We completely understand that for a bride, her wedding dress is one of the most expensive and close to the heart garments that she will ever buy and wear in her life (yeah, the high school prom dress counts too!). Because, after months of searching and savings, she finds one perfect and designer wedding dress that resonates with her style and personality! Moreover, the dress speaks for herself and itself too! Though the love affair between a bride and her wedding dress is always a classic tale, it is temporary too!
There is no denying the fact that you are head over heels in love with your wedding dress and you will wear it on your best day ever! But once that big and special day of your life is over (you still be under its influence), there will be one question that will be lingering in your head: what will become of this very special dress after my wedding? After your wedding day is over, we can assure you that you will loathe the idea of letting your dream wedding dress collect dust in your closet! Until and unless you would like to preserve your wedding dress for sentimental reasons, it is absolutely silly to let it sit in your closet collecting too much dust! Just think how it would look, when your white and sparkling wedding dress will be deteriorating and yellowing with time? Not a pretty good sight, right? It kind of aches your heart, if we are not wrong! Well, thinking of this painful scenario, we can assume that the proposal of selling your used wedding dress will sound pretty appealing to you like never before!
Just picking one wedding dress amongst a billion for your big day is a very personal choice that you will make in your life, only once! But selling wedding dresses is up to every individual bride! These days, many modern and practical brides are looking out for alternatives to recoup some money from their wedding dress that they spent on the wedding day and put it toward their honeymoon, new home, nursery, and many other things! So, why delay in selling your wedding dress, when you know it will be a win-win situation for you!
There are endless perks of selling your second-hand wedding dress! Not only you will earn some extra bucks, but your used wedding dress will also get a second life. By reselling your wedding dress you will be fulfilling a dream of a soon-to-be bride, who has always dreamed of wearing an affordable designer wedding dress on her wedding day!
Selling a pre-owned wedding dress not only comes with a series of considerations in terms of how to get everything done right, but it also comes with endless questions. The one question amidst all that is a bit tricky for our brides to deal with is, how much does a used wedding dress cost? What are the factors that determine the price point of the second-hand wedding dress? How can a bride make the most money from a special garment that has a romantic history attached to it?
Well, there are ways to break down what you have got in your closet and determine its fair value while you are all set to sell it out!
A bridal wedding gown is just like a new car. The biggest depreciation comes when you drive it off a lot or we can say when you wear it for the first time just only for a few hours! The moment you slip into the brand new high-end designer wedding dress of yours, the resale price of the wedding gown instantly drops nearly in half, and the decline in the price of the wedding gown continues over the next several transactions! So, think like this! If you are wearing a Vera Wang wedding dress on your wedding day and the retail price of your wedding gown is $8,000, then there are chances that the same dress fetches around $5,000 at the first reselling and then around $4,000 or less at the second reselling!
In short, the sooner you will sell your wedding dress after your wedding day, the higher the price tag you will be able to put on it! So, if you have planned on taking this route with your used wedding dress, then we just want to advise you that do it within six months from the moment you slipped into the dress! The only reason we always mention that brides should sell their pre-owned wedding dresses as soon as possible after their wedding day is that the sooner they will list their wedding dress for resale, the better will be for the dress. As the design and matter will still be on-trend and relevant for all the brides who are looking to buy a second-hand wedding dress for their wedding day. And the second thing, as soon as your wedding dress is on the website for resale, there will be very minimal chances of the dress getting stowed away in a closet asking for dust, mildew, or damage from discoloration to happen!
If maths was not your favorite subject and you have always been away from the numbers (except for counting dollars, haha!), you can simply apply the general rule of thumb for determining the value of your used wedding dress. According to the general rule of thumb, a used wedding gown that is in great condition and less than two and a half years old can be sold for fifty percent of the retail price! Second-hand wedding gowns from famous brands like Vera Wang and Monique Lhullier can be easily sold for 60-70 percent of their retail value! In case, you are not wearing a famous name on your wedding day, then also you don’t need to be discouraged during the reselling process! Brides across the spectrum are interested in buying used wedding gowns which suit their budget (famous or not so famous is the second option for them). Wedding dresses that retailed for $1,000 have a better chance of reselling than those originally priced at $5,000!
There are certain things that you need to know before you determine the price for your used wedding dress for reselling! The first step involved in this process is discovering the basics!
Before you and we dive into the pool of calculations that help to put a price tag on your used wedding dress for a resale, let us focus on the basic breakdown of calculating your own fair price for your gown’s resale. There are various calculating tools out there which you can use to undermine the actual worth of your used wedding gown! All you have to do is simply punch in all the relevant information and work around the advised price point!
Whether you are selling your wedding dress online or by going physically to a store, the information about the designer is the very first question you will be asked by a resale store or will be required to be filled out when using one of the mentioned calculators! There will be certain questions about the designer like-
• Who is the designer of your wedding dress?
• Is he/she a popular brand?
• Are they on the upper end of the bridal spectrum such as Vera Wang or Monique Lhuillier?
• Or are they more mainstream like Maggie Sottero or Watters?
• Can the design be easily searched?
The more expensive the piece from the time of its original purchase, the more money it will be worth! But, you surely have to take into account the name it is coming from! High-quality wedding dress designer versus company churn outs. Iconic design versus niche, trendy pieces!
You can always check the average price of other wedding dresses by the same designer who designed your wedding dress (if you have chosen a high-end wedding dress designer). The more famous and prominent the wedding designer will be the more brides will be willing to pay for your second-hand wedding dress! Well, for a worthy price of your wedding dress, take a look at other used dresses by the same designer. You want to be able to offer potential brides a fair and consistent price; not too expensive and not too cheap, or else there is a probability that the brides will think that it is too good to be true!
Before listing your wedding dress for sale on an online platform or selling it at a bridal store, you definitely need to take a good and hard look at the condition of your second-hand wedding dress!
• Does the used wedding dress still look brand new?
• Are there reparable rips, any kind of stain, or tears?
• Do the appliques of your wedding dress need reattaching or beading fallen off or missing in the action?
The better the condition of your second-hand wedding dress will be, the more dollar signs you will be able to squeeze into the price tag!
For a fast and successful sale of your pre-owned wedding dress, it is highly recommended that you get your used wedding dress professionally cleaned and preserved after your wedding day! A clean and shining wedding dress will definitely put other brides’ minds at ease during their wedding shopping process. A pre-drycleaned wedding dress won’t require many efforts in getting cleaned!
The fabric of a wedding dress surely plays an important role in the reselling process! Certain fabrics like the silk mikado are usually more expensive than a simple satin or chiffon! This is something that you need to take under your consideration when you are all ready to resale your used wedding dress online or offline!
Whether your wedding gown is made of Chantilly lace or the scratchy, hard tulle that is combined with princess ball gowns? The higher quality of material used in the making of your wedding dress when paired with the current condition of the entire design of the wedding dress will help decipher how much you should be asking for on the bottom line!
The history of your second-hand wedding dress will coincide nicely with the condition of your wedding dress! There are certain questions that you need to fill in while listing your wedding dress for sale online or even if you are choosing the traditional way of selling your wedding dress to a bridal boutique! The questions related to the history of your wedding dress includes-
• How many times has this wedding dress been worn?
• Who wore it?
• How many times has it been cleaned? And who did it?
• Was the cleaning of the dress done professionally?
• Were there any alterations made to the original design?
• Were cups sewn into the bodice?
• Was the corset cut?
• How much was taken off of the hem?
Once all these questions are answered only then the fair market price of your second-hand wedding dress will be determined to all the potential buyers!
Lastly, when it comes to considering how much your pre-owned wedding dress should cost, you should also take into account what the buyer will be getting along with the second-hand wedding dress! Like-
• Will it just be the dress itself?
• Or is there a crystal-accented sash that goes along with it?
• Or is there any wedding veil that comes along with the wedding dress?
• Maybe some kind of jewelry that matches perfectly with the wedding dress?
The more accessories included in the purchase along with your used wedding dress, the higher you can go on the price of your preloved wedding dress!
So, whether you have decided to sell your used designer wedding dress online or by going to a bridal boutique, you always have to be realistic about the price of your second-hand wedding dress! While 10% of designer wedding dresses resale for above $2,500, 70% of second-hand wedding dresses are priced at $1,000 or below. These are certain genuine ratios that every bride should keep in her mind while she is listing her wedding dress for sale!
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