MusicMagpie vs eBay: how to earn more selling your old clothes

We take a look at how much you can get selling old clothes via MusicMagpie compared to eBay.

You might be familiar with MusicMagpie as a place to sell your old CDS, DVDs, games or even electronic gear like a laptop or mobile phone.

But for about a year now the website has been paying cash for name-brand clothes as well. I was keen to see how it works and what I could get compared to eBay.

How it works

You can get an instant valuation on your garments by filling in a few details on the MusicMagpie website or using the free smartphone app.

The first thing MusicMagpie wants to know about is the brand of the item you want to cash-in on.

On the list are some high-end names like Diane Von Furstenberg, Christian Dior, Aquascutum and Prada. But there are many more brands most of us are more likely to own like ASOS, Marks & Spencer, Burton, ZARA and John Lewis.

Once you’ve found the brand of your item, you need to add further details like size, colour, material and style. You won’t be able to sell shoes, bags, hats, underwear, scarves or belts, but any other item of clothing can be traded in.

MusicMagpie will offer you a price for the garment after you’ve entered all the details into the valuation engine. You will need to add at least ten items (up to a maximum of 500) to qualify for an order.

Once you have uploaded the details of all your clothes, you just need to pack them up and send them off using either the free courier or free Collect + service.

MusicMagpie will check to see if the items are in a good condition, aren't fake, match your original description and haven’t been modified in any way. Once it is satisfied, you will then be paid.

You can choose to receive a cheque, have cash paid into a bank account, get M&S e-vouchers or to donate the value of your goods to a charity.

MusicMagpie vs. eBay

As a regular eBayer I was keen to see what I could have got using MusicMagpie’s cash for clothes service.

I went through all the items I sold in the last 12 months on eBay and selected the name-brand pieces I could have exchanged for cash.

I have put the results in the table below.

I got over £100 more selling my old, name-brand clothes on eBay compared to MusicMagpie.

The total is largely  boosted by a Whistles dress that went for £58 on eBay, but would only fetch £4.93 on MusicMagpie.

However, in some cases the returns turned out to be similar.

An ASOS lime shift dress only fetched 99p on eBay, but would have got 88p on MusicMagpie. After eBay and PayPal fees that works out to be pretty much the same.

I only found one instance where Music Magpie offered more for a garment than I got via eBay and that was for an ASOS graphic t-shirt. I only got 99p for it, but Music Magpie offered £1.20.

Pros

Even though MusicMagpie didn’t deliver the best return on my clothes, I would consider using it in the future.

That’s because it was quick and easy.

When I use eBay to sell my old stuff, it takes ages. You need to get some good photos, describe the item in detail, set a starting price and then list the item for at least three days, which means responding to questions from buyers. After that you need to package your items and post them off. If you list a lot of items like I normally do, it can take up a lot of your time. Sometimes the returns don’t equal the amount of effort you put in.

With MusicMagpie I appreciated the seamless process. In no time at all I had listed 12 items, been quoted a price and had the option of the items being picked up for free.

Cons

However, there are some parts of MusicMagpie’s scheme I am not so fond of.

If MusicMagpie decides that the item you have sent in does not match your description, is in a bad condition, is fake, is personalised or has any marks or stains, it can reduce the price offered for the item or not pay a thing and not return the item back to you.

Also, the service only accepts certain brands. So if you have vintage pieces or just brands that aren’t listed you won’t be able to sell.

Plus getting paid can take longer than you might think. According to MusicMagpie’s terms and conditions it can take between seven and ten days for items to reach it using its free services. Then checking the items can take up to seven days to complete. And even if you choose to have the cash paid directly into your bank account, that can take up to three working days as well.

So you are looking at waiting quite a while before you can get any cash.

Verdict

Selling on eBay can be a hassle and involves fees that can eat into your profits. So if you want to get rid of genuine name-brand items in a hurry MusicMagpie looks like it can do the job. But you have to be prepared to lose out significantly on the true value of your items in return for a quick and painless process.

Other cash for clothes websites like Return to Earn only give you 60p a kilo, while We Buy Clothes pays up to 80p a kilo, so as far as I can tell MusicMagpie offers the best instant cash-for-clothes deal around.

So if you want money without the usual faff I think this could be the way to go. But if you’re after the best price on your name-brand pieces you’re going to have to put the work in.

More on making money:

How to sell successfully on eBay

Sell for less: the alternatives to eBay

How to be successful at a car boot sale

How police and lost luggage auctions work

Selling books and games: Amazon Trade-In versus the competition