The short version
- Typical range: £40 – £250 — see the full lawn mower 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.
- Start it and let it run. A mower that starts from cold on the second pull is worth substantially more than one described as ‘should start with a service’.
- Clean the deck underneath thoroughly, sharpen or at least inspect the blade, and check the grass box for cracks.
- On petrol machines, note the oil level and condition. Drain the fuel before handover or transport.
The photographs that sell a lawn mower
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 whole mower from a front three-quarter angle, clean
- The deck underside, showing the blade and any rust
- The engine or motor housing with the model plate legible
- The grass box, the height adjusters, and any crack, missing wheel or perished cable
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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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
Type, cut width and power: “Petrol Self Propelled Lawn Mower, 46cm Cut, Briggs & Stratton” or “Cordless 40V Lawn Mower with 2 Batteries”. Cut width is the search, self-propelled is a genuine filter, and on cordless machines the battery count is most of the value.
Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:
- Type — petrol, corded electric, cordless or manual cylinder — and cutting width
- Whether self-propelled, and the grass box capacity
- For cordless, the battery voltage, how many are included and their honest health
- That you have started and run it, plus any known fault
What buyers will actually ask
You will receive the same three messages about a lawn mower. 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.
Start it from cold and answer from that, not from memory. Almost every mower enquiry is really this question, and a confident specific answer closes it.
Check it and say. A blade is cheap to replace or sharpen, so an honest ‘it needs sharpening’ costs you very little and buys a lot of trust.
For cordless, give the count, the voltage and how long a charge realistically lasts. Batteries are most of the replacement cost and buyers know it.
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 lawn mower 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 £145 sale — roughly the middle of the range for a lawn mower — 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 | £145 |
| Poshmark | −£29 | £116 |
| eBay | −£20 | £125 |
| Mercari | −£14 | £131 |
| Etsy | −£9 | £136 |
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
March to August is the season, peaking in April and May. A working mower listed in spring often sells the same week; in October it will sit, so overwintering it is usually the better call.
Collection. Drain the petrol first — a fuel-filled mower on its side in someone’s boot leaks over the carpet and is a fire risk. Hand over any spare key, charger and manual with it.
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 lawn mower worth?
Typically £40 to £250, with self-propelled petrol machines and cordless models with good batteries at the top. See the lawn mower value guide for the grade bands.
Can I sell a mower that will not start?
Yes, as spares or repair, described exactly that way. Many buyers happily fix carburettors. What you must not do is describe it as ‘just needs a service’ when you have not got it running.
Should I drain the fuel before selling?
Yes, before transport. Stale fuel is also the most common reason a stored petrol mower will not start, so draining and refilling with fresh petrol may be what gets it running in the first place.
See also: what a used lawn mower is worth · browse live home & garden listings · condition grades explained.