Think it’s all about the money? Think againNadine O'Regan found the pleasures of selling on Vinted have little to do with money Mon Jun 22 2026 - 06:13 • 6 MIN READThe queue was significant, but the occasion was auspicious. I was standing in line at the Rathmines Post Office in Dublin, package in hand, ready to make my debut as a Vinted seller. I’d had fond imaginings that for my first sale, my old clothes might find a chic buyer in France – a key territory for Vinted – but it turned out I was actually posting my Joanne McNally-alike Maje jacket (“Perfect for festivals!” I’d chirruped in the descriptor) to a lady who lived three miles down the road from me. When I turned my head, my neighbour and his 20-something daughter were standing behind me, parcels in hand. What were they up to? Selling their stuff on Vinted too. These days, post offices are experiencing an unexpected resurgence. Even as they’re under threat, with closures across the country, they are heaving with a new type of customer – the women and men who have discovered the unexpected delight of selling their old clothes – and gadgets, books, tape recorders and whatever they found at the back of the fridge – on forums such as Vinted, Vestiaire and Depop. An Post has reported a 40 per cent increase in the number of parcels delivered in the first quarter of the year compared to last year. Sales of second hand clothing have increased by almost 200 per cent year-on-year due to resale outlets, according to data for May compiled from card transactions carried out by AIB customers. Vinted, a Lithuanian start-up, is now valued at over $9 billion – that’s a lot of Zadig & Voltaire dresses. Are we all pocket entrepreneurs now?I’d been a reluctant convert. Until I finally bit the bullet in March, I’d been giving my sister – an enthusiastic early adopter of Vinted, Vestiaire and Sellpy – a hard time outlining my many objections to reselling platforms. Namely: why would you go to so much trouble to earn so little money? (Outfits on Vinted regularly sell for €4.) Isn’t it a pain getting to the post office or drop-off point? Who has the time for it when everyone’s day is over-scheduled anyway? But as she’d talk through her bargains, sales and surprise finds, the pure satisfaction it brought her was plain to see. And any time I’d compliment an outfit, inevitably the smiling response was: ‘Vestiaire’ or ‘Vinted’. If not quite the new ‘Penneys love!’ it felt pretty damn close. So one day a few months ago, I downloaded the app onto my phone and read the tips from experts. Upload on weekend mornings because you’ve the best chance of success. Upload over successive days, not all at once. Keep the momentum steady to give yourself the best chance on the algorithm. Don’t price too high because it won’t sell but don’t price below what you personally would pay for it. Take photos front and back, and include close-ups of all the labels. I recruited my husband to hold hangers while I snapped pictures of clothes I hadn’t been wearing, but thought were too expensive to just give away. Then I waited. And I’m not going to lie, that first notification to say someone had favourited an item – an old Topshop dress I truly loved, but no longer wore – registered as a dart of pleasure, a vindication of my taste. It was when the first purchase took place, followed by a simple five-star review, with one word: ‘great!’, that I started to get it. I’d got it all wrong. [ ‘No new gifts, please’: Meet the parents who swap rather than shopOpens in new window ]The pleasures of Vinted have often little to do with money, although the cash is nice. (So far, I’ve made around a hundred quid. I’m not getting minted on Vinted.) What Vinted really gives you is more complex. It offers a sense of control, makes you feel like a micro-entrepreneur, gamifies de-consumerism, creates space in your wardrobe and grants the simple joy of compliments from paying customers, who are happy to see stuff arrive on time, in good nick. This last part is important. Vinted is now valued at over $9 billion. Photograph: Alamy/PA I’m not sure why five-star validation from customers online feels so good: it may be because I associate internet commentary primarily with trolls throwing cheap jibes at strangers to make their own lives feel more meaningful. But there’s no doubt the straightforwardness of a great star rating gives my heart a fillip. A little warmed-up glow. I’m not alone. “I have a really good star rating,” a friend confided in me recently with the same pride she might have shown had her child come first in a swimming contest. There are other subtle pleasures. Pocketing a tenner for an old broderie anglaise blouse mightn’t seem like much to shout about, but it’s a lot more gratifying than storing orphaned clothing (sometimes, shamefully, with the tags on) whose only purpose is to remind you of the crimes you’ve committed against your own wallet or body type. Who wants to come face to face with their own lamented decisions when they open their wardrobe in the morning? Particularly when, as an optimist, I’ll often decide I haven’t tried hard enough to make an outfit work and upend my entire closet, shuffling through clothing like a deck of cards to see if I can rescue the ensemble. My husband knows to back away slowly when the bedroom has come to resemble an architectural dig. A tags-still-on blouse that quickly found a new home on Vinted Poorly chosen clothing costs you and then continues to cost you, in the time you spend trying to convince yourself it’s suitable to go out in. Those high-waisted trousers for your short upper body? The massive bell-bottoms that could inspire a Let it Be singalong and never did what the sales assistant boldly claimed they would – genuinely come back into fashion? No, no, no. Vinted whisks away the problem, then hands you cash and a compliment.[ Consumers spend less in clothes shops – but second-hand spending up 197%Opens in new window ]I do feel sorry for traditional retailers. Clothing store spending is down 9 per cent year on year, and even when consumers are in clothes shops, there’s a new thriftiness at play. I can’t be the only person who has taken to snapping a photo of a pair of jeans or jumper in a store, then checking to see if they’re available on one of the reselling sites. But shopping in the era of Vinted has the virtue of being better for the environment, and not just because it’s a second-go-round for clothes. One of the unintended effects of resellers like Vinted, Vestiaire and Depop is persuading customers to buy better quality garments the first time around because there’s a greater chance they’ll be able to sell them later. So here we are: I’m considering Vestiaire. I’m thinking about Depop. I’m realising there’s a part of me that wants to sell everything now because of how freeing it feels. (Is this Buddhism?) Is de-consumerism the new consumerism? Maybe that’s a stretch. With a wardrobe that’s suddenly a little emptier, it feels like a really great moment to, well, shop. This week I bought my first Vinted item with my earnings from Vinted. It’s a playful grey cat ears jumper from Sandro that cost €20 before postage (the buyer pays for postage as well as a buyer protection fee, a smart call which makes Vinted one of the best places to sell on). The jumper arrived in great condition with a free pair of earrings attached to a heart-shaped note. Sweet. And the seller corresponded with me in French, giving me the opportunity to wheel out my rusty first-year college French (admittedly before I quit and used Google Translate). A note with free earrings from a French seller In the same week, I made my first sale to an actual French person, who I like to imagine is very chic. “Parfait,” said the French lady who bought my Sessùn blouse. Parfait! There’s plenty in this life that will never give you a parfait. But Vinted can. Merci, beaucoup. [ Inside Ireland’s favourite preloved fashion shops: ‘We’re not driven by trends’Opens in new window ]IN THIS SECTION