Where should I sell my sneakers?

Due to the expansive market of sneakers and their secondary markets, many third-party services have emerged to authenticate & facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers of sneakers. Many of these online services can be split into two different categories: marketplaces and consignment shops. Marketplaces, such as StockX or GOAT, require the seller to list their inventory virtually on their website, where the seller would ship their sneakers out to the companies’ authentication center to verify the legitimacy of the shoes before the seller would receive the money from the sale. Consignment stores, such as Flight Club or Stadium Goods, operate a little differently. They require you to ship your inventory to them in order for them to list your sneakers. However, they do have the added benefit of possibly having your sneaker being sold in a physical store in various locations around the United States.

What matters most: Profit Margins

When selling your sneakers for resale, you typically aim to generate the largest profit from selling your sneakers as possible. This can be calculated either as a percentage of profit by dividing your profit by your cost to purchase as your return on investment or as an outright number for profit. When selling your shoes, you want to maximize your listing price while also choosing a platform that has the lowest sale fees (typically a percentage) as well as shipping fees.

StockX vs GOAT vs Flight Club

When comparing seller platforms, the main points you want to compare are the general listing prices of shoes, the selling fees, average sales volume, and the availability of bulk shipping. We can apply these comparison points to compare StockX with GOAT and Flight Club.

StockX:

StockX is a well-known resale platform for buyers and is one of the most popular places to purchase shoes for resale. Due to this popularity, sales for sneakers on StockX tend to be much more than on other platforms such as GOAT or Flight Club. This also does hurt sellers, as it brings many sellers to the platform, and as such, lots of undercutting on market prices occur, bringing down the average listing price of shoes. For seller fees, StockX employs a tiered system depending on quarterly sales for a seller, as shown below, with a transaction fee ranging from 8% to 10% on top of a 3% transaction processing fee and a $4 individual item shipping fee. StockX also does provide bulk shipping for level 3 and higher sellers on their platform. This bulk shipping allows users to ship up to 12 sales in a single box while also waiving the $4 item shipping fee for each sale, providing convenience and saving money for a seller.

GOAT:

GOAT is also another known resale form for buyers and tends to provide a higher quality authenticity check for sneakers on their platform, leading to more sneaker enthusiasts purchasing from GOAT. There tend to be fewer sellers on GOAT, leading to higher prices of sneakers and less undercutting overall; however, this may tend to deter buyers, leading to a smaller sales volume for sneakers listed on GOAT. The seller fee on GOAT is 9.5% + $5 on top of a 2.9% cashout fee, regardless of sales volume. For the normal seller, GOAT does not offer bulk shipping; however, bulk shipping may be offered to people who sell shoes in the count of hundreds monthly.

Flight Club:

Flight Club is a large consignment store with physical locations in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. Since sellers have to physically send their sneakers to Flight Club, the number of sellers on the platform is very small compared to others, which tends to drive the price of sneakers up. While sneaker prices tend to be more than on other platforms, the existence of physical locations helps sales of these sneakers, as many celebrities tend to purchase shoes from a brick-and-mortar store, even for relatively extravagant prices. Flight Club’s fees are the same as GOAT - 9.5% + $5 on top of a 2.9% cashout fee, regardless of sales volume.

Local Sales: Pros vs Cons

You also can sell your shoes locally. If you live in a populous city, you may sell your sneakers quickly and for higher than market prices on marketplaces, as well as for cash, so you do not need to wait for your shoes to get authenticated and then subsequently have to get your payment processed. However, local sales come with some risks. You do have a chance of getting robbed or being handed counterfeit cash, resulting in a total loss in your shoe’s value in its entirety. When selling locally, we recommend meeting in a consignment shop where the staff may be able to legit check your sneakers, or in a public area, such as a bank or a coffee shop, to minimize your chance of getting robbed, as well as bringing a counterfeit money pen to ensure you are being given authentic cash.

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