r/therealreal

I’ve been scouring TRR every day for a piece by a micro brand. I’m nursing a bad bike injury so have definitely been on TRR more than what’s healthy or regular.

Nonetheless, I’ve noticed that items are being sold which are actually never listed even with my First Look membership. Anyone else experience this? Wtf…. TRR strikes again 🙄

So in May of 22 I bought a Dries coat for $485. It was feathered so when I saw it listed I bought it immediately. I now see the same coat (not mine I still have it), listed for $1180.

We all know that TRR uses a progressive discounting strategy, like a Dutch auction. Here's how I think about buying now vs waiting. Definitely not perfect and YMMV.

BUY NOW

- 80% off and you like it.  It ain't going any lower

- New unique item from a small designer that you really like. The more unique the item, the less accurate is the pricing algorithm.

- New unique item from a well known designer in a luxury fabric, interesting color, excellent condition, well photographed, coherent measurements, standard sizing, etc.

- Certain designers whose stuff is always in high demand.

- "No regrets" pricing.  Cheap enough that even if it's a miss, you're not out much 

- Particularly good labels like Couture lines or labels that indicate a particularly good era (like Tom Ford at YSL)

- Common sizes and long inseam pants (easier to cut than lengthen).

- Buy More Save More weekend.

- Current season (e.g. winter outwear in November)

WAIT FOR A BIGGER DISCOUNT

- Incoherent listings.  It says its an XXL trousers with a 60" waist and 12" inseam but the photo looks like a Medium. Incoherency greatly reduces the buyer pool, especially once non-returnable.

- Missing label photos. On some garments, the label is important for verifying era and the specific line.

- Diffusion lines. Often overpriced on TRR in my experience.

- Black.  Doesn't photograph well, limited use cases, high inventory.

- Dated or aged and not from a peak design period, like 1990s mens suits, which were all rubbish.

- Small designer and long listing time.  People will search the discounted Chanel stuff but not minor designers. Once they get beyond First Look, they go slow.

- Price over maybe $300 where people start to think harder.

- Synthetic fiber.

- Common items with high and regular inventory.  There will be another one tomorrow. 

For a company that says they’re tech-oriented, TRR still relies heavily on $16/hr humans.  If they used AI for use cases beyond setting markdowns, they might reduce misdescribed listings, increase buyer and consignor trust, lower return rates, reduce search costs, and give buyers much richer information -- which would mean higher sales, faster throughput, and lower handling costs. 

I don’t know any of their executives, but I gather that they’re not old fuddy-duddies, so it’s kind of mind-boggling how manual they are.  Especially since many clothing retailers have had use cases like this for years now.

Here's the list. Add yours in comments

1 Designer and label recognition.  AI reads interior labels.  Identify vintage eras ("early 1990s mainline", “S/S 2024”, "Tom Ford-era", "pre-1982", etc.). Distinguish mainline from diffusion labels. Catch obvious misidentifications.

2. Garment measurements from photos.  Estimate body length, sleeve length, chest size, and shoulder width for tops.  Estimate waist, inseam, rise, calf size for bottoms. Warn buyers when measured dimensions appear inconsistent with the listing.  Compare to fabric tags and other garments from the same designer with similar tagged sizes to identify inconsistencies. Send obvious mistakes back to the humans for correction.

3. Fit visualization.  Upload your height, weight, other measurements, and a photo wearing a well-fitting garment.  AI shows how the garment would fit on your body rather than on a random mannequin.

4. Condition inspection.  Detect shine, pilling, moth damage, seam stress, stains, fading, elbow wear, and pulled threads.  Highlight areas that deserve manual inspection

5. Style intelligence.  Instead of "Sport Coat", AI could say: “Vintage Giorgio Armani Milano soft-shouldered silk sport coat, approximately late 1980s, relaxed Italian silhouette, suitable for summer evening wear and business casual.”  And then you could ask it: “Would this jacket pair well with the Zegna pants and shoes I bought last month?”

6. Lower search costs.  Instead of filtering using 1990s filters, you say: “I need a cute dress for a garden party in Southampton for July 4^(th), preferably pale blue, knee length, $200-400.” 

Or: “I’m uploading me in a top I like, give me suggestions of trousers I could wear with it, ideally for fall, waist ~28, length ~30.” 

Or: “I’m starting a new job at a law firm in NYC.  Help me assemble 4 business-appropriate outfits, budget under $2000.  I want to look modern and current but respectful of a conservative environment.  Here are my measurements…”

7. Fabric verification.  AI analyzes close-up photos to distinguish silk, cashmere, linen, wool, cotton, viscose, etc.  Flags listings where "100% silk" visually resembles polyester or where the written description doesn't match the images.  Eliminate "feels like wool blend." Gives a confidence score rather than pretending certainty.

8. Photographic completeness.  AI checks whether the listing includes: care label, composition tag, interior brand label, sleeve lining, close-up fabric texture, close-up of holes/stains/etc.  Missing critical views trigger requests for additional photos before listing.

9. Authenticity screening.  AI isn't the final authenticator, but it can flag incorrect fonts, wrong labels, inconsistent buttons, impossible fabric combinations, suspicious construction details.  AI can potentially even find original photos of the bag/garment when it was sold and compare.

10. Description consistency checking. AI compares every statement against the images.  Description says “excellent condition” but AI sees scuff marks on a leather shoe.  Flags listing for human review.  Or have AI do the condition reviews since humans are so inconsistent.

11. Personal fit advisor: Over time AI learns your preferred dimensions, preferences in construction, favorite designers, alteration limits, etc., Then warns: "You often return garments of this length.  Consider 1-2” longer."

12. Confidence scoring: Rather than presenting everything as fact, every field gets a confidence rating.  Designer: 99%, Fabric: 72%, Era: 88%, Condition: 93%, Measurements: 65%

A bit of AI could totally transform TRR for both buyers and sellers, yet someone there must be resisting these obvious improvements. Can't get much worse than it is.

I bought something based off of the photo and description (as one does), and was sent a completely different item and returned. I actually want to buy the item in the theoretical listing, which was was reposted. Do we think if I were to order the item again I'd receive the wrong thing again?

I haven’t purchased at TRR in a while but I regularly browse and save items. Why do they insist on sizing items S M L when these items have numeric sizes like 4 6 8 or 27 28 etc?? For example a Tibi dress says M. I’m like cool, is that a 6 or an 8? Or even a 10? Can they not just post a damn picture of the size tag? Yes measurements are there but on two pairs of jeans from the same brand, size S says 28 waist and size M also says 28 waist. I’d be way more inclined to buy if I was 100% sure what dang size I was paying for.

Please don’t buy anything on this site. I made the mistake of buying a splendid robe from them. it took almost two weeks for the product to arrive. When it did finally arrive. it came in a box with no packing slip and no tags on the robe. the robe looks and smells like it’s a used item.

I immediately sent “customer service” a note describing the situation. After multiple back and forth I was told to ship back the product at my cost and assuming the product hasn’t been worn and if the tags are in place. is this absurd or what??? They sent me a used item with no tags and expect me to return a new robe with its original tags?!?!?!

Fraudulent or incompetent “business”? Not sure which is acceptable when you’re taking people’s money.

Im so over these pricesssss😣😩 is there anything fabulous under $400 on TRR anymore!!!! Im a huge maxi dress shopper and the same dresses I used to see for $200 a year ago are now $1000!!!! That’s just retail price for a used dress. They’re pricing everything so dang high these days my goodness I’m distraught. I should’ve bought everything I wanted two years ago :(

And please don’t start in the comments with “you can still find good items BLAH BLAH”, obviously. Obviously! It’s just harder in my opinion and so drastically more expensive then what I’ve experienced my last five years as a TRR shopper! Thanks, just need to vent. I thought inflation was only hitting gas, groceries and rent, not my beloved clothing site.

I wanted to share my experience selling with The RealReal, especially for anyone considering consigning with them.

I scheduled an in-home appointment because I felt uneasy about mailing my items in. The woman who came to my house was nice enough, but seemed possibly new and wasn’t familiar with most of the brands I was selling. I had 8 items total: 3 from RtA, 2 from Alemais, 1 from Emme Parsons, 1 from Ganni, and 1 from Carrie Forbes.

She took everything and explained that someone else would handle pricing and I specifically asked what would happen if I didn’t like or agree with the price. She told me I could request the items back, and encouraged me to request multiple items back at once so I would only pay the return fee once. She also told me I would receive a $100 credit for selling.

Once the items were listed I was pretty disappointed. All 3 of my RtA items were brand new with tags, including a suede jacket with a $1,195 retail price. My Ganni sandals retailed for $425 and were also brand new in the box. Despite this, they were listed so low I would have made less than $50 per item if they sold. I immediately requested those items back, along with a pair of Carrie Forbes shoes.

Soon after, I received an email saying I owed a $20 restocking fee for each returned item, plus shipping. I was surprised because of what I had been so and so I emailed them. After some back and forth, they acknowledged that the information I was given was incorrect, but said they would honor it and only charge me one $20 restocking fee and one shipping fee, which would come out of my first sale. That seemed resolved.

Now here’s what sold:

• Alemais Sizzle Dress: retailed for $735, brand new with tags. Listed for $295, sold with a 20% discount for $236. I made $129.80.
• Alemais Luis Shirt: retailed for $795, brand new with tags. Listed for $335, sold with a 25% discount for $251.25. I made $138.19.
• Emme Parsons Laurie Sandals: retailed for $595, brand new in box. Listed for $495, sold with a 30% discount for $346.50. I made $207.90.

≈ $2,125 worth of items sold for $475, or 22% of the retail value for brand new w/ tags items.

After my sales I also noticed my balance was lower than expected. I looked into it and realized they had charged me for all 5 restocking fees, even though they had previously said they would only charge me for 1. So I had $100 in restocking fees, plus return shipping, deducted from my earnings. I emailed them explaining the situation, and after a week with no response, I followed up again. To this day, I have never received a response to either email.

I also noticed that the $100 selling credit I had been promised was never sent. I emailed them about that separately and did get a response. They told me it had been sent but had already expired, but as a “courtesy,” they would resend it. When I finally received it, it came with a notice that it expired within 7 days.

Overall, I don’t think I’ll ever sell with The RealReal again. I ended up losing money on 5 items because they charged a $20 restocking fee for each one. And even on the higher-priced items that did sell, my actual earnings were far lower than I expected.

My takeaway is that the process felt misleading, inconsistent, and poorly communicated. I was told one thing in person, another thing over email, and then charged differently anyway. When I tried to get clarification, they stopped responding.

As many others have said: be very careful selling with The RealReal.