How To Figure Out The Price Of Your Used Shoes?

FUN FACT : "An average American Owns 19 pairs of shoes according to Newdream"

Looking at your closet fill with shoes you might assume that the shoes that you have worn over the years might have no value to it, you might think who would be interested in my old shoes! But you would be surprise because if your shoes are of popular brand, such as Nike or Adidas or even a less popular brand such as Asics or Puma, there is still a high chance that you can get some money for it by selling it. The only question is how much and how can go about determining it, which is what we're going to do a deep dive in today 

According to PersistenceMarketResearch, the second-handfoot wear market in 2021 was worth $12.8 Billion and is estimated to reach $43.1 Billion by 2032

 Therefore this is a huge market and there are an enormous amount of people looking for used shoes 

 

Do people actually buy used shoes?

Apparently, people do and there are 2 main reasons that people will decide to choose to buy used shoes over getting a brand new pair

That is because of the cost and because of the trend in sustainable fashion

Used shoes are sold for substantially less than new shoes and that is the main contributing factors to why people would rather buy the same shoe in a lightly used condition rather than the new one  

Another trends that we are currently seeing in the fashion community is the push for sustainable fashion as more and more people are realizing the effect of fast fashion and its impact on our platnet. Therefore now more than ever people are more open to buying used fashion items leading with clothing but we are seeing the same trend growing in used footwear as well

Now that you know that people do buy used shoes let's get into how to determine how much your it can be sold for  

Quick Formula : Most used shoes will go for 40%-50% less than the price when it was brand new. For example if you are selling a pair of Nike running shoes which has the retail price of $100 , and you have only used it a couple times with no significant wear you can expect to sell it for around $50- $60 online , and if you charge free shipping and pay for the shipping price yourself which is about $10 you can expect to get about $30 in your pocket after all the selling fees which is about 10% of the total sale amount when selling it online. By using this formula of cutting the retail price by 50-60% minus the $10 for shipping and 10% for the selling fees you can quickly estimate how much you can expect to get for it 

1. Determine the Type of Shoes You're Selling

It's important to determine which type of shoes that you're selling, whether its sneakers, flats, boots, heels, flats, sandals or athletic shoes , and if it's designer or not 

2. Examine The Condition

• Are there any scuffs, rips or tears?
• Any yellowing on the sneakers ?
• Is the soles still intact or if the heel is squared? 

Give your shoes a thorough look and check the overall condition of the shoes, check to see if there are any major flaws such as is there any holes on your shoes, any major scuff marks or paint chipping. These will usually be on the upper body of the shoes or the midsole which is the part in between the bottom sole and the upper body. 

Give it a separation test 

This is the test where you press against the edge of the upper of the shoes where it meets with midsole to see if there are any separation between the upper and the midsole due to old glue this usually happens with shoes that are worn alot or older shoes, I also see this happens quite frequent with Vans and Converse. Though this is a pretty major flaw it's not always a deal breaker if your shoes are vintage or rare just make sure to disclose it in your description. 

Flip the shoes over to check the bottom

 Check to see how worn the bottoms of your shoes are , if the treads are still there, any there any holes on the soles this usually happens for heavy walkers, or people that drag their foot when they walk, this is a huger deal breaker for buyers and is usually very hard to sell in this condition.

3. Determine the Shoes Model: 2 Ways

There are 2 quick ways that you can go about determining the model of your shoes, and when I say shoes model, I mean the exact name the brand call it like for Nike running Shoes there are different models like Nike UltraFly, Nike Pegasus 40, etc . By determining the model you can then look up what the exact model and color of your shoes so you can determine the value more accurately

• Look for the SKU number on the size tag

On the size tag of every shoes there are a string of number that the brand will use to identify the exact model and color of that sneakers here are some examples 

• Use Google Image Search 

Technology is amazing! instead of manually putting in the SKU number you can also use Google image search on your phone or computer to upload or take a picture of the side view of your shoes and Google will use its "magic" to scrape the web and find your exact shoes model, I have done this and it is usually extremely accurate for athletic shoes, sneakers, and boots and because they usually have a distinct look on the outside, for heels, flats or sandals I would recommend using the SKU method

4. Check the value of your shoes 

There are 2 ways to check the value or the expected selling price of your shoes 

• Get professional help : Bring your shoes to a local Vintage Clothing, Sneaker Resale Shop or Fashion Consignment Store

 If you don't want to do it yourself , you can bring it to your local  Vintage Clothing, Sneaker Resale Shop or Fashion Consignment Store and get helpfrom the staf that work there, determining the value of an item is literally their job so they will know what to look for and help you put a price on it 

• Check the Sold Listings on Ebay (My Preferred Way) 

 Ebay is currently the largest online marketplace for used things with 3.67 million users in the US access the eBay app every month and at least 1.7 billion eBay listings active on the site according to Edesk. People are buying and selling things on Ebay all the time there ae they have a huge data base of what have been sold and how much they sold for in the past . Therefore in my opinion it's the most accurate way to determine used shoes price online 

Here's how to do it 

• Go into the Ebay app and type in your shoes model in the search bar 
• On the top right side of the app click on the "filter" button 
• Scroll down until you see toggles for "Sold Items" and "Completed items" , turn both of it on 
• Now you should see all the items and the price it has sold for in the past 3 months

5. Price According to the Buy-It Now Price

Now you will see 2 types of Sold Listing, one is a Listings that were sold with a Buy it Now price, and there will be Sold listings that were sold under auction. If you want to sell your item for the most money I will recommend ignore the aution sold listings price, the reason is the price they sold for is usually much lower

Want to sell fast price on the lower end. Don't mind waiting , price on the average to higher end 

6. Don't see any sold listings? Try broader shoes model term

If you don't see any sold listings of your shoes, the term you put in for your shoes might be too specific like if the term you use is : "Nike UltraFly 4 Green Gold" try a broader terms like " Nike UltraFly or Nike UltraFly 4" instead

the term you put in might be too specific that Ebay have trouble looking for listings with that exact term so nothing will show up 

Conclusion  

Determining the value of the shoes is indeed a skill in itself because it does require alot of specific knowledge and past experiences, but I hope with this in depth guide it provided you with simple step by step guide that you can use and apply right away with no prior experience so that you know that you can figure out what your used shoes are worth.