Thinking of Starting a Vintage Reselling Business? What Two Laid-off Sisters Say It Really Takes

Two laid-off sisters who turned their late mother's collection into an online vintage shop say the business demands far more than a few photos and a clever listing title.

Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein and her younger sister, Hillary, started Travel Far Now Vintage together after being laid off nearly three years ago and now hunt for stock three to five times a week. In a first-person essay for Business Insider, Amanda laid out the work behind every sale.

'Most people think it's as simple as plucking an item, taking a few photos, crafting a savvy title, and plopping it on a platform,' she wrote. 'But there's way more that goes into running our tiny online vintage shop.'

Where the First Vintage Stock Came From

The earliest inventory did not come from a thrift store. It came from home.

Their mother collected everything from porcelain flowers to royal portraits in filigree frames, and when she died, the sisters were unsure what to do with it all. Listing pieces online introduced them to what Amanda described as 'a vast online world of collectors seeking niche nostalgia.' The two entered the trade, she said, 'as grieving daughters'.

Both sisters come from writing careers. Amanda, a writer and editor from Skokie, Illinois, most recently served as senior managing editor of the digital anthropology magazine SAPIENS, according to her personal website. Hillary describes herself on LinkedIn as a senior copywriter and editor and lists herself as a former Walgreens employee.

As the shop grew, the search widened to estate sales, antique malls, and flea markets. Amanda said the hunt has meant scaling mould-infested shelves, rummaging through dusty boxes, and sorting through barrels in basements.

Not every trip produces a haul. The sisters go in with fixed criteria and a ceiling on what they will pay, and Amanda said she will put back a piece with obvious sentimental appeal if it has a chip or a crack.

The Real Costs Behind a Vintage Price Tag

Pricing, in Amanda's words, is 'more art than science.' The sisters weigh an item's quality, rarity, and purchase price, then look at the current market. Checking what similar pieces have sold for helps, she said, though trends shift quickly. The final figure also has to absorb fuel, shipping, packing supplies, platform fees, and advertising.

Those platform fees are fixed for anyone selling on Etsy, where the sisters list their stock. Under Etsy's fees policy, sellers pay $0.20 (15p) to list an item and a 6.5% transaction fee on the item price plus shipping once it sells. US sellers using Etsy Payments also pay a processing charge of 3% plus $0.25 (19p) per order. Only goods at least 20 years old can be listed as vintage.

At a recent estate sale, Amanda bought a vintage paperback of Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, a title popular with Beat Generation collectors, in great condition and for a very reasonable price. It later sold on Etsy, and she said demand for rarer items allows a higher markup.

'It makes me happy to know this book will find its way into the hands of someone who will truly appreciate it,' she wrote.

Answering the Ethics Question

Resellers are often accused of profiting from other people's losses, or from sellers who do not know what they have. Amanda said she values integrity, fairness, and transparency on both sides of a sale, and that the markup covers the labour of storing and caring for each piece as much as its scarcity.

She also responded to complaints that Goodwill and other thrift stores are driving up vintage prices, noting that charity shops, antique malls, and flea markets carry their own costs for storing, cleaning, and selling goods.

A Growing Resale Market for Vintage Sellers

ThredUp's 2026 Resale Report, compiled with analytics firm GlobalData, found that the US secondhand market grew nearly four times faster than the broader retail clothing market and projects it will reach $78.8B (£58.4B) by 2030. eBay, meanwhile, completed its $1.2B (£890M) purchase of resale app Depop from Etsy on 30 July 2026, the company announced.

'We factor in all the invisible work that goes into this business, but ultimately it's a labor of love,' Amanda wrote.