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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Poshmark - My New Addiction!

If you haven't checked out the app Poshmark yet, do it!
It only works on Apple products..Ipad, Iphone, and Ipod Touch, so that's a must. And it's optimized for Iphone 5.
What is Poshmark you ask?
Well, I'm glad you asked!  Think Ebay, Etsy & the greatest Thrift Shop all blended into one.
As a seller, I had given up on Ebay, because the fees were kicking my butt.  The auctions only last 7 days, and it took many auctions to sell my clothing items.  At 25-30 cents per week x 200 or more listings to list it all + the fee they charge after the sale & paypal fees for accepting payments, it was really adding up!
Enter Poshmark!
List for FREE in your "closet", and it stays there until it sells.  The only time you pay a fee is when your item sells.  At that time Poshmark takes 20% of the sales price, and then they provide you with the pre-paid postage label that the buyer paid for.
The only draw-backs I've found so far are (1) Be careful that your item doesn't weigh more than 2 lbs. Otherwise, you need to make sure to figure in the extra $1.99/lb to the asking price, and (2) For purchases less than $25, Poshmark has decided to charge a flat rate postal rate of $6.99, as opposed to the $4.99 they charge for purchases over $25.  So that discourages small purchases, and many buyers/sellers resort to off-site deals via Paypal.  But Beware!  I've been burned twice this week on Paypal deals. I'm trying to get a refund through buyer protection on 1 purchase, and the other was a "personal" payment, so I had no protection.  Live and Learn :(
Other than that, it's been amazing.  I've listed several hundred items in the past few weeks, and it's so super easy.
First, you download the app.  Then you create a user ID, which will be the name of your closet / website they assign you.  That will be your "closet" that gets shopped.  Then you tap "sell", take up to 4 photos of your item, a brief title, description, price & save it.  Voila! You're in business.
And searching for items to purchase is easy with the Poshmark parties & the "feed", which has a search feature for either items or people you're looking for.
For selling, I've been using the InstaFrame app to create some very nice photos that I then upload to Posh.
First I take a picture with my Iphone. Then, using the InstaFrame app, I can pull the photo off my camera roll, make it sharp and clear, add a pretty frame, and save it.  Then when I go to "sell" on Poshmark, it has you select where you want to get the photo, either take a photo or get it from your camera roll. From my camera roll, I select the InstaFrame version I just saved.  It couldn't be easier to upload professional looking, fun photos of my clothing, jewelry, shoes, handbags, etc. that I have listed in my closet.
Have a bunch of stuff lying around that you need to get rid of & you just can't bear to just give it away?  Don't take it to the resale, where you only get 40% of what it's worth.  List it on Poshmark.
People will make offers and perhaps ask you to bundle their purchase with several items in your closet, and it gets addicting, because it's all Live and instant, which is fun!  When I was just selling on Etsy, if I sold 1 or 2 things in a week, that was a good week for me.  Now I do more than that in 1 day on Poshmark.  I can really see this becoming a big deal, like Ebay.

Check it out & be sure to Follow me there (like Twitter) - go to the feed and search people: I'm @Pookeysmom
Here's the web address of my closet: www.poshmark.com/closet/pookeysmom