Customers Cash In Using Online Consignment Shops

BOSTON (CBS) - Keeping up with fashion trends can be pricey, but there are a number of online consignment shops that make it easy to cash in your clothing clutter.

One of the largest is called ThredUp. The company's massive warehouse is crammed with all types of clothing. Each day they receive bags of items from people all over the country, as many as 100,000 every day.

If the items are in good condition, they are posted online at bargain prices and sellers get a small cut of the sale. "The pricing on Thredup is 80% off what someone would pay in a retail store. It's incredible value," said founder James Reinhart.

Value is only part of the draw for Natalie Audelo who uses Poshmark, another online consignment shop. "This is a Madewell top. It was new with the tags on it and I ended up getting it for $30," she said.

A resident of Boston's North End, space in her apartment is at a premium, so she doesn't have the luxury of hanging onto items she doesn't wear regularly.

But unlike Thredup, there is no massive Poshmark warehouse or workers to sort through items. Natalie ships anything that she sells directly to the new owner with a shipping label she receives from the company.

Poshmark takes 20% of any sale, Natalie keeps the rest. Over the past few years those sales have really added up. "I've made over $6,000 selling items from my closet," she said.

If you are looking to splurge, there's The Real Real, where authenticators will make sure your designer handbags and watches are indeed the real thing.

Founder Julie Wainwright says many of the items on her site have barely been worn. "We have a lot of things in our closets that for whatever reason we didn't wear," she said.

The desire to keep waste to a minimum is another driver for these sites. Natalie says she feels better that her clothes are finding a new home, rather than ending up in a landfill.