The short version
- Typical range: £40 – £220 — see the full divan bed value guide
- What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
- Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
- Category: Furniture
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.
- Strip it completely and check the top fabric for stains, which is the first thing every buyer looks for.
- Test the drawers if it has them. Divan drawers run on plastic wheels that break, and a jammed drawer must be disclosed.
- Find the legs or castors and the connecting bolts if it is a two-part base, and bag them together.
The photographs that sell a divan bed
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 base assembled and bare, shot from a corner so both length and width read
- The top surface in daylight, uncropped, so the fabric condition is plain
- Each drawer open, showing the runners and the inside
- The legs, connecting bolts and any label showing the make and size
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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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
Size and storage are the search: “Double Divan Base, 2 Drawer, Grey” or “King Size Divan with 4 Drawers”. Say in the title whether a mattress is included, because that is the assumption buyers get wrong most often and it wastes both of your time when they do.
Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:
- Bed size — single, small double, double, king or super king
- Number of drawers and which sides they open, since that has to suit the buyer’s room
- Whether the base splits into two halves for moving
- Whether a mattress is included, and its condition stated separately
What buyers will actually ask
You will receive the same three messages about a divan bed. 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.
Say clearly in both the title and the description. This is the most common misunderstanding on divan listings and it collapses sales at the doorstep.
Photograph the bare top in daylight. Buyers assume the worst about used beds, so an honest clear photo does more for you than any wording.
Check whether it is a two-part base. Most doubles and above split, which is the difference between a possible collection and an impossible one.
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 divan bed 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 £130 sale — roughly the middle of the range for a divan bed — 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 | £130 |
| Poshmark | −£26 | £104 |
| eBay | −£18 | £112 |
| Mercari | −£13 | £117 |
| Etsy | −£8 | £122 |
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
Sells year-round with a lift when people move house, so late spring and early autumn are strongest. Common sizes go within a fortnight; storage bases sell faster than plain ones.
Collection, split into halves where possible. Have it stripped and standing on edge before the buyer arrives — a bare divan base is awkward but light, and two people manage it easily.
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 divan bed worth?
Typically £40 to £220, with drawer storage and larger sizes at the top. See the divan bed value guide for pricing by condition.
Will anyone buy a used divan base?
Yes — bases sell far more readily than mattresses, because there is no hygiene objection to a fabric-covered frame in the way there is to something slept on directly. Show it clean and it moves.
Should I sell the base and mattress separately?
If the mattress is tired, yes. A good base is held back by a poor mattress, and listing the base alone widens your audience to everyone who already has one they want to keep.
See also: what a used divan bed is worth · browse live furniture listings · condition grades explained.