A Devon, UK orthopedic nurse quit her job just four months after getting into second-hand reselling, earning as much or more from selling second-hand clothing online than from nursing — she started with £10 worth of charity shop goods, now averages 150 sales a month, and has dedicated a room at home to store inventory.

Key Points

  • 32-year-old Chloe Thompson was an orthopedic nurse and quit nursing to resell second-hand full-time just four months after starting.
  • She initially invested only £10 in charity shop items and cleared out part of her own wardrobe; she now has about 500 active listings and sells around 150 items a month on average.
  • Her sourcing is mainly charity shops and wholesaler bales/boxes, with per-item cost generally no more than £5 and selling prices typically between £15 and £30.

Chloe Thompson, 32, from Devon, UK, originally worked in orthopedic nursing. She got into second-hand buying and selling while helping out with her partner's antique business, and soon realized her interest in clothing and bags far outweighed her day job, so she decided to give it a try herself. She had never used the second-hand resale platform Vinted (a UK second-hand trading platform) before, and went all in on her first attempt: her startup capital was just £10 worth of charity shop goods, plus a few old items from her own wardrobe.

Not long after starting, she had a sale that stuck with her: a denim jacket bought for £12 that ultimately sold for £70. That kind of profit margin gave her the confidence to turn her side hustle into her main job. Four months later, she officially quit nursing. She says the core appeal of reselling is the flexibility; income fluctuates month to month, with peak months clearly higher than her previous nursing income and slow months close to it. She cautions that unstable income is a reality anyone running their own business must be mentally prepared for.

On sourcing, she mainly buys from charity shops and wholesalers. When buying from wholesalers, it is usually an entire bale or box of clothing, and before it arrives she has no idea what brands or conditions are inside. She sees this kind of "blind buying" as the norm in reselling and is quite interested in this way of operating, which is so different from ordinary retail logic. To control risk, her per-item cost is generally no more than £5 unless it is a particularly rare piece; for selling, she relies on Vinted and eBay, with prices mostly between £15 and £30, and occasionally higher. She currently has about 500 active listings and sells around 150 items a month on average.

As she scales up, she is considering renting an office or warehouse to solve her space problem — inventory has already filled an entire room at home. She believes seasonal changes are the best sales moments, because people refresh their wardrobes; next she will focus on the holiday sales peak. Rather than single large sales, she values sustained business growth: from never having used Vinted at all to stockpiling enough goods to fill a room, the whole process feels a bit unreal to her.

For resellers just starting out, she advises not being afraid to make mistakes: from choosing products and pricing to taking photos, writing listings, and figuring out which platform suits which item, it is all learned by doing, and many lessons are more valuable than success stories.

Source: Devon woman makes so much from side-hustle she quit job as a nurse · Originally published 2026-09-30