Vintage reselling might not be inherently unethical, but I’m not sure that I would characterize up-charging donated clothes as honest work.
Ever since thrifting gained popularity in mainstream media around 2018, shopping for vintage or second-hand clothing has become commonplace. Alongside the thrifting boom, reselling second-hand clothing has exploded as a career path, with resellers often gaining customers through short-form content platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Resellers often use websites originally designed for consumers looking to sell their old clothes at cheaper prices, like Depop or Facebook Marketplace. But instead of listing personal items, resellers will sift through thrift stores to find clothes that fit the trend cycle or come from expensive brands, purchase them at discounted prices and list them on these platforms at a higher cost.
Now, I’d like to preface this discussion with the admission that I do not think that for-profit thrift stores are any less problematic than vintage resellers. One cannot be critiqued without inherently critiquing the other. Companies like Value Village receive free clothing and household items and sell them ridiculously expensive prices. Even though the company has faced mounds of criticism for their price gouging, they have yet to make any changes. Buying second-hand clothing is supposed to be an accessible option for those who struggle to afford it new, but the ever-increasing prices at for-profit thrift stores like Value Village defeat this purpose entirely.
Also, it is important to note that resellers are distinct from upcyclers. Upcyclers often thrift clothing or materials and create an entirely new item from the second-hand items they began with. Resellers simply purchase a garment and resell it at a higher price.
That being said, critiques of resellers online frequently face a lot of backlash, often relying on the justification that resellers are not unethical because they buy clothes that were going to the landfill anyways, and allege that second-hand stores are already overstocked. In defense of reselling, a reseller herself who goes by the title of a “vintage curator” had to say the following:
“Stop saying that resellers are evil when our landfills are FILLED TO THE BRIM. Secondhand [sic] clothing is sustainable and ethical and doing it full time is often very hard work.”
Besides the fact that I think it is a bit tone deaf to follow up criticisms of reselling with the defense that it is “very hard work” — especially given the fact that countless Canadian workers experience wage theft, exploitation and abuse in the workplace — I do agree that the second-hand market is crucial to maintaining sustainability in the midst of over consumption.
However, the claim that reselling is ethical based on its contribution to sustainability also stands on flimsy ground.
In fact, another TikTok user alleges that “resellers destroy sustainability.”
The user argues that, when resellers list second-hand clothes at several times their original cost, predatory for-profit thrift stores feel justified in increasing the prices of their clothing given the going rate for resold second-hand clothes. When resellers drive up the prices of second-hand clothes, those who rely on getting their clothes at cheaper rates are priced out of thrift stores, leading them to rely on ultra-cheap — and notoriously unsustainable — fast fashion websites like Shein.
“Y’all take this thing that centres around sustainability and affordability, and you taint it with capitalist greed,” said the user.
Just like fast fashion consumption, resellers rely on pandering to current trend cycles to make profits. Back in the late 2010s and early 2020s, when eighties fashion was in the mainstream, resellers dug through thrift store racks to find windbreaker sets and funky patterned cable knit sweaters.
Now, eighties fashion is out, and Y2K glam is in, so resellers are charging $800 for the very Abercrombie and Fitch jackets that your older sister might’ve had in high school. The seller justified the price by noting the product’s “Pinterest famous” status.
Though an $800 jacket is an extreme example, it illustrates how resellers rely on changing trend cycles to make quick profits before these items once again become worthless in the eyes of fashion influencers and resigned back to thrift store racks.
Ultimately, a vintage reseller is not the worst thing to be, but it is definitely not as ethical as most resellers themselves argue. The second-hand clothing market is most sustainable when it is accessible to as many consumers as possible — and making a profit from listing second-hand items at several times the cost you paid for them undoubtably undermines access to this market for many.