Where to Sell Designer Shoes

Brand-new designer shoes usually cost hundreds of dollars, and even four-figure price tags are quite common.

Secondhand clothes are usually worth up to half their original price, which means you can make hundreds of dollars per pair of designer shoes you sell.

The exact amount you make will depend on

• The shoes themselves: In particular, the price depends on factors like the shoes’ condition, how popular the brand and design are with buyers, how rare the shoes are, and the size (popular shoe sizes are often in higher demand, although uncommon sizes also sometimes fetch good prices).
• The buyers: If you can attract customers with higher budgets, you’ll get better offers. Customers of luxury auction houses or designer clothing marketplaces will usually be willing to pay more than people on general-purpose websites or shoppers at local markets.
• Fees and commissions: Many platforms charge fees or commissions that will reduce your profits. For example, some selling methods involve shipping, transaction, and processing fees.

How much does it cost to sell designer shoes?

The cost of selling shoes depends on the method you use. Some selling methods will allow you to avoid commissions and fees altogether, whereas others can take as much as 85%+ of your profits in the form of commissions and other charges. We’ll explore this in more detail below.

One of the easiest ways to find a good home for your unwanted kicks is to sell them online. There are three types of platforms you can use:

1. Online marketplaces

Online marketplaces are websites or apps where sellers can list products or services for buyers to browse and search. You can list almost anything for sale on these platforms.

To sell shoes through an online marketplace, you usually just have to:

1. Register on the platform
2. Fill out an online form with some details about your shoes
3. Upload a photo (or possibly even a video) of them
4. Post your listing and wait for somebody to snap the shoes up
5. Ship the designer shoes to the buyer

If you’ve ever bought or sold something on a site like eBay, you’ve used an online marketplace. This is a good option if you don’t mind doing the work of listing your item, setting a price, and shipping it yourself.

2. Consignment websites

Whereas online marketplaces allow you to list your own items and connect with buyers through the platform, consignment websites do a lot of that work for you.

You give them your item or “lot” (a bundle of items), and they’ll sell it for you (meaning that you send your items to the platform instead of to the seller).

This is a good option if you’re not interested in interacting directly with customers.

3. Your own website

As an alternative to using a third-party platform, you can build your own website to sell your designer shoes (or anything else you want to peddle).

Building a website will involve a lot more time and effort than the options we’ve mentioned so far, but the advantage is that you won’t have to pay any fees—just the expenses of setting up the site. This isn’t a very good trade-off if you just have one or two pairs of shoes to sell, but it’s a good option if you’re interested in flipping designer shoes as a long-term side hustle or even a new career.

It’s possible to make a site very cheaply or even for free using services like:

• Wix
• WordPress
• Weebly

We’ve listed all of the most popular sites and apps that you can sell your shoes on, along with what fees they charge (if any).

1. Poshmark

Poshmark is a “social marketplace”—a cross between a social media and e-commerce platform. It’s used by 100 million people (or “poshers”) across the US, Canada, Australia, and India, which means it’s a great way to get your clothes seen by a vast audience.

In addition to allowing you to list secondhand products, it has many of the features you’d expect from a social media site, including the ability to chat with other users and “like” posts.

The site is predominantly for clothes, but you can also list shoes—men’s, women’s, and children’s—along with a few other types of items, including accessories and unused makeup.

Once you make a sale, there are several options to withdraw your earnings:

• Instant transfer to your bank account
• Direct deposit
• PayPal
• Venmo
• Request a check

Fees: Unfortunately, Poshmark’s selling fees are quite high (20% for items that sell over $15, or $2.95 otherwise).

2. The RealReal

The RealReal is an online and brick-and-mortar store where you can consign designer shoes and clothing for men, women, and children. This means instead of listing your item on the platform and waiting for someone to buy it, you’ll get a quote from the RealReal and sell it directly to them.

You can find the list of designers they accept on their website.

When your item sells, you can receive your payment by direct deposit, by check, or as credit that you can use at the RealReal itself (in which case you’ll get an extra 5%).

Fees: The RealReal will take a commission of 20%–70% on anything they sell for you.

3. Vestiaire Collective

Vestiaire Collective is an international marketplace for pre-owned women’s, men’s, and children’s luxury fashion items, including designer shoes.

The site features boots, sneakers, sandals, flats, and heels from Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, Salvatore Ferragamo, and more. (See their website for a comprehensive list of brands allowed on Vestiaire Collective.)

Because Vestiaire is a specialized platform that’s predominantly for designer clothing, it’s good for reaching a targeted audience of people who will be interested in high-end fashion items like designer shoes.

When you get paid, you can either receive the money in your bank account or your PayPal.

Fees: Vestiaire Collective’s selling fees are quite high, with a $12 flat fee for items that sell for under $80, 15% for all items priced between $80 and $13,000, and $2,000 for all items priced above $13,000). There are also payment processing fees (3% for items priced over $80; $3 for items under $80).

4. BuyMYHeels

BuyMYHeels is a UK-based site specifically for women’s designer shoes. As you’d expect, they have a lot of high heels, but they also list flats, boots, loafers, sandals, casual sneakers, and more.

Although they’re a British site, they accommodate buyers and sellers from all over the world with no extra fees.

Fees: All you have to pay is a one-off flat fee of £5 (around $6) to list your shoes on the site. Then you can decide whether you want to pay the shipping fees yourself or charge the buyer for them.

5. Vinted

Vinted is a marketplace for buying, selling, and trading secondhand fashion items. It started in Europe but is now growing in the US.

Vinted is mainly for clothes and accessories (women’s, men’s, and children’s), including designer shoes. Certain other items are also allowed, such as children’s toys, beauty items, and homeware.

It’s a great choice for selling designer shoes, as there are no fees or shipping expenses for sellers at all. You can also choose whether to withdraw your earnings to your bank account or spend them on your own Vinted purchases.

Fees: Vinted has absolutely no fees.

6. Cash In My Bag

Cash In My Bag is a resale platform where you can sell designer handbags, designer shoes, and other accessories.

Whereas most of the rest of this list consists of marketplaces for selling to individuals, Cash In My Bag will buy your shoes from you and sell them on their site.

To get a preliminary quote for your designer shoes, you have to complete a brief online form describing them and upload a picture. You can then send your shoes (with a free prepaid shipping label), after which you’ll get a final quote. If you decide not to sell, Cash In My Bag will return your items (free of charge). Otherwise, they’ll mail you a check within 24 hours.

Fees: None.

7. Grailed

Grailed is an online marketplace and community platform that focuses on men’s fashion, particularly designer clothes and shoes, streetwear, and vintage clothing. It’s especially good for designer sneakers, although you can also sell other types of designer shoes there.

Grailed allows you to sell to buyers around the world, although you’ll have to pay your own shipping if you sell internationally (whereas buyers will pay the shipping fees if you sell domestically).

You can get paid to your bank account or through PayPal. Either way, transaction fees apply.

Fees: Transaction fees are 3.49% + $0.49 for US payments or 4.99% + $0.49 for international payments. There are also commission fees of 9%, which is fairly low compared to some platforms.

8. GOAT

GOAT is an online marketplace for buying and selling sneakers, accessories, and apparel. They have a large selection of sneakers from designers like Balenciaga, Gucci, and Alexander McQueen, so you can use the site to sell designer sports shoes—both men’s and women’s.

The process for selling on GOAT is a bit more complicated than some of the other platforms we’ve listed. You have to sign up to become a seller and wait to get approved. Their website says that they’re currently only allowing “a select group of sellers” to use the platform, so there’s no guarantee that you’ll be accepted.

Fees: GOAT doesn’t have listing fees, so you won’t pay anything if your item doesn’t sell.  However, they have a seller fee of $5 (if you’re in the US), plus a commission fee that’s usually 9.5% (with the commission fee deducted from the listing price). GOAT’s fee policy has some complicated details you should check in advance.

9. StockX

StockX is a marketplace where buyers can bid on a wide variety of shoes, streetwear, electronics, and collectibles. Their collection of designer shoes and sneakers includes brands like Miu Miu, Prada, Dior, and more. They list men’s, women’s, and children’s shoes.

On StockX, buyers and sellers can make anonymous offers based on the item’s current valuation on the site, as well as on how much you’re willing to sell it for. (Buyers see the lowest available sale price, and sellers see the highest available buying offer.)

Unfortunately, StockX has a major limitation: unlike the other sites on this list, it’s only for selling unworn (“deadstock”) shoes.

Along with the shoes themselves, you have to provide the original box, the lid, and the box label indicating the shoe size.

As a US seller, you can choose to receive your payout in one of four ways:

• PayPal
• Electronic ACH transfer to your bank account
• Venmo
• Debit

Fees: Like GOAT, StockX doesn’t have listing fees. However, there’s a payment processing fee of 3% and a transaction fee that depends on how many items you’re selling (and for how much). If you only sell a few pairs of shoes, the transaction fee will be 9%; if you sell more than 12 pairs of shoes and make more than $1,500, this fee may drop by a bit.

10. ThredUp

ThredUP is a platform you can use to sell women’s and children’s clothes, shoes, and accessories.

It calls itself an “online consignment and thrift store,” and it operates much like a normal consignment store. You don’t list your shoes on the site like you would with an online marketplace; instead, you send your shoes directly to thredUP. They then decide whether the shoes are sellable, quote you a price, and sell them for you. (If the shoes aren’t sellable, they’ll donate them for you—they won’t send them back.)

To send thredUP your clothes, you can order a “clean out kit” from their clean out page. The kit will include bags for your items and a shipping label. It costs $2.99, although you’ll only pay if your clothes are valuable enough.

Alternatively, you can just print out a shipping label yourself and use a normal box for mailing to avoid the clean-out kit charge.

Fees: If your sale makes more than $14.99, thredUP will charge you that amount as a “processing fee” (or $25.98 if you want “expedited processing”).

11. Flyp

Flyp is another consignment platform. It specializes in high-quality designer and name-brand fashion items.

Flyp differs from thredUp in that it doesn’t do the selling for you. Rather, it connects you to independent consignment sellers.

You can use Flyp to sell shoes—including designer shoes—and also clothes and accessories. Their site has a list of brands they accept (which notably doesn’t include any generic, unknown, or boutique brands).

Once you’ve picked a seller on Flyp, you can send them your items using a shipping label that the platform will provide to you. Flyp will pay for this upfront and will only make you repay the money if and when you earn enough from your sales.

Fees: Unfortunately, Flyp is another option with high fees, including:

• Commissions of around 40%–60% (charged by sellers)
• A 10% service fee for Flyp
• Shipping fees ($0.99 per item, with a $9 minimum per lot)

12. eBay

You can use eBay to sell almost anything, including designer shoes. You can choose whether you want to sell your shoes at a set price or to auction them to try and get the highest possible price.

eBay’s biggest advantage is the large audience you can reach, given how many people use the site (32 million, making it one of the most popular online marketplaces in the world).

eBay allows for local pickups, but buyers usually offer shipping. You can choose to pay for it yourself, or you can opt for the buyer to pay for it.

eBay’s options for cashing out are limited. They’ll only pay out your earnings into your checking account (although there’s a special program that allows some sellers to use their earnings as credit toward their own purchases).

Fees: eBay has a “value fee” when you sell (for designer shoes, this will normally be 8%–13.25% + $0.30) and extra fees if you sell outside the US (e.g., currency conversion fees and “international fees”).

14. OfferUp

OfferUp, one of eBay’s competitors, is a similar marketplace that you can use to sell almost anything (as long as it’s legal). Although OfferUp is much less well-known than eBay and has fewer users, one of its advantages is the lack of fees if you sell locally—whereas eBay charges hefty fees however you sell your item.

If you don’t sell locally, you have to use the prepaid shipping label OfferUp sends you for shipping your shoes (otherwise you can’t get paid through the OfferUp platform). You then have to drop off your package at a USPS-approved location (e.g., a mailbox, post office, or USPS-approved postal provider).

If you’re getting paid in person, OfferUp recommends that you ask for cash. If you’re getting paid through the app, you can only cash out via a bank deposit.

Fees: If you don’t sell locally, you’ll pay a 12.9% service fee for shipped items (based on the final price, excluding shipping costs), with a minimum fee of $1.99.

14. Mercari

Mercari is yet another marketplace where you can list almost anything that can be shipped. It’s a bit more limited than eBay—it isn’t quite as popular, doesn’t have the option to auction items, and doesn’t allow you to ship to buyers outside the US.

Mercari only allows you to sell locally if your area has the Mercari Local service (which connects buyers and sellers in the same regions with item deliveries via Uber or Dolly). If Mercari Local doesn’t cover your area, Mercari’s policies don’t allow you to take cash payments in person for items you sell through their platform.

Your payment options are also fairly limited. You can choose between:

• Depositing your balance to your checking account by direct deposit or Instant Pay
• Using your balance to purchase items on Mercari

Despite its limitations, for selling within the US, many reports online recommend Mercari over eBay due to the simplicity of the listing process.

Fees: Mercari has a selling fee of 10% (for all types of items) and payment processing fees of 2.9% + $0.50.

16. Craigslist

Craigslist is a bit different from the other sites we’ve listed. It’s a platform for listing classified ads—advertisements for products and services that are organized into categories so that users can easily find what they want.

On Craigslist, you talk to buyers directly and organize your own payments and shipping. This means you lose some of the security and convenience you get with alternative platforms; the flipside is that you’ll generally pay no fees for listing, shipping or handling your items.

Fees: None.

17. Meta Marketplace (Facebook Marketplace)

Meta Marketplace (still commonly referred to by its old name, Facebook Marketplace) is primarily used by people who want to sell items to people in their area.

It’s a popular choice for selling items that are bulky or hard to ship (e.g., furniture or large appliances like washing machines, etc.). However, you can list just about anything there, and if you browse the site, you’ll see plenty of designer shoes for sale.

As with Craigslist, the downside of listing on Meta Marketplace is that there’s no payment protection when selling in person.

Fees: Facebook is fee-free if you sell locally. Otherwise, there are processing fees of 2.9%–3.49% if you use the Facebook checkout feature.

If you found the list above somewhat overwhelming—or if you don’t consider yourself very tech-savvy and you don’t want to mess around with online platforms—don’t worry. It’s also possible to offload your shoes without ever touching a smartphone or computer.

You have three options:

Consignment stores

We’ve already mentioned consignment platforms, which will sell your designer shoes in exchange for a commission (usually around 25%–60% of the selling price). Consignment stores work in much the same way. You give them your designer shoes or other items, and the store has a set length of time (a “consignment window”) to sell them for you.

If your shoes sell before the time limit, the store will then give you the profits, minus any commission they take. If they don’t manage to sell the shoes in time, you can choose to either renew the consignment agreement or take your shoes back.

Consignment stores usually charge you very little (or nothing at all) if your item doesn’t sell. However, confirm this with the store before you commit to anything.

Luxury auction houses

We’ve already mentioned auction sites like eBay where you can list items for people to bid on. An auction house is the offline equivalent—a place where you can physically bring items to be auctioned off to bidders.

Auction houses often handle valuables such as antiques, art, and collectibles. As you might expect, luxury auction houses specialize in the sale of high-end, rare, valuable, and often unique items.

These types of places are good for selling designer clothes and shoes, as they attract serious buyers and collectors who will appreciate the worth of what you’re offering. The competitive bidding environment can also spur buyers into making higher offers.

The downside is that you may pay high fees on anything you sell. These will usually be around 10%–50%. It can also take weeks to get paid for your item (for example, the auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s cite 45 days and 35 days respectively as the deadlines for your payment).

Flea markets and pop-up events

You can also sell designer shoes at flea markets and pop-up events.

These are local events where you can rent a booth or table to sell your shoes directly to shoppers. They can be community-focused events where all types of items are bought and sold, but they can also be fashion-focused ones specifically for clothes, shoes, accessories, and similar items.

A major disadvantage of these selling events is that, unless you can get someone else to man your stall, you’ll have to spend a lot of time standing around waiting for customers, which might not be your idea of fun.

You’ll also likely have to pay to rent your booth or stall (which you can usually do for around $20–$40 per day). As such, this is only worth doing if you have many items for sale or can join forces with someone else who also wants to sell.

The advantage of these types of events is that you won’t usually have to pay commissions, seller’s fees, transaction fees, and so on. Also, your customers can inspect your shoes and try them on before they buy them, so you won’t have to deal with returns or complaints.

Here are some tips to help you sell your designer shoes:

• Clean and polish them: Your shoes will look more valuable if they’re well-maintained, so you should clean them before you take photos or show them to sellers. To clean leather shoes, brush off dirt (or use a little soap for tough stains), then use leather polish and shine the shoes with a brush. For sneakers and other nonleather shoes, just use a mild detergent or a specialist cleaner (e.g., sneaker cleaner).
• Take high-quality photos: Buyers will want to see clear images of your shoes from all angles with good lighting and, ideally, an uncluttered background. You should include close-ups of any imperfections or wear and tear so that buyers know what to expect (to avoid complaints or returns).
• Write detailed descriptions: Describe your shoes in as much detail as possible so that potential buyers know everything they need to about the condition, size, and appearance, plus any unique features.
• Set a competitive price: To set competitive and fair prices, research the market value of similar designer shoes. Take into account the condition of your shoes and the current market demand for that particular brand and style.
• List on more than one site: It’s best to list your shoes on multiple sites because each platform attracts a different audience, increasing the visibility of your listing and the likelihood of finding a buyer.
• Provide good customer service: It’s important to be responsive when potential buyers ask questions and to be as polite and helpful as possible when addressing inquiries and concerns.

If you’re creating a store on a platform like eBay or Poshmark that you plan on using again, these tips aren’t one-offs. They’re best practices that will also build your reputation as a seller and potentially get you positive reviews that you can leverage to make more sales in the future.