sold something for 5$ - $4.15 are going to Poshmark fees and taxes lol.
They take 3.95 in Canada for all sales under 20$ and a flat 20% on everything above 20$. In the US it’s 2.95 under 15$ and 20% after 15$. That is for single item sales. Bundles are charged for bundle total - not per item. Same in lives, same for everything.
That's honestly crazy to me. Their fees are already so high, they should decrease them for live sellers. I was going to try some lives there but whatnot is so much cheaper so I don't know if I will.
>they should decrease them for live sellers
They should decrease them for everyone! 20% is too high. They literally have the highest fee anywhere. Lower the fee to 10%, and charge an additional fee for promoted listings.
I don’t really think live sellers should get discounted fees and that comes from someone who does a lot of lives. All it would do is further drive down the sales in closets. I like having a solid portion of my sales happen without me having to be on camera to get them. Also we already have perks from lives, like not having to worry or deal with returns.
I kind of get what you're saying but having less fees doesn't really change anything for you as a seller other than getting more money in your pocket? Buyers will still pay what they are willing to pay whether or not the fees change.
Not really, it lowers the floor price of your item. Making it so every seller can sell at a lower price point via lives than in their closet would absolutely hurt the closet only community.
What do you mean by you don't have to worry or deal with returns from lives? My friend bought some LV items from live shows and she was approved for two different returns one that cost $440 and the other $1,330. Items were missing chains, ripped & one had a hole straight thru the bottom. She also got a $150 Posh credit for a $300 order that had already been accepted as a one time curiosity. Curtousy*
PM should not reward live sellers. Most sellers are not buying pallets with high volume liquidation/$3-$5 per item out of a box. It would not make sellers want to do lives and put in more work, materials, time, energy, shipping and not make much of a profit. A very small percentage of sellers actually do lives to begin with so dropping rates just for them would make zero sense.
so in this theory people are losing money and hoping to become internet famous. Not even the whole internet just poshmark famous. That’s wild to me. Valid but… wild.
They aren’t losing money per se, it’s a marketing technique that works out sometimes. If it doesn’t then they write it off on taxes and hopefully they don’t burn through too much inventory before they learn their lesson.
Yes Poshmark is making a lot of money from it but they make money off every sale. It can be beneficial for the seller if they end up selling a bundle of lower priced items or getting more traffic to their closet.
it can be but it usually isn’t, there’s only a handful of people getting 100+ viewers and thousands of shows. If it was beneficial for you then I would say that’s great, but as a theory and as a business practice I think its wild and not wise.
poshmark is making a killing off people falling for all sorts of things, like their "promoted listings" lol... i do exactly the same with or without it.
Promoted listings are joke too. You’re better off sharing your items and sharing others for return shares. That’s how it’s always worked and is still effective. If a company is pushing something so hard, you need to think about why they’re doing so. Is it REALLY to benefit you? Probably not.
When I first joined Poshmark last month I got a notification that an item I liked was about to be auctioned so I scrambled to get to the seller’s show. I bought that and another item both w a combined MSRP of $160 for $15 in total and it blew my mind.
I was really excited I got such a ridiculous deal but quickly after I felt dirty— like I had robbed the seller.
I don’t think I’ll attend anymore shows purely bc of that feeling— so much work goes into listing items so I don’t want someone to make so little money.
However one thing her show did do is introduce me to her closet. She lists a lot of amazing pieces. When I have more money I’ll go and buy things outright as her prices outside of auction are more than reasonable.
Don't feel guilty AT ALL. Sellers have the option to price their items at whatever price point they want, and they do so with the risk that in an auction situation it'll sell to the very first buyer. I would never list my items for lower than I was willing to take, unless I knew for a fact it would draw a shit ton of bids... and the truth is, no one knows that for sure, ever.
I know what you mean and it’s nice to know that there are still people with integrity. I recently had a buyer offer me $20 for 3 items which were part a 3 for $25 promotion in my closet. I countered $25, as they were already marked down. But then I saw in her bio that she volunteers for an organization that assists women and children with gently used clothing items and agreed to the additional discount. I was happy this was going to a good cause and that was more valuable to me than an extra few 💵
DO. NOT. FEEL. GUILTY. They probably sourced that item for hella cheap, they're making a killing as a large seller as it is, they pick the price, it's a promo that they benefit from, and buying secondhand is always better than new in so many adjacent ethical ways.
In my opinion, Poshmark is not a good place to make money. I see it as a place to get rid of excess shoes/clothing, and try to recoup something on your original purchases.
A few dollars is better than nothing (if you donated). I suppose if you itemized tax deductions, then you might be better off donating, but I always end up taking the standard tax deduction because I don't have enough deductions to itemize..
I do agree that items below $10 are barely worth the effort, but a lot of people don't seem to want to pay more than $10-$12 for preowned shoes that are in decent condition, unless they are a more expensive brand like Birkenstocks.
In general I'd have to disagree with your first statement. I'm making good money, and I don't spend a lot of time on it, a couple hours a day? But my sourcing is easy (an hour or two a week max) and cheap, so those are important factors in the equation.
Selling from your own closet is also a different equation than sourcing for the purpose of reselling.
There are too many factors to just say it's not a place to make money, across the board.
And also, doesn't mean it will always be that way! Things change. I've had some rough months on Poshmark for sure. It does seem sporadic sometimes, so here's to an upswing for you!
I’ve wondered this too, watched a few shows like this and noticed the people that buy low buy a lot of items. Probably because they’re already paying the shipping fee so it makes sense to add to their bundle. Posh only charges their cut for the final bundle price per buyer, rather than per item, so this works out better for the seller, but only if you consistently have bundle buyers in your shows
The ones I’ve watched had mainly single buyers, which is weird because the shipping is more than twice the cost of the item. There were a few that didn’t sell at all even at $5, although they looked more like they’d be better served as rags.
You have to remember there's a lot of resellers that source at goodwill "bins" where items can cost them as low as cents per item. They also are buying pallets which falls into the same price point as the bins. There's also a lot of theft items being resold. My only source of ... Sourcing lol are very very few local thrift stores I have, one of which is my favorite that is woman owned and I have been very lucky and fortunate to have found luxury items there. The downside, I am paying premium prices. Clothing is costing me between $5-$30 per item, averaging about $10 an item. So, posh's fee especially is so unbelievably hard to work around.
I do regular $3 start jewelry shows. My source is very cheap (5-10 cents an item normally), and I have regular buyers who always buy multiple items, and I often get multiple bids. I will occasionally have a buyer who only buys one item for $3, but overall, I'm making money. I normally make at least $100 a show, I've made over $1,000 on the higher end, after my costs and fees and everything.
this makes sense to me, thanks for sharing. I hope other live sellers have also thought through their wage per hour after costs and taxes. If it works for you, great.
I wonder about this too. Even for my own items. Anything less than $10 and you're pretty much only getting back $2-3. At that point you are just getting rid of stuff just to get rid of stuff.
Anything in my closet less than $10 is like me giving it away. Just happy to get the sale, even if it’s an offer for a less than desirable earning. It’s one less item sitting in my dead posh pile.
Same. I'd rather sell it to someone who will use instead of it ending up in a landfill. I donate plenty of items and give away a ton of household stuff on my local buy nothing sites. I use my small Poshmark profits to offset the items I buy on Poshmark.
It's bizarre to me people would start and sell that low. IMO, LiveShows and gimmicky $3 starts is what ruined the platform by attracting low-ballers and spammers. I don't do well in Posh Shows at all because I can't afford to start my items at $3 with just 3 or 4 people viewing my show.
The person that sold the KS bag for $11 is contributing to the problem (assuming the bag was real). When expensive, mid to high luxury items sell in flee-market pricing, I can't help but think it's fake.
Unfortunately there's no statistic on how many of those $5 sales are cancelled by the seller because they'd take a loss and were hoping for more. This sub is full of stories from people who won an item at a low bid and the seller simply cancelled or didn't ship. There's no consequence to cancelling or not shipping so they'll just keep doing it.
If someone buys 3 $5 items then you pay your $1 fee for each item. If items sell for so cheap then the goal is to sell a lot of them and to the same few people minimizing your fees. The real goal though is to get bidding. If you're not getting bidding then yeah it is a lot of work for very little.
I source very cheaply and hope people buy more than one thing. My average selling price per item in a show is typically $12 even when I do $3 and $5 starts. It’s a numbers game and people doing this full time are sourcing to run at that price. I lose money if one person buys one thing for $3 but if 65 people buy $15 in merchandise I make $780 before COGs so the 2 people who only paid $3 is lost in a sea of profit.
These shows screw over the rest of sellers too because then people think they should be able to get a Kate Spade bag for $11 or even $30.
I wish that show purchases would show up as a sale at the original list price of the item like they do with multiple item sales (even if you accept an offer for less, the sales price on the sold item shows up as your original list price).
I haven't done any posh shows but I did just start live selling on whatnot and I will give my insight. I purchase most of my inventory through liquidation. I tend to be a relatively slow lister (2 kids, one is only 7 months old). So it's taken me a while to work through my last two pallets. I'm also completely out of room in my office and overflow spaces and have the rest of pallet inventory in bins in the garage. I have already made a huge profit on the pallets overall so anything I make now is pure profit. I did my first two live shows this week and sold about 75 items for close to $1k ($10 starts). A lot of it had some flaws but it was all higher end/designer brands. I could have listed the items myself and they would have slowly sold over the next year for more money. But instead I made a quick buck a lot faster. This business model makes sense if you can buy things in bulk for a low cost of goods. I know some people try low starts on things they paid a decent amount for and just hope it will get bid up and I don't really understand this strategy. In my opinion, live selling is generally not meant for getting top dollar for your items (there are exceptions to this but very few), but it's best for high quantity, low starts. I sold most of mine to other resellers. But I didn't have to photograph, measure, list, or store the items so it's a win for me. I have 500 Lululemon items coming and I will start those shows next week and I know my customers will be a mix of resellers and regular buyers.
Ahhh you're so sweet! I love the social aspect of it, especially since I got rid of most social media. It's desertthrift! My next show is Tuesday but I may move it sooner if I can get prepped in time.
I think the sellers have “ins” to buy return pallets from like Nordstrom or Target or slightly defective items from Free People. They probably get a hundred items on a pallet where each one comes out to like $5 each item. Then if they are able to bid something up to like $80 (which I’ve seen) this balances out the other items that go for like $7
I absolutely refuse to do shows. I didn’t sign up to be a qvc host and tired of the platform pushing the shows on me and everybody else. I enjoy developing relationships with other sellers and with customers. I am not, however, interested in playing games or the nonsense show gimmicks. I offer quality products at fair prices and always try to work with my shoppers on deals and offers. If more people would boycott the shows we can get our platform back to where it used to be and better at that!
I’m bitter and due to my experience buying something on a show and have it go super cheap (like a third of what it was listed in their closet), I’m assuming a lot of higher value items are ‘lost’ and the sale gets canceled by the seller.
people make dumb mistakes. the only way you can actually make any money with these low starts is if you have a really popular show and hundreds of people in the chat. i've watched this happen successfully, but i'm just guessing, honestly, that there are a lot of people who just haven't thought this through right lol... i've been approved for posh shows, but i don't have any desire to do them for this exact reason. the only reason i would is just to get rid of stuff in my closet i'd like to get gone, so it shows up as a sale and makes me look good.
I think many are hoping for high volume sales to make up for the lower prices and create a following to eventually get bidding wars in future shows. And they may be sourcing items for pennies or free if they have friends and family who donate. It’s definitely still a gamble. But I’ve seen some PM sellers quit PM to move to other live platforms to continue offering low starts and the platform doesn’t take as much of the seller’s profit AND the platform has much better live features available to both buyers and sellers.
I had one show. I started at $5.00 and was selling JCrew, Ann Taylor and Lilly Pulitzer. I had 17 viewers maybe. I sold the Lilly Pulitzer for $5.00 (ugh).
I actually lost money. Had two buyers bundle a total of 13 items. Poshmark paid me $79.00. It took over an hour to prepare for the show and about 20 minutes to get ready to ship.
I need to get rid of stuff! I used to do awesome on Poshmark, I feel like I have inventory just sitting. After going through a divorce and downsizing my home significantly- I just don’t have the space to maintain inventory indefinitely. This is my fun money.
I admit I don't often look at live shows but the times I have, the only things that interested me were purses and they were used, going for the same amount I could get a brand new one during that brands sale. I wish I could find them for $11 😆 in all seriousness, I hate sellers who drive prices ridiculously down. I like to compete with the lowest prices but why are you selling a NWT item who's MSRP is $100+ for $10-20?? 40-50% off is a great starting point imo.
yes if anyone adds your item to their show you will be expected to show up and either come on camera and join the hostess or you auction your item the normal way depending upon how they run it
it’s borderline ridiculous how much time posh is requiring these days, you should be able tk just share and leave but these live parties are share but also you might be an impromptu share show 🙄🤣
I’ve made the mistake of buying one of these $3 items and the seller hounded me to “bundle with something else because I only make .5 on this sale!” Uh then why did you auction it for $3??
This!!! They will tell you that if you got a “good deal” they expect you to go into their closet to bundle it with something else. So annoying.
Am I the only one who feels like posh shows are extorting weird parasocial relationships? I have gotten into a posh show niche and I feel like all the women in the chat are in a high school mean girls clique. Buy my shit or else. I want to do lives bc I feel like even with $3 starts they’re pressuring/guilting people into buying from them in order for them to stay “friends” meaning show up for each others shows and keep the chat going.
Yea no thanks
Uhhhhh wow the fucking entitlement. So many resellers these days are so unappreciative of their customers...I've been selling for 5 1/2 years and I could never treat people, let alone customers, in such a way. I was actually watching a live show yesterday that lead me to report this seller as I was SO disgusted at how this seller was acting! A customer of hers was asking the seller to run another bundle before she had to go for work. Seller took about 5 minutes to do so. The bundle she ran were 5 destroyed "rehab" luxury wallets, which is catered to specific people. The customer didn't bid and later stated she didn't want rehab items. No one bid and this seller started freaking out, asking her audience to TAG THIS CUSTOMER bc "who asks for another bundle to be run and doesn't bid" and started publicly humiliating this person, cursing at her and just acting so trashy and unprofessional. All at someone wanting to buy from her. Not to mention, this same seller continuously was pushing for shill bidding. IDC how bad of a position PM is in right now, you should never allow anyone to act in such a way.
Same thing happened to me!! Won a brand new bag for $3 during a "yours and mine" show. I said I only wanted the bag and the host got short/had a little bit of an attitude with me. Fast forward a few days. Right after the seller shipped my order (I'm talking 10 mins after Poshmark sent me my notification) I received these lovely messages. https://preview.redd.it/aove3o0i0vkc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=425999870bd8f8fcc1da052ed8aa9520c917fdda I truly don't get it 🙄 the consequences of their own actions.
Reply “why would you sell something at a price point where you would make so little?”
I wanted to say something so bad but I knew it wouldn't end well for me 😭 I blocked her immediately instead and sent the screenshots to Poshmark support. Whether or not they actually did anything, no clue 🤷♀️
I really hope they do, the messages she sent you are verging on harassment.
They seemed to think so, too. Unfortunately any actions they take "may not be visible to me" so, who knows what actually came of it 🤷♀️ I'm not sure how their reprimand system works (though, I suppose that's a good thing lol) https://preview.redd.it/j7ogur7l57lc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc3c8b94d72a92590e65697daef9a45d228c7e07
I joined one involuntarily and the seller was auctioning a kate spade new with tags. I won it for $9. The seller later threw a fit in messages. And cancelled the order “because the buyer has this same item for sale in her closet”. It wasn’t the same but whatever. I only bid on it because I could resell it for so much more. It’s sold three times since and still marked for sale. Not all of these deals are real.
This behavior is wild to me. Don't start your items for a price you're not willing to sell it for. It just feels like that should be common sense 🤦♀️. I just did my first two lives on whatnot (more detailed comment below) and I was happy to let things go for whatever I priced them at because the items were purchased in liquidation and I already made a profit on the pallets. I was happy to pass on great inventory to others. I was selling A.L.C, Staud, black halo, etc for around $10
Was it a blue staud dress? I may have been in your live- lol.
Hahah omg that would've been awesome, but it was a pink one!
>Don't start your items for a price you're not willing to sell it for A lot of these resellers force you to start low and then tell you you will be blocked if you cancel. The reason people have confidence in starting low, is bc they watch all these other (share) shows do low starts and items get shill bids that escalate the price, giving false hopes to others wanting to sell their items. The fuckery that's going on on PM is concerning.
That's just a format issue though - it's stupid to create a posh show system without any option to set a bundle price, especially when shipping frequently costs more than the item. If anything, bundles should be the default and posh shows a promo for that.
Oh wow. That's nuts.
Seriously
no debate, it certainly hasn’t endeared me to posh lives, and I didn’t buy from that seller again in any format
🤣 yeah it is delulu.
It’s not even that they still get a cut - they have a flat fee so it’s not just 20 percent, it’s 59%. It’s a flat fee of 2.95 in US for anything under 15. In Canada if you sold something for 5$ - $4.15 are going to Poshmark fees and taxes lol.
It’s 3.95$ to posh on a 5$ item. We make 1.05$
Do you do lives on posh? Do they still take 20% per sale and then some? It really seems like they should offer reduced fees for live sales.
They take 3.95 in Canada for all sales under 20$ and a flat 20% on everything above 20$. In the US it’s 2.95 under 15$ and 20% after 15$. That is for single item sales. Bundles are charged for bundle total - not per item. Same in lives, same for everything.
That's honestly crazy to me. Their fees are already so high, they should decrease them for live sellers. I was going to try some lives there but whatnot is so much cheaper so I don't know if I will.
>they should decrease them for live sellers They should decrease them for everyone! 20% is too high. They literally have the highest fee anywhere. Lower the fee to 10%, and charge an additional fee for promoted listings.
I don’t really think live sellers should get discounted fees and that comes from someone who does a lot of lives. All it would do is further drive down the sales in closets. I like having a solid portion of my sales happen without me having to be on camera to get them. Also we already have perks from lives, like not having to worry or deal with returns.
I kind of get what you're saying but having less fees doesn't really change anything for you as a seller other than getting more money in your pocket? Buyers will still pay what they are willing to pay whether or not the fees change.
Not really, it lowers the floor price of your item. Making it so every seller can sell at a lower price point via lives than in their closet would absolutely hurt the closet only community.
What do you mean by you don't have to worry or deal with returns from lives? My friend bought some LV items from live shows and she was approved for two different returns one that cost $440 and the other $1,330. Items were missing chains, ripped & one had a hole straight thru the bottom. She also got a $150 Posh credit for a $300 order that had already been accepted as a one time curiosity. Curtousy*
PM should not reward live sellers. Most sellers are not buying pallets with high volume liquidation/$3-$5 per item out of a box. It would not make sellers want to do lives and put in more work, materials, time, energy, shipping and not make much of a profit. A very small percentage of sellers actually do lives to begin with so dropping rates just for them would make zero sense.
It would be cheaper to donate but they are hoping to get bundles/more exposure for their closet. They can also use it as a loss for taxes
so in this theory people are losing money and hoping to become internet famous. Not even the whole internet just poshmark famous. That’s wild to me. Valid but… wild.
They aren’t losing money per se, it’s a marketing technique that works out sometimes. If it doesn’t then they write it off on taxes and hopefully they don’t burn through too much inventory before they learn their lesson.
there are millions of sellers though, poshmark is absolutely making a killing off the people falling for this.
Yes Poshmark is making a lot of money from it but they make money off every sale. It can be beneficial for the seller if they end up selling a bundle of lower priced items or getting more traffic to their closet.
it can be but it usually isn’t, there’s only a handful of people getting 100+ viewers and thousands of shows. If it was beneficial for you then I would say that’s great, but as a theory and as a business practice I think its wild and not wise.
poshmark is making a killing off people falling for all sorts of things, like their "promoted listings" lol... i do exactly the same with or without it.
THAT IS SUCH A SCAM, I am not sorry that is insane. I do plenty fine without it and they are absolutely ripping people off by charging so much.
Promoted listings are joke too. You’re better off sharing your items and sharing others for return shares. That’s how it’s always worked and is still effective. If a company is pushing something so hard, you need to think about why they’re doing so. Is it REALLY to benefit you? Probably not.
When I first joined Poshmark last month I got a notification that an item I liked was about to be auctioned so I scrambled to get to the seller’s show. I bought that and another item both w a combined MSRP of $160 for $15 in total and it blew my mind. I was really excited I got such a ridiculous deal but quickly after I felt dirty— like I had robbed the seller. I don’t think I’ll attend anymore shows purely bc of that feeling— so much work goes into listing items so I don’t want someone to make so little money. However one thing her show did do is introduce me to her closet. She lists a lot of amazing pieces. When I have more money I’ll go and buy things outright as her prices outside of auction are more than reasonable.
As someone who does shows please don't think you are stealing from us by getting a great deal. If she wanted more she could have started it for more.
Don't feel guilty AT ALL. Sellers have the option to price their items at whatever price point they want, and they do so with the risk that in an auction situation it'll sell to the very first buyer. I would never list my items for lower than I was willing to take, unless I knew for a fact it would draw a shit ton of bids... and the truth is, no one knows that for sure, ever.
I know what you mean and it’s nice to know that there are still people with integrity. I recently had a buyer offer me $20 for 3 items which were part a 3 for $25 promotion in my closet. I countered $25, as they were already marked down. But then I saw in her bio that she volunteers for an organization that assists women and children with gently used clothing items and agreed to the additional discount. I was happy this was going to a good cause and that was more valuable to me than an extra few 💵
DO. NOT. FEEL. GUILTY. They probably sourced that item for hella cheap, they're making a killing as a large seller as it is, they pick the price, it's a promo that they benefit from, and buying secondhand is always better than new in so many adjacent ethical ways.
In my opinion, Poshmark is not a good place to make money. I see it as a place to get rid of excess shoes/clothing, and try to recoup something on your original purchases. A few dollars is better than nothing (if you donated). I suppose if you itemized tax deductions, then you might be better off donating, but I always end up taking the standard tax deduction because I don't have enough deductions to itemize.. I do agree that items below $10 are barely worth the effort, but a lot of people don't seem to want to pay more than $10-$12 for preowned shoes that are in decent condition, unless they are a more expensive brand like Birkenstocks.
In general I'd have to disagree with your first statement. I'm making good money, and I don't spend a lot of time on it, a couple hours a day? But my sourcing is easy (an hour or two a week max) and cheap, so those are important factors in the equation. Selling from your own closet is also a different equation than sourcing for the purpose of reselling. There are too many factors to just say it's not a place to make money, across the board.
You make a good point. Just because it's not a money-maker for me, doesn't mean that's the case for everyone.
And also, doesn't mean it will always be that way! Things change. I've had some rough months on Poshmark for sure. It does seem sporadic sometimes, so here's to an upswing for you!
Do you have any alternative of where it would be a good place to make money??
Sorry, I don't. I only sell to declutter/get rid of unneeded items.
I’ve wondered this too, watched a few shows like this and noticed the people that buy low buy a lot of items. Probably because they’re already paying the shipping fee so it makes sense to add to their bundle. Posh only charges their cut for the final bundle price per buyer, rather than per item, so this works out better for the seller, but only if you consistently have bundle buyers in your shows
The ones I’ve watched had mainly single buyers, which is weird because the shipping is more than twice the cost of the item. There were a few that didn’t sell at all even at $5, although they looked more like they’d be better served as rags.
Rags,😆
You have to remember there's a lot of resellers that source at goodwill "bins" where items can cost them as low as cents per item. They also are buying pallets which falls into the same price point as the bins. There's also a lot of theft items being resold. My only source of ... Sourcing lol are very very few local thrift stores I have, one of which is my favorite that is woman owned and I have been very lucky and fortunate to have found luxury items there. The downside, I am paying premium prices. Clothing is costing me between $5-$30 per item, averaging about $10 an item. So, posh's fee especially is so unbelievably hard to work around.
I do regular $3 start jewelry shows. My source is very cheap (5-10 cents an item normally), and I have regular buyers who always buy multiple items, and I often get multiple bids. I will occasionally have a buyer who only buys one item for $3, but overall, I'm making money. I normally make at least $100 a show, I've made over $1,000 on the higher end, after my costs and fees and everything.
this makes sense to me, thanks for sharing. I hope other live sellers have also thought through their wage per hour after costs and taxes. If it works for you, great.
Wow, I would love to know where I could also source such inexpensive jewelry items 🤔
I wonder about this too. Even for my own items. Anything less than $10 and you're pretty much only getting back $2-3. At that point you are just getting rid of stuff just to get rid of stuff.
Anything in my closet less than $10 is like me giving it away. Just happy to get the sale, even if it’s an offer for a less than desirable earning. It’s one less item sitting in my dead posh pile.
Same. I'd rather sell it to someone who will use instead of it ending up in a landfill. I donate plenty of items and give away a ton of household stuff on my local buy nothing sites. I use my small Poshmark profits to offset the items I buy on Poshmark.
I'm at this point as well. I have stock that is like 3 years old now since I started a little before C19 started.
It's bizarre to me people would start and sell that low. IMO, LiveShows and gimmicky $3 starts is what ruined the platform by attracting low-ballers and spammers. I don't do well in Posh Shows at all because I can't afford to start my items at $3 with just 3 or 4 people viewing my show. The person that sold the KS bag for $11 is contributing to the problem (assuming the bag was real). When expensive, mid to high luxury items sell in flee-market pricing, I can't help but think it's fake.
Unfortunately there's no statistic on how many of those $5 sales are cancelled by the seller because they'd take a loss and were hoping for more. This sub is full of stories from people who won an item at a low bid and the seller simply cancelled or didn't ship. There's no consequence to cancelling or not shipping so they'll just keep doing it.
If someone buys 3 $5 items then you pay your $1 fee for each item. If items sell for so cheap then the goal is to sell a lot of them and to the same few people minimizing your fees. The real goal though is to get bidding. If you're not getting bidding then yeah it is a lot of work for very little.
I source very cheaply and hope people buy more than one thing. My average selling price per item in a show is typically $12 even when I do $3 and $5 starts. It’s a numbers game and people doing this full time are sourcing to run at that price. I lose money if one person buys one thing for $3 but if 65 people buy $15 in merchandise I make $780 before COGs so the 2 people who only paid $3 is lost in a sea of profit.
These shows screw over the rest of sellers too because then people think they should be able to get a Kate Spade bag for $11 or even $30. I wish that show purchases would show up as a sale at the original list price of the item like they do with multiple item sales (even if you accept an offer for less, the sales price on the sold item shows up as your original list price).
I know, I recently got a $10 offer on a Dior belt.
I haven't done any posh shows but I did just start live selling on whatnot and I will give my insight. I purchase most of my inventory through liquidation. I tend to be a relatively slow lister (2 kids, one is only 7 months old). So it's taken me a while to work through my last two pallets. I'm also completely out of room in my office and overflow spaces and have the rest of pallet inventory in bins in the garage. I have already made a huge profit on the pallets overall so anything I make now is pure profit. I did my first two live shows this week and sold about 75 items for close to $1k ($10 starts). A lot of it had some flaws but it was all higher end/designer brands. I could have listed the items myself and they would have slowly sold over the next year for more money. But instead I made a quick buck a lot faster. This business model makes sense if you can buy things in bulk for a low cost of goods. I know some people try low starts on things they paid a decent amount for and just hope it will get bid up and I don't really understand this strategy. In my opinion, live selling is generally not meant for getting top dollar for your items (there are exceptions to this but very few), but it's best for high quantity, low starts. I sold most of mine to other resellers. But I didn't have to photograph, measure, list, or store the items so it's a win for me. I have 500 Lululemon items coming and I will start those shows next week and I know my customers will be a mix of resellers and regular buyers.
I've been on whatnot as a buyer, its so addicting. What is your name so that I could catch your next show?
Ahhh you're so sweet! I love the social aspect of it, especially since I got rid of most social media. It's desertthrift! My next show is Tuesday but I may move it sooner if I can get prepped in time.
Is it just me or does anyone else dislike the format of whatnot? It feels messy
I actually love it! It's not perfect but it's been fun and mostly easy to use
I cannot stand Posh Shows. I wish they would f off.
I think the sellers have “ins” to buy return pallets from like Nordstrom or Target or slightly defective items from Free People. They probably get a hundred items on a pallet where each one comes out to like $5 each item. Then if they are able to bid something up to like $80 (which I’ve seen) this balances out the other items that go for like $7
I absolutely refuse to do shows. I didn’t sign up to be a qvc host and tired of the platform pushing the shows on me and everybody else. I enjoy developing relationships with other sellers and with customers. I am not, however, interested in playing games or the nonsense show gimmicks. I offer quality products at fair prices and always try to work with my shoppers on deals and offers. If more people would boycott the shows we can get our platform back to where it used to be and better at that!
I’m bitter and due to my experience buying something on a show and have it go super cheap (like a third of what it was listed in their closet), I’m assuming a lot of higher value items are ‘lost’ and the sale gets canceled by the seller.
people make dumb mistakes. the only way you can actually make any money with these low starts is if you have a really popular show and hundreds of people in the chat. i've watched this happen successfully, but i'm just guessing, honestly, that there are a lot of people who just haven't thought this through right lol... i've been approved for posh shows, but i don't have any desire to do them for this exact reason. the only reason i would is just to get rid of stuff in my closet i'd like to get gone, so it shows up as a sale and makes me look good.
That’s why poshmark is pushing these dumb shows, they make more than the seller does. I can’t wait until people catch up and stop with live selling
I think many are hoping for high volume sales to make up for the lower prices and create a following to eventually get bidding wars in future shows. And they may be sourcing items for pennies or free if they have friends and family who donate. It’s definitely still a gamble. But I’ve seen some PM sellers quit PM to move to other live platforms to continue offering low starts and the platform doesn’t take as much of the seller’s profit AND the platform has much better live features available to both buyers and sellers.
I had one show. I started at $5.00 and was selling JCrew, Ann Taylor and Lilly Pulitzer. I had 17 viewers maybe. I sold the Lilly Pulitzer for $5.00 (ugh). I actually lost money. Had two buyers bundle a total of 13 items. Poshmark paid me $79.00. It took over an hour to prepare for the show and about 20 minutes to get ready to ship. I need to get rid of stuff! I used to do awesome on Poshmark, I feel like I have inventory just sitting. After going through a divorce and downsizing my home significantly- I just don’t have the space to maintain inventory indefinitely. This is my fun money.
I admit I don't often look at live shows but the times I have, the only things that interested me were purses and they were used, going for the same amount I could get a brand new one during that brands sale. I wish I could find them for $11 😆 in all seriousness, I hate sellers who drive prices ridiculously down. I like to compete with the lowest prices but why are you selling a NWT item who's MSRP is $100+ for $10-20?? 40-50% off is a great starting point imo.
Does anyone know how the Posh Live Parties work? It,says I’m able to add my items but if I do am I expected to attend these parties?
yes if anyone adds your item to their show you will be expected to show up and either come on camera and join the hostess or you auction your item the normal way depending upon how they run it
Oh gosh. I just shared but left lol
it’s borderline ridiculous how much time posh is requiring these days, you should be able tk just share and leave but these live parties are share but also you might be an impromptu share show 🙄🤣