Is price gouging pricing us out of pre-loved fashion?

It started with the viral Leopard Print Puffer Coat from George at ASDA. RRP £38; average Vinted fee £75. Now, it's Marks & Spencer's Utility Trucker Jacket, often accompanied by a price tag reading upwards of £80. Once a gaggle of Mary Portas wannabes, we've now got aspiring Alan Sugars crowding Vinted. Long gone are the days of bagging a bargain — now, it's an elitist sport in favour of the competitor with the biggest wallet. Or a willingness to overlook the original price online.

Humblebrag, but I've been through the buying and selling process more than 490 times in the last three years. Selling both my mother's and my wardrobe leftovers, I like to think that I've mostly been fair with my pricing. Something unworn, with tags? Uploaded at what I paid, with a willingness to take (reasonable) offers. Everything else then listed with a decent reduction considering it had been worn once, maybe twice. But it seems this sentiment doesn't extend across the entire Vinted sisterhood.

Last month, when quizzing a fellow seller on why she wouldn't take any less than £75 for the supermarket GANNI dupe, the gatekeeper of the prized padded jacket wrote: “How am I meant to become the next Alan Sugar if I don't make a profit?"

I've got no shame in admitting that before Vinted, I wasn't a preloved fan. Having grown up in a small village with one singular charity shop and residents mostly aged 80-plus, it was slim pickings. But the online marketplace has given me access to brands — namely Anthropologie, & Other Stories, COS and Aligne — that have previously sat outside of my budget, with pieces often in near-perfect condition.

But now, I, and hundreds of other Vinted regulars, are being encouraged to return to the high street when seeking items from our wish lists in a bid to get them at a reasonable price.

Read More

Is shopping second hand still a sustainable option if you’re buying recycled fast fashion?

Status: It’s complicated.

By Alexandra Fullerton

A quick recap: The site was founded in Lithuania back in 2008 by Justas Janauskas after his friend Milda Mitkute announced she was moving and needed to give away some clothes. A small idea then became one of the leading preloved platforms, the eco-conscious praising the app for limiting waste and reducing the demand on high street retailers. In 2023 alone, Vinted members helped avoid 679 kilotonnes of CO2 by buying second-hand instead of new.

Another finding during the 2024 study? Vinted members' primary motivation for buying something secondhand rather than new was because it’s ‘great value for money,’ with almost half (48%) claiming they chose to buy a gently-used item because the price was lower. So what's changed in recent months?

Exhibit A: Buying viral items to resell for profit.

Potentially (read: definitely) inspired by & Other Stories' sell-out trench coat from A/W ‘24, the Marks & Spencer's Utility Trucker went OOS within a few days of hitting the virtual shelves. While it's yet to have an official restock, some swift shoppers have now taken to listing the jacket on Vinted — most brand new with tags — with a 30% price hike.

Some simply label it greed, those ‘savvy sellers’ wanting to make a quick buck on a viral item they're sure will sell — which should also earn them a five-star rating and a temporarily boosted profile. Others say it's due to the seismic shift of Depop sellers to Vinted after hearing about its success on every other social platform.

Checking in with Vinted's data team, and they claimed they haven't seen a hike in the average selling price or an increase in the number of items marked 'brand new with tags' in recent months. However, I'm not alone in noting the switch from second styles in near-perfect condition to brand-new viral buys flooding my ‘recommend for you' selection.

“Ethically speaking, jacking up prices on popular items can come off as taking advantage of consumer demand,” says financial influencer Megan Micklewright (@thesavvyspenderofficial). “It’s reminiscent of those times when concert tickets sell out in minutes, only to appear online hours later with outrageous markups.” Eras Tour touts, we're looking about you.

She continues: “For the resale community to thrive, it’s important sellers price items fairly. After all, the essence of platforms like Vinted is to provide accessible, sustainable fashion. Striking a balance between making a profit and maintaining ethical pricing ensures these marketplaces stay true to their roots and continue to serve shoppers.”

Preach… closely followed by a plea from serial shoppers like myself who want to regularly rotate what's in their wardrobe and access brands previously out of their (lacklustre) budget to sell it for what you bought it for — or a lot less.

AKA, bring back the good old days of buying a skirt BNWT for a fiver.

For more from GLAMOUR UK's Senior Commerce Writer, Sophie Donovan, read her recent work here or follow her on Instagram @soph_don.