Unclaimed Cash on 'GMA:' Three Women Clean Their Closets In Hopes of a Cash Payoff
July 5, 2011 -- They're a fixture in every home - closets full of the clothes we had to buy, but still have yet to wear.
There are closets that are practically a store, with items kept in every size, just in case.
And then there are those closets full of the faded jeans and fringe jackets from the '70s because you never know what could come back in style.
The good news?
Those underused, overstuffed closets could be turned around from clothes chaos into cash for you.
Click HERE for tips on turning junk-drawer finds into cold hard cash!
"You don't have to have designer, luxury items in your closet," Karen Bard Sayah, Fashion PR & Social Media Managertrend expert for the online shopping site eBay, told "Good Morning America."
"Designers that we all know and love sell really well on eBay," Bard Sayah said. "Things from stores like the Gap and JCrew, they really hold their value."
To see just what kind of value everyday clothes can hold, "GMA" embarked on a closet challenge, inviting three women to open their closet doors to see what, if any, hidden treasures could be buried among the piles.
The first woman to try our closet challenge on for size was Cathy Breck, a pregnant mother of one whose closet in her Old Greenwich, Conn., home, we discovered, was a reflection of her optimistic personality and full of pre-pregnancy clothes she hoped would one day fit again.
"I mean, I want to save it, I think I'm going to get into it," she said of the size-6 shirts, pants and dresses that filled her closet walls. "But the reality is I don't think I'm getting into half these clothes."
As Breck's closet contents were revealed, we discovered her closets were also practically a designer outlet, full of high-end labels from Michael Kors to Tory Burch.
"One of the most popular brands on eBay for bags is Tory Burch," Bard Sayah said.
"A bag like this can go for upwards of $175," she said, pointing to just one of the bags buried at the bottom of Breck's closet.
From the designer outlet hidden in Breck's closet, we headed to the Farmingdale, Long Island, home of Denise Cavrell and discovered her closet was really not a closet, but an entire basement full of old clothes.
"I'm thinking how many clothes can one person possibly ever wear?" asked Denise's husband, Paul, of the clothes accumulation he was ready to see leave his home.
But Denise found it harder to part with her old items, a common problem that leads to closet overload instead of cold hard cash.
"This was my prom dress," Denise said, pointing to a gold lame number. "You know, I hate to part with this because I have good memories."
Once Denise got past her memories, she got to work, pulling out a dress, designer suits and then, from the very back of her closet, old maternity clothes from the popular "Mimi Maternity" line that could be her big payoff.
"Someone sold her maternity lot for $405 dollars," Bard Sayah said of a previous seller on eBay who sold all her old maternity clothes on the site as one package instead of listing them each individually, a smart way to raise the items' value.
The final leg of "GMA's" closet challenge led us to the Riverside, Conn., home of Elizabeth Barth, a former Wall Street power broker whose closet was full of old 9-to-5 power suits she had traded in for more "play-date" friendly gear.
"I never wear a suit, ever," Barth admitted as she looked at what was taking up all the space in her closet. "So, goodbye suit."
Barth also managed to dig out, and say goodbye to, more casual clothes, from a pair of JCrew wedge sandals to pants and even a cowboy hat, that she knew were past their prime for her style, but could possibly earn her cash.
