Second-hand clothing in Rochester typically sells for $5 to $810. Brand and condition do most of the work, and in a face-to-face sale the fit does as much as either. Someone who has just tried a coat on and likes it rarely negotiates hard.
Buying clothing in Rochester
Rochester built its wealth on photography, optics and photocopying, and the companies that did it left the city an unusual concentration of precision engineering skill and a major museum of photography. Lake-effect snow here is heavy and reliable.
Return postage on garments that do not fit swallows whatever was saved, and it is the commonest reason a distance sale goes wrong. Meeting somebody who can try the thing on there and then means the sale is finished when you part. Locally, winter coats are one of the few things that move reliably enough to be worth listing on their own.
What to check in person
Hold the garment up to the light and look through it at the shoulders and the seat, which is where thinning shows long before a hole does. Run the zip its whole length, and check the underarms and collar for the marks that never photograph well.
Collecting it in Rochester
It fits in a bag, so most people meet on the way to something else. A station or a high street works, and neither side needs a car.
The road network was built for a considerably larger population than the city now holds, so crossing town is quick and a kerbside load is rarely contested. Lake-effect snow can arrive fast and heavy between November and March, so agree a fallback rather than assuming the day will hold.
Selling your clothing in Rochester free
The optics and imaging industry left genuinely good camera equipment in private hands here in a way that is unusual anywhere else. The universities clear student housing each May.
Give the measurements flat across the chest and the sleeve rather than the label size, and say which station or street you can meet at. A local buyer wants to know how far they have to travel more than they want another photograph. Coats and knitwear move from the first cold week onward; everything light moves in spring.
Peer-to-peer payment apps dominate private sales, and buyers will usually offer one before they offer cash. Sales tax does not apply to a private sale between individuals.
Clothing worth listing in Rochester
Same region (New York)
If nothing in Rochester suits, New York, Buffalo and Yonkers each have their own clothing page, and a seller will often meet part of the way for something worth the trip.
More in Rochester: everything second hand in Rochester, or Clothing across the United States.
Prices converted from sterling at the 2 August 2026 rate; sellers set their own price.