The magic of Mounjaro resulted in me shedding more than four stone and sporting the size 10 figure I always dreamed of. It also left me with a wardrobe full of ‘fat’ clothes I no longer wanted or needed.
Eager to claw back some of the money I’d spent on jabs, I’ve been offloading my plus-size clothes on Vinted – to date I’ve made more than £300 but it’s been enough to try the patience of a saint.
Now the biggest second-hand platform in Europe, Vinted is valued at £8.6 billion and set to expand into the US, which all adds up to a hell of a lot of annoying people.
So if, like me, you’re planning to sell some old clothes to make a little extra cash, here’s my handy guide to all the frustrating types you can expect to encounter on Vinted – consider yourself warned!
Twenty questions
How many millimetres are there between each stripe? What is the circumference of the armholes? Will I be able to fit an iPhone 16 into the pocket? What are the names of the actual flowers that make up the floral print?
No matter how much detail you put in your descriptions, you should still brace yourself for an avalanche of tiresome questions. Take it from me, no matter how helpful you are to these fusspots, they won’t buy your item.
Since losing four stone on Mounjaro, Claudia Connell has been selling her old ‘fat’ clothes on Vinted in a bid to claw back some of the money spent on the jabs
No matter how much detail you write in your descriptions, you should still brace yourself for an avalanche of tiresome questions such as: ‘How many millimetres are between each stripe?’
The non-collectors
Hooray, you’ve made a sale! You package it all up nicely in tissue paper and send it off promptly to your buyer via her chosen method of posting, only for her to never bother to collect it from the locker or parcel shop.
Once a parcel arrives at its destination, the buyer has seven days to pick it up. A surprising number never do.
A polite ‘hey don’t forget to pick up the parcel’ message will be ignored.
Non-collection results in a cancelled sale, they get their money (placed in a holding account) back and you get your item returned to you.
It’s a process that can take a couple of weeks and often results in missing a window of opportunity if you’re selling summer clothes during a heatwave, for example.
Posting nags
KellyJOK has bought your Ghost dress and paid the £15 you were asking. So far so good, but Kelly wants it right now and isn’t prepared to wait until the weekend for you to post it.
No sooner has she made the purchase then she messages with: ‘Need it for a wedding hun, can you post today?’
You reply saying you’ll try but no promises. Later, you’ll get another message: ‘Is it on the way?’ You reply that you finished work late and will send first thing. ‘Lots of parcel shops open until 11pm, please send now, babe.’
Needless to say, the Kellys of this world are also the ones most likely to not bother collecting their parcel even if you do break your neck to post within 24-hours.
Vinted is full of ‘favouriting’ phantoms, forever adding your clothes and shoes to their watch lists but never buying any of them. Ever
Sob story chancers
It’s not just reality TV where you can expect to hear heartbreaking tales of dead nans, hospital dashes and general hardship.
DundeeDanni8 really wants to buy my unworn Russell & Bromley wedges, she’s been off work for six weeks with anxiety and they’ll really cheer her up… but she can only pay £20 and not the £30 I’m asking. Will I accept a drop in price to make a stranger smile again?
Poor old EricaXXL has been dreaming of buying a pair of original Seven for All Mankind jeans like the ones I’m selling for £22. Sadly she had to pay for a taxi to take her young child to A&E last night and can only afford £15…
Don’t fall for the buyers trying to pull a fast one, they’re likely to be ‘flippers’, meaning they want to buy our item for a song and then instantly re-list it for much more money.
The skinflints
Realistic pricing is key to Vinted success, but no matter how reasonable the selling price, some misers will still try to beat you down.
Last summer I offered a pair of size 16 M&S cotton shorts for sale, unworn, with the labels still attached. However, they were a few years old, so I priced them at a bargain £3. Mistake.
Buyers assumed I must be desperate and instantly started messaging me offering £2 or even £1.50.
Get lost, I’d rather cut them up for a dishcloth!
Worse still is when someone messages you with a low offer (£1 on a £2 Boden T-shirt in my case) you (reluctantly) accept… and they still don’t buy it!
Whingers
Flagging up a flaw in your item is vital, but it won’t stop some of the site’s Moaning Minnies from complaining.
I sold a £5 Whistles T-shirt and pointed out there was a pinprick-sized ink stain near the armpit. Two days after receiving her item, AlexBabe27 raised a complaint: STAINED ITEM, VERY BAD, DISHONEST SELLER, she wrote.
Luckily Vinted backed me and refused her refund, but she still left me a one-star review.
Favouriting phantoms
Within seconds of you hitting the ‘upload’ button to sell your item, it’s instantly ‘favourited’ by a dozen or so users. Initially this will fill you with joy, convinced it means a sale is imminent.
If only. Vinted is full of ‘favouriting’ phantoms, forever adding your clothes and shoes to their watch lists but never buying any of them. Ever.
Names and identifying details have been changed
