TEXAS — Chris Hatfield, a 43-year-old Texas reseller, spends five days a week digging through Goodwill bins to find clothes, bags, and other items that he and his wife, Stacy, then sell on Whatnot, a livestreaming auction site. The former pest control worker has been in the reselling business for ten years and describes himself as a "fast nickel, not slow dime" seller.

Hatfield and his wife aim to scoop up 150 to 200 pounds of merchandise each day at Goodwill, where items are priced at $1.99 per pound. He calls his wife's strategy for grabbing merchandise "the claw machine." He said he does not wear gloves when sorting items so he can feel their quality. The average sale price for his items on Whatnot is $11.21 per item.

"Our typical goal is to make $1,000 profit every day," Hatfield said. He estimated that about three-quarters of his customer base consists of other resellers. In one instance, a customer bought a dress from him for $39 and later sold it for $140.

"I'm not trying to get max dollar because I know the next day I'm going to be right back here digging," he said. He previously livestreamed auctions of merchandise from inside a Goodwill outlet before purchasing items there. That outlet closed, and the new location's hours prevent the same livestream process.

The U.S. secondhand apparel market is expected to reach $79 billion by 2030 and is growing four times as fast as the retail clothing market, according to a report from ThredUp and GlobalData. Nearly half of American consumers said they had made a secondhand purchase over the past three months, according to a Morning Consult survey. Over 100 billion garments are produced worldwide each year, double the number produced in 2000.

The secondhand industry has deep roots in American retail. Goodwill was founded in 1902, and the Salvation Army was founded in 1897. Flea markets became popular among artists and musicians in the 1920s and 1930s. The term "vintage" began to be used to describe secondhand clothing by the mid-20th century. Thrift stores flourished during the economic turmoil of the 1970s, and grunge fashion emerged as a prominent style trend in the 1990s.

Jennifer Le Zotte, an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and author of "From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies," said, "Periodically, young people think, 'Oh, wow, this is a really cool resource, why hasn't anyone thought of this before?' And they do, they have, and every generation kind of makes it their own."

Professional resellers sell merchandise on platforms such as eBay, Depop, and Whatnot. Small and medium-sized businesses account for 70 percent of eBay's sales in its largest markets. Depop, an online fashion marketplace, is being sold by Etsy to eBay.