The short version
- Typical range: £40 – £250 — see the full nursery furniture value guide
- What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
- Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
- Category: Baby & Kids Items
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.
- Work out exactly what the set contains and whether every piece matches, then photograph it together.
- Check the cot for all fixings, that the drop side or base-height mechanism works, and that no bar is loose or damaged.
- Exclude the mattress from the sale. Sell the cot frame and let the buyer fit a new mattress of the right size.
The photographs that sell nursery furniture
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 set together in the room, so the match is obvious
- The cot assembled, from the side, showing bar spacing and base
- The wardrobe or dresser interior, open
- All fixings laid out, plus any chip, tooth mark, scratch or missing part
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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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
Set contents, brand and finish: “3 Piece Nursery Furniture Set — Cot Bed, Dresser, Wardrobe, White”. Piece count and the phrase cot bed are both searched. Say plainly that the mattress is not included, so nobody arrives expecting one.
Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:
- Exactly which pieces are included, with dimensions of each
- Whether the cot converts to a toddler bed, and the mattress size it takes
- Brand and finish, and whether every piece matches
- Whether all fixings and instructions are present
What buyers will actually ask
You will receive the same three messages about nursery furniture. 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.
Say no, and say why: a new mattress of the correct size is the recommended approach for a new baby and costs relatively little. Buyers respect the reasoning.
Check and say. Convertible cot beds are worth meaningfully more because they last years longer, and it is a specific search.
Count them against the instructions and photograph them. Cot fixings are model specific and a set missing them is very hard for a buyer to reassemble safely.
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 nursery furniture 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 nursery furniture — 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
Steady year round with a spring lift. Matching sets in current neutral finishes sell within a fortnight; mismatched pieces do better sold individually.
Collection, dismantled, usually a van for a full set. Keep each piece’s fixings in a separate labelled bag, and hand over the instructions — cot assembly is one place where guessing is not acceptable.
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
Should I sell a used cot mattress?
No. A new mattress is the recommended approach for each baby, and it is one of the few pieces of nursery equipment genuinely worth buying new. Sell the cot frame and say the mattress is excluded.
What is used nursery furniture worth?
Typically £40 to £250 for a set, driven by brand, condition and whether the cot converts. See the nursery furniture value guide.
Is a cot with teeth marks still sellable?
Yes, and it is extremely common. Photograph the marks, confirm no splinters or loose fragments, and price it honestly — buyers expect a used cot to show it.
See also: what a used nursery furniture is worth · browse live baby & kids items listings · condition grades explained.