Woman pays off $80K in student loan debt by reselling clothes

By GMA Team & Isha Battu

A 27-year-old has turned her side hustle reselling thrifted items into her full-time job after she paid off about $80,000 in student loan debt in just three years.

Kelsey Mikula said she first started reselling products as a young girl couponing with her grandmother.

Over the years, she turned her part-time focus into a lucrative endeavor and now shares her reselling journey on TikTok.

"I was making more money reselling thrifting items and selling them online for profit than I was working an administration job at a hospital," Mikula told "Good Morning America."

Mikula now strategically spends about $1,800 buying clothes before posting them online at a higher price and pulls in a net profit of about $12,000 per month reselling items.

Kelsey Mikula, 27, as turned reselling thrifted items from a side hustle into her full-time job.

"I will go to a thrift store locally. I'll look for items for profit," Mikula said of her process. "This involves a lot of researching, looking through item by item. From there, I'll check what it's selling for on eBay and decide whether it's worth it for me, worth my time, to pick up that item. And once I do find something that's worth selling, I'll bring it home. I'll throw it up on a wall, photograph it, and I'll list it to Poshmark, eBay, all the different sites. Once it sells, I'll ship it to the customer."

Mikula credits some of her success to a growing interest in sustainability and secondhand shopping, along with the convenience and ease of buying and selling items online.

"I get a lot of comments of people almost sticking up for resellers saying that 'I don't want to go thrifting to find this item. So, I'm happy to pay somebody else to find the item for me,'" said Mikula.

For others looking to resell items online, Mikula encourages them to start by taking a closer look at items they already have at home.

"I know you have stuff lying around in your closet that you can find. Health and beauty items sell really well. Go through your own personal belongings and get started," Mikula said.