The short version
- Typical range: £250 – £900 — see the full gaming laptop value guide
- What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
- Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
- Category: Electronics
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.
- Note the exact GPU, CPU, RAM and storage. The graphics card model and its VRAM are the headline.
- Run something demanding for twenty minutes and check the fans and temperatures, because thermal throttling is the classic used gaming laptop fault.
- Clean the vents thoroughly, back up and factory reset, and locate the original high-wattage charger.
The photographs that sell a gaming laptop
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.
- Open and running, showing the desktop and screen condition
- The specification screen with GPU and CPU visible
- The underside vents and the hinge area
- The charger, with its wattage rating readable
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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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
GPU first, then CPU and RAM: “RTX 3060 Gaming Laptop, i7-11800H, 16GB, 512GB SSD, 144Hz”. Screen refresh rate matters to this audience and is usually omitted. If the battery is poor, say so — gaming laptops are mostly used plugged in and buyers accept it readily when told.
Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:
- GPU model and VRAM, CPU model, RAM and storage
- Screen size, resolution and refresh rate
- Whether it has been repasted or serviced, and typical temperatures under load
- Whether the original charger is included, and its wattage
What buyers will actually ask
You will receive the same three messages about a gaming laptop. 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.
Run a demanding game or benchmark for twenty minutes and report the temperatures honestly. This is the question that separates informed buyers from the rest.
Answer directly. It is asked constantly, and a straight no — or a straight yes with the details — is worth more than a vague reply.
Confirm the wattage. Gaming laptops need high-output chargers and a generic replacement will not run the machine at full performance.
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 gaming laptop 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 £575 sale — roughly the middle of the range for a gaming laptop — 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 | £575 |
| Poshmark | −£115 | £460 |
| eBay | −£78 | £497 |
| Mercari | −£58 | £517 |
| Etsy | −£37 | £538 |
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 all year with lifts before Christmas and in late summer. Machines with current-generation GPUs sell within days; older cards sit longer.
Heavy and expensive. Post double-boxed with the charger packed separately, or hand over locally with a live demonstration, which reassures a buyer spending several hundred pounds.
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 gaming laptop worth?
Typically £250 to £900, driven almost entirely by the graphics card generation. See the gaming laptop value guide for the condition breakdown.
Do buyers care about battery life on a gaming laptop?
Far less than on a normal laptop, because these machines are usually used plugged in. State the battery condition honestly — a weak battery is rarely a dealbreaker here if the GPU is good.
Should I repaste before selling?
Only if temperatures are genuinely poor and you know what you are doing. If it has recently been repasted, say so and give the temperatures — that is a real selling point to this audience.
See also: what a used gaming laptop is worth · browse live electronics listings · condition grades explained.