Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk to Crystal from Crystals Flips about reselling jeans and vintage clothing on Poshmark and Mercari.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - Interview With Crystals Flips
Rob: What's up, guys? Today we're super excited to be speaking to Crystal with Crystals Flips to get some great insight in some information about her business.
Melissa: And her reselling business is a lot different than our model. We love talking to so many different people. You can do this business so many different ways.
Rob: Crystal, thanks for jumping on here with us.
Crystal: Oh, you're welcome. Thanks for inviting me.
Rob: Of course.
Melissa: We're so excited you're here. So to start off, just give us a little bit of background, how you got started reselling and yeah, how you got started and kind of what you like to do to resell.
Crystal: Well, I got started by stepdaughter was into you know, she was in her early twenties and she was like clearing out her closet.
And then she got addicted to it and was selling on Poshmark and Mercari, and she kept saying, Crystal you should go ahead, you know, you should sell all your stuff. Cause I have like four large boxes in one of our old, you know, just like a storage room and she's like, you should sell them. I'm like, ah, you know how it's like, okay.
And then I was like, okay, this is going to rip off the bandaid and start listing. I made a three item bundle sale the second day of being on Poshmark. And she's like, no, that's not fair. You know, like it took her a while to get her first sale. And I got, you know, a three item bundle just right off the bat.
So then after that, you know, I listed everything in those four boxes and then her and I would start going to like garage sales and stuff. And I thought like the thrift stores were so expensive, but then I realized the value of the, you know, the items that they would sell and you have to pay a little to make some money, not everything could be garage sale prices.
Melissa: Right.
Rob: That's awesome. So the majority of what you do it is clothes, correct?
Crystal: Yes. Yes. Yes. My husband he sells records and CDs and I sell clothes.
Melissa: Okay, awesome. So do you have separate accounts that you sell on or do you sell on the same?
Crystal: Oh, him and I, yeah, he does Depop or not depop. What is it called? Discogs, Discogs, and a little bit eBay. EBay, there's just too many scams. I mean, he's been doing it for probably 15 years and the Discogs just has more of a foolproof plan to stop people from ripping you off. And then me, I just do, he doesn't do Poshmark, or Mercari, Tradesy any of those. He, if he wants me to sell any of his clothes, he just sticks it on my table and is like, you can sell this, he's done with it.
Melissa: That's awesome. So do you guys go sourcing together sometimes like to thrift stores or yard sales?
Crystal: Cause he's actually a, I'm pretty neutral dresser and he's actually a really good dresser. So like when we go to thrift stores, he'll actually come back with a lot of nice stuff. He has a good eye. He might not know all the brands that I'm looking for.
I mean, he knows the men's brands, but yeah, he'll do that. Now as far as record stores, I just stay in the car and cross list. I don't do anything in those records stores. There's nothing, he knows too much stuff. My knowledge of records is so small. So I don't help him very much, but he does help me.
Melissa: Yeah. That's fun.
Rob: That's cool. How long have you been doing this and you, like, I know you said what we do is intimidating. To me brands and knowing all that stuff that's intimidating. That's hard to know that kind of stuff. So how long did it take you to actually build your knowledge of different brands, and what sells really good and that kind of stuff?
Crystal: Well, that's the fun thing I feel like about reselling. You're always learning. What was it? You know, I just knew, I'm just big on American Eagle. That's like my brand that I used to wear. I'm an American Eagle mom. And so then, you know, of course that's what I started selling and real common.
My size is really common, so it kind of branched out from there. And then I started looking at Poshmark, every seller you can go see their solds. And so then I started looking at everybody's sold items. Okay, what their prices were, what the brands were, and I would do that in my downtime. Cause you can follow people.
And then once I noticed they had a big closet, I would look at all their brands and then I thought, oh, I need to do a YouTube channel. Right. But I was like, oh, but you can't have followers unless you have an Instagram. So I started Instagram and my goal was once I got 10,000 followers I'd start a YouTube, that hasn't happened.
But I learned that when I started Instagram, I didn't realize how much you can really learn from all the sellers cause sellers, especially women. They love to tell it, you know, when they, you know, what items sold for what, you know, it could be hurting their business in one way, giving all their tips away.
It's such a friendly group. Everybody wants to share like what works for them, what doesn't work for them. So that's also how I did it.
Melissa: Yeah.
Rob: And how long have you been doing it?
Crystal: It will be four years this April next month.
Melissa: Yeah. I love that you said American Eagle. That was my favorite brand, like in high school and college.
And I'm like, I still love American Eagle. Like they just say, yeah, love their jeans and shorts. So might have to check out your closet.
Crystal: I have plenty of American Eagles.
Melissa: Love it because I do, I check them. I check Poshmark and thread up just for buying. Like I don't sell a lot of clothes.
I'm not really, like neither of us are really fashion people we're yeah, a lot of tank tops and jeans, and that's about it.
Crystal: I'm not a fashion person either, but I've just learned all this stuff. Like there are brands now that I like that I would've never touched them for like the Anthropology brand. My sister-in-law she gave me like eight bags of Anthropology. That's what my sister-in-law wears. Right. And then I learned all about that brand but then I started thinking I kinda like those brands. So when I'm outsourcing, I will keep some pieces. And then I discovered Hudson Jeans. I love them jeans. They're like $200 a pair, but when you're thrifting you get a pair for $6 or $7.
If it's my size, I'm keeping it.
Rob: Yeah. That's awesome.
Melissa: Yeah. That's cool. I do that. What did I do that with? Boots. There are some boots. I'm like, these are my size. I'm keeping that I think a pair of Ugg boots. I'm like, I love them. They're not going to be sold for sure. Yeah. And one, one thing that you said is really cool because it's very easy to get overwhelmed with all the different brands and all the different items like that. So when somebody's starting to get reselling, they're like, ah, there's so much to know, but you can start with one brand, like you started with American Eagle and now you've branched out cause you learn other things.
And that's the same, like ours is a little different, but it's, we started with, you know, a certain niche and then you just grow from there. And so you don't have to get overwhelmed, you know.
Rob: That is an amazing point for sure.
Melissa: Yeah. So you said your, was it your stepdaughter that got you into it? So she's still selling to you go through, do you go thrifting together sometimes?
Crystal: She's been busy, so we haven't, you know, she's been busy with life. Not as much with her, sometimes my middle daughter she's been funny enough, she just sells on Depop. And she's got you know, how Depop is that piece? That, oh, it is hard to understand, but like she gets it and she told me simply the other day, mom, do you remember how you dressed in the nineties and the early two thousands?
I said yes. What's that? I was like, oh, who's, you know, I did like fashion. I was more into fashion day because I was younger. And so it definitely spoke to me. So she's like, so I've been trying to add things to Depop just to try to understand it. But yeah, so sometimes I go with her and she's easier to go with because we don't look for the same things. The oldest one, we shopped the same thing. So it's kind of a competition there now, but, the middle kid. Yeah. All that stuff, like the vintage Levi's and all that stuff. Or quilted jackets, you can have it. She finds Madewell or Anthropology she's like, you can have them up.
So it works out well. Cause I'd rather her have her stuff on her. Right. You know, I don't need that stuff. If I find it on my own, I might keep it. Or we'll just swap. Cause she'll buy stuff just to swap with me. Cause she knows, I find stuff that she likes. Yeah, that's fair.
Rob: That's cool. What would you say your, I guess your split on thrift stores versus yard sales, because your yard sales really do have great deals, but like, are you still doing yard sales? I know. What is your, what would your split be for your sourcing?
Crystal: The yard sells? It's tricky cause you know, I do work nights and so I, my days off are Friday and trying to flip back to the day shift, you know, over the weekend is hard. So sometimes, you know, sometimes on Friday nights, you know, if I just stay up, I'll go thrifting or I'll go to the garage sales in the morning on like a Saturday.
Or if I get off work Thursday, Well, I guess I go to work Thursday night, but get off Friday morning. I might go then too. Yeah, it just depends. Cause sometimes I just get really tired for sure. That's a hard time. I honestly, I do thrift stores more.
Rob: Okay.
Melissa: Yeah.
So, so then you do this part time just kind of on the side or is it yeah?
Yeah, yeah.
Rob: Are you comfortable sharing your numbers kind of on average, what you would say a monthly average would be?
Crystal: I would say profit about $3,000.
Melissa: Wow.
Rob: That's gorgeous. That's awesome.
Melissa: Yeah. That's awesome. And how many, about how many hours would you say per week is that I know it's a, there's a lot that goes into Instagram too.
So not counting that like just the reselling part?
Crystal: Hm. I'd probably go thrifting at least once a week. And that's probably an hour, hour and a half. I mean, sometimes other weeks I might have a couple more like we're going to Chicago this weekend, so they have amazing stuff there. So I'll be shopping more than an hour.
Probably two hours a day.
Melissa: Okay. Okay. Yeah. That's great.
No, that's really cool. And you're doing this on the side. Yeah. And, so with Poshmark, so I've started to look, I listed on Poshmark a while ago, and then I got a little overwhelmed and then everybody said, you have to share, everybody's got to share everything.
And I got, I was like, okay. So I just, I kind of stopped. Do you have to share other people's closets or is that old thinking or?
Crystal: No. Oh, I mean, I think what their new, Posh ambassador too, I think there's a certain amount that they want you to sell and a four-month share of other people's closets in a four month quarter to get, you know, we qualified, I don't know if it's really a big deal to be a Posh ambassador too, I mean, I am one, I don't know if it's really because just being a Posh ambassador related..
So, I don't know if they've kind of switched things around where maybe they send people more to your closet more than, you know, if you're just a regular ambassador. I, I honestly don't know. So I don't share much to other people's closets. If I see somebody like shared a bunch of mine, I'll go back and, you know, share them just every now and then.
Yeah, that'd be good.
Rob: Cool. Sorry, what would you say on average, how many listings do you currently have or in your closet? Is that proper?
Crystal: Yeah,, it's a 2,600.
Rob: Wow. That's a lot.
Melissa: Yeah. How long did it take you to build to that?
Crystal: I guess four years. Well, I've been trying to do my 10 a day. I usually, no matter what, I try to get three to five, but I just been trying to, since you know, the big drama with Poshmark switching their algorithm, I've been trying to just work a little bit harder and sales are coming right back to where they were.
Like, they dropped just like everybody else's and so now it's kinda, you know, building and then, you know, it's just with summer coming up. Stock up with the shorts and jeans, like, you know, the cropped jeans and stuff like that girls like to wear, just trying to really stock that up. Now I do a little bit of men's and kids.
I want, I have a closet where I try to have, if you come to my closet, there's something for you. Cause I hate for like a guy to come to my closet. It's like uncle clothes, move on. I don't, I always have men's clothes and you know, same with the kids' clothes. I don't do any of the home decor or anything.
I've added a few pieces. They sell really fast, but you know, I have 2,600 clothes. There's a lot of stuff, space like, cause what you guys do, you have to have a lot of space and we used to own a teen club. We ran the teen club. So our whole garage is full of all the like speakers and you know, all the stuff from the club.
So I don't really have space in my garage cause all that stuff costs a lot of money. Didn't quite get rid of it yet. So.
Rob: That was my next question. So do you have any special type of storage organization to, how do you handle that?
Crystal: Well, Kmart closed a couple of years ago, like three, four, maybe four years ago. And they have those like professional rolling racks where you can hang stuff. I bought three of those and they're you know, like strong steel. So they're not gonna bend no matter how much weight I put on them and they're split. So I can, you know, hang dresses and then you know, jackets below. And then, me and my daughter assembled, the kind of the wire racks from Lowes.
You know, and you know, like anchor them to the wall where I store all my jeans. Cause my jeans and the dresses, I looked today, I have 500 dresses for sale and 400 pairs of jeans, but I sell jeans every day, every day. That's probably the one thing I sell, no matter what is jeans like that.
Melissa: Cause they don't really go out of style. I mean, everybody wants jeans.
Crystal: And every, every woman or teen or whatever, they all have their favorite style.
Melissa: Can I say too, when you said stuff that you wore in the, like in the nineties early two thousands, that that's funny because that stuff is selling in every genre, like clothes. It is obviously it's coming back and I'm watching my nieces who are 19 and 21 or 20 to 22.
Now, like they're wearing the stuff that, you know, like we were, when I was in high school and it's so funny, but also like the, reselling vintage electronics, like all that stuff. Like everything it's vintage when we were kids.
Rob: I just sold, what a couple of days ago we sold a, a 1995 vintage stereo system, you know, like the ones in a cabinet.
And they had a CD player, a five disc CD player, a tape deck and all that kind of stuff. It's Sony, we paid $20 for it. OfferUp or Facebook Marketplace and we sold it for $800. So a huge, huge profit on it. Excited about that, but it's vintage. It's from the nineties. That's what people are wanting right now.
So anything you can find vintage right now is really, really hot for sure.
Melissa: And all those clothes are coming back. I'm like, no, but it's cool.
Crystal: I saw the free people catalog. I got it today. And. It is like the 90 or nineties look Y2K, but with a free people touch, oh, there it looks so good, but you do have to have that free people body, you know that I do not own.
But they did a really good job of making it look even better than what it was in our time.
Melissa: The nineties and the early two thousands.
Rob: You did say you were shipping, like you sell a pair of jeans a day, how many items are you shipping out a day, roughly, is it on an average?
Crystal: I would say four to seven items a day I sell and, on the weekends more because you know, your weekends are you know, it could be 13 to 20 in a day, you know, some somewhere around there. So it, it all averages out. Usually if I list 10 then I'm usually selling 10 on, you know, in a week's time. Okay, you know.
Rob: What, and most of that is shipping a priority or US Post Office?
Crystal: Priority is through Poshmark. And then, the first class with, Mercari.
Melissa: So whenever you're shipping on, Poshmark and Mercari, do you think that, so that's one thing that scares a lot of people, like the shipping portion of the fulfillment, is it which platform do you like better to ship through?
Because some of them they're all different. So is there really a difference?
Crystal: Well, I mean, just the fact that Mercari you just have that pound and under. So going over, I mean, sometimes I go over and you just don't get caught, you know, sometimes you get caught and they say that they charge it a little extra, but I try to stay right out of the pound, you know, just because they, their price jumped to, I think, a pound to three pounds.
Like $10 almost. And I think that's a little high and the people don't want to pay almost $10 for something that weighs exactly a pound it's like, so I just keep the heavier items on Poshmark. Now Tradesy, they've went up to $15.
Melissa: Wow.
Crystal: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. That's just crazy to me. If you buy one shirt and you have to pay $15 shipping, it says it's free, but you know, like the buyer just doesn't realize those shipping is rolled into the price.
Right. So it makes it hard to cross list on their cheaper, you know, cheaper items or more expensive items I should say. Cause then when you add that $15 to it, it really affects it. So you need to lower your price. So then you make less money on there to, you know, grab a buyer. And eBay I don't know. I mean, I do sell on there.
I'm just the whole, you know, just a lot of scammers and dishonest people. It does scare me. I do throw things on there, but only things that I paid, like a dollar for. Nothing, like if I lose it at the end of the day, yeah but anything I put like $20, $30 into, I'm not putting on there.
Melissa: Yeah.
Rob: That's so interesting. But it's what we know. So I've done this since eBay opened. So I've been with eBay for that long. It's what I know. And I, yeah.
Melissa: When you say scammers, somebody who's going to like, take your item and try to give you a faulty item back or like those kind of people?
Crystal: Well, okay. So a lot of times people try to just, they don't want the item. They're just like, you know, it doesn't fit.
And then it's, you know, but they know how to answer the questions. So they don't have to pay for shipping back, I just lost shipping, like, you know, I have to absorb something and I didn't do anything wrong. I put the measurements. I told you the size, I showed you all the pictures. And you know, I said no returns, but they can find a way around it.
And then still stick you with shipping. I'm like, oh, that's not fair.
Melissa: Yeah, that makes sense with clothes because with clothes it can be difficult. But do you offer returns on Poshmark or Mercari or?
Crystal: No, no, no, no Poshmark not on fits. I mean, people will say, you know, you know, the items faulty or whatever, and then you have to kind of fight the case and Mercari, so far 400 sales and I haven't had a return, so that's awesome.
Melissa: Nice. So what do you, do you use a certain thing to cross-post or like an app?
Crystal: The Vendoo app. Oh my gosh. It's a lifesaver. It really does, you know, save me a lot of time and it's just easy to do when you're watching TV, get a laptop. Click the little buttons, and then you just wait as they cross list, you just have to do the work first, getting the item on there, you know, whatever your listing is now.
But like, if you already have a full closet, like if you from Poshmark, they're able to scrape that data off there, they load it. And then you cross list. It's just time consuming, but not hard. Know, they do have to take out, you know, like when I first I started a year ago, you know, have 2000 items in my closet.
They only load 20 items at a time. So you have to click all 20, let them all load, bring them over. And then some things don't transfer over. Like if it's to unusual size, I need to update it into the little system. But again, if I had a month to cross list 2000 items that was able to do it. And then after that part, it's not hard.
Melissa: So after, like when you're doing a new listing, do you list it on Vendoo first or do you list it on Poshmark?
Crystal: Poshmark, and then you, and then I cross, then I load them up easy. And then I usually immediately load, you know, that I cross list to Mercari. And if it's a nicer item, I will do Tradesy. Cause they kind of have a certain niche or whatever that, you know, not like the American Eagle and stuff like that.
And so then eBay, yeah. It just depends on like what I paid for it, will I cross list there? And then if it's kind of nineties or, you know, Y2K, I'll do the Depop. There's so many apps, so many ways to make money. Oh, I just started curtsy too. I just started, I got 12 items on there now they don't have cross listing yet on Vendoo for curtsy.
So I'm just slowly just doing it manually just to see if I like it, but I'm not sure yet.
Melissa: Yeah.
Rob: That's cool.
Melissa: Oh, I was going to ask about, oh, I did see on Vendoo's Instagram, that they are really working hard on the app. I think I just re saw just this week. Yeah. Yeah.
They're working on the app. So that'd be really cool once they get that.
Crystal: Yeah. I think they'll get a lot more people signing up. Cause people don't realize that you have to do it on your laptop. It is nice cause you know, the speed and everything. It's fine. I don't mind it, but you know, the phone I get, if you're stuck, you know, stuck in your car, waiting on your husband, looking at records, right?
Melissa: No, that is nice. I do prefer like, I, we do a lot of work on the laptop, so I do like to be on it. Like, I'll be like, I can see everything so much better on my laptop, on my phone and maybe I'm getting old. But, yeah, it is nicer to be on a laptop anyway for speed and whatnot, but it will be nice when they have the app because you like to do everything from the app.
Rob: I do.
Melissa: So, do you have anything that you would say, now you have a lot of clothes that anything that you would say would be like kind of a bad buy that you wouldn't do again? Do you have any kind of story you can think of?
Crystal: Well, honestly, just I've learned if it doesn't make much profit or you have to fix it, and it's not going to still make much profit. Your time is valuable. I know there's a lot of people that sell the Forever 21, the Target brands, the real cheaper brands that you not gonna make that much money again, I guess if somebody gives it to you for free, sure. But, yeah if, if it's like a sweater that you know, you're gonna, maybe you pay $3 for, and then it's full of the little pilling, you know, where you have to sweat or shave for like 30 minutes, 30 minutes, you can list a lot. You can do a lot 30 minutes and what you might make $10 $10, maybe $12 profit. Is that really worth 30 minutes of, you know, bending over, getting every little thing off the sweater to me, it's, if it has any bit of work to it anymore, I don't. Unless I know I'm going to make like $50 to a $100 then, yeah. I'll put it at the time, but if not, I just, I leave it.
Melissa: Yeah. So knowing your time, what your time is worth. And I know in the beginning, kind of when you're starting, that's a little bit different, but once you get like in your groove you kind of, you can be a little bit picky or you can know, like you do have to value your time.
You can't be, we had somebody write in saying something about like buying something for a quarter and selling it for a dollar. I remember this email. And I was like, no, you can't, like you can't make 75 cents and then pay half in fees. And like, no, you have to be making more money for your time. It's just, it's not worth the time listing anything.
So, no, that's really good. Another thing you said earlier was, when Poshmark, I do remember Poshmark did a glitch, like kind of had an algorithm thing and everybody like freaked out for a little bit, but you said, you know, put your head down and got more listing and that sets you apart. So getting your work done.
So, which is super cool.
Yeah, I, I love that because it is, that will set you apart from other sellers is getting, doing the work. So it is work, but it can be totally $3,000 a month on average is no joke.
Yeah. On the side.
Rob: That's really cool.
Melissa: So where can people find you? Where would be a good place?
Crystal: Oh, you mean like on Poshmark?
Melissa: Well, if you want to share your closet sure, or in your Instagram? Where's the best place to go follow you and we'll put it in the show notes.
Crystal: I would say, yeah, my Instagram. So the @crystalsflips, that's the main one that I'm on.
Melissa: Okay, awesome. So @crystalsflips and we'll put that in the show notes, so you can definitely check that out.
Rob: Awesome. Crystal, thank you so much for doing this. Thank you for jumping on. We greatly appreciate all your experience and your information. So thank you for doing this.
Crystal: Yeah. All right. Well, it was nice talking to you guys.
Rob: You as well. Thank you.