How much should you pay for thrift finds?

A max buy price method for resellers · 27 September 2026 · 7 min read

You are standing at a charity shop rail with a wool coat in your hands. It is £14. Is that a good buy? Most resellers answer with a gut feeling, and the gut is optimistic: it remembers the coat that sold for £80 and forgets the three that sat unsold for months. The fix is a single number worked out before you pay: your max buy price, the most you can spend on an item and still make the profit you want.

This guide shows how to work it out in four steps, with worked examples for Vinted UK, eBay, Depop and Poshmark.

Why work backwards from the selling price

The usual reflex is to start from the price tag and ask "can I sell it for more?". That question almost always gets a yes. Working backwards is stricter: you start from what the item actually sells for, take off everything the marketplace and the post office will keep, set aside the profit you want, and only then see what is left for buying. If the price tag is above that figure, you leave it on the rail, however nice the item is.

Step 1: find the real selling price

Use sold prices, never asking prices. On eBay, filter search results by "Sold items". On Vinted, Depop and Poshmark, look at items marked as sold for the same brand, type and condition. Then:

• Take the typical sold price, not the best one. With five sold comparables at £22, £25, £25, £28 and £45, plan on £25.
• Knock something off for condition: a small mark or missing tag costs you more than you think.
• Check how fast they sell. If there are 300 live listings and 6 sales this month, your cash will be tied up for a long time; be stricter on the buy price.

Step 2: take off the marketplace fees

Fees are what separate the sale price from what lands in your account. Here are the approximate seller fees for everyday clothing as of September 2026. They change often and some vary by category, so check each platform's own fee page.

Note the Poshmark cliff: a $14 item costs you $2.95 in fees (21 %), a $15 item costs $3 (20 %). A $10 item loses almost 30 % to the flat fee, which is why cheap items rarely make sense there.

Step 3: take off postage and packaging

If the buyer pays postage (the default on Vinted and Depop), this line is zero apart from packaging. If you offer free postage on eBay, or bundle deals where you absorb part of it, count it here: a £3.20 parcel on a £20 item is 16 % of the price gone before you have made anything.

You now have the payout: what the sale actually puts in your pocket.

Step 4: decide the margin you want to keep

Your target margin is the share of the selling price you want to keep as profit after paying for the item. Many clothing resellers aim for about 50 %: on a £30 sale, £15 profit. A few points to set yours:

• Cheap items need a higher margin. Listing, photographing, answering questions and packing take the same time for a £10 top as for a £60 jacket. Many sellers also set a minimum cash profit per item, for example £5 or $6, below which they do not bother.
• Slow sellers need a higher margin. Money tied up in stock for six months is money you could not spend on better stock.
• Returns and unsold items are real. A margin that looks generous on one item has to pay for the ones that never sell.

What about tax?

If you resell as a business, income tax is charged on your profit, not on your sales. In the UK the first £1,000 of trading income is covered by the trading allowance; above that, you pay income tax on your profits. In the US, resale profit is taxable income too. If you want your target to be what you keep after tax, divide it by (1 minus your tax rate). With a 50 % target and a 20 % tax rate, you need 62.5 % before tax. Check your own situation with HMRC, the IRS or an accountant.

The formula

If what the shop is asking is at or below that number, buy it. If it is above, leave it, or haggle down to it at a car boot sale.

Worked examples in £

Worked examples in $

At the rail: quick rules of thumb

You will not always have time to run numbers in a busy shop. Two shortcuts, both assuming a 50 % target:

• Buyer-paid postage, low fees (Vinted UK, Depop, eBay UK private): pay up to about 40 to 45 % of the typical sold price.
• Around 13 to 20 % fees (eBay business, Poshmark): pay up to about 30 % of the sold price, less if you cover postage.

When an item is borderline, the answer is no. There is always another rail.

Mistakes that eat the margin

1. Pricing from asking prices. A listing at £90 that has not sold in four months tells you the item is not worth £90.
2. Forgetting the fixed fee. £0.30 or $0.45 is nothing on a coat and a real bite on a £6 T-shirt.
3. Counting postage once. Free postage, bundle discounts and the occasional return all come out of the same margin.
4. Ignoring your time. Ten £3 profits take far longer to earn than one £30 profit.
5. Never checking afterwards. Compare what you expected to make with what you actually made, brand by brand. That is how your max buy prices get sharper.

Keeping track of what you paid, what each item sold for and what each marketplace kept is the part most resellers skip, and it is the part that tells you what to buy next time. That is what ResellOS is for: log a find in seconds from your phone, see the real profit on every sale, and let your own numbers set your max buy price.