What Buyers Mean by "Credential Clothing"
In the wholesale used clothing trade, "credential clothing" — also called credentials, credential bales, or raw credentials — is donated clothing sold exactly as it was collected. It comes off nonprofit donation routes and bins, gets compressed into bales, and goes to the buyer without being sorted, picked, or graded.
That's what separates it from most wholesale used clothing on the market. Many bales sold wholesale have already been run across a sorting line, with the best pieces pulled and sold separately. Credential clothing hasn't. You get the full mix, including the pieces that would have been pulled first.
What's Inside a Credential Clothing Bale
A credential bale is a cross-section of whatever the public donated on that route: everyday clothing in every size, denim, athletic wear, name brands, vintage, accessories, and household textiles. The mix shifts with the source region, which is why sourcing matters as much as price. Bales typically weigh 800 to 1,100 lbs and ship strapped and palletized. For the full breakdown, see What Are Raw Credential Bales?
Where to Buy Untouched Credential Clothing in the USA
Buyers looking for a credential clothing supplier in the United States usually want unsorted donations, not a grade that has already been picked. Rawbales sells raw credential clothing collected from charity donation routes across the US. Brands are not guaranteed. Supply can come from more than one region. Rawbales does not sell from its own stock.
The minimum order is 10,000 lbs. A micro load at that weight ships as loose bags, not bales, at $0.70–$0.78/lb plus freight, in select states. A full load is 40,000 lbs or more, in bales, at $0.53–$0.60/lb plus freight, for a US dock or an export container. Payment is upfront, before shipping. Freight depends on distance from the load's origin.
Start with micro loads, full container loads, or export by country. Compare the product with raw vs graded bales and how to buy wholesale used clothing.
Why Credential Clothing Moves by the Full Load
Credential clothing is sold by the truckload — around 40,000 lbs at a time — because that's how the operations that process it buy: sorting facilities, rag houses, wholesalers, and exporters. A full load gets the lowest freight cost per pound, comes straight from the source with nobody splitting it or picking through it, and keeps a sorting line fed.
Buying Credential Clothing by the Full Load
A full load is 40,000 lbs of 100% raw credential clothing — roughly 36 to 50 bales — at one per-pound rate:
- ·Load size: 40,000 lbs — one full trailer or container
- ·Price: $0.53–$0.60/lb for raw credential clothing, one rate per load
- ·Product total: $21,200–$24,000 per load, before freight
Freight is quoted separately based on your delivery ZIP or, for export, your destination port. Here's how to figure your landed cost per pound.
Questions to Ask Any Credential Clothing Supplier
- ·Is it actually raw? Has anything been pulled — cream, brands, vintage?
- ·Where does it come from — direct donation routes, or another broker's inventory?
- ·What's the minimum order, and is the quoted price before or after freight?
- ·How often do you run pulls, and can I set up a recurring order?
We'll answer every one of those before you commit. Start an order request here.