Quick Sourcing Tips That Don’t Involve Looking Up Comps

Do you find yourself looking up comps on a new-to-you brand every other minute? It gets time-consuming, meticulous, and annoying, right?

Or, have you ever been let down by comps? Maybe you picked something up because you saw it had sold for X amount, but it’s been sitting in your closet 5ever with 0 likes.

If you’re new to Poshmark, #comps is short for comparable sold listings. You can use them to help determine the resale value of any particular item.

Comps are not always reliable, though. The size, condition and seller can all skew the comps, and not finding many (or any) comps could either be a great thing, or a bad thing.

So, here are a few quick sourcing tips for you that don’t involve looking up comps on Poshmark. They’ll save you lots of time and effort, and will also help you locate some of your best flips.

Frequency of Brand

Here’s a general rule of thumb - if you’re seeing the same brand frequently throughout your sourcing spot, it’s probably not one worth checking out. I’ve been seeing SO much Ruby Rd., Cato + Maurices here in Nashville, for example. Even LOFT and cAbi, which have a higher retail value. These are all brands that are going to be oversaturated and, thus, a lower resale value.

Label Presentation

The presentation of the brand tag will say something about the quality and aesthetic of the brand. Higher-end brands will put more effort into adding identifying features to their tag, such as the brass label on Free People/We The Free. Compare that to your run-of-the mill $10 tee.

Style

Does this look like something that was popular six years ago? Is this something you would personally wear? The style and trendiness of a garment is one of the most important factors in its resale value. You want to make sure that it’s cute, on-trend, and that there will be people who will pay money to have it.

Dry Cleaning Tag

It’s a good sign when there’s a dry cleaning tag (usually pinned unto the brand tag) on a garment, and worth further investigating. This means that the previous owner cared enough about this garment to invest extra time and money into cleaning it.

Care Tag Presentation

A lot of higher-end brands will have extra attention to detail in their care tag. The first two that come to mind are Show Me Your Mumu and sass & bide. Show Me Your Mumu has the phrase “Love Your Mu, She Loves You” on all their care tags, which enriches their brand. Sass & bide had the note “I am delicate and complex” on a sweater that retails for $295. If the care tag looks nice and thoughtful, the brand is worth investigating further!

Fabric Content

General rule of thumb - clothing with natural fibers (cotton, linen, silk, wool, cashmere, hemp + rayon (manufactured from natural materials)) is more valuable than those that are not.

Care Tag Instructions

Furthermore, items that need dry-cleaned are typically going to be higher-end. Nobody is going to spend time and money on cleaning something they bought at Forever21 for $15, ya know? A garment needing to be hand-washed or washed inside-out is also a bit more special than good ole F21.

Where It’s Being Sold

Okay, so you’ve finally decided to do a quick Google search of the brand. Where is the brand being sold? Revolve? Nordstrom? Its own website? This is going to be a great indicator of the item’s resale value. I tend to pick up anything that’s sold on Revolve. Most things sold at Nordstrom, Macy’s and other department stores tend to not have a great resale value due to the saturation of these brands, and the frequency of these department store’s sales. A brand being sold on its own website (usually, a boutique) may not have a great resale value due to the lack of exposure/familiarity with the brand.

Brand’s Instagram

That’s not always the case though - I picked up a boutique brand, Tribe Kelley, because I saw it had a poppin’ community on their Instagram, and they sold within a week! Instagram is a great way to quickly review the overall aesthetic, community (is there a lot of user-generated content? i.e. customers posting photos of themselves wearing the brand) + following of a brand that you’re not already acquainted with. Typically, the higher the follower count, the quicker the flip.

Where It’s Made

You shouldn’t necessarily eliminate a garment just because it’s made in a country that’s known to mass-produce textiles (think: China, Bangladesh, India, etc.), but you should pay special notice to something that is made in the USA, Italy, Paris, or other Fashion Week-related countries.

Wholesale

When I Google a brand and see there is an option to purchase wholesale of this brand (or buy it from Amazon - yikes!), I typically pass right away. Wholesale means they’re mass-producing these pieces (probably with really cheap materials), so the market is going to be really over-saturated, and thus, the resale value of the item (if not already for the cheap material) is going to be low. Umgee is an example of a brand that you can purchase wholesale - Google it, and you’ll see the third link is “Wholesale Fashion Industry Leader”.

ISO On Posh

Okay, this was the other reason I picked up that Tribe Kelley boutique: when I first typed the brand into Poshmark, there was an ISO listing from another user. ISO (in search of) means that someone is going out of their way to create a listing just to say they want something - it’s kind of like a waiting list. It signifies to me that this is a hot brand that people want.

Of course, after all this, I’ll still look up comps on an item I’m uncertain of. But these steps all really help in filtering out brands that would be a waste of time to look up in the end.

Do you find these tips helpful? Did I miss any important steps that you take? Let me know what you think in the comments below!