Previous brides: Any luck selling your used dresses?

I bought my dress on Kijiji (Canada's Craigslist). So it works

The dress I bought was cleaned and I paid her $250. I wasn't willing to pay retails prices, so if you are looking to make back what you paid I don't think you'll have much luck. There were TONS listed online, some at ridiculously high prices, and I can see they had been posted and renewed online for months. Also, you have to be okay with people coming to your house to view it and try it on.

I bought my dress preowned on Kijiji like Helen. I paid $1000 for a dress that was $2900 new. It can work but I know the seller said that she waited awhile and had to decrease her asking price a lot. In the end she said a consignment store would have taken a large %.

My dress was originally $560. I got it at a sample sale at half off for $280. If I half off again to resell, it'd be $140. Hence why a $25 listing fee and $100+ dry cleaning kinda defeats the whole purpose.

In that case if you decide to sell it I would say don't bother cleaning it. Post it Craigslist as is and see what kind of interest you get.

Thanks, Helen. I'll give that a shot.

Just a random note: I actually handwashed my dress in the bathtub with gentle sunlight soap (it was clear not yellow soap). My dress is lace, tulle with an underlayer of poly and it seemed perfectly fine. Some of the dirt remained on the inside hem, but it wouldn't be visible while wearing it. Like you, I didn't pay much for my dress ($600) so cleaning it professionally etc etc just didn't even seem worth it. I laid it flat on a rack and dried it several days.

My only tip would be to use a really good photo of it. If your photog is ok with it, use one of your professional photos. For selling online, photos are everything.

ETA: FYI I kept my dress so I have no experience selling.

I finally sold my (brand new) original wedding dress after having it listed online for a few months. When looking through other ads, many used dresses were sold 'as-is', but obviously deeply discounted. I wouldn't worry about the cost of professional cleaning (provided it's in decent condition) and see if people will meet you in person to save on shipping costs (meeting in a public place, of course). Good luck!

This website has a calculator that might help: https://www.preownedweddingdresses.com/dresses/calculator

I'm not planning to sell my dress, but out of curiousity, I looked to see what my dress would be worth. I paid $1900 for my dress before alterations and it said I could sell it for $885. So don't expect to get back what you paid!

I sold mine on PreownedWeddingDresses.com. And I did it without it being cleaned. (I disclosed the issue, and a dress that is not silk can be hand washed.)

However, we've tried for years to sell NotFroofy's, and it hasn't worked. Part of the problem seems to be that we don't know the style number, so it's impossible for anyone to search for it. Part is that NotFroofy is only 5'1", and the dress was altered to fit no more than 5'3" (even counting her heels).

You could try eBay or Craigslist. But when I looked at dresses on eBay, it seemed like few people were bidding on them, and the prices they were selling for were so ridiculously low that it probably wouldn't be worth the effort.

@2d, I have the same issue with not knowing the style number. I know the store I bought it from, but I have no idea who the designer is. I'm 5'3" and I had the dress hemmed wearing flats... so yeah.

I agree eBay looked like a no-go for wedding selling. I think I'll give Craigslist a try.

I put my first dress everywhere. Unused, unaltered, even lowered the price down to $200. I ended up donating it to Brides Against Breast Cancer.

Yeah, I think if I don't sell it, I'll donate it. I would love to have it worn again by someone else, so I'd probably donate it to military brides or another charity that gifts weddings gowns.

Mine is listed on three sites and so far no bites. Been up for a couple weeks. New it was $3200 and selling for $1900. I didn't plan on getting it cleaned until sold.

One caution on Craigslist: You will almost certainly get people e-mailing and asking whether you will accept a certified check for something more than the price you're asking, and you wire them back the rest. It's a classic scam. (The certified check will bounce, and you'll be out the money you wired.) Wedding dresses seem to get those responses more than most other things.

Thanks for the tip. I see a lot posting for wedding dresses asking for cash only, so I guess I'll follow that.