ThredUp: Secondhand holiday gifts grow in popularity
Any stigma around giving or receiving secondhand items for the holidays is receding, reveals a new study.
More than six-in-10 (62%) surveyed U.S. consumers plan to purchase secondhand goods during the upcoming holiday season, according to the "2026 Holiday Resale Report” from online resale platform ThredUp. In addition, 55% say they would rather receive a one-of-a-kind, vintage or hard-to-find secondhand gift in excellent condition than a brand-new, mass-produced version.
They study also reveals that respondents planning to buy secondhand expect to put an average of 37% of their holiday gift budget toward secondhand items. This figure rises to 45% among millennial respondents intending to purchase secondhand gifts.
In addition, 30% of respondents expect secondhand to help them buy gifts for more people, up from 23% in 2025. However, when receiving a secondhand gift, respondents value uniqueness nearly as much as savings, and millennials rank it first.
[READ MORE: ThredUp: Consumers increasing holiday spending on secondhand gifts]
Other findings from the survey are below.
•More than half (53%) of respondents have sold or expect to sell items they own to help pay for the holidays, rising to 66% of Gen Z and 69% of millennials.
•More than four-in-10 (42%) respondents expect to spend more than last year, and more than half have sold or expect to sell from their closets to help pay for the holidays.
•Three-in-four (74%) respondents made at least one tradeoff during the 2025 holiday season, most often going without something for themselves (38%) or spending less on a gift than they wanted.
•More than eight-in-10 (84%) of respondents said they would like a gift they already loved the same or more if they learned it was secondhand.
“For years, a secondhand gift was the budget choice,” said James Reinhart, ThredUp co-founder and CEO. “Now it’s the thoughtful one. People want gifts that feel personal and one-of-a-kind, and secondhand is where they’re finding them.”
READ MORE: Secondhand shopping rises, fueled by economic concerns
ThredUp’s 2026 Holiday Resale Report combines consumer survey data from GlobalData, a third-party retail analytics firm, with ThredUp’s proprietary marketplace data. GlobalData conducted the survey for ThredUp from Sept. 4-18, 2026, among 2,123 U.S. adults, nationally representative by age, gender, location and income. Year-over-year survey comparisons are based on respondents’ recollection of the 2025 holiday season.
ThredUp has become one of the world's largest online resale platforms for apparel, shoes, and accessories and has processed more than 250 million unique secondhand items from 60,000 brands across 100 categories.
