Sell Your Used RC Cars — 0% Fees

Used RC cars typically sell for £15 to £120, and on WishThrift it costs you nothing to list — no fee, no commission, so you keep the whole amount you agree. Radio-controlled cars sell on what is included — battery, charger and a matched transmitter — because a car without all three is a project rather than a toy.

The short version

Typical range: £15 – £120 — see the full RC cars value guide
What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
Category: Toys & Games

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.

Charge the battery and run the car. State honestly whether it runs, and for how long on a charge.
Check the transmitter is the matched one and that it binds, and note the frequency or protocol.
Look at the suspension arms, servo saver and gears for cracks, which are the parts that break in a crash.

The photographs that sell RC cars

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 car from the side, whole, with the body shell on
The chassis with the body removed, showing electronics and gears
The transmitter, battery and charger together
Any broken arm, stripped gear, worn tyre or cracked shell

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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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

Brand, scale and state: “Traxxas Slash 1:10 Brushless RC Car, RTR with Battery” or “Tamiya 1:10 Buggy, Roller, No Electronics”. Hobbyists search brand and scale, and the shorthand matters — RTR means ready to run, a roller has no electronics, and using the wrong one brings the wrong buyers.

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

Brand, model and scale
Whether brushed or brushless, and electric or nitro
What is included — transmitter, battery, charger, spare parts, body shells
Whether it currently runs, and any known fault

What buyers will actually ask

You will receive the same three messages about RC cars. 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 come with a battery and charger?”

Say it in the title as well. A car without a matched battery and charger costs the buyer real money to get running, and they price accordingly.

“Does it run?”

Charge it, run it, and answer from the test rather than from memory. A short video clip in the listing photographs, if allowed, settles it instantly.

“Are spare parts still available?”

Say what you know about the model’s support. Discontinued platforms with no spares are worth a fraction of ones a hobbyist can still repair.

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 RC cars 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 £67 sale — roughly the middle of the range for RC cars — 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	£67
Poshmark	−£13	£54
eBay	−£9	£58
Mercari	−£7	£60
Etsy	−£4	£63

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

Rises sharply before Christmas. Hobby-grade brands sell year-round to enthusiasts; toy-grade cars are seasonal and cheap outside December.

Postable, but remove or declare the battery — lithium packs are restricted on some postal services and rules vary by carrier and country. Check before you promise a shipping method.

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 are used RC cars worth?

Typically £15 to £120, with hobby-grade brushless models well above and toy-grade cars below. See the RC cars value guide for a condition breakdown.

Can I sell an RC car that does not run?

Yes — the hobby market actively buys non-runners for parts. Describe it as spares or repair, say what you know is wrong, and price it there rather than hoping the buyer will not notice.

Can I post lithium batteries with it?

Rules differ by carrier and destination, and some services do not accept them at all. Check first, and if in doubt sell the car for local collection or list the battery separately.