Expectations Vs. Reality - Selling Wedding Items On..

I'm not sure why it bothers you so much? It's up to them what they ask for and I'm sure they'll lower their price if they don't get offers. Everyone expects to be pushed down on their asking price so you may as well start a bit higher.

Agreed.

When you're a seller, you're trying to get the best price for what you have. This is especially true for Gumtree or the like where people can message an offer. Most people are selling because they're recouping costs rather than some altruistic reason.

My dress was by far the most extravagant thing I have for this wedding, but my parents paid for it. It (+ my shoes, I guess) are also the only things we'll have at the end that will be unusable going forward - we're hiring everything else.

The dress was (gulp) £1800 and obviously if I do sell it on afterwards (and give the money back to my parents!) I'd want to get as much for it as possible... but likewise I had enough trouble getting rid of unworn shoes for £20 so understand that you need to have realistic expectations.

You might as well try and get the most you can; people can only ask for you to lower the cost if they want the item that badly.

I find this is true of people selling all sorts of designer goods, not just wedding stuff. A lot of people have an unrealistic view of the secondhand market. If you have an item that is sentimental to you or a brand you are very loyal to then you are going to value it higher than someone who doesn't have that connection. I don't think this is the majority of sellers at all, but there are also some people who spend more than they can afford, assuming they will sell everything and recoup the costs, so they charge prices that aren't always realistic. But if someone is willing to buy at that price, then more power to them. You don't know what you can get if you don't ask. And this goes both ways. Don't be afraid to offer lower than the asking price. If they sell can't shift the item they may come back to you and accept your offer later.

Ultimately, when you buy something new, especially a designer item, you are paying for a guarantee that the product you receive is exactly the product you've ordered, customer service, and a lot of other benefits. These benefits come at a premium. If an item is sold secondhand and those benefits are no longer valid, a good seller will adjust the price accordingly, as well as taking into account the physical condition of the item. With wedding items you may be dealing with sellers who have never sold items on the secondhand market before, so it's not surprising that goods are valued higher. If someone is motivated to sell and not getting any interest they will eventually lower their price.

I agree with you! I see a lot of brides trying to sell items 2nd hand as I admin several large Facebook wedding groups.

I usually advise them to try selling a dress for 30-40% of the "as new" designers list price. I know of brides who spend a year trying to sell dresses, even when they are quite realistic about the price.

Ive seen 1 or 2 of the 80s dresses for sale for £100's to and laughed my ass off, you can buy them in the charity shop for £5 lol but its funny not angry ?

but I dont get why you seem so offended by this, its either funny (because of the delusion) or non of my business and gets skipped over... I look at 2nd hand dresses a lot because I love vintage stuff and if some wants a rediculous amount I dont even see it because I set my filters at an affordable range

as for decor im not sure what you mean... I see lots of people offering spare bits as 'free to collect' or for a couple of pound but actually as long as its the same condition you could totally make your money back... you can buy or make (if you good at crafts) manzita trees for about £20 then its fair to sell them for £20ish again if their not damaged it would still cheaper that the £50 most places hire them for ☹️

I spent ages going though these websites trying to find reasonable price decor stuff in the end I think I only spent £5 which was on a sign and some hearts.

I found it cheaper to use car boot sales where I picked up beautiful crockery, jars, plates and items for photobooths a lot cheaper. I also kept an eye on hobbycraft when they had a sale and if you signed up for stuff it was an additional 20% off - this worked out cheaper then buying second hand from the sites.

My bridesmaid was getting married 6 weeks after me so we did a job lot for all decorations for £100 which included 14 4 metre handmade table runners. I was also given some sweet jars and tongs by a work colleague which in turn were gifted to my BM. We came up with the rule of anything free has to be passed onto another bride for free and decorations couldn't be more than 50%.

Since last summer 4 brides have had the sweet jars (with another 2 more to come this summer) and the decorations have been split to another 2 brides.

We still have 120 plates to sell and my parents have 120 teacups and saucers to sell but plates will be done at car boot sale and most of the teacup sets my mum is trying to sort a cafe or something to take rather then trying to do postage for them.