Reselling, Depop, vintage, Goodwill and thrifting. These are all shopping methods and platforms which have recently risen in popularity since the pandemic, stemming from a longing for individuality and a drive to reuse  what has previously been discarded. Many teens have picked up the hobby of searching for and wearing vintage, with Instagram and Tiktok running rampant with outfit checks and thrift hauls. In order to curate vintage, resellers find their thrift locations that they personally find the best product at. Oftentimes, there are multiple resellers per thrift location. Competition has soared in the last three to five years, as more and more people realize they can profit off of flipping clothes. One local Lincoln reseller shares her thoughts on Lincoln’s thrift scene. 

Dianne Snow is a local Lincoln vintage reseller, who also dabbles in commodities and newer products. She primarily sells on Facebook Marketplace but also sells on eBay and Depop. Snow has a second job, but says thrifting is much more than just a special interest, and has loved it since she first started reselling over 20 years ago. She started by buying things for her mom’s thrift store, and hasn’t lost her love for vintage since.

“Right away I realized it was going to be more than a hobby,” Snow said. “Even when I was just trying to help my mom make ends meet.” 

Snow says that the thrift scene in Lincoln is absolutely booming in comparison to other places, and believes there are a couple reasons as to why.

“The college (UNL) helps,” Snow said. “There’s a lot of pop-ups here, which also helps. I have family out west that isn’t used to wearing vintage clothes because people out there don’t wear it. It’s huge here.” 

Although Snow raves about the popularity of thrifting here, she acknowledges that it also comes with downsides. Thrifting has blown up tremendously since quarantine. Teens trying to wear cute and trendy clothes without breaking the bank, while fashion trends from 20 to 30 years ago cycle back, created the perfect storm for reselling to expand in a way never seen before. Before thrifting amped up in popularity, Snow says the hardest part about being a reseller was finding the time to get out and go find products. Now, it’s much more complicated.

“The hardest part is getting the stuff now,” Snow said. “Just because it’s grown so much in the past three to four years, there are so many people reselling. It’s hard to get the good stuff.” 

Snow has her ways to “get the good stuff”, but she doesn’t like to reveal her secret sauce. Despite this, she does have a few suggestions for up-and-coming resellers.

“Doing your research is my biggest thing. Make sure you know what you want and make sure it sells. I watched a lot of TikToks just trying to learn more about it.”

Snow also says what resellers wear and their fashion sense goes into what they end up selling. 

“Personal style affects what you sell, especially at first, but once you find out what the need is out there, you start to pivot towards that.”
Snow believes that another difficult part about reselling is that not everyone appreciates the craft, and many people can be unkind. She finds that many people assume negative things, or just don’t know the time and effort that goes into being a reseller. She tries to price things as affordable as possible for the newer generation, even if that means not charging the customers as much as she could. 

“I grew up very poor, I remember how hard it was to get the stuff that everybody else had,” Snow said. “So I want to make sure that the kids get that.”

Snow also encourages others to come get the vintage from the thrift themselves if they feel like it’s overpriced. 

“A reseller never stops the average person from coming in and buying. They just have to be there, because then they would get the opportunity” Snow said. 

Snow says that anyone with a love for vintage can become a reseller, and Lincoln is the place to do so. With an endless amount of college kids from all over the country, Lincoln is the perfect breeding ground for resellers to make their big break. Although reselling has become popular, Snow says that everyone starts out by buying vintage for themselves out of personal love for thrifting. 

“We all start out as a hobby. We [resellers] all want to thrift. We all want to find that one thing that we think is cool, because to you it may not be.”