How to make extra money with your handbags
Look no further than your closet!
Rising Rents. High Grocery Bills. Skyrocketing interest rates. These are all the headlines you can’t escape from these days. Things are getting more expensive. The cost of living keeps going up while wages remain stagnant. I recently wrote about how Chanel bags can help you navigate uncertain economic climate and why you should invest; but now we are talking about more short term solutions.
You may be looking at ways to make extra money to increase your savings and/or investments or to simply pay an increasing amount of bills.
If so, have you looked inside your closet recently? Because you may have some cash sitting there if you have been collecting designer and/or contemporary handbags for years.
Here’s how you can make extra money with this simple three-step process:
STEP 1: Look inside your closet, and I mean, REALLY look and see what you have hiding all the way in the back.
At the start of the year, I dug deep into my closet and found several bags I haven’t used.
Sometimes, you don’t realize how many bags you may be hoarding and keeping in the back of your closet. In fact, I wanted to organize my closet at the start of the year and I ended up finding several Kate Spade and Michael Kors bags I have not used in a couple of years. I used to buy them so much at the outlet stores because these contemporary brands offer such great price points for good quality!
I think I’ve kept them with the intention of donating or giving them away sometime in the future, but I realized I can actually sell and make extra money from them.
STEP 2: Go online and google how much your bags are selling for
Check out The RealReal, Tradesy, eBay and other sites like these that people use to sell and trade bags. Take a look and see what they are selling for and how their sales process works.
Trust me when I tell you that different sites give you vastly different quotes for your items and their selling prices also differ quite a bit so it really depends on the demand for your items, their current inventory and cash flow.
I’ve worked with The RealReal several times, and I find their process super simple and quite straightforward. Once you submit pictures of your item, they will generally give you a range for which they will sell them for; then, if you like the quote, they will send you a free shipping label to send in your items.
You typically get around 55–65% for consigning contemporary brands such as Michael Kors and Kate Spade, and up to 70% for designer bags. The RealReal also has a few brick and mortar stores where you can make an appointment to see a professional appraiser and get an instant quote on the spot.
STEP 3: Pick a site, sell and get paid!
Once you’ve done your due diligence and selected the resale site that you want to sell to, now is time to ship your items for them to be inspected and listed. It typically takes anywhere from 2- 4 weeks until your items get listed online. Some sites will pay you upfront if you decide to take a lower commission rate and others will pay you only after your items get sold. I’ve done both, and it really depends on how fast you need that extra cash.
As for me, I ended up sending 9 bags (a mix of Marc Jacobs, Kate Spade, Michael Kors and an old Prada bag), and 5 of them got sold in the first three days. For Kate Spade bags, they were listed for the amount close to what I actually paid when I bought them and I walked away with 55% of that sale price. The more you sell and consign with the same company, your commission goes up. As for the payment, you can choose to receive a check or direct deposit.
Once your items are sold — Voila, you have extra money sent to you.
BONUS TIP: If you have a designer bag that you haven’t used in a while and you don’t plan on using, why not sell and make a decent chunk? I would definitely recommend getting a quote from multiple consignment and secondhand companies and choose what works best for you. DO NOT sell if you are getting less than what you paid for, obviously; in fact, you should expect to make a few hundred dollars in profit at a bare minimum. It obviously depends on the brand and the year and the scarcity of the product itself, but you will definitely walk away with a profit with your commission split.
Take these three simple steps if you are looking to make extra money simply by tapping into your existing handbag inventory.
Good luck and hope you find some hidden gems in your closet today!
