Sell Your Used Vintage Brooch — 0% Fees

A used vintage brooch typically sells for £8 to £50, and on WishThrift it costs you nothing to list — no fee, no commission, so you keep the whole amount you agree. Brooches are a market where the pin and catch decide usability and the maker’s mark decides value — check both before you price it.

The short version

Typical range: £8 – £50 — see the full vintage brooch value guide
What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
Category: Jewellery & Watches

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.

Test the pin and catch. A bent pin or a catch that does not hold means the brooch cannot be worn safely.
Look for a maker’s mark, signature or hallmark on the reverse and photograph it magnified.
Check every stone is present and secure, and clean gently without immersing anything with foil-backed stones.

The photographs that sell a vintage brooch

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 brooch face on, filling the frame
The reverse, showing the pin, catch and any mark
The stones close up, showing settings
Any damage, missing stone, repair or wear to plating

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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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

Era, material and style: “Art Deco Marcasite Brooch, Silver, 1930s”. Era is a real search in vintage jewellery and named makers carry most of the value. Say costume or precious metal plainly — both sell, and misdescribing one as the other does not.

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

Dimensions and weight
Material, with any hallmark or maker’s mark photographed
Stone types as far as you can describe them honestly
Pin and catch condition, and any missing stone or repair

What buyers will actually ask

You will receive the same three messages about a vintage brooch. 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 the pin still work?”

Test it on fabric. A worn catch drops the brooch and loses it, which for a vintage piece is unrecoverable.

“Is it silver or costume?”

Photograph any mark. Both markets are healthy, but a costume piece described as silver ends the sale at inspection.

“Are all the stones there?”

Count them under a light and photograph any gap. Missing stones on vintage pieces are hard to match and buyers price it in when told.

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 vintage brooch 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 £29 sale — roughly the middle of the range for a vintage brooch — 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	£29
Poshmark	−£6	£23
eBay	−£4	£25
Mercari	−£3	£26
Etsy	−£2	£27

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 to collectors year round with a Christmas lift. Signed designer costume jewellery sells within days when correctly identified.

Small and cheap to post, but pin the brooch to a card so it cannot move and pierce the packaging. Tracked and signed for anything of value.

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 vintage brooch worth?

Typically £8 to £50, with signed designer and precious metal pieces far above. See the vintage brooch value guide.

Should I clean a vintage brooch?

Very gently and never by immersion. Many vintage stones are foil backed and water destroys the foil permanently, turning bright stones dull grey.

How do I find a maker’s mark?

Look on the reverse, on the pin stem and around the catch, under magnification and raking light. Marks are often tiny and worn, and photographing them lets collectors identify what you have.