Original article written by Michaela Braley
Almost every girl has had the experience of taking a bag of clothes to Plato’s Closet or Runway Fashion and seeing her beloved clothing items getting turned away.
After several trips to these teen clothing resale stores and looking though the racks of the approved items they sell, I’ve devised a couple ways to guarantee more of your clothes will be taken or more of a profit.
1. Choose clothing these stores will actually take. Plato’s Closet and Runway Fashion typically only take Abercrombie, American Eagle, Hollister, Aeropostale, Forever 21, H&M, and Buckle. I’ve taken clothes I purchased in Europe to Plato’s Closet and they wouldn’t take them. Even though some of the clothing still had tags on them, the brand was unrecognizable and the clothes were turned away. They took my worn Hollister shirt over my brand new skinny jeans from Tally Weijl, which is the German equivalent to Forever 21. Remember, bring in familiar brands.
2. Wash your clothes. Make sure they smell nice and look clean. These stores will turn things away if they have stains, tears, loose strings, or wrinkles. If I decide to get rid of something, like a holy pair of jeans, I typically wash them first, treat for any stains, cut any strings from the holes to make it look not so worn, and fold them as flat as possible and stack them in a bag nicely before I take them to the store.
3. Separate your clothing by type. If all your clothes are mixed up, it creates more work for them, and if it creates more of a hassle, they may glance at items before turning them away rather than giving your clothes the time they deserve. I always put all my pants together, shirts together, accessories, etc. If you do this, then they don’t have to switch from pants mindset to shirts back to pants and so on. Make the job easier for them and they may be more likely to take some of your items.
4. Make sure you go into the store earlier in the day rather than later. They sometimes have restrictions on how many items they can take within the day so if you go earlier, they are more likely to take more of your items. Also, try to go in on weekdays rather than weekends. They have more customers on the weekends and are less likely to take as many clothes.
5. Make sure your clothing is in season. They purchase items to meet their customers demand, so if you’re bringing shorts in the middle of winter, expect them to get turned away.
6. Wear a cute outfit into the store. I always do this just because I feel like if I look fashionable, they’ll take more of my clothing because I know how to dress. I tried going in there not looking like a bum and it worked. They always seem to take more of my clothing when I look good that day versus the days I wear sweatpants and my hair up.
7. Do not give up. The different employees there have different tastes. Some employees are stricter on the clothes then others. Take the same clothes in multiple times and sometimes they’ll take things that they denied before.
I used to always get so angry when my clothes were turned away, but when I follow these tips I usually have a more pleasant experience. I hope that this helps you!