The longer your dress sits unsold, the less in fashion it will be. Holding out for a specific asking price has the potential to stall any sale at all. People want dresses that are still considered “on trend”in the Irish Dance world, and trends change quickly! Sometimes you are better off taking a lower offer and moving your dress than holding out and possibly holding onto it forever! The older it gets the less likely it is to sell.

Wear and tear needs to be reflected in your price. At the end of the day, always remember that this dress was worn (hopefully!) and loved and there is value in that! If your child wore this dress to several competitions, shows, etc. Then it is officially used even if it is in great shape! Inevitably there will be stones missing and a few threads popping out here and there. Keeping your dress odor free is really important in reducing wear and tear protection. Imagine you were renting a Halloween costume, you could potentially pay up to $100-$150 for a good rental. If that costume rented 5 times that could amount to $750! So it’s feasible that if your child wore her dress 5 times you may need to consider a starting price of at least $750 below what you paid, and possibly more, depending on what the original price was.

Used dresses for sale that are too close in price to the cost of a brand new dress will have a tough time selling. If you paid $2500 for a new dress and you are trying to sell it for $2100, you will probably be faced with people who would say, “for that price I might as well order a new one!” If your price is too close to the price of a new one, you will not be able to compete with a new one.

How many owners plays a role in how to price. If you are the original owner of your dress, you should expect to get more for your dress than if you are the 2nd or 3rd owner or more. A dress that has already had 2 owners or more is obviously going to be older, less in style, and have more wear and tear that a dress being sold by the original owner. If you are trying to sell a dress as the 2nd owner or more, your best bet is to list it at a greatly reduced price.

If your dress is not selling, REDUCE THE PRICE. The last thing you want is to be stuck with the dress forever, if no one is biting reduce the price until someone does! At the end of the day, most people need to sell their current dress in order to pay for their next dress, so the object here is to GET IT SOLD ASAP so you can have cash in hand to help pay for the next one!