I’ve been using the app for almost two years now, and I’ve finally cracked it
If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’m a sucker for a good deal. Growing up in an eBay household, the sight of postal bags and clothes neatly folded, ready to be photographed, was a common weekend scene.
So, it’s a bit embarrassing to confess that I was rather late to the Vinted party, only placing my first order at the beginning of 2024. However, I’ve made up for lost time since then, and now I’m regularly buying and selling on the platform every week.
Mostly, I use Vinted to sell books and clothes that my toddler has outgrown, before purchasing more of the same, but I’ve also been known to treat myself to the occasional pair of shoes too.
Over the months, I’ve managed to make a modest yet steady amount of extra cash, perfect for setting aside for indulgent purchases like takeaways and hot yoga classes (I don’t think I could ever do yoga in a cold, well-lit space again).
After nearly two years of using Vinted, I finally feel like I’ve perfected my buying and selling strategies, so here are my simple tips for finding the best bargains, reports the Express.
1. Time of day
The Vinted algorithm is quite adept at picking up on what you want to see more of, and it presents its suggestions in the home feed. This isn’t automatically ordered by the date listed, but when you first open the app, freshly uploaded items it thinks you might like do tend to rise to the top.
But if you’re after something in high demand—for me, this is often a newly released book or special edition everyone’s talking about—you’ll often find they’re snapped up quickly in the daytime, or are priced highly.
My tip? If you’re up and about early in the morning or late at night, take a quick look at your feed. I often find just what I’m looking for, uploaded just hours or even minutes before, for pounds cheaper than the average selling price.
2. Use the search bar
My second piece of advice is to make good use of your search bar, especially if you’re after something specific. Vinted helpfully saves your recent searches and shows you how many new items with those key words have been uploaded since you last looked.
If I’m looking for one thing in particular, I’ll make sure to search a couple of times for day, and I’ll often find a new listing that slipped through the algorithm’s net and didn’t show up in my feed.
3. Look for mistakes
And finally, keep an eye out for listings with mistakes or bad images. These will often have flown under the radar as people scroll their feeds, so may have been reduced in price once or twice already.
Things I look for are spelling mistakes in the title as well as dark, out of focus or overly zoomed in lead photos. Sometimes, all it takes is a swipe through the full listing to see the item is actually in brand new condition, it just doesn’t look it from the first photo.