# Record sales, wider losses at The RealReal

> The RealReal just posted its best quarter ever on volume, and its worst in years on the GAAP bottom line.
- Title: Record sales, wider losses at The RealReal · Yahoo Finance
- Summary: The RealReal just posted its best quarter ever on volume, and its worst in years on the GAAP bottom line. Most of the widening loss is a non-cash warrant…
- Keywords: resale, luxury, earnings, stocks, accounting, business, finance, Record, sales, wider, losses, RealReal
- Source: Yahoo Finance — https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/realreal-real-posts-record-sales-134612583.html
- Published: 2026-09-13T13:46:12+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: resale, luxury, earnings, stocks, accounting, business, finance
## Best quarter, biggest loss
On August 6, The RealReal beat its own outlook and raised full-year guidance. Gross merchandise value hit a record $617 million, up 22%. Net loss got worse anyway.
## The growth is broad
Revenue rose 17% to $193 million. Consignment grew 15% and the owned-inventory Direct channel grew 26%, so both halves of the business are pulling.
## Margins moved too
Gross margin reached 74.4%, up 10 basis points. Adjusted EBITDA margin jumped to 7%, an improvement of nearly 300 basis points from a year earlier.
## Shoppers spending more
Active buyers over the trailing year rose 11% to 1,107,000, and average order value climbed 13% to $659. Existing customers are buying pricier items, not just visiting more.
## A warrant, not the business
Net loss widened to $27 million from $11 million, and GAAP loss per share hit $0.23. An $18.6 million non-cash warrant fair-value charge drove most of it. Non-GAAP loss per share narrowed to $0.01.
## No bridge to GAAP
The company won't reconcile its forward Adjusted EBITDA guidance to GAAP, blaming unpredictable items like payroll tax on stock transactions. Investors get a target with no bottom-line math behind it.

> cannot predict with reasonable certainty
## Wall Street is split
Hedge fund holders rose to 47 from 45, but short interest sits at 15.29% of float and the forward P/E is 40.98. Priced for growth, with a loud bear camp betting against it.
## Key takeaway

Most of the widening loss is a non-cash warrant charge, so the real test is whether 20%-plus growth keeps feeding Adjusted EBITDA before a 41x multiple runs out of patience.