Sell Your Used Polaroid Camera — 0% Fees

A used Polaroid camera typically sells for £25 to £110, and on WishThrift it costs you nothing to list — no fee, no commission, so you keep the whole amount you agree. Instant cameras are bought to be used, so the whole sale rests on one thing: proving it fires and that film is still made for it.

The short version

Typical range: £25 – £110 — see the full Polaroid camera value guide
What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
Category: Cameras & Photography

Before you photograph it

Ten minutes here is worth more than anything else you will do. Buyers are deciding between your listing and someone else’s, and preparation is what visibly separates the two.

Load a pack and take a shot. A camera that has not been tested is worth far less because most old instant cameras do not work.
Check which film format it takes and confirm that format is still in production, since several are not.
Clean the rollers inside the film door, which is what causes streaked and blotchy pictures.

The photographs that sell a Polaroid camera

Four photographs do almost all the work. Shoot in daylight, near a window, with the item against something plain — and do not use the flash, which flattens texture and hides exactly what buyers are trying to see.

The camera closed and opened, whole, from the front
An actual photograph it has taken, held next to the camera
The film compartment with the rollers visible
The model name and any battery compartment, plus every scuff or crack

Photograph the flaws too. It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover. Buyers who can see the damage stop imagining something worse.

Writing the title and description

Model and film type: “Polaroid 600 Instant Camera, Tested and Working” or “Instax Mini 9, Boxed”. The film format is the critical detail because it determines whether the camera is usable at all. The word tested belongs in the title when true — most listings cannot say it.

Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:

Model, and the exact film format it takes
Whether that film is still manufactured
Whether it has been tested, and with what result
Battery type, and whether the camera takes batteries or the film pack does

What buyers will actually ask

You will receive the same three messages about a Polaroid camera. Answering them in the listing itself removes the back-and-forth, and answering them well when they do arrive is what turns an enquiry into a sale.

“Does it work?”

Load film, take a picture, photograph the result. This single test is worth more than every other thing you can do for an instant camera listing.

“What film does it take?”

Name the exact format. Buyers have been caught out buying cameras for discontinued film, so they check carefully.

“Are the rollers clean?”

Open the door and look. Dirty rollers streak every picture, they clean in a minute, and mentioning it shows you know the camera.

Pricing it so it actually sells

Start from the honest condition grade rather than the price you hope for. WishThrift listings use five grades — New with Tags, Like New, Good, Fair and For Parts — and what each grade means is worth reading before you choose, because grading up is the most expensive mistake sellers make. It does not raise the price; it produces a buyer who arrives expecting something else.

The Polaroid camera value guide prices all five grades for this item. Pick your grade, take the figure, and if you sit between two grades price toward the lower one. Items priced honestly sell faster than items priced hopefully, and on a free platform there is no fee eating the difference anyway.

What you keep, compared

On a £67 sale — roughly the middle of the range for a Polaroid camera — here is what the commission-charging platforms would take, and what you would keep on each:

Where you sell it	Fee	You keep
WishThrift	£0	£67
Poshmark	−£13	£54
eBay	−£9	£58
Mercari	−£7	£60
Etsy	−£4	£63

Seller-side rates verified 26 Jul 2026 — Poshmark: 20% commission on sales of $15 and above; eBay: 13.6% final value fee, plus a per-order fee; Mercari: flat 10% selling fee; Etsy: 6.5% transaction fee, plus a listing fee and payment processing. Percentages are applied to the sterling figure above; the fixed per-order and processing charges those platforms add are quoted in their own currency and are not included here, so the real deductions are slightly larger. Full breakdown: marketplace selling fees compared.

Timing and getting it to the buyer

Steady year round with a strong Christmas lift, since instant cameras are a common gift. Tested working vintage models sell within days.

Light and easy to post. Remove any film pack and batteries before sending, and pad the bellows on folding models, which crease permanently if compressed.

WishThrift does not process payments or arrange delivery — you and the buyer agree both directly — so confirm payment has cleared before the item leaves your hands, and keep the conversation on the site so there is a record of what was agreed.

Ready to list it? It takes about two minutes, costs nothing, and there is no commission when it sells — create a free account or see how selling works.

Frequently asked questions

What is a used Polaroid camera worth?

Typically £25 to £110, with tested working vintage models and sought-after designs above. See the Polaroid camera value guide for the bands.

Should I sell an untested instant camera?

You can, but say plainly it is untested and price it as such. A pack of film costs little and testing typically adds far more to the price than the film costs, so it is nearly always worth doing first.

Is film still available?

For the main current formats yes, and for several classic ones film is produced again. For some older formats it is not, and you should say so rather than let a buyer discover it.