The joy of Vinted: how can it help, or destroy, a minimalist like me
If you need a new kick-start to reduce the items in your wardrobe, Vinted is the answer to your prayers. Here are some tricks I use to sell more and buy less.
I love selling, I can’t hide it. I started trading “VIPs” posters and articles by post when I was 12–13 years old and went on selling, along with school books from the previous years, other non related items such as CDs and tapes. And I always came back home almost empy-handed: as light as a feather I knew I had to do it again and again.
It’s never really been a matter of how much money could I get but more the thrill of getting rid of something I didn’t need anymore PLUS the “ability” to chance it AND, only at the very end, making some spare change. Looking back, I guess I’ve always been a minimalist also because of this.
As soon as the big Internet came into my life, the opportunities to sell had multiplied and I didn’t wait too long until I started to use Ebay and all sorts of buy/sell groups. Unfortunately I also realized that none of them was perfect: I had to deal with commissions, potential clients that were as elusive as wasted time, shipping prices that were too high that I couldn’t change and more vague people that had nothing better than faking an interest in the item when all they cared was…asking if you were married?! Really? Yes, and that even made me consider changing my account name or appearance to avoid this nonsense (but I haven’t).
Sometimes I noticed that it was a mere matter of location: while Facebook Marketplace worked wonders when I lived in Dublin (Ireland), here in Naples (Italy) I found only very frustrated people who stalked you and took it as a personal offence the fact you were selling, or others so skeptical they contacted you to make sure that what you were selling was real asking for more pictures, left you hanging to finalize the deal…and then disappear. See, what doesn’t kill you…makes you try other strategies!
Fast forward to the beginning of 2021, and a quite massive and incessant ad of Vinted comes on in Italy as a new platform to sell in a new and, apparently, simpler way. After a few not so profitable months in which all I could seem to sell had been records (don’t complain, Elvira!), I registered without any real hope I could be any luckier than I was on Depop (that I assume never really took off here).
How does Vinted work
As Vinted is a mainly clothing and accessories focused virtual shop, I only uploaded 5 pieces of clothes and made my first sale after only 10 days! It is actually very very simple to use it, even you don’t have much experience on this kind of things: you take a picture of the item, choose the right category for it, write a brief description (most of the needed details such as size and colour have their own spot to be selected), and you’re good to go.
If you’re buying you can select and filter whatever you’re looking by size, colour and price and then add it to your favourites, if you want to go back to it later. Well, that’s what I assume one would pick an item as favourite, that’s why I go back to the interested buyer to ask if he/she needs more infos but I guess that many people only put a “heart” to it because they like it, not because they’re pondering if they want to buy it or not.
The hardest thing at first was understanding how the default shipping method (provided in Italy by UPS) as, at the beginning, it seemed impossible that any shipping was only 0.99 Euro to France or within Italy, but it was true and veeeeery convenient (and dangerous). If you’re posting an ad, you need to choose the shipping according to the dimension of the item (small, medium, large) if you want to use the carrier of the platform or one you decide for yourself. Choosing the first your buys and sales are more protected and can be refunded if the item gets lost (it’s never happened to me so far). The only thing that might be a bit of a hassle is that the shipment leaves from and goes to the UPS points, so not everybody is always lucky to be close to one.
There were two catches, one I expected right away and the other I figured out after around 3 weeks from signing up:
1) As mentioned before, the shipping price at 0.99 Euro had been a big surprise and I (rightly) guessed that it would have only lasted for a short time for every italian user as Italy had only recently come onboard at the time. 2 weeks after the price rose, but it’s still manageable and lower than standard italian couriers.
2) When I joined Vinted, as I wasn’t expecting much from it, I only added few items. Big mistake! I realized only after that its algorithm rewards the new sellers as, even without the help of any boost, my things had received a lot of views and “hearts”. I thought it was due to how good the platform was, but nope, I’m sure there was some kind of “bounce” they gave/give. After not so long any new item I added never received the same praise, regardless of its quality. So, if you’re thinking about getting started on Vinted, upload as many things as you can since the beginning.
A minimalist kink: how to use it responsibly
It must also be the spring clean feeling I get, but Vinted is definitely a hell of a chance to get rid of clothes…and get new ones (ehm…)!
Unlike other platforms that, unless you’re selling high brand clothing, don’t reward common fashion items, Vinted has made me achieve some very satisfactory results.
As a minimalist then, you’re very likely to come back to it every time a new unwanted item pops up. You can list it and decide to get rid of it if it remains unsold for a month, for example.
On this regard it’s important to remember that, as hundreds of new ads from other users pour in at any moment, you’re item would go unnoticed if your picture is not great, if the price is too high (average prices on Vinted are usually very low) or if you don’t use any (paid) boost trick.
Plus you’ll soon realize how sought after is your piece of clothing as time goes by: if after the first day you only got around 2 views, don’t put too much hope around it and, think if you can do anything to make the ad better. Otherwise just wait and see or, if the potential earn is worth it, consider buying a boost for 3 days for it.
As I personally prefer to free up space even at the cost of not earning much, I usually don’t set up the cost thinking about I originally paid for an item. Unless your item is very unique, the rest is much less valuable than we think, and leaving it unused in the wardrobe won’t make it more precious.
Another thing I do almost anytime is making new offers to anybody who “likes” my item but don’t buy it immediately: they might want to consider other options, so you can make sure that the price is not the reason why they didn’t pick it straight ahead by lowering it just a bit after a few hours or a day from their reaction. To do so, you can choose the notification of the new like, click on it and be prompted to the messaging system where you can select the option called “make an offer”.
I truly love when my buyers are satisfied so I use this other trick that works both ways: adding a small free item (anything from small note pads to pens or nail polishes) to anything they buy would give them a nice surprise AND that would work as a donation of my unused things too.
Lastly, you can make a rule of treating yourself after 2–3 sales by buying something you truly love. Here you would really need to be self-disciplined though as it’s easy to fall under the spell of buying just because it’s cheap.
I’d suggest not to buy on impulse but to add a few items as favourites and go back to them after some time (time that would probably be spent anyway waiting for a new sale). In the meantime the seller might even lower the price of the item seeing you got interested in it.
My hope is for Vinted to be available in more and more countries all over the world so that anyone can benefit from it. For the ones who are just starting: go ahead and free up that wardrobe, FAST!