Aspirational Labor
A concept coined by Erin Duffy that refers to work performed in the hopes of future rewards, often without immediate compensation. In reselling, aspirational labor describes the effort resellers put into building their brand or online presence, often with the dream of achieving greater success or financial stability.

Care Work
The often unpaid or undervalued labor that involves maintaining the well-being of individuals and communities. In the context of reselling, care work can include the time and emotional labor spent managing customer relations, curating listings, or engaging with reseller communities—tasks that aren’t financially compensated but are essential for business success.

Diverse Economies
A concept that broadens traditional views of the economy by recognizing non-market and informal work as valuable economic activities. In the context of secondhand economies, it highlights how resellers contribute to a circular economy that operates outside the boundaries of traditional capitalist production, incorporating donations, bartering, gifting, inheriting and alternative exchange systems.

Double Burden/Shift
The dual responsibilities of paid employment and unpaid domestic or care work, often disproportionately done by women. The double burden reveals deep gender inequalities within economic systems, as domestic responsibilities are often undervalued or ignored by traditional economic analyses. This impacts women’s career opportunities, income, and overall well-being. Many resellers and other gig workers feel this double or even triple burden: they use reselling as an additional flexible form of income to accommodate care work; but also have time constraints which can limit their business.

Intersectionality
A framework for understanding how various social identities (e.g., gender, race, class) intersect and impact individual experiences, particularly with regard to power and oppression. In reselling, intersectionality helps explain the diverse challenges faced by resellers from different backgrounds, especially in navigating platform rules and market dynamics.

Invisible Labor
Work that is essential but often goes unpaid and unrecognized within traditional economic metrics. This includes caregiving, emotional support, and community maintenance, which are predominantly performed by women and marginalized groups. These forms of labor sustain households and communities but are typically excluded from standard economic models. In the context of reselling, invisible labor extends to caring for and repairing secondhand items, as well as the demands imposed by digital platforms. Platforms further obscure this labor through the extensive, unpaid time resellers spend finding, cleaning, and preparing items for sale. Additionally, resellers face hidden labor demands in meeting platforms’ interaction requirements, such as constant sharing, listing updates, and engagement.

Time Poverty
A concept referring to the lack of time available to complete necessary work and personal tasks, often affecting gig workers like resellers who must juggle multiple roles. Time poverty highlights the unpaid or invisible labor in platform-based economies, where algorithmic demands (e.g., constant sharing, listing updates) add to the workload without compensation.

Time Use
A way of measuring how time is being allocated to different activities, including paid and unpaid tasks, usually to identify, measure and intervene on time poverty. For resellers, time use reveals hidden labor such as sourcing, cleaning, photographing, and constant platform interactions needed to maintain visibility and sales. A focus on time use advocates for platform designs and policies that respect workers' time, reduce repetitive tasks, and support a healthier work-life balance.

Wellbeing
In feminist economics, well-being goes beyond just profit, focusing on factors like work-life balance, health, social support, and autonomy. Gibson & Graham discuss 5 kinds of wellbeing in their well-being scorecard: Material, Occupational, Social. Community and Physical. In secondhand economies, we can use this perspective to understand what aspects of our secondhand activities contribute to our individual and communal wellbeing. This focus can help resellers advocate for fairer income structures, supportive community features, transparent systems, and legal protections.