Be Honest About Any Marks Stains Or Rips
Giving a detailed description ties in with the next point: youve got to be honest with your listing if you want to avoid any issues with the transaction.
If there are any stains, rips or marks its best to be honest from the beginning. Dry cleaning doesnt always remove every mark. But dont worry, stains and marks actually arent as likely to affect your selling prospects as much as you might think.
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Find A Reputable Site
Next, its time to research how youll sell your used wedding dress online. There are several services out there, each with its own pros and cons. Our top pick is Nearly Newlywed, a service that handles most of the legwork for you. All you have to do is send in wedding dress information and photos, and once your gown is approved, theyll take care of working with potential buyers, payments, shipping, and returns. Note: There is a $25 listing fee, and Nearly Newlywed charges 40 percent commission. You might also choose to sell your wedding dress on a site like Tradesy or even on Craigslist, but we recommend going with a site that specializes in wedding dress resale.
How To Sell Your Used Wedding Dress Online In 8 Easy Steps
Want to sell your used wedding dress after the big day? Heres an easy-to-follow guide to selling your gown online.
You fell in love with your wedding dress and wore it on your best day ever. Now that the big days over, you loathe the idea of letting your dream gown collect dust in your closetand the prospect of selling your used wedding dress sounds pretty appealing. Not only can you earn back some cash, your dress will get a second life. The process of selling your wedding dress online might seem a bit daunting, but by following a few simple steps, you can give your gown a better chance of selling quickly.
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Why Love Your Dress
At Love Your Dress, we know how important it is to have your gown in mint condition before you put it on the market, which is why we offer top-of-the-line wedding dress cleaning services to Torontonians. With our state of the art cleaning equipment and highly experienced dress cleaning experts, you can rest easy knowing your wedding dress will look as good as new when were done with it. Contact us today to get a free quote on our dress cleaning services!
Buy Or Sell Locally In A County Near You
Since Bride2bride is a marketplace of local listings, you can search for a bride selling her dress near you. Cut down on travel, avoid problems with postage and find a local seller using our search tools to see dresses for sale near your town, city or country and within a few miles radius of your home.
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Selling Your Wedding Dress Locally
If youd prefer to go a more traditional route and sell your wedding dress locally, head on over to your local thrift or boutique shop to see if theyll take it. You can also make use of platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist to sell your dress to people in your area for no additional fees.
Thats it! Armed with this guide on how and where to sell a wedding dress, youll get your gown off your hands in no time.
Average Price Of Second
On average, American brides pay about $1,600 for their wedding gown. Second-hand prices, in contrast, tend to be from 50% to 90% lower. How much you can earn depends on many factors, really.
First, the purchase date plays a significant role. The older the dress is, the more of its value it loses. Second, any damages and stains drastically lower the asking price for your used product. Third, the size may also play a role here. Average-sized dresses are easily found, and so the competition is enormous there.
That said, we cant give an estimate on how much money you can make today by selling your used dress. However, if its relatively new and in a spotless condition, you can expect to get at least 50% of its original price.
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Make Sure Your Listing Is Truthful And Detailed
Brides buying secondhand wedding dresses want as much information on the dresses theyre looking to buy so they can make the right buying decision.
When creating your listing, make sure that you include who designed or who manufactured it, what year, color, collection, and which store you bought it from. Also, indicate if you had it altered in any way.
If you had the dress professionally made, make sure you indicate it, as well as the exact measurements.
All of the information you include should be the truth if you lie, your buyer will find out when they get the dress anyway. You dont need the aggravation and bad karma of a return or a PayPal dispute, so just tell the truth the first time around.
Be Patient And Adjust Pricing If Needed
It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a year to sell a used wedding dress online. If its been a month or two and you havent received any interest, you might consider lowering the price, adding new photos or adding more information to the listing. If your dress doesnt sell in a reasonable time frame , you can always take down your listing and keep your dress.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, some of which may be sponsored by paying vendors.
Kim Forrest
Kim Forrest has been writing about weddings for over a decade, specializing in etiquette and… planning advice. Kim writes and edits much of the content youll read on WeddingWire, and also manages our team of freelance writers. Kims love of the wedding space first blossomed when she was an assistant editor at Washingtonian magazine in the mid-2000s . She became WeddingWires first full-time editor in 2012. Kim is originally from Long Island, New York and currently lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and two children. She loves baking, yoga, ballet, theater, trying out the latest skincare fads, and listening to podcasts on a variety of random topics.
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Get Your Dress Professionally Cleaned
According to Nearly Newlywed, wedding dresses that have been professionally cleaned sell up to twice as fast and have a lower rate of return. So if youre planning on selling your used wedding dress, the investment of having it cleaned is well worth it. There are even online companies that make the process a breezetheyll send you a shipping kit so you can send your gown directly to them and will ship your dress back once its in pristine condition.
Q: Shouldn’t I Save My Dress For My Daughter
No. You daughter will not want to wear your dress it will be out of style by that time, and clothes are only getting more and more affordable.
Plus, your dress represents a marriage that ended.
Take a picture, and show your kids the dress, and the rest of your wedding.
Then, get rid of that bad mojo, and model simple living, forgiveness, moving on and financial savvy!
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The Top Sites To Sell Your Wedding Dress Online
If youre looking to make some money by selling your wedding dress, check out the websites below. Many of them are specifically targeted toward brides looking to buy secondhand wedding-related items and save cash.
Some of these websites also offer wedding dress consignment options if thats something youre considering.
How Much Can I Get For My Wedding Dress
you can get for your used wedding dress depends on the brand of your dress and how old it is. As a general rule of thumb, designer lose value slower than lower-end dresses, but all wedding dresses lose an average of 40% of their retail value within the first two years.
After the first two years since you bought your dress, this devaluation trend reduces markedly, but if your dress is more than 10 years old, youll be lucky to sell it for 30% of its original value. If you think you might want to sell your wedding dress
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Take Excellent Care Of The Dress
Worn or unworn, immaculate or stained, taking care of the wedding dress before you sell it is a must.
Right after the wedding, hang it out to air dry. Dont wrap it, especially in plastic, before it has been cleaned, as this is a surefire way for stains and gross smells to set in.
Wine, makeup, sweat, blood, and perfume are the usual causes of stains on wedding dresses, so try to remove the stains as soon as you can before they set.
Get the dress professionally cleaned. It will cost a few hundred dollars, but its a worthy investment, whether or not you plan to sell it.
After taking photos of the wedding dress for your listing, make sure its stored in a dark, dry place with constant temperature.
Why Get Rid Of Your Wedding Dress
This is what Candice shared in the Millionaires Single Moms Facebook group:
I thought about it, was approached with a few requests, but at the end of the day, I just didnt want to wonder if someone else in that beautiful gown would end up with the same emotions I went through in a terrible marriage. So one day, after years of having it in my closet , I threw it in the garbage can and never felt better. It was very cathartic, emotionally empowering and I felt surprisingly free of guilt or remorse. That might not be for everyone, but it was for me.
3. You can sell it, and make some money, and feel good.
Said, Carrie:
Sold mine after we separated. I knew the sales girl at the shop and she told me that the bride who bought it cried when she put it on. It made me feel really good that such a beautiful dress made someone else happy.
4. You can donate it, and feel good + get a tax write-off
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Where Can I Sell My Wedding Dress
Image: Damien Vickers
If you want to sell your dress, then online marketplaces are a great place to start. Thanks to the power of the internet, it has never been easier to turn your beautiful wedding dress back into cash and these websites have made the whole process pretty enjoyable too.
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No : Provide Ample Pictures Of Your Wedding Dress
When preparing your dress for sale, take lots of pictures. Make sure you include:
- Stock photos: If possible, include stock photos from the company that made your dress in your listing. People who have a particular dress in mind will look for those photos.
- Pictures of alterations: If you had any special alterations done that changed the look of the dress, include photos of those changes, too. In my case, the seamstress added a French bustle to my gown. Brides.com, a leading wedding site, reported that adding a bustle can cost between $75 and $250. In my case, having the bustle already completed was an added selling feature for the dress.
- Wedding day photos: If possible, include photos from your wedding day to show the finished dress, and to highlight how beautiful it can look with your makeup and hair done.
- Take pictures of the dress after its cleaning and include a photo of the dry cleaner receipt as proof that it was cleaned. Include close-ups of any details, such as beading or lace, to show that its in good condition and that there arent missing elements or tears.
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The Best Places To Buy Or Sell Used Wedding Dresses Online
This post is the ultimate guide to selling a wedding dress online. If youre considering selling your wedding dress, weve rounded up the best information to help you decide the where, how, and why so you can turn your used dress into cash! If youre not sure what to do with your dress after the wedding day is over, why not consider selling it to another bride?
You Pay A Fee To Advertise Your Dress
Many believe you get what you pay for so maybe paying to advertise is better. So whats the cost to sell a wedding dress online? You can pay to list your dress on many large wedding dress websites for $20-$30. But as most dresses will not sell quickly youll be lured by these sites to spend $10-$50 more in extra promotional ad fees. So likely youll spend $30-$80 in total and a ton of time. Many websites say dresses sell within a year but it depends on the dress, price, condition, etc Again this is not the case and most dresses will not sell.
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Find Or Take Professional Pictures
The best way to make your gown stand out to potential buyers is with great photos. Professional, full-length shots of you in your dress are ideal, blurry photos of you trying on your gown in the salon less so. You can also provide photos of your dress on a hanger to show its current condition, but those shouldnt be the primary images for your listing. Buyers prefer to see how a dress looks on a human, not a hanger.
Give A Detailed Description Of The Dress
Be thorough in describing your dress – give the correct measurements , name the designer or brand, the model name or number, and the fabric, and mention whether it’s been worn and/or professionally cleaned. Keywords are important for anyone Googling and searching dress sights for particular dresses, so keep in mind what you’d be searching for in your description.
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Selling Your Wedding Dress
With over 50,000 registered users and thousands of visitors per month, you can be sure your dress will be seen by a wide audience of eager brides-to-be. And we provide all the help and advice you need, including tips on how best to advertise your dress.
How easy is it to sell my dress? Its quick, easy and secure to sell your gown on Bride2Bride. Your seller account lets you upload photos, edit the text of your listing, describe the size, designer, colour and fit.
