Sell Your Used Lamp — 0% Fees

A used lamp typically sells for £10 to £60, and on WishThrift it costs you nothing to list — no fee, no commission, so you keep the whole amount you agree. A table lamp is a quick sale with one requirement: the buyer needs to see that the flex, plug and switch are sound, because that is the only thing that makes a used lamp risky.

The short version

Typical range: £10 – £60 — see the full lamp value guide
What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
Category: Home & Garden

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.

Plug it in with a working bulb and test the switch several times.
Run the flex through your fingers along its whole length, looking for cracked or brittle insulation, and check the plug for scorching.
Clean the base and shade, and note the bulb fitting type and maximum wattage from the label.

The photographs that sell a lamp

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 lamp assembled and lit, whole
The base and switch
The flex and plug, close enough to show condition
The shade inside and out, plus any chip, dent or rust

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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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

Style, material and size: “Ceramic Table Lamp with Shade, 45cm, Blue”. Height matters because buyers are matching a sideboard or bedside table. Say whether the shade is included, which is the most common misunderstanding on lamp listings.

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

Overall height including shade, and base dimensions
Base and shade material
Bulb fitting type and maximum wattage from the label
Flex, plug and switch condition, and whether the shade is included

What buyers will actually ask

You will receive the same three messages about a lamp. 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.

“Is the shade included?”

Say it in the title as well. Lamps are frequently sold as base only and buyers have learned to check.

“Does it work?”

Test it with a known-good bulb and confirm. It takes seconds and removes the buyer’s only real doubt.

“What bulb does it take?”

Read the fitting and the label and give both the type and the maximum wattage. It decides whether the buyer already has bulbs that fit.

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 lamp 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 £35 sale — roughly the middle of the range for a lamp — 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	£35
Poshmark	−£7	£28
eBay	−£5	£30
Mercari	−£4	£31
Etsy	−£2	£33

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 year round with a clear lift from September as evenings draw in, and again in January. Mid-century and designer lamps sell within days.

Pack the base and shade separately, both padded. A shade packed against a ceramic base arrives crushed, and it is the most common damage in this category.

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 lamp worth?

Typically £10 to £60, with mid-century and designer pieces well above. See the lamp value guide for pricing by condition.

Can I sell a lamp with an old plug?

Say so if it has a very old or unfused plug. Rewiring a lamp is inexpensive for a competent person, but the buyer should be choosing that rather than inheriting it unknowingly.

Is a damaged flex a dealbreaker?

It means the lamp should be sold as needing rewiring, not as working. Cracked or brittle insulation is a fire risk, and describing it accurately costs far less than the alternative.