Pricing is the part of selling vintage that keeps most people up at night. Price too high and a good piece sits for months. Price too low and it sells in an hour and you wonder what you left on the table. The good news is that pricing a one-of-a-kind piece is less about instinct than it looks. It comes down to five questions, asked in order.
- What have pieces like this actually sold for recently?
- Is mine in better or worse condition than those?
- Does its era, brand or detail make it more or less wanted?
- What will the fees take where I'm selling it?
- How long am I willing to wait for the right buyer?
How VYA helps with pricing: add a piece and VYA's pricer finds comparable pieces for you, keeps the true matches and suggests a price on a scale that runs from a quick sale to top demand. Your own price shows on the same scale, and the final call is always yours. See how pricing works.
1. Start with sold prices, not asking prices
Anyone can ask any price. What tells you a piece's value is what buyers have already paid. Search for sold listings, not live ones, and look at the last three months where you can. Older sales drift as trends move.
A good comparable, or "comp", matches yours on as many of these as possible:
- Brand and line. A designer's main line and its diffusion line are different markets.
- Type of piece. A blazer is not a coat, even from the same label.
- Era. A 1980s piece and a 2000s reissue can carry the same name and very different prices.
- Material and size. Silk, wool, leather and cashmere move prices. So does a size that fits more people.
- Condition. Compare like with like, then adjust (more on that below).
Aim for five to ten close matches. Throw out anything that looks like a mistake, such as a designer coat sold for $8 or a high price that was clearly a typo. Then price from the middle of what's left, not the top. The highest sale you find is usually the luckiest one.
If you can't find close comps, widen the search one step at a time: same brand and era in a different colour, then the same type of piece from a comparable label. Write down which comps you used. When the piece sells, or doesn't, you'll know what to change next time.
This is the step VYA's pricer does for you. It searches for pieces like yours, sold ones where it can find them, sets aside the ones that aren't true matches and any stray prices, and prices from what's left. See how listing works.
2. Adjust for condition, honestly
Most comps you find will be in good to excellent condition, because that's what sells. Start from there and move up or down. These are rough starting points, not rules.
| Condition | What it means | Against a comp in excellent condition |
|---|---|---|
| New with tags | Never worn, original tags attached. | Up 10 to 25%, more for collectable labels. |
| Excellent | Worn, with no visible flaws. | About the same. |
| Very good | Light wear you'd only notice up close. | Down 10 to 15%. |
| Good | Visible wear: fading, pilling, a small mark. | Down 25 to 40%. |
| Flawed | Holes, stains or repairs needed. | Down 50% or more, unless the piece is rare. |
Photograph every flaw and name it in the description. A buyer who was told about a small mark rarely returns the piece. A buyer who finds it themselves often does, and a return costs you twice: the shipping and the sale. When VYA drafts a listing from your photos, it suggests a condition grade from the wear it can see and asks you to confirm it.
3. Era, age and what's wanted right now
Old doesn't automatically mean valuable. A piece is worth more because of its age only when buyers are looking for that age. Demand for a decade rises and falls, and a style that was hard to give away three years ago can be the first thing to sell today.
Dating a piece correctly protects your price. Labels, care tags, country of manufacture, union labels and zip hardware all help. A piece you can confidently describe as 1970s will usually sell for more than one listed as "vintage" with no date, because the buyer trusts it.
Then check what's moving now. Which designers and styles are selling faster than last season, and which are slowing down? Sorting sold listings by most recent, and noticing which pieces sell within days, helps here and when you're deciding what to buy in the first place.
4. Brand, details and the piece itself
Two pieces from the same label can be worth very different amounts. Things that push a price up:
- A recognisable designer, season or collection, especially one people search for by name.
- Quality materials and construction: lined jackets, natural fibres, real leather, heavy hardware.
- Details buyers look for, like a distinctive print, an unusual colourway or a sought-after cut.
- A size that fits more people. Vintage sizing runs small, so give measurements in every listing.
Things that pull it down: alterations that can't be undone, missing belts or buttons, strong smells, and very small or very large sizes in a style that sells mostly in the middle.
5. Work the fees into the price
Every place you sell takes a share, and the share is different in each. The figures below are approximate and change often, so check each one's current fee page before you rely on them.
| Where you sell | What it typically takes from the seller |
|---|---|
| Your own website | Card processing, around 2.9% plus 30 cents in the US, plus whatever your shop software costs each month. |
| eBay | A final value fee of around 13.6% on most clothing, charged on the total including shipping, plus a small per-order fee. Handbags and some other categories have their own rates. |
| Depop | No selling fee for US and UK sellers since 2024. Payment processing, around 3.3% plus 45 cents in the US, still applies, and boosted listings cost extra when they sell. |
| Vestiaire Collective | A commission that changes with the price of the piece, plus a payment processing fee. Use their fee calculator before you set a price. |
To find the price that leaves you what you want, work backwards:
List price = (what you want to keep + any fixed fee) ÷ (1 − fee rate)
Say you want to keep $60 on eBay, with a 13.6% fee and a 40 cent order fee: ($60 + $0.40) ÷ 0.864 = $69.91. List it at $70, not $65.
Many sellers set a slightly higher price where fees are higher and keep their own website as the best place to buy. If you sell in more than one place, keep a note of each price so a buyer who asks gets a straight answer. If you cross-list with VYA, you can give each marketplace its own price, and any marketplace you leave blank follows your shop price.
6. Leave room for offers
On marketplaces where buyers make offers, they will. Before you list, decide the lowest price you'd accept, your floor, and set your asking price 10 to 15% above it. That way you can say yes to a fair offer without losing money, and say no to a low one without second-guessing yourself.
Answer offers quickly. A buyer who waits a day has often bought something else.
7. When to discount, and when not to
A piece that hasn't sold isn't always overpriced. Before you cut the price, look at why it's sitting:
- Few views: people aren't finding it. Fix the title, the first photo and the category before touching the price.
- Plenty of views and likes, no sale: people want it but not at this price. This is when a price drop works.
- Out of season: a wool coat in July is waiting for its moment. Hold it, or price it to move if you need the space.
A simple rhythm many shops use is to review a piece after 30 days, take 10 to 15% off if the signs point to price, and review again at 60 and 90 days. VYA's sold page shows how many days each piece took to sell, which tells you what a normal wait looks like in your shop. Our guide to reading your store's data covers days to sell and sell-through in more detail. Small, steady drops tend to work better than one big cut, and some marketplaces let you tell people who liked the piece that the price came down.
Don't discount everything at once. Your best pieces set the tone for the whole shop. If a rare piece hasn't sold in a month, that's often normal. Bundles, a sale section for older stock and fresh photos are all good ways to move pieces without marking down the ones that make your shop worth visiting.
A quick pricing checklist
- Five to ten sold comps from the last three months, outliers removed.
- Price from the middle, then adjust for condition.
- Era dated and stated, with the details that prove it.
- Brand, materials and measurements in the listing.
- Fees worked in for each place you sell.
- A floor set before the first offer arrives.
- A date in the diary to review it if it hasn't sold.
How VYA helps
VYA is shop software built for one-of-one pieces. For pricing, that means:
- A suggested price for every piece. The pricer finds comparable pieces, sold ones where it can, and suggests a price between a quick sale and top demand.
- Your price on the same scale. You see where your number sits before you publish, and you always set it yourself.
- A price for each marketplace. Set a higher price on eBay or Depop where fees are higher, and leave your own site's price as it is.
- Listings drafted from your photos. Brand, era, material and a condition grade are filled in for you to check.
- Margins you can see. Add what each piece cost, and the sold page shows its margin and how long it took to sell.
Pricing and listing from photos are on every plan: Starter at $49 a month, Studio at $129 and Pro at $199, with 30, 100 or 250 AI listings a month. Cross-listing, and with it a price for each marketplace, is on Studio and Pro.
Common questions
How do I find what vintage clothing has sold for?
Should I charge the same price everywhere I sell?
How long should I wait before lowering a price?
Is older clothing always worth more?
Fees and marketplace rules change. Figures in this guide were checked in October 2026 and are approximate; always confirm on each marketplace's own fee page.