Long Islanders tap Poshmark, thrifting apps to earn money as tariffs hit pocketbooks

Elyse Strober, of Merrick, has earned $6,000 in the past two years from a favorite hobby, selling old clothes on Poshmark. 

The 41-year-old tax accountant said she uses the digital marketplace to both buy and sell secondhand clothes for her sons, who are 7 and 3 years old.

She stores shorts and shirts the kids have grown out of and jeans and blouses from her own closet in clear labeled boxes in her basement. 

“I felt like I was hoarding things just because I felt bad throwing them away,” Strober said. Besides, she added, "why would I want to spend money on [higher end clothes] that they wear two times and destroy?”

More Americans in recent years, including Long Islanders like Strober, have turned to online fashion retailer platforms like Poshmark, Depop and ThredUp both to earn additional income and stretch their purchasing power, especially as prices for new clothing are expected to increase under the threat of tariffs, retail experts said.

“We’ve seen a huge rise of online secondhand marketplaces, like ThredUp and Poshmark" in recent years, which have improved accessibility for shoppers, especially for older consumers who might be worried about facing a stigma for shopping in brick-and-mortar thrift stores, said Jeanel Alvarado, retail strategist and founder of retail vertical Retailboss. 

That trend may have initially been fueled by a focus on sustainability, "but with the tariffs, a lot of clothing [prices] in the U.S. have started to go up," Alvarado said. "I think that has helped with pushing that trend to, 'Hey, ... maybe buy secondhand,' because oftentimes people will only wear [clothes] a few times before trying to sell it or donate it."

Experts say that national interest in thrifting, which preceded tariff implementation in April, also was driven by the convenience of online platforms and the appeal of saving money on quality products.

LI's Poshmark shoppers

Consumers on digital marketplaces like Poshmark and OfferUp can buy and sell a range of goods, from clothing and jewelry to furniture and electronics. 

Poshmark takes a flat commission of $2.95 from sales under $15, and a 20% commission on sales over $15, according to the company website — a common practice on clothing resale platforms. Buyers on Poshmark pay $8.27 for shipping on all orders. 

In the past five years, the number of buyers using Poshmark on Long Island grew by 21% and purchases made here increased by 15%, according to data the digital marketplace provided to Newsday.

ThredUp did not respond to a request for Long Island-specific data. Depop, another digital resale platform, declined to provide sales data for Long Island.

In April alone, Poshmark saw sales from Suffolk County sellers grow 9% compared to February, and from sellers in Nassau a 13% increase, according to data provided by the company. It did not give sales data for February.

Nationally, mobile app downloads of thrifting and resale apps grew 18% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

Depop saw a 68% increase in U.S. downloads, while Poshmark saw a 28% increase and eBay saw a 15% increase. OfferUp downloads increased 14% and the RealReal saw downloads increase 10%, according to Sensor. 

But the threat of tariffs and the recent Trump administration order to end the de minimus loophole, which exempted taxes on imports from China under $800, could be shifting consumer habits, recent data indicates. 

Data collected by New York marketing agency Consumer Edge shows that Chinese retailers Shein and Temu, which are known for their low prices, saw sales in the U.S. sharply decline in April.

A report released Wednesday by Consumer Edge shows growth in American consumer spending on Temu slowed from nearly 50% at the start of April to nearly zero by the end compared with the same period last year. Shein, according to the report, similarly saw spending growth in the U.S. drop from around 30% to 20% in April. 

Local experts have told Newsday that shoppers who buy inexpensive products from e-commerce companies like Shein and Temu can expect to pay more for their purchases with the end of the China trade loophole. 

Still, some Long Islanders may be more interested in buying secondhand because "they're anticipating higher prices, so they're trying to conserve now," said Steven Kent, associate professor of economics at Molloy University’s School of Business and chief economist for the Long Island Association.

"When people are uncertain about the economy, they tend to conserve," he added. 

In-person thrifting still popular, too

Shein and Temu shoppers also are turning to purchasing goods from legacy department stores like Bloomingdale’s, affordable American brands such as Old Navy, and brick-and-mortar thrift stores such as Savers Value Village, according to the Consumer Edge analysis. 

The tariffs are “absolutely huge for our industry,” said Jennifer Johnson, 50, owner of lifestyle resale store True Fashionistas.

“All of the fast fashion places are going to go away really fast, let’s put it that way. People are already turning to resale,” not just for purchasing, but also to make money, she said.

Her store — based in Naples, Florida, and frequently visited by New York snowbirds — has already seen an uptick in customers, she said, estimating that store sales increased by around 25% in April compared with the same period last year.

Her business also sells on the resale platform eBay, where internet traffic surveying her products has doubled compared to this time last year, she said.

On Long Island, at a thrift store run by Ladies' Village Improvement Society in East Hampton, floor manager Carol Wesnofske said interest from thrifters has significantly grown over the past decade. 

Besides a desire to reduce waste, "vintage and retro styles remain highly popular, especially among younger generations, making thrift shops a go-to destination for unique and stylish finds," she said. Thrifting also "has been widely promoted by influencers, helping to normalize and even glamorize secondhand shopping," she added. 

With the rise of online resale platforms, some people have started selling high-end designer clothing online rather than donate to the thrift stores, Wesnofske added, but overall they have seen an increase in customers and profits, allowing the society to expand charitable initiatives such as programs loaning props to local theater productions.

The Ladies' Village Improvement Society has seen more than 30% growth in net sales in its thrift shops over the past decades, said executive director Rachel Cooper. Foot traffic also increased this past April, especially on Saturdays. 

When people are uncertain about the economy, they tend to conserve. 

—Steven Kent, chief economist for the Long Island Association

'Spike' in secondhand sales

Daneen Tellez, of Dix Hills, started selling on Poshmark in 2012 as a way to earn extra income.

She has expanded her business to include a storage unit for clothes she plans to sell, a space in her house for live shows, and hired an assistant to help manage sales.

She also moderates a Poshmark Facebook group with thousands of members. 

She said she has seen an increase in interest from buyers over the years, with an initial surge after the pandemic hit, and now again since the announcement of tariffs.

Tellez earned $14,500 on Poshmark last year, and has made $7,900 so far in 2025. She sources her clothes from several places, including local thrift stores, discount stores, online wholesalers and virtual auctions on Poshmark. 

“Because of the tariffs, people are looking to buy secondhand,” she said. “They want to look for items that are already here, something they can get without having to pay such expensive fees for shipping. That’s been big.” 

Online estate sale auction platform CTBids, which has a franchise location in Merrick, also saw a “significant spike” in recent months, said Ray Fabik, president of Caring Transitions, the company behind the digital marketplace. 

The site has seen a steady increase in revenue since the start of this year, but in April he saw a nearly 59% spike in sales revenue compared to the year before, he said. 

“We’ve proved to be fairly resistant” to economic downturns, he said, noting that people tend to turn to the platform during times of economic stress or uncertainty. The company saw similar surges in customers in 2020 and 2008, during the pandemic and Great Recession.

Tariffs aside, the resale market has been growing for years and is expected to continue to expand.

A 2024 report from resale platform OfferUp projects that the industry will grow 55% by 2029, reaching a value of $291.6 billion. 

More than half of 1,500 U.S. shoppers surveyed for the report said they are active on three or more resale sites, and nearly half said they've increased the time they spent on resale sites in the previous 12 months. 

'Unprecedented times'

"What we’ve been seeing in the market is that the younger generation is going all in on buying and thrifting secondhand items,” Alvarado said.

For Gen Z, the trend in recent years has been at least in part fueled by an interest in sustainability, she said, but the price hikes caused by tariffs have helped fuel a new surge in interest from cost-conscious buyers in buying secondhand.

Easy access to digital resale platforms and ways to compare prices for goods, combined with financial pressures, will likely “drive people to consider different ways of acquiring what they want,” said sustainability expert Diane Osgood who is based near Chicago.

Tariffs are expected to make clothes more expensive for Americans, she said, "because only 3% of clothes sold in the U.S. are made in the U.S. Even these U.S. manufacturers face tariffs on textiles, fabrics, zippers, and dyes. As prices go up and economic uncertainty increases, we predict an increase repair, rent, resale and return."

In the resale market, “the shopper becomes the supplier as well, so it’s going to shift the relationship we have with our stuff,” she added. “It becomes an asset, instead of something at the back of our closet.”

Shoppers responding to the most recent survey conducted by OfferUp said they turned to thrifting because of the increased cost of living and because of the high quality of many secondhand items.

The report also found that 74% of shoppers sell used goods on online resale platforms for extra income and 60% used those funds to cover bills and living expenses. 

Historically, significant changes and supply and demand dynamics have caused big marketplace swings, said Ken Murphy, chief innovation officer at mobile marketplace OfferUp.

But “these are unprecedented times,” he said. “I don’t think any of us have the perfect data to be able to look into our crystal ball and see what we would really expect.”

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers personal finance and affordability for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.