Helpsy Review: Vintage Men's & Women's Secondhand Clothes
Last month I purchased several boxes of secondhand clothes from Helpsy, a company that sells new and second-hand wholesale inventory for resellers. The second box I selected was the Vintage Variety Wholesale Men's & Women's Clothes Secondhand Wholesale. Check out what I got and my thoughts about the box below.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may receive compensation when you click on a product link or purchase an item linked on this site. Click here for details.
** On Poshmark, you can receive a free $10 bonus when you sign up with the code SFGIRL2015.
** On Mercari, you can get $10 when you sign up with the code JENMHM.
What did I purchase from Helpsy?
I purchased three boxes (reviews linked below):
Vintage Variety Wholesale Men's & Women's Clothes Secondhand Wholesale - 40 pieces
Tahari Women's Clothes Secondhand Wholesale - 40 pieces
Deluxe & Designer Brands 20 pack - Women’s Clothes Secondhand Wholesale - 20 pieces
I purchased them all on July 4th. The vintage clothing box arrived exactly one month later on August 4th.
How much did the vintage clothing box cost?
The box normally costs $300 for 40 items. It was on sale for $160. I purchased it during a 10% sitewide sale, so I paid $144. Shipping was free. There was no sales tax.
$144/40 = $3.60 per item
Why did I purchase the vintage clothing box?
I purchased the vintage clothing box for a few reasons:
I like selling vintage clothes. Vintage clothes are often unique so you are the only one or one of the few people selling those items.
At $144 for 40 items, it wouldn’t be a huge loss if I didn’t profit from the box. I could take the risk, although I hoped the box would be profitable.
If I liked the box and it sold well, I’d want to buy it again, and the vintage box is regularly available.
What did I receive in the vintage clothing box?
1 | A Personal Touch floral top 2X - Sold on eBay for $14
2 | Additions by Chico’s black pants 2 - fading, donated
3 | Alex Evenings skirt S - visibly stained
4 | APPEL floral robe/wrap M - appeared brand new, listed for sale
5 | Athleta Girl tie-dye hoodie 14 (kids) - very worn
6 | Berkfield striped shirt L - small stains, donated
7 | Burberry’s jacket (no size) - Sold on Poshmark for $5
8 | Carmar black pants 25 (not pictured)
9 | Char tou denim jeans S (not pictured)
10 | Coastaoro plaid shirt S - listed for sale
11 | Donagain sweater M - listed for sale
12 | Donna Loren tank top XL - heavily stained
13 | Elizabeth McKay skirt 4 - stained
14 | Fleur Blue dress 2 - donated
15 | Free Planet print t-shirt S - listed for sale
16 | GiGio USA top M - donated
17 | HardCorps black ski pants 34 (not pictured)
18 | Hygrade Raiders sweater - like new vintage, listed for sale
19 | Impressions black sweater S - worn, donated
20 | Jacqueline Ferrar jacket M - fading and mild wear
21 | JC Penney men’s jacket - missing all the front and sleeve buttons, donated
22 | Jillian Jones wool jacket S - small hole, listed for sale
23 | Kavio Designs rhinestone T-shirt plus size OSFM - listed for sale
24 | Mahi Gold print dress M - heavily faded, sold on eBay for $12
25 | Mark Elliott pullover sweater L 16/18 (kids) - heavily worn
26 | MerryFun cold-shoulder top - good condition but donated
27 | Mott & Bow shirt M - good condition but donated
28 | NY Line turtleneck XL - heavily worn
29 | Official Sports soccer jersey - stained and dirty with pieces of dirt on it
30 | Old Navy striped T-shirt L - heavily worn
31 | Original Deluxe athletic pants M - like new, listed for sale
32 | Pink Girl Collection top M - nice top but donated
33 | Polarmax white pants - heavily worn
34 | Ritual denim jeans 30 (not pictured)
35 | Royalty for Me blue jeans (not pictured)
36 | Shoshanna strapless dress 6 - large inner stain, listed for sale
37 | Sweet Blondie rhinestone shirt 1X - good condition, listed for sale
38 | Tainadress tan pants 32L46 - okay condition but donated
39 | The Color Run XXL shirt - good condition but donated
40 | Yaerle panda T-shirt - heavily worn
Things I liked about this box
1) Some of the vintage items
I really liked five of the items in the box. I know that’s not a lot at 5 of 40 items or 12.5%, but these few items were nice to receive.
Hygrade Raiders sweater
Donagain black white furry sweater
Sweet Blondie rhinestone T-shirt
Kavio Designs rhinestone T-shirt
APPEL floral robe/wrap
A few more of the items were clearly vintage. I could tell they were vintage from well over 20 years ago because of some combination of the following:
They were made in the USA.
Their brand and size tags were older print or font and material.
They had old logos.
2) Accurate condition
The condition of the items matched the listing description. The items are both secondhand and vintage, so it’s expected that they will have some wear.
I wouldn’t normally purchase many of these items at the thrift store with the amount of pilling, stains, and missing buttons they had. But I knew to expect them because I read the listing description.
Helpsy doesn’t refund or replace items with light wear such as small stains, pilling, missing buttons, deodorant marks, pulls, and other small issues.
Anything more than that is considered severe damage. You can expect severe damage to 15% of the items in a box. That’s 6 items in a 40-item box.
Knowing this upfront, the box was as expected. The items were in used but mostly resellable condition.
I had at least three items that had severe damage. Some of the other items were worn while some were in great condition.
Things I didn’t like about this box
1) Non-vintage items
Vintage is technically anything that is 20 years old or older, so anything from 2003 or before. Several of the items were obviously not vintage. They had tags that stated when they were released.
Athleta Girl hoodie - 2021
Coastaoro shirt -2019
Donna Loren tank top - 2020
Free Planet T-shirt - 2021
The Color Run - This run started in 2011.
Others I knew were not vintage because the brands were established after 2003.
Free Planet - started in 2009
Fleur Blue - started in 2014
Mott & Bow - started in 2013
Mahi Gold - started in 2008
I determined this through Google searches. I’m sure workers at Helpsy don’t have time to search every brand they come across, but these items did not appear vintage at first glance, which made me research them.
The listing for this box stated that items are retro and new/old style vintage, which means that the items are not necessarily vintage by definition, only that they appear to be.
But many of these items didn’t appear vintage. They seemed age-indeterminate, which made me question why they were put in this box.
I suspect that a lot of the items that were put in the box were not able to be sorted into other boxes and/or were junk and used as filler for this box.
If I’m being picky, vintage should also invoke the feeling of another era. The striped Old Navy T-shirt I received could be over 20 years old, but it looks exactly the same as T-shirts people wear today. I know that’s not how items were chosen for this box though.
2) Children’s items
Two of the items I received were children’s clothes. They were probably missorted as adult clothing. Nonetheless, the box was for men’s and women’s clothing.
Is the vintage box worth purchasing?
Right now I don’t think the vintage box is worth purchasing because I don’t think I’ll make a profit on reselling the items in the box I got. I’m open to changing my mind and purchasing the box again if I do make a substantial profit.
I had hoped that this box would be full of great vintage items like those I see at vintage secondhand stores or the vintage section of my local Goodwill.
Or I would receive more items like those pictured in the listing. That wasn’t the case.
The box turned out to be mostly full of mediocre clothes and some duds with a few great items that are worth reselling.
Maybe my expectations were too high at $3.60 an item (although this box was originally $7.50 an item).
This box reminds me of thredUp rescue boxes. Buyers knew that rescue boxes were likely to have lot of items that were junk and not worth reselling, but you hoped to get a few really good items that would make the purchase worthwhile. It’s a gamble.
In the future, I will skip purchasing used merchandise from Helpsy and only purchase new or new without tag boxes. This decreases my chances of getting damaged items, and I will have a better idea of what I’m getting.
Wrap up
While I hoped to receive better items in my vintage variety men's & women's clothes box from Helpsy, I’m glad I tried out the company and didn’t spend too much to determine that the box isn’t right for me.
I’m going to list the best items in the box and I’ll update this post in a few months to let you know how things sell.
Have you purchased the Helpsy vintage clothing box? What did you think of what you received?
