My First Poshmark Experience

Bonjour mes amis and Welcome to Tres Chic Head quarters (aka my coffee table).

I wanted to write a different kind of post today, I wanted to talk to you guys about selling new or used items, using apps, like Poshmark. Poshmark is described as an app to sell, buy or trade clothing items.  It is mainly clothes, but I have seen a couple of odds and ends, like cell phone, cases and luggage. It is a wonderful app designed for the fashionistas at heart. I though that it was a newer kind of app, but apparently it has been around for like 5 years (yeah I know, I had never heard of it either). When I first downloaded it, I was very skeptical about selling items via app or online, only because I have never been the SUPER SELLER type on eBay. So when I downloaded it, I had to register a new account, easy peesy. I found the app on my facebook page (you know, all those ads that you see at the top, yep it suckered me in). So after doing all that, I went-a-browsin'. Saw some major cute stuff, like Chanel handbags, couture dresses, wallets, jewelry, hats, shoes galore (if your wondering if I'm a bit a shoe whore, I AM, I AM) a lot of really nice things from extremely high-priced to low-priced (like k-mart blue light special). The low priced items are always on my list, l like getting a great deal.

photo credit

Next, Poshmark gave me a suggested list of people to follow (aka trend setters) which I highly recommend, because they have thousand of followers that see when they like something or buy one of your items if you decide to sell, it's a great way to get a lot of followers fast (I've been on it a month now and I have 474 followers) 

 

Listing. Now listing an item is a bit of process. If you would like to sell your items new or old, you need to post pictures for your add. You don't have to be in Annie Leibowitz or a Michelangelo, and you don't need an expensive camera either (I just used my iPhone). Okay so, one part of this kinda bothered me, there was no photo guide (that I could see at the time, there is one under the settings part, I just didn't find it right away)  like a tutorial to show me different picture on how to showcase my listing, and I had never taken pictures of my stuff to sell before, so I was a little lost duck. So I went on eBay to look at listings of clothes to see how they photographed their items. It was a little of a learning process on my part, but keep in mind I was new to this. Poshmark allows you to add 3 photos and a cover shot. Which doesn't help if you have a item that needs 5 different angles, but that's probably why it's geared more towards fashion. So once I'd taken about 30 photos and used only 4, the next step was to describe in detail about the clothing. It gives a details window that is like your headline. Pardon the cliché but like EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT, but mine was 🎀30% off VICTORIA'S SECRET CARD. In such a manner it needs to POP (pop it likes it hot). There is no shame when it comes to making money honey. After all the details, there is a section that says ORIGINAL PRICE, where I put in how much I purchased the item for, and then the LIST PRICE, is how much I would like to sell it for. The bottom bracket says YOUR EARNINGS, which they take out a percentage, but it is free to list the item no matter how many you list.

Earnings. Like I said before, it is totally free to list as many items as you want, but (and there is always a butt) the sellers policy is "For sales under $15 there is a flat rate of $2.95, and for sales $15 or more it's a 20% of the listing price (which I know, super sucks, I don't like it either, but I can't stand paying for shipping). So that $100 dress listed for sale you will only get $80. 

PoshParties. Now here is something a little different from other websites. PoshMark throws these Posh Parties that is hosted by there key trends setters. The trend setters send out inventions to all users on Poshmark, and you can RSVP yes or no. Poshmark has three different parties everyday, for example they have a cute clutch, spring dress, and wallets party, it's always three different themed parties a day, at different times during the day. If you RSVP'ed to an event, you will get a push notification, informing you at the event is starting. Now, the way the parties work, it's like a live feed of the items for sale by the top trend setters, but if you attend a party you can share your items to the right type of party (like share your cute hot pink wallet to a wallet party, instead of sharing your item to a spring dress party) so your items will show up in the party feed. Attending parties is a great way to get your closet shown and to get more followers. I would say to attend parties for sure, they are a wonderful way to find great merchandise and see what other people are selling.

Sold. Finally after a month of attending party after party and responding to comments about my items I FINALLY sold my first item (which was my coach wallet). So, now was supposed to be the easy  part.............. When my wallet sold I got an email notification informing me of the sale, and requesting additional information on my account (they needed my address, to put on the shipping label) the next step was to ship the wallet to the new owner. Now, on the Poshmark mobile site, it said that it would MAIL me a label. But about 20 minutes after the sell, I got a email with a printable shipping label attached. It never said that I could print out a label (which is a good thing because it faster to print then to wait for the mailed version) (I was just surprised). So after I printed out the label, I got it all boxed up and ready to mail. The shipping label said it would take 2 days to get there. When I sold the wallet, here was a notification telling me that the money from the sale was pending, the thing that sucks about it was that, when the sale in final it doesn't allow you to use the money until the buyer gets the item in the mail, and excepted it (so I had to wait 4 days for the money, which I can understand, they are trying to protect the buyer, but it super sucks if someone needed the money ASAP). The wallet sold on a Sunday, I mailed it Monday at noon, and the buyer got it Thursday. The money was redeemable on Thursday, now is where the Cons out way the Pros. When the money showed up as redeemable, I clicked on BALANCES, and it took me to a different screen where it says CREDITS, PENDING, REDEEMABLE, so I clicked Redeemable and I gave me the option of either leaving the money as a CREDIT, DEPOSIT TO BANK ACCOUNT, OR CHECK. If you have a bank account I would do it that way, it the best way because it's direct, you don't have to wait to use the money, I do not have a bank account so I had to get a check issued to me. So once I was all done with all the information they needed, the screen said that it was pending my request to get a check, 24 hours later I finally got an email saying that my request had been approved, the estimated delivery was July 10 2014. Yes that's right July 10 when the item sold on June 22 (so I wasn't happy about the that at all). It's currently July 30 around 11 pm where I am, (I live in Vegas). I received the check yesterday in the mail July 29, only 7 days after the sale ( which tells me that they don't have every good ESTIMATED DELIVERY time)

Now, is the most frustrating part about getting a check, I went to a grocery store closest to me, VON'S, and after waiting in line for thirty minutes, they informed me that they could not cash my check because is wasn't a PAYROLL CHECK which it shouldn't even matter because I had id. So I went to 3 different stores to try to cash it, and they said the same thing, ITS NOT A PAYROLL CHECK. So currently I do not have the check cashed, I haven't found a place that would cash it yet. My next step is to contact them directly. So, after all this, and going through the Pros and Cons, I don't think I would will use PoshMark again. I think that it took to long to sell something and there payment part sucks, I wish they had a paypal option set to it, so I could just use my account on paypal to get the money. 

I did not start out trying to be negative, and I understand that other people had better experiences then me, I wanted to write a sincerely true post about my experience, so I hope you understand the reason I wanted to share with all of you.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT A PAID POSTING, THIS IS MY HONEST TO GOD THOUGHTS. I AM NOT BENEFITING FINANCIALLY FOR FROM THIS.


So thank you for reading this very long post of mine, and I hoped it helps.

Have you ever bought or sold on PoshMark?

Did you have a good experience?

What other site have you tried?

I will be trying out VINTED next

Au Revoir

Xoxo Brooke
photo credit at top