What happens to unsold items?
Our goal is to sell as many items as possible via Sellpy and we are able to sell the majority of the items we receive. However, there are items that are not selected for sale or that were listed via Sellpy but did not find a buyer.
As a seller, you have the option to receive your items back for a small fee. dIf the items remain with us, we hand them over to our specialised sorting partners - Looper Textile Co. (“Looper”), Textoras, and Ubrania Do Oddania (“UDO”). They handle the items in accordance with the EU waste hierarchy, which prioritizes reuse over recycling.
Understanding how items are handled
The partners sort items into different categories based on condition, brand, material etc. to ensure each item is handled according to EU waste hierarchy.
First and foremost an item considered for reuse, meaning it can be used again in its current form
The next option is recycling, which involves breaking down the material to create new products.
If an item cannot be reused or recycled, energy recovery extracts value by converting the material into heat or electricity.
Last resort is disposal, which includes any operation that isn’t recovery (e.g. landfill).
See examples of recycling:
Items not selected for sale
We sort all received items and try to sell everything valued at €5 or more that meets our guidelines. When an item cannot be listed at Sellpy, you as a seller can request a return or a re-evaluation of that item. Otherwise, we hand over the item to our specialised business partners, Looper or Textoras. This is done in exchange for a small compensation per kilogram, which partially covers our administrative costs. These partners operate on a global scale to match garments with market demand.
Listed items that aren’t sold
If an item is listed for sale, but not sold during its sales period at Sellpy, it is handed over to our partner UDO, unless you as a seller request the item back. Goods - that are suitable for re-use - are prepared for resale and a share of the proceeds support established charitable initiatives.
Want to learn more?
Read more about the EU's waste hierarchy here
Read more about Looper Textile Co on their website here
Read more about Textoras on their website here
Unfortunately, UDO doesn’t have a website in other languages, but you can use your browser’s translation function to read more here
