I found out about the RealReal by walking by one of their new stores, at the time, in Brooklyn, NY, right near my apartment and one of my favorite coffeeshops.

My first experience trying to sell consignment with the company was by sending in a pair of like-new Rag & Bone jeans, that eventually were NOT accepted and returned to me. After this, though, I had most of my success with TRR’s at-home appointments and UPS send-in options, to get my luxury goods sold on their site.

So what are my true thoughts on selling luxury listings for consignment on the RealReal? And is it worth anyone’s time as a consigner to be doing online luxury consignment this way?

In this review of selling on the RealReal, I’m going to break down my experiences, the pros and cons and even my commissions/earnings, from consigning luxury bags with the RealReal. In this review, you’ll learn everything you need to know before consigning your luxury items.

Key takeaways from this review

  • Consigning luxury goods as a seller with the RealReal has a few main benefits, from less legwork as a seller, to a professional and clear experience.
  • I break down all the commissions I’ve received, as well as what I’ve learned about the commission tiers.
  • See how I’ve gotten paid by the RealReal, and how I’ve benefitted from seller promotions.
  • Learn about the downsides of selling consignment with the RealReal, including having no control over how items are priced, to the low commission tiers.

Reasons to sell with the RealReal

There are a few attractive reasons to sell with the RealReal: they’re the “pros” for why I’ve consigned my luxury products over the past few years.

Less legwork (for you as the seller)

Basically, I differentiate my 3+ year experience selling with the RealReal against my five-year experience selling on Poshmark, which I refer to one of the best places to sell stuff online. Of course, the RealReal is luxury-only and your brands have to be a part of their Designer Directory.

On Poshmark, I take my own photos, set my own prices, make my own descriptions and titles, share my listings, answer buyers’ questions about dimensions and fit, send offers, barter with discounts and then print labels, package my shipments and send them off with USPS. Poshmark is lots of “legwork” as a buyer, too, especially if you want ways to get a great deal on Poshmark.

When selling with the RealReal, I:

  • Either consign via an at-home appointment, or a send-off with UPS
  • Wait for emails.
  • Wait for my item to sell.
  • Get paid.

It’s a drastically different selling and consignment experience. With the RealReal, my reference to “less legwork” refers to having their experts price my consignments, take professional photos, discount when they feel necessary and then pay me. I don’t have to deal with buyers. I don’t have to package up my product for shipment.

Of course, I made less (overall) on the RealReal. I’ll explain that later.

Clear communication step by step

With each consignment I work on selling to the RealReal, I get emails that update on the status of my consignment. As soon as the UPS shipment starts tracking, I get an email that my items are en route. After that, it’s that they’re processing.

After that, there’s kind of a gap in the notifications, but if you sign into the app or to the desktop webpage, you’ll see that your item is “Accepted,” and the Price is “Coming soon.” I’ve gotten emails to tell me that my item is either “live” (with a price, title and photos assigned) or “Sold.”

If my item hasn’t sold, I barely hear from the RealReal.

Below, I detail what happens when my item sells.

Professional experience

Everyone at the RealReal has been very professional, as well as how my items wind up on the site. The RealReal is NOT the place for bad phone photos, or any of the spam comments I’ve gotten over the years from robotic Poshmark users who get banned shortly after bothering me.

The RealReal is a consignment experience where I ship my luxury items off, get notified about their statuses and then get paid. It’s been simple, with few questions on my end.

Selling commissions with the RealReal: What are they like?

So, commissions is where I fault the RealReal for being greedy and shorting sellers a lot of their earnings. If you look at selling on Poshmark, the fee taken from Poshmark is only 20%—something I break down in my Poshmark seller’s guide with tips.

With the RealReal, I’m making around 20%-45% of the sale price of my item. You can see the list prices (set by the RealReal), the actual sale prices (the sale price at the time of when the buyer purchased the item) and my actual real earnings that went to my bank account, below.

It wasn’t always “this bad.” I once made 60% for a mint-condition luxury brand backpack. That was exciting, and that was when I thought I had potential with the RealReal. In the same season, I made both 30% commissions on two listings, and one 60% commission on the luxury backpack. While this was confusing at the time, it’s because the RealReal has a commission rate that aligns with different tiers of selling prices.

You can access the RealReal commission guide here. You’ll see that while I was surprised at the 60% commission, it wasn’t arbitrary: the item was originally priced at $300+, putting my commission into the 60% category, which is really good! Only two commission rates are higher, for items $750+ and $5,000+ (yes, the tiers jump really fast). The guide also calculates your payout with a range.

Helpful Tip

Remember (!) to mouse over each category on the left-hand side of this chart, because the commission rates change for each type of product, like Bags, Watches or Clothes. The first time I looked at it, I didn’t think to switch category to look at Bags commissions versus Clothes commissions, for example.

Why I make more on Poshmark

Again, with Poshmark taking only 20% of my sales and having the control to price how I please, as well as being in control of sending offers, I’m doing a more hands-on labor-intensive selling job, but making more.

So, it’s all what you want, in terms of being hands-off and passive, or being in control and making more. I’ll get into this later.

When to sell with the RealReal

There are a few times when I’ve chosen to sell with the RealReal, either immediately, or after trying to sell something on Poshmark and not having luck.

When a product is an accepted brand

I sell with the RealReal when I have a luxury item that falls within their brands. Most of what I’ve sold on Poshmark is not quite luxury: I sell nice brands, but a lot of them don’t fall into the RealReal’s portfolio of accepted labels.

You can find out the RealReal’s accepted brands at the Designer Directory. I haven’t heard of a lot of these brands, to be honest. A lot of them are really niche. Most of them are really expensive. And sometimes (look for the “i” icon in this list), only select “categories” like “Bags, Coats & Dresses” will be accepted from a brand, while “Shoes” is not accepted.

When I have something in my closet that’s a brand accepted by the RealReal, I have hopes in my heart that they’ll sell it faster and with less legwork than if I keep it around and wait for it to sell on Poshmark. Honestly, it is a gamble.

When you don’t care how much you make

You could also apply this methodology to consigning or selling on Poshmark. But basically, I’ve had bags or backpacks from RealReal-accepted designers and I think, “What the heck, if I make any money on this, it’s more than it’ll get collecting dust in my closet.”

So, that is how it’s gone. For the items when I make 20% commission and I’m actually really downtrodden and kind of regretful, I wish I had at least tried to sell an item on Poshmark. Then again, though, there are brands that people aren’t searching for on Poshmark, and brands that they are seeking on the RealReal (or coming across them because of browsing by category).

So with TRR, when I made $18 on an item that retailed for $119, I was really mad at the RealReal. But it was money in my (virtual) pocket.

When the product is a high-ticket item

I think the RealReal is trying to incentivize sellers to entrust them with their high-revenue items (of course they are!). This is because they’ll make more and they’ll pay you more, due to the commission structure I highlighted above.

I have a relatively pricy bag in my closet that I’m not using and don’t know if I’ll have an occasion to use, and writing this seller’s guide has reminded me that because it would hopefully have a sell price of $750+ (fingers crossed), I could make 65% commissions and get a payout of $400 or more. (I’ve had this item on Poshmark for quite a few months, with no bites, so the question is, could the RealReal sell it better than I can?).

Downsides to selling with the RealReal

There are two main pitfalls to consigning with the RealReal.

No control over selling price

My main disappointment with the RealReal has been that they are like a store, and items will sometimes go on sale. They especially go on sale if they haven’t been getting any action from customers in a few weeks. Clearly, the RealReal wants to move through inventory and get rid of your consignment and get it sold.

What I’ve experienced is some of my items having a fair price assigned at the get-go, and then a month goes by, and when my item sells, I see that the sale price was drastically lower. This could even take my consignment from one price tier into a lower one, lowering my commission rate (as I see it).

Some of my items have been discounted as much as 30% off the original consignment list price, in order to make the product attractive to a buyer. Then, I get commission from the sale price. I’ve made only $33 in my payout for a backpack priced originally at $155 by TRR, then discounted to $108.50 to get it sold.

The low commissions

Like I mentioned above, it seems pretty unfair to only MAKE a 20% commission off of something you consigned. What’s the point? I understand going higher to attract more high-ticket items, but getting sleazed with a 20% commission rate, especially if I didn’t intend for my item to be priced low to get it sold, does not feel good.

It’s those times when I have regrets, and think I could’ve done a better job and found my item a better home by selling it on Poshmark.

When does the RealReal pay?

The RealReal pays sellers on the 15th of the month, the month after their item sells. For me, this has been a pretty pain-free experience. I get an email that my item sold (ironically, the email has the subject line, “Here’s the Latest,” rather than something like, “Your item just sold!”), and the RealReal has been spot-on about processing payment to the bank account I have in my profile.

Even for an item sold on the 24th of the month, the RealReal still processes commission on the very next month, on the 15th (the monthly payout date).

As you can see in this screenshot below, I can go into my account online with the RealReal and see how much I made last month (this was a pretty lackluster one) and see when it was paid.

Does the RealReal ever pay late?

So actually, yes they do sometimes pay late. And, if they have payment processing issues, they let you know, very clearly and promptly, and they gift you a site credit for shopping to say “Sorry.”

I went shopping for a little treat with this one and got some shoes (Keep in mind that for RealReal site credits, in my experience, shipping costs are INCLUDED in the credit. My credit only let me afford an item for $8, if I wanted to include tax and shipping and avoid paying out of pocket.)

Seller promotions

I would’ve been selling with the RealReal regardless of the times when they host seller promotions. To get you and other sellers in the door and to trust them with your luxury consignments, I once qualified for a promotion such as this one: “Receive a $200 credit when you sell for the first time before [X date].”

It wasn’t even my intention to qualify for a promotion, and this happened to be a good one. I’m honestly not sure if they host them in such an attractive manner anymore. Regardless, I wound up consigning a bag the week of that promotion and I really did get the $200 site credit. I bought two pairs of earrings, and that was my first time shopping on the RealReal.

Support from staff

At various times, I’ve dealt with staff from the RealReal. The first individual was my “Account Manager,” back in 2021, who reached out to answer any questions I had as a first-time consignor with the RealReal.

And I did have a question. I wrote back,

“I think I decided after pressing ‘send me a label’ that I am going to keep my item for now, as I saw it was not binding. If I want to reach out to sell, can I let you know in another few months?”

The answer was,

“Absolutely. Please reach out to me directly when you’re ready. Remember we take women’s, men’s & kid’s clothing, shoes, handbags, jewelry (costume and fine jewelry), watches + accessories like wallets, scarves and sunglasses. Happy to help you soon!”

This was a good interaction, and after it, I scheduled an in-person appointment at one of the NYC stores for drop-off of my item, the Rag & Bone jeans. As it turns out, they were rejected, for reason: staining on back (they didn’t have any stains), so my first sale with the RealReal was still yet to happen.

In-person home visits

I had my first home visit from a RealReal consignment specialist in late 2022. I handed off that backpack I mentioned above, and after chatting for 2 minutes total, the appointment was done. Just like that! The “Luxury Managers” work regionally (potentially only in major metro areas like mine - NYC) and do home visits for a living, to give consignors a personal touch and a quick and easy way to consign.

What I’ll note here is that once you work with a Luxury Manager for a home appointment, they will follow up with you every few weeks to see if you have anything else you want to consign. It seems like they are making a commission on your items. They’re also helpful, though, in spelling out current promotions to you, clearly.

I have to admit that most of the time I just choose to print a label and bring my boxes to my local UPS, which is fast and quick as well.

Conclusion: Should you sell luxury consignments with the RealReal?

I think what I’m getting at in this review is that I am still torn. I’ve sold more than 200 items on Poshmark, but I haven’t had much luck consigning luxury-level goods. I’m not sure why. I’ve sold most luxury with the RealReal, and I’ve made less per item, but I’ve also done less and put in less effort.