How to Sell a Used Mattress

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.

• Strip it and inspect both sides in daylight for stains, which for most buyers ends the conversation regardless of price.
• Find the fire safety label sewn into the side seam. Its absence makes an already difficult sale harder still.
• Check the edges and the centre for sagging by pressing down along the length — a dipped middle is what buyers are testing for.

The photographs that sell a mattress

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.

1. The whole mattress bare and flat, shot from above in daylight
2. The second side, also bare, because buyers assume you photographed the better one
3. The fire safety label and any make or model tag
4. The edges and any mark, dip, tear or repair, close up and uncropped

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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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

State size, type and age: “Double Pocket Sprung Mattress, 3 Years Old, No Stains”. Age is the unusual case where volunteering it helps, because a buyer’s first assumption about a used mattress is that it is older than it is. Memory foam, pocket sprung and open coil are all real searches.

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

• Size in feet and centimetres
• Type — open coil, pocket sprung, memory foam or hybrid — and the firmness
• Approximate age, and whether it has always had a protector on it
• Whether the fire label is present, and any stain or sag stated plainly

What buyers will actually ask

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

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 mattress 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 £115 sale — roughly the middle of the range for a mattress — here is what the commission-charging platforms would take, and what you would keep on each:

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

Slow, always. Expect weeks rather than days even when priced low, and expect enquiries that go quiet after the hygiene question. Clean, recent, protector-covered mattresses in common sizes are the ones that do sell.

Collection only, and never leave it outside in advance — an hour of rain makes it worthless and unsellable. If it does not sell, most councils collect bulky waste for a fee and some retailers take the old one away on delivery of a new one.

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.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sell a used mattress?

Privately, yes, and buyers do exist for clean, recent ones. But be clear-eyed: this is the item most likely to sit unsold. If it is stained, sagging or has lost its fire label, disposal is usually the more honest answer than a listing that will disappoint someone.

How much is a used mattress worth?

Typically £30 to £200, though the realistic figure for anything more than a few years old sits at the bottom of that. The mattress value guide sets out the condition bands.

Do I need the fire label to sell a mattress?

The legal position is stricter for traders than for a private seller, but practically the label is what reassures a buyer. Without it, expect a much smaller audience and a lower price, and say up front that it is missing.

See also: what a used mattress is worth · browse live furniture listings · condition grades explained.