Goodwill Bluebox Mystery Box Review

Last month I purchased two Goodwill Bluebox mystery boxes to try a new way of sourcing clothes for my Poshmark closet.

I’ve felt that prices at thrift stores have crept upwards in recent months, making lots of nice items too expensive to acquire and then resell. Poshmark sale prices have also trended downward with the recent addition of taxes and an increase in shipping costs.

So I decided to branch out from my usual sources and purchase Goodwill Bluebox mystery boxes. I had heard a lot of good feedback about them. I wanted to see if they live up to the hype, and more importantly, if they’re a worthwhile way to stock my Poshmark closet.

Read all about my experience with the Goodwill Bluebox in this review, including the brands and items I received.

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Goodwill Bluebox mystery boxes

These Goodwill Bluebox mystery boxes are from Gulfstream Goodwill Industries in West Palm Beach, Florida. Boxes are sold by category such as women’s clothes and men’s clothes and further categorized by size.

I purchased two women’s basic apparel boxes in size XL/1X for $19.99 each. I got free shipping through a promotional offer. Each box reportedly contains 10 to 12 lightly curated items with a used retail value of $4-$100 per piece.

I received a total of 22 items. That averages out to $1.82 per item.

Video

If you’d like to watch a video what I received in the Goodwill Bluebox, check out the video here below. Or scroll down to read more.

What I received

I received four items that I liked for their brand or style:

Eileen Fisher white shirt
Woman Within blue white top
Chico’s animal print top
Knox Rose beaded tank

The best item in the boxes was the Eileen Fisher shirt. Many people sell this brand because it’s popular and somewhat pricey at retail.

There’s an Eileen Fisher shop on a nice shopping street where I live, so I’ve always had this brand in mind to pick up.

I’ve never been fortunate enough to find a piece in good enough condition to purchase for resale.

This is the one item I was really excited about receiving. I don’t know how much it will bring in once sold though.

These are the rest of the brands and items I received:

AB Studio shirt
Alfred Dunner animal print shirt
Arden B orange ruched dress NWT
Arizona Jeans Company plaid shirt
Bongo black lace shirt
Citiknits blue pants
Croft & Barrow floral top
Emma James beaded top
J. Crew blue and white striped shirt
Jones New York green ruched top
George striped sweater
Karen Arnold Woman butterfly beaded sweater
St. John's Bay floral shirt
Style & Co floral shirt
Style & Co pink lipstick top
Venezia pink collared shirt
White Mark black skirted leggings NWT
Xhilaration print tank

As you can see, the rest of the brands are fairly low-cost at retail. Xhilaration brand is sold at Target. Croft & Barrow is sold at Kohl’s. Style & Co is sold at Macy’s, which has its own frequent sales.

Impression

I am feeling neutral about this mystery box because I don’t yet know how this it will fare for me.

The main determiner of whether a box is worth it to me is whether or not I can make a profit from it at least comparable to the profit I would make selecting my own items.

I want to make at least $40 to cover the cost of the clothes. Then there’s cost of the work involved in cleaning, listing, and packaging and shipping the clothes if they sell. That’s several hours of work for me.

The alternative would be finding items worth reselling myself. It would take me several hours to find 22 items I thought were worth reselling because I’m selective about quality and brands.

That’s one of the reasons I decided to try out mystery boxes. I was hoping to save myself hours of time on sourcing quality items.

I’ve listed 13 of the items so far. Four are listed individually and nine are listed as a bundle.

Two have sold, but it’s only been a few weeks and this time of year is slow for sales. It’s helped that I’ve cross-listed the items to multiple platforms..

I already returned several of the items to the thrift store. Some were not in good enough shape to resell.

The Karen Arnold Woman sweater had a ring on the back shoulder like a coffee mug was placed there.
The Jones New York lime green ruched top had pilling across the front and back in a diagonal pattern like someone had want to crossbody bag with it.
The Emma James beaded top had a fair amount of pilling so that I wouldn’t want to sell it.

Could I do better on profit shopping on my own? I think I would.

I don’t think I’ll make $40 back on the items. I might if I listed everything and tried to squeeze every bit of profit from them, but I’m reluctant to do that due to time and concern for buyer satisfaction.

For that reason, I’ll probably pass on purchasing from Goodwill Bluebox again.

My experience with mystery boxes

Lately I’ve been considering new ways to source items for my Poshmark closet. I like shopping at thrift stores and visiting the Goodwill bins, but they have their drawbacks.

I think it’s worth exploring other methods of acquiring items because you can’t put all your eggs in one basket.Mystery boxes have the potential to be a great alternative.

They’re shipped directly to your door. Buying them is fast and easy. That’s why I’ve given thredUP and Goodwill mystery boxes a try to date.

I’ve really wanted to like mystery boxes that I’ve received. Unfortunately for me, they’ve been mediocre or disappointing so far. I think it’s possible to have a great experience with mystery boxes if you get the right one.

I liken it to playing the lotto or other gambling. You really don’t know what you’re going to get.

Sometimes you win and receive great items that are worth reselling. More often than not, you lose. You would’ve been better off trying a different supplier or different method altogether.

My thought going forward is to buy mystery boxes more for the entertainment value than the expectation of profit. Use fun money to buy them.

If you lose that money, it’s not the worst thing in the world. You’re still going to have food on the table and a business that keeps on moving.

If it works out in your favor and you get great items to resell then I’d take it that you got lucky that time around. You and I may not be so lucky in other instances.

What has been your experience with mystery boxes? Have you purchased mystery boxes from Goodwill Bluebox? What did you receive? What do you think of what I received?