Peering into her stuffed closet, laden with forgotten favorites and old keepsakes, freshman Ava Romero felt overwhelmed with the little space left. Suddenly, she remembered her cousin’s words: “Resell your old stuff on Depop.”
After sitting on that advice for many clothing seasons, Romero joined the growing number of Gen Z users on the peer-to-peer fashion marketplace. According to Business of Apps, more than 90 percent of the 45 million users on Depop’s platform are 26-years-old and younger.
But why have teens chosen Depop over other reselling platforms? Depop offers an easy-to-navigate site for newbie sellers and charges a much lower processing fee, making the app more enticing to sellers and omnipresent at Pali.
While Depop’s appeal has only increased since the platform eliminated its 10% selling commission for U.S. sellers in July 2024, the costs didn’t disappear entirely; a small marketplace fee was shifted to buyers instead, a tradeoff worth noting.
For sellers like senior Rumya Elashoff, who has been on the platform for four years, that shift has only made Depop more attractive. She’s been reselling not just for the money, but to share her passion for reimagining clothing.
“I’ve been able to sell clothes I’ve [refashioned], like a Brandy Melville sweater I cropped, and the sale process is super quick,” Elashoff said.
She added that compared to her other side hustles of tutoring and babysitting, reselling is a much simpler and more efficient way to bring in money. For every hour of effort she puts into Depop, she’s generating $30-35, while comparatively she’s bringing in only $20 an hour from her other gigs.
“Reselling is very passive,” Elashoff explained. “I don’t have to physically be somewhere or spend a lot of time on something to make money. I even sold something in less than an hour.”
As an aspiring fashion designer, Romero uses Depop to experiment with trending styles in an ever-changing landscape. By reselling clothes she no longer wears, Romero gains financial freedom for new purchases, creating a cycle that allows her to stay hands-on with emerging fashion trends.
But not every Depop user is simply clearing out a closet. Go-getters like sophomore Jesse Alvarez use reselling as a deliberate strategy for financial growth. During his first year on Depop, Alvarez says he’s made more than $1,500 in profits.
His process goes as follows: Alvarez first researches which brands and items are trending before asking friends to tag along on his trips to a local Goodwill or vintage stores, where the crew carefully digs through piles of merchandise in search of overlooked pieces. Alvarez says he typically picks up several items and then negotiates a profitable price point.
Once the items are home and washed, listing them is straightforward. By uploading photos of the item, composing a description and setting a price – or using the generative AI shortcut – sellers like Alvarez can accumulate thousands of views a day and double their money on each item. What would normally require real merchandising savviness is made simple: Shipping an item is as easy as squeezing it into a recycled cardboard package and heading to a local post office.
Despite the baseline process being quick, Romero observed niches that help items gather more attention, specifically by “writing a longer description that includes hashtags [of popular terms].”
Elashoff observed a similar pattern, adding that personal touches – whether it’s throwing in a few water bottle stickers or a thank-you card – in each shipment will help secure a consistent customer base.
Alvarez, who has applied all of these steps to his 50-plus sales, most of which are out the door in around a week, credits the algorithm tricks for his success. He also recognized a rare but inevitable downside in reselling: “once in a while, an item just won’t sell, even if you use all the right tricks.”
Depop isn’t just a convenient marketplace, though; it’s preparing teens for adulthood.
“Depop lets me be independent,” Alvarez said. “Whenever I want something now, I don’t have to beg my parents. I have my own money.”
Yet not everyone celebrates the reselling boom. Critics argue that teens buying out Goodwill inventory and flipping it at double the price drives up secondhand costs for low-income shoppers who depend on thrift stores as a necessity, not a trend. “Thrift flipping” has drawn backlash on the very platforms that popularized it, with some users arguing that resellers are commodifying a resource meant for those who can’t afford retail. Alvarez’s $1,500 in profits reflects real hustle, but it also raises a fair question: Who gets priced out when thrifting becomes a business?
Still, for sellers focused on personal wardrobes rather than bulk thrift hauls, the logic looks different.
Beyond financial independence, Depop carries a genuine environmental upside. More than 100 million used items have been given a second life on the platform alone.
Elashoff echoed this, noting that while “the money aspect [of Depop] is great, [reselling is] also just better for the world in general and for reducing the fast fashion crisis.”
And unlike most modern side hustles, Depop requires little upfront experience, time commitment or risk. For teens growing up amid rising prices and an overflow of items, Depop offers something traditional side hustles don’t: flexibility without burnout. It doesn’t require a consistent schedule, a supervisor or startup capital, just awareness of value. In that sense, reselling is more than just selling old clothes: it’s about responsibility and creativity.
Looking at Depop from a financial standpoint, Romero said: “You don’t even have to be super entrepreneurial to [resell]. Everyone should take advantage of it.”
Whether Depop is a force for good ultimately comes down to how it’s used. That aside, there’s no doubt reselling is a convenient, flexible and logical hustle for all teens.
So, what’s in your closet?
