Five things we never buy from charity shops to resell – but should we?

Are we limiting our potential profits by avoiding these items?

There is very little that you can’t find in a charity shop. Its one of the things we love the most about going on sourcing trips; you just never know what you might find. But there are a number of items that we find ourselves skimming over, every time. We never buy these things to try to resell them. What are they, and are they worth a second look?

Pyjamas and nightwear – can we resell charity shop pyjamas?

Even the most hardcore second-hand shopper has a line that they will not cross, and for many, its pyjamas.

We never buy these to resell.

We see them for sale all the time; men’s and women’s, old fashioned and modern. We also see dressing gowns, nightdresses and the occasional pair of bedroom slippers.

Is there money to be made in second hand pyjamas?

According to tonight’s eBay research (checking solds!), yes!

(Photos not my sales, shared under “Fair Use”)

I’m as surprised as you are.

You can see a wide range of prices here, but the thing they all have in common is the word “vintage.”

The highest prices that I can see are for women’s nightdresses and men’s pyjamas, as long as they have that genuine old-fashioned style.

One more pic, for science.

I have actually seen vintage style nightdresses for sale in our local charity shops and have never picked them up because I did not realise there would be a demand for them.

Will I pick one up in the future?

Possibly, if the price is low enough, and if it looks like it might be what vintage nightwear collectors out there are looking for. Some more research is needed, of course, but my eyes are opened to the possibilities now and I will no longer skim past the nightwear section.

Special Occasion hats – never worn one, never bought one

We see hats for sale in every charity shop we go into. I have looked at one or two, but never bought one. I just don’t know enough about them.

What are the good hat brands? Do they come in sizes? What is a common head size to look for, or should we look for the very big or very small, because they might be harder to find? Do the people who buy hats for weddings and posh days out look on eBay for a bargain?

Tonight’s eBay research would suggest that no, they probably don’t – and if they do, they don’t need to buy second-hand because the brand new ones are going very cheaply.

Has there been a crash in the hat market because we didn’t have any hat-worthy occasions for a few years? Possibly.

For a reseller, it doesn’t look promising. I will continue to research in case there is a super-special brand name to be on the lookout for, but I don’t think I will be checking every hat in every shop just yet.

Bedding – is there a market for second-hand bedding?

Another item that we never buy to resell. Similar to pyjamas, this one is tricky for a lot of people. Most of the shops that we go into have bundles of sheets and duvet covers but I never look at them.

Again, similar to pyjamas I am surprised by the range of prices and the high rate of sales in second-hand bedding.

I will be checking out the labels on bedding from now on to see if there is anything saleable there. With bedding, it seems to be very much about the brand name; yet more brand names for me to learn about and try to memorise!

Artwork – So much to learn, so little time

There is such a wide variety of framed prints and paintings available in charity shops. Some of them are really beautiful, and we have often said that if we were looking for something nice to hang in our home, we would check the charity shops first. But are any of them worth anything?

Wow! Now I am wondering if I have ever walked past one of these without knowing what it was.

Clearly, the artist or photographer is important here, and that first example is signed, which is going to add value.

A very broad range of prices, from the very high to the fairly low.

So will we be buying up all of the artwork that we see from now on?

Maybe not, but we will definitely be looking more closely at it. There is a huge amount of research to be done in this area – people study for years to know what to look for, so me checking solds on eBay isn’t going to be enough. But there is no harm in spending a few evenings reading up on what is out there, and its always fun to learn something new.

Curtains – bulky and heavy; resellable?

We avoid these mainly because of the sheer weight of them. Storage space is limited and if we start bringing home giant bundles of heavy curtains, we are going to have to move into the shed. We can’t do that, because cats. So we never buy these to resell.

Are curtains worth looking at?

Well, great. Another area for me to research. It seems there is money in curtains if you can find the right brand, similar to bedding.

These prices show that curtains are very hit-or-miss, though. I would have picked up those curtains at the bottom because that print calls me from my childhood. I am almost 100% certain that we had those same curtains in our living room.

Apparently, things from my childhood are now “vintage,” so I would have thought there would be money there. It surprises me that they only went for £4.99.

Did the seller start too low? Could they have got more for their curtains if they had started with a higher price? Possibly. There is always a danger in starting auctions at a very low price.

So there is where I would have made a mistake with curtains, if I had picked those up to resell. More reading needed before we start trying to break into the second-hand curtains market – but it is definitely something to think about in the future.

Conclusion

If we rule out items to resell, we are definitely limiting the profit that we can make. Some of them can be worth a lot of money. If we never buy them to resell, we will never know how much money we could be making from them.

However, mistakes also cost money and we can’t afford to waste money and space on items that just aren’t worth it.

Of the five items that we never pick up, I am most interested in learning more about artwork, vintage nightwear, and bedding. Curtains are a possibility but they take up a lot of room – and hats are just not for us right now.

Do you have any items that you don’t go near? Get in touch, we would love to hear from you. Subscribe to keep up to date with our reselling life, and click here to see some of our favourite charity shop finds.