Sell Your Used Earrings — 0% Fees

Used earrings typically sell for £8 to £80, and on WishThrift it costs you nothing to list — no fee, no commission, so you keep the whole amount you agree. Earrings sell fast and cheap to post, but there is one thing buyers care about above all: whether the posts and backs are the metal you say they are, because skin reacts to the wrong one.

The short version

Typical range: £8 – £80 — see the full earrings value guide
What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
Category: Jewellery & Watches

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.

Check the posts and backs for a hallmark or metal marking, and note whether the backs are included.
Clean gently and check any stone setting is secure.
Confirm both earrings match exactly — odd earrings sold as a pair is a real and avoidable complaint.

The photographs that sell earrings

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.

Both earrings together, front on, filling the frame
The posts and backs, showing type and any marking
Any hallmark, magnified
The stones or detail close up, plus any scratch, tarnish or missing back

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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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

Metal, style and fitting: “Sterling Silver Hoop Earrings, 20mm, 925 Hallmarked”. Diameter or drop length is the search on hoops and drops, and the fitting type — stud, hook, hoop, clip-on — matters because not everyone has pierced ears.

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

Metal, with any hallmark photographed
Fitting type, and whether backs are included
Dimensions — hoop diameter or total drop length
Any stone, and whether both earrings are identical

What buyers will actually ask

You will receive the same three messages about earrings. 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.

“What metal are the posts?”

Check for a marking and say. People with sensitive ears react to nickel and plated posts, so this is a genuine functional question rather than a value one.

“Are the backs included?”

Confirm, and say what type. Missing butterfly backs are cheap to replace but the buyer needs to know to order them.

“Do they match exactly?”

Compare them side by side. Slight handmade variation is fine and worth mentioning; a mismatched pair sold as matching is not.

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 earrings 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 £44 sale — roughly the middle of the range for earrings — 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	£44
Poshmark	−£9	£35
eBay	−£6	£38
Mercari	−£4	£40
Etsy	−£3	£41

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

Lifts sharply before Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Hallmarked silver and gold studs sell within days.

Cheapest jewellery to post. Use a small rigid box with the pair secured to card, and a tracked service — small parcels are exactly what goes astray.

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 are used earrings worth?

Typically £8 to £80, with gold and designer pieces well above. See the earrings value guide for the condition bands.

Is it hygienic to buy used earrings?

Buyers commonly replace the posts or sterilise them, and many prefer to buy new backs. Say plainly whether they have been worn, and clean them properly before sending.

Do earrings need a hallmark?

Small items are often below the weight threshold that requires hallmarking, so many genuine pieces are unmarked. Photograph whatever marking exists and describe the rest honestly.