Every reseller has bought something because it was "only two quid". The sourcing question is never whether £2 is cheap — it's whether £2 is cheap for what this will sell for, after everything. That's a backwards calculation, and doing it in your head at 7am in a field is a skill worth practising.
Start from the realistic sale price — what this item in this condition actually fetches (check sold listings, not asking prices; asking prices are fan fiction). Then subtract, in order: platform fees (small in 2026, but Depop's 2.9% + 30p and any boost fees are real), postage if you're covering it, packaging (40p a parcel is honest), and returns/duds — call it 10% across a month, because some things come back or never sell. What's left is the gross flip value. Your buy price plus your time has to fit inside it.
| Realistic sale price (sold listings) | £18.00 |
| Depop fees (2.9% + £0.30) | −£0.82 |
| Packaging | −£0.40 |
| Duds allowance (10%) | −£1.80 |
| Gross flip value | £14.98 |
Pay £2 and you're working for ~£13. Pay £8 because the seller "knows what he's got" and you're working for £7 — before counting the listing, photographing and posting time, which is the same 20 minutes either way. This is why experienced resellers seem ruthless at the rail: they're not haggling over £3, they're protecting the only margin that pays for the whole morning.
A workable rule for clothing: aim to pay no more than a quarter to a third of realistic sale price, less for anything slow-moving. Decide the ceiling before you pick the item up, and let the £1 boxes be your R&D budget — cheap mistakes are tuition; £8 mistakes are just mistakes. Then track what actually happens: your own sold data will tell you within a month which categories deserve a higher ceiling and which "bargains" to stop rescuing.
General information, not financial advice. Fees verified August 2026. CAAC.
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