How Much Does Plato's Closet Pay For Clothes? Employee Tells All

Plato's Closet is a secondhand retail store that buys and sells men’s and women’s clothing, shoes, and accessories. All of the inventory in the store is bought directly from its customers.

If you're interested in selling your clothing items to the store, you probably want to know how much money you will make, and ultimately, if it will be worth it. As someone who used to work at this clothing store for 4 years, I have insider knowledge that can best answer the question, "How much does Plato's Closet pay for clothes?"

So, if you’re selling items at Plato’s Closet, how do you get the most bang for your buck? How much does Plato's Closet pay per item? Does Plato's Closet pay a lot?

In this blog post, we’ll go over all of the insider details from the source itself: a former Plato’s Closet employee.

Jump to:

• How Much Does Plato's Closet Pay For Clothes?
• Plato's Closet Customer Payout Examples
• Plato's Closet Gave Me An Offer, Now What?
• Plato's Closet: Cash Vs Store Credit
• Plato's Closet Accepted Items
• Seasonality And Selling At Plato's Closet
• Insider Tip: Read A Plato’s Closet Tag
• FAQ

How Much Does Plato's Closet Pay For Clothes?

Now that you know Plato's Closet buys items from their customers, you're probably wondering, how does pricing work? How much will I make selling my clothes to Plato's Closet?

The amount you will get from Plato's Closet varies widely depending on the brand, condition, and type of item. Typically you can expect anywhere between $1-$70 per item.

Now I know that is a crazy wide range of pricing, but let me explain and go over some examples.

The employee will utilize the Plato's Closet computer system to enter the type of item, brand, and condition of the item.

Items that are a higher-end brand and are in excellent or brand-new condition will receive a higher relative payout compared to other items.

From there, the computer displays two prices to the employee: one for the cost of the item, and another price that tells the store how much to pay the customer selling.

On average, you are offered around 30% of the ticket price that Plato’s will put on the item.

This means that an item priced at $10 will give $3 to the seller. You can get the best idea of your stores' pricing method by shopping around the racks and seeing trends in prices.

Plus, later on, I'll show you how to read a Plato's Closet tag to see how much the customer was paid for any item in the store.

Plato's Closet Customer Payout Examples

Now, let's go over some specific examples and brands to give you a better idea of how much Plato's Closet pays for clothes, among other items.

Brand	Type Of Item	Condition	Plato's Closet Price	Amount Customer Receives
Old Navy	Top	Good	$4-$6	$1-$2
Old Navy	Dress	Good	$6-$12	$2-$4
Free People	Coat	Excellent	$30-$40	$9-$12
Free People	Coat	Good	$20-$30	$6-$9
Lululemon	Leggings	New With Tags	$24-40	$8-$12
Lululemon	Leggings	Good	$18-$24	$5-$8
Jordan	Sneakers	Excellent	$80-$100	$24-$30
Jordan	Sneakers	Poor	N/A, Plato's Closet would not accept	N/A, Plato's Closet would not accept

As you can see, customers selling at Plato's Closet do not receive a large payout by any means. You are also unable to negotiate the price offered.

As a former employee, I know that the system sets the price depending on the criteria the employee sets, and there is no modifying it.

Unfortunately, it is pretty much out of the hands of the employee buying your items.

So although you won't get rich quick selling clothes at Plato's Closet, it is a way to make some quick cash. Plus, it can definitely add up if you have a lot of items to sell, and have good brands, along with items in good condition.

If you have specific questions about a certain item or brand, don't hesitate to reach out! I'd be happy to talk it through with you!

Plato's Closet Gave Me An Offer, Now What?

After the employee sorts through your items, they will give you a quote telling you how many items they accepted with the total price. If you are curious, you can ask the reason why they declined certain items.

You can also ask on an item-by-item basis to see how much you made for each item. If you have a bunch of items you sold, you can also ask about one specific item that you are curious about.

For example, if you're selling a pair of Nike leggings and want to make sure you are paid a certain amount for it to make it worth your while.

Let the employee know if this is an offer you accept, or if you want to make any modifications. For example, if you didn’t get as much as you wanted for a certain item, you can decline to sell it while still trading the rest of the items.

Or, you can completely decline the offer and take all of your items back.

For more tips on the selling process, be sure to read our guide with the top 10 tips for selling at Plato's Closet.

Plato's Closet: Cash Vs Store Credit

Plato’s Closet offers options to cash out or take store credit. Unfortunately cashing out and store credit offers the same amount of money. Some stores offer extra money for store credit, however, most Plato’s Closets have not followed suit.

Plato's Closet Accepted Items

Now that you know a little bit about the Plato's Closet buying process, take some time to evaluate your clothing before you take it to Plato’s. Check to see if there are any stains, rips, or holes. If so, toss those pieces into the fabric recycling pile.

Also, make sure your items are freshly laundered. Plato’s Closet does not wash the clothing items they accept, but they make sure the items are fresh and clean when they come in. 

Next, evaluate the style of the item. Plato's Closet accepts recent trendy items and brands, popular within the past 2 years. Now, this can be subjective on a person-by-person basis. So if the item is in good condition, give it a go!

One style caveat is the fact that Plato’s Closet typically doesn’t accept plain items or super dressy items. This includes solid color tops and dresses, but also formal items like dress shirts or formal gowns.

The items that typically have the most success when selling to the store are activewear brands. This is because these pieces are usually timeless. Let’s be real, a nice pair of athletic leggings will never go out of style!

Seasonality And Selling At Plato's Closet

Surprisingly, when it comes to the question of how much does Plat's Closet pay for clothes, seasonality doesn’t always matter. That’s right - go ahead and bring your winter coat in the heat of summer! 

The moral of the story is that you will not make more or less per item if it is out of season.

The biggest indicator for accepting items is the current stock the store already has. For example, on a store-by-store basis, they can decide to stop buying a certain type of item (for example, dresses) for the time being. 

Just give your store a quick call, or check them out on social media to see if any rules like that apply.

For further item specifics, check out our posts on Plato's Closet and men's items, Plato's Closet and shoes, purses, along with a post about whether Plato's Closet takes Shein.

Plus, we have an in-depth master list of items and brands Plato's Closet loves and accepts from its customers.

Insider Tip: Read A Plato’s Closet Tag

Now, here’s a real insider tip into how Plato’s Closet’s pricing works. This involves reading the price tag. For example, let’s take this Wild Fable dress seen in the center of this pile of tags.

If you look below the barcode, you will see a series of numbers and letters. It reads "0270520002KB0097". To read this tag, pay close attention to the ending sequence. Specifically, we’re going to look at the last 7 characters.

In this scenario, the last 7 are "2KB0097". So, take the number right before the initials and the last 2 numbers, and this will tell you how much Plato’s Closet paid the customer for the item. 

As you can see, Plato’s Closet is selling this dress for $9.00, and paid the customer $2.97. In this case, that tracks with the trend of Plato’s paying out around 30% of the cost they’re trying to sell it at.

In summary, there are many benefits to both shopping and selling clothes at Plato’s Closet. As we learned, the Plato's Closet pay for each item will vary widely.

However, anything is better than nothing in my opinion! Plus, most importantly, Plato’s Closet gives perfectly good clothing items a second life- all while you can make a little extra cash!

If you liked our feature on how much does Plato's Closet pay for clothes, keep browsing around my site for more Plato's Closet content, including our Plato's Closet review!

FAQ