How to Sell Art & Collectables

Used art and collectables sell for roughly £3 to £800 on WishThrift, and listing it costs nothing — no fee, no commission, no buyer-side charge. Art, antiques and collectables turn on attribution and originality, and the most expensive mistake in this category is cleaning or restoring something before listing it. Original surface is much of what a collector is paying for. Photograph the marks, the reverse and the construction, and let buyers research it.

The short version

Guides in this section: 15
Range covered: £3 – £800
Every guide covers: prep, the photographs that sell it, the title, buyer questions and the fee maths
Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price

How to sell art and collectables, item by item

What you keep on a typical sale

On a £135 sale — around the middle for this category — a 20% commission would take £27 and a 10% one £14. On WishThrift you keep the whole £135, and the buyer pays no surcharge either. The full fee comparison sets out what each marketplace actually charges.

When art and collectables actually sell

Art and antiques sell to a specialist audience that is active all year, so seasonality matters far less here than anywhere else. What does matter is patience: well-documented pieces routinely take weeks rather than days, and discounting early usually costs more than waiting would have.

Before you list anything

Two things decide most of the price in every category, and both are settled before you write the listing. The first is the condition grade: WishThrift uses five — New with Tags, Like New, Good, Fair and For Parts — and what each one means is worth reading, because grading optimistically does not raise the price, it just produces a buyer who arrives expecting something else. The second is the price itself: the art & collectibles value guides price each item across all five grades.

Ready to list? It takes about two minutes and costs nothing — create a free account or see how selling works.

Frequently asked questions

Should I restore something before selling it?

Almost never. Stripping, polishing, refinishing or cleaning removes original surface and routinely destroys far more value than the dirt ever did. Photograph it as it is.

How do I describe something I cannot attribute?

Describe what you can see and photograph every mark, label and signature, rather than asserting a maker or date you cannot support. WishThrift does not authenticate items, so honest uncertainty is respected.

Does provenance really change the price?

Substantially. A documented piece with a receipt, gallery label or known history sits in a different market from an identical undocumented one.

See also: all selling guides · what art and collectables sell for · browse live art & collectibles listings.