Over the years, you tend to accumulate a lot of items that no longer serve any purpose.
Among these items are your old shoes.
Your old pairs of shoes become obsolete through dirt, wear/tear, and your own growth. As they accumulate, these old shoes can hog up a lot of space in your closet/on your floor.
But you shouldn’t throw them away; you could make some money off these shoes that you don’t even use anymore!
And you don’t have to visit the shoe store, either.
Websites that let you sell your shoes are everywhere.
Before we dive in to the various places that you can sell your shoes online, however, let’s briefly discuss why you should sell those shoes you no longer wear.
Why Sell Your Shoes?
There are a few reasons why you should sell your old shoes.
- Money – The most obvious benefit. You get paid to get rid of something you never use.
- Decluttering – You’ll have more space for other things. Decluttering your physical space can also “declutter” your brain a bit.
- Helps others – “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. Instead of tossing old shoes in the garbage, you’re helping someone else who is in need of cheap shoes. Plus, you’re doing a small part in reducing pollution.
Now, onto all the marvelous sites that let you trade your shoes for cash!
eBay
Recently, we wrote about some great websites where you can sell your old electronics for cash.
eBay was at the top of the list.
And since you can sell anything on eBay, it makes an appearance again on this list.
eBay has almost 180 million users, making it one of the most excellent sites to sell almost anything.
In other words, whatever you post on eBay, somebody will buy it for the right price.
Yes, they do charge fees for both listing and selling your shoes as well as shipping costs, but the ease of which you can sell your shoes easily makes up for these expenses.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook’s member count is approaching 2 billion.
Since almost a third of earth’s entire population uses the platform, Facebook has been keen on updating their site so that it’s more useful and connective.
Enter Facebook’s Marketplace.
The Marketplace lets you list items for sale, as well as view local listings.
Once you list an item, all you do is wait for an interested buyer will contact you through Facebook Messenger.
After negotiating the price of your shoes with the buyer, you guys can set up a date, time, and location to exchange your shoes for their cash.
Facebook’s Marketplace is very easy to access on both the full site and the mobile app.
On the full site, you can find the Marketplace link to the left of your newsfeed.
In the mobile app, the Marketplace has it’s own tab at the bottom of the screen. Select the tab that looks like three parallel lines and you’ll see the marketplace there.
Craigslist
Ah yes, Craigslist. The site where you can do anything.
Craigslist and the Facebook Marketplace are similar, but Craigslist came first.
In fact, it was one of the first sites that facilitated local “commerce” between individuals.
It’s totally free to use and isn’t packed full of 100 different flashy features.
Some people are terrified of using Craigslist, but it’s easy to stay safe by following a few tips:
- Public place – Shady people are MUCH less likely to meet you in a place with 3,000 witnesses. Meeting up at a public location maximizes your safety.
- Daytime – When the sun’s out, you can see everything. You’re much safer doing business over Craigslist during the day time.
- Buddy system – If you don’t feel comfortable selling your shoes alone, bring a friend. As a courtesy, let your buyer know that you’re bringing them so they aren’t weirded out. In fact, they might also bring a buddy!
Those are some solid safety tips, but how does Facebook compare to Craigslist in terms of safety?
Facebook Vs. Craigslist
As I just mentioned, Craigslist has this notion of “unsafe” when it’s discussed.
Facebook’s Marketplace is likened to a safer version of Craigslist.
But how is it safer?
First of all, it’s much easier to identify suspicious accounts.
If someone has filled out their profile appropriately, then they are almost 100% likely to be a decent citizen and not a kidnapper.
In other words, it’s much harder to be anonymous on Facebook. You can’t easily invent an imaginary identity or come up with an address that isn’t yours as easily as you can do so on Craigslist.
As long as you follow all precautions, you should be safe using either platform.
Poshmark
As we move along this list, we get to more specialized sites.
Poshmark’s known as an easy way to “buy and sell fashion”.
Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and other designer brands are the name of the game here; if you have a brand of shoes no one’s ever heard of, you’re better of trying to sell them elsewhere.
Anyways…
Poshmark has both a site and an app, and both are free to use.
To list your shoes, simply take a high quality picture, describe your shoes with a short blurb, and decide on a price.
After that, all you do is sit and wait for an interested buyer.
When you sell your shoes, Poshmark pays your shipping and sends you a label.
Within 3 days of the buyer receiving the shoes, you’ll be paid via direct deposit or check.
Now, Poshmark does charge a commission. For sales under $15, it’s only $2.95.
But if you’re selling your shoes for more than that, they’ll take a whole 20% cut.
Is that unfair?
Not really, considering the massive convenience a site like Poshmark is providing you.
If you don’t like paying commissions, you can always do the extra leg work yourself on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.
Tradesy
Next on our list, we have another site focused on designer clothing.
The process for selling your shoes on Tradesy is almost exactly like selling on Poshmark.
First, list your shoes with a picture, description, and price.
When a buyer buys, Tradesy sends you everything you need to box up your shoes and send them to your buyer.
Tradesy’s commission structure is as follows:
- $7.50 commission for items under $50
- 8% for items over $50
One downside to using Tradesy is getting your money.
To avoid any additional fees, you have to put your Tradesy earnings towards shopping on Tradesy.
Otherwise, if you transfer the money to your PayPal or bank account, you’ll be hit with a 2.9% transfer fee.
We’d recommend Poshmark if you’re just looking to get money for your shoes without wanting to buy new shoes; if you’re selling your shoes with the intention of buying new ones, then I’d suggest going with Tradesy.
buyMYheels
Ladies, this one’s for you.
buyMYheel (yes, that’s how it’s stylized) is centered around buying and selling designer high heels.
Unfortunately, buyMYheels is very strict about what you can sell on their site.
You need to be 100% sure you have authentic shoes of your chosen designer brand; otherwise, you’ll need to seek out customers elsewhere.
So if your heels costed your north of many hundreds of dollars when you bought them, buyMYheels might be a good site to check out.
The RealReal
The RealReal is yet another site that caters to luxury brands.
But unlike some other sites that let you cash in your old shoes, The RealReal gives you a few options for getting your shoes to the buyer:
- The typical method – ship your old shoes to The RealReal for free with their prepaid shipping label.
- If it’s available in your area, you can have The RealReal pick your shoes up from your home for free.
- If there’s one in your area, you can visit one of The RealReal’s Luxury Consignment Shop to have your shoes appraised. You then leave them there and The RealReal takes care of the rest.
As for payment, you can opt for either a paper check to be mailed to your or direct deposit into your bank account.
There’s no fees for cashing out your earnings. However, if you use your earnings on The RealReal, you get a nice little 5% boost.
You really can’t lose with The RealReal.
Mercari
You can sell a lot of things on Mercari, but clothing is a big market.
And within clothing, shoes are a significant amount of transactions.
Mercari’s biggest strength is its simplicity.
There’s no complicated fee structures or weird processes. Mercari takes 10% of your earnings as commission and they charge you $0 to list your items.
Here’s how to use Mercari to sell your old shoes:
- Download their app
- Snap some high quality photos of your shoes
- Write a short description about your shoes
- Determine your price
Then you wait for someone to buy the shoes.
In addition to the standard prepaid shipping label that similar sites give you, Mercari offers you the opportunity to ship your products on your own if you so desire.
Yet another feature Mercari has is its rating system.
Once your buyer receives your shoes, they can rate you if they choose to do so. But if they choose not to, Mercari itself will give you a rating when they send you your earnings.
Kixify
For you sneakerheads out there, this site might be your holy grail to making money off your shoes.
Kixify hones in on the sneakers market; anyone from a casual sneakers buyer to a serious sneakerhead will find Kixify quite useful.
Unlike other sites we’ve discussed, Kixify doesn’t just let you list your items; instead, they let you take the reigns.
You get to set up a free storefront so you can post your wares. Buyers can browse your storefront and pick which sneakers they’d like to buy.
It’s almost like running a business.
Speaking of running a business, you also get to set your own shipping and return policies when you set up your storefront.
This might be a pain for a casual seller, but it’s really not too hard.
Plus, sneakerheads will find it quite neat.
As for payment, all payment is done via PayPal.
Grailed
The ladies have buyMYheels (at least for heels, maybe not other items).
Don’t worry men, you aren’t left out!
Grailed is centered around men’s clothing.
And don’t worry, it’s not all suits, slacks, and nice shoes.
Grailed breaks it’s items into 4 markets:
- Core – This is the least expensive market. You’ll find more mass market brands here (like Nike) as well as vintage apparel.
- Sartorial – A step above Core is Sartorial. Here, brands like Tom Ford are front and center.
- Hype – Hype isn’t “higher” in level of fanciness than Sartorial; it focuses on a different market. Buyers browse Hype if they’re looking for streetwear brands like Supreme.
- Grailed – At the pinnacle of Grailed’s offerings is this eponymous market. Only the highest quality items from brands like Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent can be found in the Grailed section.
The listing and selling process is quite similar to other sites where you can sell your old shoes, but with one cool catch:
You get paid as soon as someone buys your shoes.
No waiting half a week for your money to arrive!
However, it’s on you to successfully ship your item to the customer.
Unfortunately, the fees are a bit complex.
Grailed takes a 6% commission on your sale, while PayPal takes a 2.9% cut plus an additional $0.30. If you sell internationally, that PayPal commission bumps up to 4.4%.
VarageSale
Rounding out our list is a site that is likened to a virtual garage sale site.
After all, this site is called Varage Sale.
Varage Sale lets you sell old shoes to people near you, but they’re a little different than Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.
To promote safety and legitimate commerce, VarageSale goes through the trouble of vetting new members to make sure their service only has serious members.
This makes them a more inconvenient choice at first, but if you’re approved, you can rest assured that your customer is a legitimate one.
Go Beyond Selling “Extra” Shoes…
By now, you know of plenty of sites where you can ditch your old shoes. Whether you’re trying to get rid of your old gym sneakers, sell those heels you wore once for a fancy gala, or you have an array of random old shoes that you never wear, some site wants them.
But what if you wanted to do more than sell your old footwear?
What if you wanted to make a little business out of selling shoes with your own designs on them?
Well, I’m glad you’ve read this far because we’re about to discuss a few ways you can sell shoes with your own designs on them!
Print On Demand
For all you budding entrepreneurs with a creative streak out there, one of the easiest enterprises to start is a business that sells “print-on-demands” products.
Ok, but what exactly is “print-on-demand”?
Print-on-demand is a process in which the entrepreneur orders blank products from a supplier, customizes the products with their own design, and sell them to their customers.
As you can see from the structure, the barrier to entry is quite low.
But a nifty little concept called “dropshipping” makes it even lower.
Dropshipping is a fulfillment model where the entrepreneur holds no inventory; they only order the inventory when a customer places an order, then the supplier sends the product directly to the customer with the entrepreneur’s designs on the product and logo on the packaging.
Yep, that’s right.
You don’t even need inventory to start a print-on-demand business.
All you need is creativity, drive, and marketing skills.
And maybe a little bit of up front capital for other costs of running a business.
Etsy
If you’re got a quirky sense of style, then Etsy may be the go-to marketplace site to start a shoe business.
They have over 20 million buyers that use the site, so the money is just waiting to be made.
Etsy makes it very easy (and free!) to quickly set up a store and start selling your products.
But how does it work?
Let’s walk through it together.
Before you talk about how to set up a store and start selling shoes, though, we need to tell you what Etsy allows you to sell:
- Handmade goods
- Raw materials/supplies
- Vintage items
So you unfortunately can’t sell print-on-demand shoes on Etsy (unless you have another company, such as Printful, create your shoes…which is another story all together).
However, if you are able to make your own shoes, let’s continue!
First of all, you need to make an account.
This process doesn’t take that long: just give them your name and email address, create a username and password, confirm your email, and you’re an Etsy user!
Make sure to create a username relevant to your store, though; it’ll help more customers find you.
Now, it’s time to open a shop.
Click the button with the aforemention phrase to begin setting up a shop.
All you need to do here is select your language, your currency, and why you’re creating an Etsy store.
And finally, come up with a name. Now’s your chance to be creative!
Well, within the 20 characters they allot you.
Alright! Now you’re in business!
From there, you can customize your shop to your heart’s content and list your items.
Remember, Etsy has around 20 million buyers. There’s a lot of money to be made selling your own designer shoes!
Zazzle
Zazzle is unique in that it offers increased flexibility by combining the best parts of a print-on-demand business and an Etsy store.
Zazzle has three primary types of sellers:
- Designers – These people create custom designs on blank Zazzle products to sell.
- Makers – The Makers customize, manufacture, and sell physical goods on Zazzle.
- Associates – Zazzle associates are essentially Zazzle affiliate marketers. They share affiliate links to Zazzle products and make commissions for each sale that occurs as a result of a buyer clicking through the affiliate link.
Unless you’re looking to make a little bit of extra income selling other people’s products, then the Associate programs isn’t what you’re here for.
You want to be a Designer or a Maker.
If you have a proven ability to manufacture your own shoes, then you could kill it on Zazzle as a Maker.
You’d get to create the products that Zazzle Designers will put their designs on.
Speaking of Designers…
If you don’t have manufacturing capabilities, fret not! The Designer role works a lot like a print-on-demand shop.
You don’t have to create any physical products; you get to take out your creative drive on the products that Zazzle Makers create.
Now, Zazzle has received some flak for various reasons that are beyond the scope of this post.
However, if you’re looking for the flexibility of a print-on-demand business with the reach and convenience of and Etsy store, Zazzle might be the place for you.
Make Some Cash Selling Your Footwear!
So now you know a ton of ways to get rid of your old shoes.
You also learned three different ways to start a business that sells your own custom shoes!
There’s plenty of opportunity to be found in footwear.
After all, shoes are more than just a way to shield our feet from the elements; your choice in footwear is a form of self-expression.