JAN 23, 2025 | FEATURES | By Esa George
Among mountains of clothes, I had one task from my pleading Mother: please just try to sell the clothes in the garage
I am one of five siblings. Each of us, throughout our childhood to young adulthood, has accumulated a uniquely different collection of clothing since, well, acquiring a sense of self in fashion. With many different phases for each of us, my younger sister and I specifically went through a heavy thrifting phase. We have consumed an overwhelming collection of thrifted goods, holiday gifts and hand-me-downs, including piles of denim we couldn’t help buying because they were the perfect pair (at the time) and under $5.
It seemed like I needed these things back then, like a well-worn Columbia fleece in a shade of turquoise I just hadn’t seen yet, but now, as I look at it in the dingy light of a garage where a car no longer fits and question how I can sell it, I wish I had just saved the $11 at the Arc and left it where it was, even if the blue tags were on sale that day.
My older sister, Sophia, is the sibling who gets new clothes most frequently. As I sort through her pieces in the piles, I feel an oddity of an emotion: most closely aligned to guilt or shame for secretly selling her clothes, even though she has abandoned them in the garage and wouldn’t dedicate any time to selling them.
So, I download Poshmark. I am encouraged to do so by my mother, a friend of mine and my grandparents. I post seven or eight new listings of winter-like attire and begin receiving Poshmark notifications within seconds of my listings. At first, I was mistakenly ecstatic. My enthusiasm only lasted briefly before realizing that Poshmark was full of bots. I’ve never seen anything like it!
The first message appeared promising: @michelledheron had added two of my listings to her bundle. My younger sister’s pair of Revice jeans and Free People faux velveteen pants my mom had purchased years ago. She instantaneously commented on the bundle: “Hello, I’m a Poshmark ambassador and there’s been an issue in my app that is causing the photos to not display (most likely due to my internet connection). Could you please provide me with the photos? email!👇”
I’ll admit, I believed it at first. I thought it was a routine response and someone trying to help me. But then the same message appeared 12 or 13 times in 10 minutes. Poshmark was discouraging, and no real person wanted to buy my clothes, nor did anyone appreciate my artistic approach to clothing photography and silhouette modeling. I even hung the clothes hanger on a tree branch for aesthetic purposes. For some reason instead, all of these supposed users were trying to take the transaction off the app, to any other place where they could successfully scam.
I learned it is hard to make clothes you no longer want appear artistically because I probably would not sell them if I saw the appeal or potential for my future, evolving wardrobe.
So far, I have received upwards of 99 bundle offers since embarking on my Poshmark endeavor on Jan. 5, all claiming the same thing: they’re an ambassador on the app. I have had one legitimate counteroffer on a pair of jeans I am attempting to sell, priced $20 lower than my listing.
Being on the opposite side of the selling schemes on these apps has been crucial to reflecting on myself and my own audacity or behavior when lowballing those brave enough and determined enough to value the clothes at the listed prices they do. I feel bad!