How To Sell Your Wedding Dress Fast
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Now your wedding is over, you may looking to sell your wedding dress fast and make some extra cash.
This post looks at what you need to do beforehand and the best places to sell your wedding dress online.
Selling your wedding dress can feel like a huge decision.
It’s an expensive item that for many people carries a lot of sentimentality so the selling can often feel like a big choice to make.
However, it could be the right one. You make some cash to spend and someone gets to love your dress as much as you did.
Plus it’s great for the environment, especially if your wedding dress has lots of non-recyclable adornments such as beads or sequins.
1. Get Your Wedding Dress Dry Cleaned
While this does incur an extra cost, it is essential if you want to sell your wedding dress fast.
Any potential buyers will want the process to be as easy as possible (especially if they are planning their wedding!) plus they might already be wary of extra costs such as needing to the dress altered.
Even if the dress doesn’t look dirty to you, knowing the dress has been dry cleaned and is ready to wear will be a huge green flag to anyone looking to purchase.
2. Check The Dress For Any Defaults
When listing a wedding dress for sale online, you’ll want to make sure you are completely honest about any faults, even the tiniest little marks and loose threads.
Be sure to check underneath the dress too if it is floor length as this can become damaged from being on the ground all day.
Plenty of wedding dresses do sell, even with faults, it’s just important to be upfront about them or face potential hassle from an unhappy buyer afterwards.
3. Look Into Potential Shipping Costs
If you’re happy to ship your wedding dress to ensure that it sells fast, you’ll want to look into shipping costs before listing it online.
Being a potentially heavy, and expensive item, you might want to look into the cost of a courier and signed for delivery.
4. Take Clear Photographs In Good Light
Before selling your wedding dress online, you’ll need to take lots of photographs of your dress in good light and from lots of different angles.
The more pictures, the better!
However, don’t be tempted to use a filter as this can distort the colours.
Some brides are happy to use their wedding photos to show how the dress looks on a person but don’t worry if this isn’t something you want to do.
You could also photograph the label so you’re clear on the designer’s name and the size of the dress. It’s also worth taking the time to write a detailed description.
5. Remember You Won’t Get What You Paid For It
Even though wedding dresses are hugely expensive, their value does depreciate a fair bit, even after only one use.
Remember you are very unlikely to get what you paid for the dress, especially as most brides shopping second-hand are usually looking for a bargain.
Being realistic about pricing means your wedding dress will sell faster. Take a look at dresses that have recently sold by the same brand or designer to get an idea of how much they sell for.
Where To Sell A Wedding Dress
Here are my top picks for where you can sell your wedding dress.
eBay
Selling on eBay gives you access to a huge audience of engaged buyers. You can choose a minimum price to sell your dress for and then hopefully bids between two or more people will help to push up the final selling price.
And with the recent introduction of no fees when selling your old clothes, you’ll keep everything you make.
Vinted
Vinted is my go-to for selling my old items online.
There are no fees for sellers and you’ll be getting your wedding dress in front of many of the Vinted app’s eight million UK users.
It’s worth keeping in mind that typically people shopping on Vinted are looking for a bargain – so if you’re selling a designer dress worth thousands, this might not be the right platform for you.
Vinted only covers lost or damaged items up to £500 – so if you sell your wedding dress for more than this, £500 is the maximum you’d get back if there are any issues.
I think Vinted is the best choice for selling a high-street wedding dress, a dress from China or a dress that was already pre-loved.
Facebook Marketplace
There are definite pros and cons to selling your wedding dress on Facebook Marketplace.
One of the pros is that it allows you to sell your dress locally, which means no worrying about shipping. In many cases on Facebook Marketplace, the buyer will collect.
You may also want to allow potential buyers to try on the dress, which could increase the chances of a sale.
There are many dedicated wedding buying and selling groups on Facebook, making it easy to get your dress in front of the right people.
However, one area where Facebook is lacking is in buyer and seller protection.
If anything goes wrong, you have no comeback in the way you would with Vinted or eBay – which means selling on Facebook Marketplace could be considered riskier than other options.
Gumtree
Gumtree is another popular site for selling items online. While it doesn’t have the audience size of the apps listed above, it does have a handy ‘urgent’ feature where you can boost your listing for seven at a cost of £11.99 – perfect if you want to sell your wedding dress fast.
Preloved
Just like Gumtree, Preloved is another online classified ads site where you could try to sell your wedding dress.
Depop & Shpock
These shopping apps are similar to Vinted, however as a seller, you would pay fees.
While there are wedding dresses for sale on these sites, I think you’d have better luck using either eBay or Vinted.
Where To Sell An Unused Wedding Dress
You can use any of the above sites to sell a wedding dress that hasn’t been used. While you might not quite get the RRP for it, you should be able to sell it for more than a dress that has been worn.
What Else Can I Do With My Wedding Dress?
If you’re struggling to sell your wedding dress or have changed your mind about selling it, here are some things you could consider doing instead.
Donate Your Wedding Dress
You could donate your wedding dress to a charity – this could either be to a local charity shop, a charity that specialises in helping people with terminal illnesses get married or a dedicated wedding dress charity shop.
Frame Your Wedding Dress
Have you considered framing your wedding dress in a display case? This has become and increasingly popular option for brides who want to keep their wedding dress but don’t want it hidden away.
How To Sell Your Wedding Dress Fast – Final Tips
- Price competitively for a fast sale – typically second-hand clothes sell for around 25% of the RRP.
- Choosing to sell your wedding dress on several selling sites might seem like a great idea, but it might become tricky to keep up with. And remember, as soon as your dress sells, you’ll need to remove it from anywhere else it has been listed immediately.
- Use paid features like ‘urgent’ on Gumtree and ‘bump’ on Vinted to get more views on your listing.
- Try selling your wedding dress in a dedicated wedding group on Facebook.
I hope this post helps if you want to sell your wedding dress fast!
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