Sell Your Used Gym Bag — 0% Fees

A used gym bag typically sells for £10 to £35, and on WishThrift it costs you nothing to list — no fee, no commission, so you keep the whole amount you agree. Gym bags sell on capacity and on one thing nobody photographs: whether the inside still smells, which is the honest reason most get replaced.

The short version

Typical range: £10 – £35 — see the full gym bag value guide
What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
Category: Bags & Handbags

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.

Wash it if the label allows, air it thoroughly, and be honest with yourself about whether any odour remains.
Check the base, which drags on floors, and the zips, which fail from grit.
Confirm whether it has a separate shoe or wet compartment, and check that lining.

The photographs that sell a gym bag

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 bag from the side, whole
The main compartment open, clean and dry
Any separate shoe or wet compartment
The base and zips, plus any fray, stain or worn corner

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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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

Capacity, brand and features: “Nike Duffel Gym Bag, 40L, Shoe Compartment”. Capacity in litres is the search and a separate shoe compartment is a genuine feature people look for. Say if it converts to a backpack.

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

Capacity in litres and external dimensions
Whether it has a separate shoe or wet compartment
Carry options — handles, shoulder strap, backpack straps
Material, base condition and whether any odour remains

What buyers will actually ask

You will receive the same three messages about a gym bag. 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 smell?”

Answer honestly. It is the reason most gym bags are replaced and it cannot be hidden once the buyer opens it.

“Is there a shoe compartment?”

Say so and photograph it. It is one of the main reasons people choose a particular gym bag.

“Do the zips run smoothly?”

Test them. Grit destroys zips on gym bags and a failing main zip makes the bag useless.

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 gym bag 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 £22 sale — roughly the middle of the range for a gym bag — 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	£22
Poshmark	−£4	£18
eBay	−£3	£19
Mercari	−£2	£20
Etsy	−£1	£21

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 in January and again in September. Branded bags sell within days in those windows.

Light and compressible, so postage is cheap. Air it thoroughly before packing — a bag sealed in a parcel for two days concentrates any smell it had.

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 gym bag worth?

Typically £10 to £35, with recognised sports brands above. See the gym bag value guide for the condition bands.

Will people buy a used gym bag?

Yes, provided it is clean and odour free and you say so. Branded bags in particular sell quickly because they are expensive new and hard-wearing.

How do I get the smell out?

Wash if the label allows, then air it thoroughly for several days. If an odour persists, say so and price accordingly rather than sealing it into a parcel and hoping.