thredUP vs. Poshmark for Buyers

thredUP and Poshmark have the same goal of bringing new and second-hand clothes to buyers at lower than retail prices, but they have different ways of doing that. This post on thredUP vs. Poshmark is to give you insight into how the platforms work and the pros and cons of each to help you make the best choices as a buyer.

If you’re interested in selling instead, this post is a comparison of selling on Poshmark and thredUP.

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.

** If you don’t have a Poshmark account, you can receive a free $10 bonus when you sign up with my code SFGIRL2015.

** If you don’t have a thredUP account, you can receive a free $10 bonus when you use this link to sign up and shop.

FYI, Poshmark and thredUP are growing companies. I try to keep this post updated, but there may be recent changes not mentioned here. Review the companies’ websites for the latest information.

Categories of items

Poshmark: Poshmark provides more variety and number of item categories for purchase than thredUP does. These include

Women’s, men’s, and children’s clothing and accessories (includes plus size and maternity)
Shoes
Bags
Jewelry
Beauty & wellness items including skincare and makeup
Home goods like bedding, wall art, holiday decorations, and more
Toys
Pet items

thredUP: thredUP offers the usual categories and some unique ones too.

Women’s clothing, handbags, accessories, and shoes (including plus size and maternity)
Children’s clothing, shoes, and accessories for boys and girls
Goody boxes – Get 10 like-new items to fit your size, style, and budget. Pay for what you keep including a $10 styling fee applied to items you keep. Return what you don’t want within 7 days.
Rescue boxes – These are boxes full of items that need a little TLC or that have been listed a while. They’re sold at a reduced price.
Revive by Rent the Runway – These are items previously rented on Rent the Runway. They’re retired and available for purchase on thredUP.

thredUP has a long list of items that aren’t available because they aren’t allowed. You can read the entire list on the website. Some items not allowed are

Non-clothing items such as toys, books, and sports gear
Sleepwear, pajamas, robes, and undergarments
Men’s clothing
Jewelry

Brands available

Both Poshmark and thredUP offer a variety of brands. This varies based on what Poshmark sellers have to sell and what thredUP employees receive.

Luxury or designer brands – Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton
Premium brands – Lululemon, Vince, J. Crew, Free People
Value and mall brands – Forever 21, Target, H&M

Poshmark: Poshmark allows all brands including private labels and unbranded items.

thredUP: thredUP accepts all brands. If the brand is not in their system, the item is listed as Assorted Brands. If the item doesn’t have a brand tag, it is listed as Unbranded.

You can’t normally see the brand tag of Assorted Brand clothing. Sometimes you’ll get lucky when you purchase the item and realize it was a really good brand that was accidentally mislabeled.

Some ways to find out what the assorted brand item’s brand is:

Use Google Lens on the image to see if Google can pull up the item.
Google search using descriptive terms to locate the item on other shopping sites where the brand will likely be listed.
Ask customer service what the brand is, although you may wait a long time for a response or not get one at all.

If there’s a brand that you like, I’d follow the brand on Poshmark and save my search for that brand on thredUP. Then I will be notified of new arrivals or they show up in my feed.

I’d also check the websites regularly, even every morning, to see the latest items by that brand. The best items by popular brands and at good prices don’t last long, so you want to get them before other people do.

Item quality

Poshmark: Sellers list and store their own inventory, so they have the responsibility to show and describe their items accurately.

Some sellers are very thorough at providing details including measurements. Some sellers write one-line descriptions.

The good thing is that you can ask sellers questions to gain more info. Are the pictures missing something? Do you need the measurements or the fabric content? Go ahead and ask.

Poshmark sellers who sell as a business will likely respond to your questions. They want your business!

Sometimes sellers don’t respond for whatever reason, and you have to decide if it’s worth purchasing the item without your questions answered.

thredUP: Because thredUP has massive amounts of clothing to process and store in their warehouses, they use a standard process and standard descriptions.

Each item receives 2-3 pictures. Clothes are taking on a body form.

Purses and other accessories are mostly shown lying flat. Purses are sometimes shown hanging on a body form for perspective.

Items have a basic description that typically includes details such as the neckline or pant cut, material, size and measurements, and condition.

Condition descriptions are set:

This item is brand new with tags still attached.
This item is in excellent condition. You might mistake it for brand new!
This item is gently used with minor signs of wear: [a description of the wear]. This could be minor wear on fabric or scratches or scuffs.

There may be other descriptions, but these are the most common. The unfortunate thing is that the 2-3 pictures of items may not show the wear. It may show if the wear is on front and you zoom in or blow up the picture.

Like with any platform where you’re purchasing new and second-hand items, clothing quality will vary. Condition is subjective and what one person might wear might be too worn for someone else.

I’ve purchased new and used items from both platforms as well as Mercari and eBay. In general, I’ve had success with Poshmark items with a few disappointing purchases.

I think it’s been mostly positive because I usually purchase new items, ask questions, inspect pictures, read descriptions, and check seller feedback before purchasing.

I’ve had issues with the accuracy and quality of items on thredUP. I’ve purchased 14 items and been unhappy with 5 of them.

One had the wrong size listed, three had undisclosed damage, and one new item appeared worn with someone’s hair inside it.

My friend purchased a bundle of items and stated that she returned about 50% of the items due to undisclosed wear.

I wasn’t far off of the 50% mark myself early on in my purchasing. Thankfully I was able to return those items at no extra cost.

My latest thredUP purchases have been more accurate. I’ve even come away with some unique finds.

Luxury goods & authentication

You’ll find genuine and counterfeit items on both marketplaces. Counterfeit items are illegal to sell, and I don’t think either company wants them on their sites.

The problem is that it can be hard to police listings and accurately authenticate items. These companies receive all kinds of high-end pieces needing authentication.

Authenticators may not be knowledgeable about every aspect of every luxury brand or item, which can this work challenging.

If you’re looking to buy a high-end piece, do your research and review the return policies before you make a purchase.

Poshmark: Poshmark offers Posh Authenticate, which is their authentication service. Poshmark offers free item authentication and free shipping (for a limited time) on items $500 or more.

Sellers send the item to Poshmark headquarters, where they are authenticated before being sent on to the buyer.

This provides an extra level of protection for buyers, which is important when there are many counterfeit items online and sales are considered final.

I met a few PM authenticators at Poshfest during their exhibit showing examples of authentic and counterfeit goods. They described what they look for, features like stitching, logos, material, and hardware.

I felt they were knowledgeable, but I have heard stories from buyers and sellers where Posh Authenticate got it wrong.

A seller who is the original purchaser and owner of a luxury item sells something that doesn’t pass authentication.
A buyer receives something that they later realize is counterfeit.
Nicely packaged items being poorly rewrapped to send on to the buyer.

I don’t know how often these things happen. Hopefully it’s few and far between. Just know that when you buy a luxury item, there is a chance that it could be counterfeit. This is the nature of second-hand buying.

thredUP: thredUP has its own authentication services to ensure the items they list for sale are legitimate.

I’ve heard of people receiving counterfeit items. Luckily thredUP allows returns. If you purchase something you know to be counterfeit, you can contact customer service and work out a return and refund.

I recommend purchasing items that are unlikely to be counterfeited. These are usually less well-known brands and rarer items.

Search features & results

Neither marketplace has stellar search abilities. Your best bet is to try searching for what you want in multiple ways and use the provided filter options to see what comes up in the results.

Poshmark: Poshmark offers several ways to filter your search results: category, item type, brand, size, color, price, and condition.

Mainstream brands will show up in searches, so if you search for Madewell, all items listed under the brand Madewell will appear.

You can search for non-mainstream brands too, but search results will often show a mix of that brand and other items that have that keyword.

Results for a mainstream brand like Madewell from a Poshmark search

Results for a non-mainstream brand like Mirth from a Poshmark search

Sellers list their own items so titles and descriptions vary widely. A seller may not know the style name of an item. That’s why it’s a good idea to search using different terms:

the brand and style name if you know them
the colors
details like sequin or dog print

Sort by “just in” to see the latest items first. Sort by “price low to high” to find the best deal when there are multiples of the same item you want.

thredUP: thredUP offers similar filters such as searching by size, category, brand, and price.

Two difficulties come up with searches:

Items are not identified by style name. You might be looking for a Lilly Pulitzer You Gotta Regatta dress. There’s no way to search for that item by name, only by Lilly Pulitzer dress and filtering and looking through the search results for what you want. That takes time.
Items are not identified by distinguishing features. Say I want to find something with a dog print on it. That’s not a searchable term, so I’ll be hard-pressed to find what I want. It’s easiest to search for items using a brand name and the given filters.

Prices

Poshmark: You’ll find a wide variety of prices even for the same item because sellers can price items however they want.

Based on my experience both buying and selling on Poshmark, I’ve found that items tend to be priced higher than you’ll find on other platforms.

The reason is for this is that Poshmark has a higher commission than many other platforms. It’s $2.95 for items below $15 and 20% for items $15 and above.

Poshmark also has multiple ways for sellers to provide discounts and buyers to get deals.

Buyers can make offers to sellers and vice versa
Sellers can offer bundle discounts for purchases of one or more items.
Sellers can cover part or all of the shipping cost.

All of this results in pricing higher to allow for lowering the price and still making a profit.

Prices may be shocking for the person who is new to Poshmark. Once you go about making offers or waiting for price drops, you can end up paying much less.

A wide range in pricing for the same item on Poshmark

thredUP: Pricing is a little more complicated here. The initial suggested price is set by thredUP based on their internal algorithm. The seller then has the opportunity to change the listing price.

Buyers cannot make offers. The primary way to save on the cost of items is through the use of discount codes and points saved up through previous transactions. Discount codes come out frequently, so keep an eye out.

In my experience, the prices of items have gone up over the years. This may be due to sellers’ influence.

Sellers had been using a strategy of increasing the listing prices of their items. Some sellers would price their items near retail. They did this to maximize their profits and to increase their payout if ThredUP lost or damaged their items.

In late 2020, thredUP changed its policy. They would provide an initial suggested price. If sellers wanted to increase the price, they could do so up to 49% more before incurring a fee of their own.

The goal of this was to lower prices to make items more desirable to buyers. I imagine their warehouses filling up with high-priced or overpriced items that were not moving.

The best way to find the items you what at the prices you want is to search for an item you want, then using the price filter or sorting by high to low price or low to high price.

Reserves & checkout

Poshmark: If you click on “Buy Now” in a listing, the item is reserved for you for 10 minutes to enter your payment information and complete the purchase. You can click “Buy Now” again if the 10 minutes are up and no one else reserves it.

Checkout is a simple process much like you’ll find with other online retailers. These are the currently allowed payment methods:

Credit or debit cards
Affirm
Apple Pay
Google Pay
PayPal
Venmo

You can use any credits you have to pay as well. Any discounts, shipping, and taxes are automatically added to the total.

You can save your info and make purchasing even faster and easier the next time around. Just don’t get carried away with purchasing in two taps!

thredUP: thredUP works very differently. Your shopping cart can hold up to 35 items. Reserved items remain in your shopping cart for 4 hours. The cart times can vary during sales and promotional periods.

Once you decide to purchase, checkout is simple here too. Enter in your payment information, shipping information, any discount or promo codes, and confirm your order.

ThredUp accepts most credit cards and debit cards, PayPal, Amazon Pay, and Affirm.

Shipping

Poshmark: As of this writing, shipping is $7.45 for USPS Priority Mail service for 5lb or less. Shipping can be lower if there is a promotion running or the seller decides to cover some or all of the shipping cost.

Most buyers find $7.45 to be expensive for small items under 1lb like a t-shirt or a pair of earrings. Those could ship for less with first-class mail.

Anything over 1lb would cost about the same or more if you were to ship using USPS on your own, so $7.45 is a great deal for heavier items like jackets and shoes.

Sellers have up to 7 days to ship an order before the buyer can cancel for non-shipment. Most sellers ship sooner than that.

USPS Priority Mail shipping takes 1-3 days to arrive depending on the destination. It can take longer during the holidays, inclement weather, staff shortages, and when there are other issues.

thredUP: Shipping is a flat rate of $5.99 within the U.S.

thredUP offers the Buy & Bundle shipping option, which combines items from multiple orders over 7 days into a single package and ships everything together. This is a great way to shop in your own time and meet the $79 threshold for free shipping.

thredUP has a few warehouses throughout the U.S. Each person is assigned a home warehouse based on their geographical location. My home warehouse is the one in Phoenix, AZ because I live in California.

When you purchase an item from a warehouse that is not your home one, a small surcharge is added to the price of the item to cover shipping a longer distance. That’s why you may see a different price for an item than a friend who lives elsewhere does.

Loyalty program

Poshmark: Poshmark does not have a loyalty program. I hope they have one someday!

thredUP: My favorite thredUP feature is the Rewards Program. It’s quick and easy to start earning points.

Earn points starting on your second purchase.
Earn 10 points per dollar with every purchase.
Earn 100 points by visiting thredUP 15 days out of the month.
Earn 500 points for every returned Clean Out Kit, meaning sending your clothes in to sell.

Use your points on

Free shipping
Discounts on items. Currently it’s 15% off handbags.
Waive restocking fees.
Get $10 off your order.

I find the rewards valuable for free shipping. If you purchase something for $35, you earn 350 points, which is enough for free shipping on your next order. Shipping is usually $5.99, so this is a great deal for the repeat buyer.

Return policy

Poshmark: Poshmark’s return policy is sales are final unless an item is not as described or never ships. Buyers can open a case on any purchase. They state their side and sellers state theirs. Then a Poshmark employee decides the outcome.

Sometimes the case closes in favor of the buyer, and sometimes it closes in favor of the seller. Once in a while, the outcome is favorable to both parties in that both parties get paid.

As a buyer, there’s more of a risk when purchasing from Poshmark because of the strict return policy. You can’t return something if you change your mind about it, it doesn’t fit, or it doesn’t meet your expectations.

As I mentioned above, I manage as much of the risk as possible by purchasing new items when I can, asking questions, reviewing item pictures and descriptions, and checking seller feedback before purchasing.

thredUP: thredUP allows returns, which makes it a better option for buyers who are uncertain about their purchases or want the freedom to return things.

All returns must be postmarked within 14 days from the item’s delivery and in their original condition.

Each item is subject to a $1.99 restocking fee and the buyer is responsible for the return shipping fee. If the return is due to an error on thredUP’s part such as an item not being as described, then the restocking fee is not charged.

The difference in return policies between the two marketplaces is key for buyers to know before making a purchase.

Additional thoughts & tips

1 | Inventory changes all the time

New listings are posted to thredUP and Poshmark every day. It depends on what sellers post and what people send in to thredUP.

If you don’t find what you want now, keep looking regularly because you never know when it will appear.

You’ll also be able to find unique items you probably can’t find anywhere else.

A unique sweater vest I found on thredUP

2 | Search both marketplaces for things you want

Comparison shop on Poshmark and thredUP (and Google) for items and prices you want.

One thing to note is that you might find more of the latest in-season items on Poshmark than on thredUP. That’s because Poshmark sellers list on their own time and can list quickly.

thredUP currently has a 10-week processing time for items sent to them. I’ve heard of some sellers waiting 6 months or more to have their items processed to sell. After 6+ months, what’s new now may not be new anymore by the time it’s listed.

For example, I had been eyeing this Alice + Olivia daisy print duffle bag that I saw offered in the FabFitFun subscription box this month. I didn’t want to purchase the subscription box, so I went online to see if I could purchase just the bag.

I found over 40 of them available on Poshmark with the lowest price being $45.

On thredUP, I searched by brand name and filtered for bags. There was one for $66.99.

3 | Keep an open mind about second-hand shopping

Shopping for second-hand clothing on sites like thredUP and Poshmark can be more challenging than shopping at traditional retail stores. It’s riskier because items have been worn or used before.

It helps to recognize that sometimes items won’t fit as you expected and requests for returns won’t be approved. You can’t return items on Poshmark for the most part. It can be a long process to receive purchases, return them, and get a refund on thredUP.

But the upside is that you can find great items that may no longer be offered at retail and at lower prices and that’s what makes shopping on sites like thredUP and Poshmark worth it.

That covers most of the basics of buying on both thredUP and Poshmark. After reading this, you might feel that one is better than the other because of their offerings, their return policies, their prices, or something else. They each have their own pros and cons, but you can find great items on both of them.

Enjoy your shopping!

What’s been your experience shopping on thredUP and Poshmark?

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