SAVVY sellers Bethany Slack and Austin Aubrey make up to £15,000 a month selling second-hand designer clothes.
The 30-year-old and 39-year-old now work full-time searching charity shops for designer brands like Mulberry, Chanel and Gucci at bargain prices.
The couple, also known as The Luxury Pickers, then sell the clothes through live shopping platform WhatNot – and they’ll flog between 600 and 800 items a month.
The live selling shows are set up like an auction and each item starts at £1, but bidding quickly becomes frenzied and clothes can sell for hundreds or even thousands of pounds.
Bethany and Austin, from Wells in Somerset, told The Sun they recently found a pair of Loewe boots for £7 which ended up selling for £290.
Another time they paid £3 per item for a bag of clothes from a house clearance company – and discovered the bag contained a 1998 runway Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld dress, which later sold for £2,500.
In the same bag was a pair of the famous Gucci G-string trousers (which retail for about £2,500), as well as a pair of 1998 Tom Ford for Gucci runway shorts.
“The house clearance company called us because they know that we’re the crazy people that collect clothes,” Bethany joked.
“They said otherwise they were going to put them in the clothing recycling bank and they would go to rag.”
The couple have trained eyes for designer items as they met while working for luxury brand Mulberry, and they’ve also worked for Gucci, Vivienne Westwood and Jimmy Choo.
It was while working with the designer brands that they realised plenty of customers were interested in selling on their collections so they could invest in newer pieces.
They began collecting “little bits and bobs here and there” and decided to start up a small stall at London’s Portobello Market about six years ago.
“We quite literally packed up our car and drove to Portobello Market at 3am. And we both left our jobs on the same day,” says Bethany.
They began selling mostly Mulberry items at first, but times were tough to begin with.
The couple say they started off with just enough money to eat, fuel their car and pay for their house, and how much they made on the stall depended on who showed up that day.
On their worst day, they made only £40 from one item – a day they described as “brutal”.
But as time went on, their business began to grow and they briefly even had physical stores.
The COVID pandemic saw them move to online selling – at first YouTube and also Ebay, Vinted, Depop, Vestaire and Etsy.
For the last year they have been selling via a live stream where customers can interact with Bethany and Austin through a live chat as they go through each item on sale.
Most of their finds come from charity shops, which they say are “king” – especially as more people are becoming aware of shopping sustainably.
They will often Google the most affluent areas in the UK and the most expensive houses, as residents in these places are more likely to donate designer items to nearby charity shops.
Another trick they use is to look for villages or towns with only one charity shop as everyone will donate to the same one.
“You can find gems anywhere – there’s amazing things in any charity shop – but for us we’re sourcing luxury products so we have to focus our time a little bit more,” Bethany says.
The couple also try flea markets and car boot sales, as well as buying full collections from private clients.
They say flea markets are an “untapped market” for vintage designer clothing as most people go to find furniture and homewares.
Bethany and Austin will travel to Paris for the flea markets there twice a year, particularly as they can find items from Chanel and Givenchy there.
“It’s not necessarily charity shop prices but you can still make great money on those items because there’s less abundance of those brands here,” Austin says.
They also travel to the US sometimes to find American-made brands such as Kate Spade and Tory Burch in the consignment stores.
The couple spend “hours and hours and hours” searching for bargains, seven days a week.
A typical day would see them hitting the charity shops between 9am and 3pm, usually keeping within a 30-mile radius of their home and rotating towns each day so there is time for the charity shops to restock.
“We normally hit about three towns, probably about between 15 and 20 single charity shops, before doing the school run,” says Bethany.
They’ll also be keeping their social media accounts updated throughout the day to build up anticipation for their show later.
They might pick out some items in particular that they know a certain regular customer will like.
“We have customers shopping with us for the last six months – I can tell you their measurements, I can tell you their shoe size and what they look for,” says Bethany.
Austin adds: “Today found Lucy and Yak dungarees in yellow – I know Cherry Reseller 6 will buy those this evening from me. I know she enjoys those kind of things – it’s one of her favourite brands.”
From 4pm to 6pm, they will often be prepping for their live selling show.
This involves getting the clothes ready by laundering them, picking them up from the dry cleaners, steaming them and taking pictures.
Then there’s the live show in the evening, which often lasts between two to three hours.
“I can hold up a jacket, for example, and you can say to me, ‘okay, that looks a little bit large, can you give me the pit-to-pit measurements? What composition is it? Do you have any other colours or is it just that one?’,” says Austin.
Their last stream had 5,700 people in total watching, with about 200 or 300 at any one time.
The couple say the bidding “gets crazy” but is “very similar to an in-person auction”.
Some auctions are “sudden death” – when there is a set time that doesn’t change – while others can see the countdown go on for longer if someone puts in a higher bid in the last 10 seconds.
After the live show, Bethany and Austin will do admin such as answering emails, editing videos and podcasting.
“It’s a long day but who gets to go thrifting full-time and then have a video call with thousands of their friends afterwards?” says Bethany.
The couple admit their extensive knowledge of designer clothing has helped – but they say anyone can teach themselves.
Bethany recommends going to Selfridges or Harrods and getting familiar with the designer brands.
She says having understanding of different brands and of quality can “get you so far”.
“You probably already know designer brands – if you saw them in a charity shop for £2, there’s a good chance that’s a great buy,” says Bethany.
Some of the brands she recommends to look out for are Ganni, Sandro and Essentiel Antwerp.
You can also check out the labels of items to get an idea of their quality.
Even unbranded linen and silk will sell for a good price, Bethany and Austin say.
Bethany and Austin say they are upfront with their customers about the prices they pay for their items.
For example, their social media posts might show they might have found a Chanel piece for £15 to £30 in a charity shop, but it will then go on to sell for £300 or £400.
“We’ve kind of peeled the curtain back enough so people know we’re not paying these exorbitant rates on some items,” says Austin.
“People are happy to pay as they’re still getting a good bargain – 50% of what you’d pay on the retail market.”
They say they have always managed to make a profit – and the trick is that you can “always sell something with the power of styling”.
“A non-branded leather belt is always going to look great with a high-waisted pair of jeans, oversized shirt, and a chunky gold necklace,” says Bethany.
