Can You Sell a Damaged Cot? Honest Answer

No — do not sell a damaged cot, on WishThrift or anywhere else. A cot with a damaged bar, a missing fixing or a weakened base is a fall and entrapment hazard, and replacement parts for older cots usually cannot be verified as the right ones. The honest answer is below rather than a listing guide.

Why not

Cot safety standards specify bar spacing, base strength and the absence of any gap that can trap a head or limb. Damage defeats each of those directly: a cracked bar widens a gap, a stripped fixing lets the base drop under load, and a split in the frame propagates under the repeated impact of a standing toddler. Replacement parts for discontinued cots cannot be verified as the correct ones, and a bar from a similar model is not the same as a bar from the right one.

WishThrift takes no fee and no commission, so there is nothing in this for us either way. We would still rather this page said no.

What counts as damaged here

These are the things that put a cot in this category rather than merely making it worth less:

Missing fittings, which make reassembly impossible
Bite marks and splintering along the top rails
Older cots not meeting current spacing standards
Drop-side designs, which are no longer recommended

How to be sure yours is actually damaged

Some of what looks like damage is not. Establish which you have before writing it off:

Bag every bolt and fitting with the cot when dismantling
Check the bar spacing and safety label
Inspect the top rails for bite damage and splinters

What to do with it instead

Dismantle it flat and take the timber to the wood skip at a household recycling centre, which accepts solid pine and MDF cot components without question. Take the metal fixings, the base springs and any plastic teething rail off first so each goes in its own stream. The cot mattress is a separate problem and should not be passed on either — foam and fibre cores hold everything that has soaked into them, and a mattress is the one nursery item health visitors consistently advise buying new.

What you can still sell from it

The mattress should not be passed on separately either. But an undamaged changing table, chest, wardrobe or nursery chair from the same range is ordinary furniture and sells well, particularly as a matched set.

If yours turns out to be sound

Then this is an ordinary sale and often a good one — cot in sound condition is typically worth £40 to £200. The things buyers pay a premium for:

Current safety standard labels intact
All fittings, bolts and instructions present
Solid wood construction with no splits
Adjustable base heights working properly

State these in the listing, because a buyer who is already wary of buying this second-hand will look for them:

Cot or cot bed, and the mattress size in centimetres
Whether a mattress is included, and its age and condition
Whether all fixings and the instructions are present
Material, and whether the height adjusts or a side drops

Handing a sound one over

Dismantle it before collection if you can, and keep the fixings in a labelled bag taped to a rail. That single step makes the handover smooth and is the sort of thing buyers remember when they rate you.

Read the full cot selling guide for prep, photographs and pricing, or the cot value guide for what cot is worth at each of the five condition grades. Listing is free and there is no commission on anything you do sell.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sell a damaged cot on WishThrift?

No, and we would rather say so than take the listing. A cot with a damaged bar, a missing fixing or a weakened base is a fall and entrapment hazard, and replacement parts for older cots usually cannot be verified as the right ones.

What should I do with it instead?

What if mine is not actually damaged?

Then it is a different question and often a straightforward sale — see the cot selling guide and the cot value guide. Check it properly first: Bag every bolt and fitting with the cot when dismantling.