Most resellers can tell you their best flip from memory — the £4.50 jacket that went for £24. Far fewer can tell you their average margin, because averages live in spreadsheets and glory lives in anecdotes. These four numbers, tracked honestly, tell you which one you're running.
Profit ÷ revenue, after fees, postage you paid, and packaging. Good UK clothing resellers run 60–80% because charity-shop and boot-sale sourcing is cheap; if yours is under 40%, you're either paying too much to source or selling too cheap. The per-item version matters more than the average: one look at which items drag the margin down usually changes what you pick up next weekend.
Bought date to sold date. A £10 profit in 5 days and a £10 profit in 90 days are not the same £10 — the first lets you recycle the cash eighteen times a quarter. This number is also your best platform comparison: the same category of item often moves at wildly different speeds on Vinted vs Depop vs eBay, and speed compounds in a way fee differences no longer do.
Sold items ÷ everything you've ever listed. It's your buying accuracy score. Under ~60% after a few months means a chunk of your "profit" is actually stored in bin bags — you're good at buying things you like, which is a different skill from buying things that sell.
What you paid for everything currently unsold. This is the number hobby resellers never compute, because it's the uncomfortable one: it's the money already spent that only becomes profit if numbers 2 and 3 cooperate. If it grows every month while profit doesn't, the stock pile is eating the business.
It's that these four numbers answer the real questions — what to buy, where to list, when to drop a price, whether the hours are paying — and memory answers none of them honestly. Track a month; the data will surprise you at least once, and the surprise is the value.
General information, not financial advice. CAAC, August 2026.
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