@depopdrama chronicles the wildest messages sent inside the no-holds-barred marketplace
After launching in 2011, Depop has become the go to place for all your 00s needs, redefining the way we buy and sell online in the process. In the time since, though, it’s become something akin to the Wild West for the bargain hunters who find themselves scrolling through its countless pages of bootleg Burberry bikinis and leather trenches. It’s a cold, hard world out there and, for die-hard Depoppers, it’s basically every man for himself – and if even singer, socialite, and bonafide reality superstar Sarah Harding struggles to shift her garms, then what hope do us mere mortals have?
With a community of over 13 million, the app was designed to encourage users to interact with one another, so it comes as no surprise that things often seem to get out of hand – which is where @depopdrama comes in. Run by an anonymous London-based creative, the Instagram chronicles screenshots of Depop messages exchanged by huns who just want to look lush for less and Casanovas more interested in your Snapchat than what’s on sale.
“People are behind a screen, and kind of know that they’re never going to meet the person on the other end of the messages,” explains the account’s founder. It’s likely this anonymity contributes to the reason users feel so comfortable making such outlandish requests: just take the Depopper requesting a 28 week payment plan for a pair of £28 pants or another emoji-littered message offering up 14p for a skirt if you’re looking for examples.
Having been a Depop user since 2015, @depopdrama has seen first hand what it can be like on the app. “I started getting these crazy messages from people and ended up screenshotting them and sending them to my mates. Before I knew it, I had a bit of an archive of images of all these messages,” they continue. “I thought if I’m surrounded by people who find them funny, surely others will too, so I started uploading them to Instagram. Before I knew it, it began to take off.”
Surprisingly, there are also a whole host of submissions in which people use their nan’s recent death or the fact they’ve just woken up from a coma(!) to get themselves a discount. “There are literally no boundaries. People are ruthless and they just don’t care.” But while many of the screenshots featured are pretty hilarious, @depopdrama also notes that there is a dark side to the app. “Seventy to eighty per cent of what I receive are submissions from girls that have had messages from boys and men sexually harassing them.” Apparently, nowhere is safe.
@depopdrama is now receiving over 250 submissions a week, with the founder claiming only around ten per cent of those make the cut. Generally, the ones you’ll see on the grid are the ones they find the funniest. “It’s usually the most silly ones, like the one where someone asked to see a photo of a jacket on and the seller took a photo of it with their dog wearing it. One of the most recent ones really got me, too – when the buyer wrote that they were ‘thinking of buying this’ and the seller just responded ‘buy it then’. It was just so simple.” If only everyone on there was so straighforward.
Check out the gallery above and hit follow on @depopdrama.
