It's not a splurge—it's an investment.
As the sharing economy gains steam and consumers become more comfortable buying used fashions on the Web, online consignment store thredUP has compiled a list of brands that earn consumers the best return on investment when they want to sell their designer duds.
The list of high-end brands is full of the usual suspects: Gucci, Burberry and Chanel are some of the names that can earn resellers about $90 to $100 an item. But James Reinhart, co-founder and CEO of thredUP, said that mainstream brands are also leaving their mark on the site.
"I'm just always surprised at the brands that I don't think about as necessarily premium brands that you would be buying used," he said. Reinhart pointed to fast-fashion brand Zara as one of the most-searched labels on the site, a distinction also held by J.Crew and Lilly Pulitzer.
Mainstream retail brands typically bring in about $8 to $10 for resellers, according to thredUP's data. Brands such as Zara, which have a lower original price tag, typically sell for about $5.
ThredUp scanned its database of nearly 19,000 labels sold on its site in 2014, and pulled together a list of the contemporary brands—those that target a younger shopper and are less pricey than true luxury items—to see which give sellers the most bang for their buck.
Determining factors in a brand's performance include its original selling price and how in-demand it is among shoppers.
To see if your favorite brand made the list, click ahead.
—By CNBC's Krystina Gustafson
Posted 20 April 2015
