How to Price Second-Hand Clothes: A Step-by-Step Method

Step 1: find comparable listings

Search the platform where you will sell for the same brand, the same type of item, your size and a similar condition. Look at the asking prices, then look at which listings have disappeared recently. A listing at £40 that has sat for two months tells you less than one at £25 that vanished last week. Never read an asking price as a sale price: you are looking at what sellers hope for.

Resale IQ's price checker does the comparison for supported brands from listings it watches. Treat its numbers as watched departures, listings that left the shelf, not confirmed sale receipts.

Step 2: adjust for condition, season and completeness

New with tags and unworn items sit at the top of the range. Visible wear, bobbling, fading or a missing belt moves you down. Seasonal items sell better just before their season; a winter coat is easier to move in October than in May. The seasonal reselling calendar lays out the pattern.

Step 3: subtract the platform's cut

What you keep is the price minus fees and any postage you pay. The platforms take very different amounts, so the same item at the same price pays you differently depending on where you list.

Step 4: leave room, then review

Buyers on Vinted and Depop expect to offer. If your floor is £15, listing at £18 to £20 lets you accept a fair offer without feeling you gave it away. If the item gets views but no offers, lower the price a little; if it gets no views, the problem is the photos or the title, not the price. See how to get more views on Vinted.

Bundle discounts are the easiest way to move several cheap items to one buyer, and a bundle spreads the fixed costs of postage.

Use the tools in this order

1. Compare live listings, or run the item through the price checker.

2. Put your price into the fee calculator for the platform you chose and read off your payout.

3. If you bought the item or a lot, the lot calculator shows the cost per piece, so you know your floor.

4. Photograph it well with the photo tool. A better first photo is worth more than a lower price.

What this method does not do

It does not predict what a particular item will fetch, and it does not guarantee a sale or a margin. It makes sure you do not price below what a platform's fees and your own costs leave you. Rare, vintage and designer pieces can sit outside any comparison, and for those a specialist platform or an expert opinion is worth more than a rule of thumb.

A worked example, start to finish

Say you want to sell a wool coat you bought for £18 at a charity shop, in your size, in good condition. You search the platform for the same brand and type and find asking prices between £30 and £55, with a few listings that have vanished in the past two weeks at around £35 to £40.

You decide £38 is realistic and list at £42 so you can accept £38 to £40 on an offer. On Vinted UK there is no selling fee, so £38 reaches you in full; on eBay UK, a private seller to a UK buyer also pays no final value fee; on Depop UK, with £4 postage charged, processing would be £1.52 on a £38 item with £4 postage. Take away the £18 you paid and the postage you cover, and you can see your result before you list.

If nothing happens after two weeks, you look at the photos first, then drop the price to £36 and re-check after another week. That is the whole method: compare, subtract, leave room, review. It will not make a weak item sell, but it keeps you from selling a good item for less than it is worth.

Frequently asked questions