Once Wed

What: Sell your wedding dress

Commissions & Fees: $19.95 per listing

Husl$core: $$$$$

Review: There are lots of reasons that you might want to sell a wedding dress. For instance: The thing that no one tells you when you’re shopping for wedding dresses is that the moment you “sign” a contract to buy a dress — even before you take it out of the shop and before it’s altered — you are almost always committed to pay for that dress. Remember the “paperwork” the nice saleswoman gave you? It was a contract. It doesn’t matter if you find a dress you like better an hour later; change your mind about having a formal wedding; drop your beau; decide to join a convent; you are still contractually obligated to buy that dress.

Or, you could have had a wonderful wedding, been delighted as all get-out with your dress, but realize that it’s in good condition and you’re not going to wear it again. Given the often exorbitant cost of wedding gowns, having that gown gather dust in your closet can be a lost opportunity. You probably won’t recover the full cost, of course, but even half of the cost of a $3,000 designer gown is a lot of money. For $19.95, you can list the gown for sale for a year. Once Wed is among a half-dozen sites where your dress is likely to get plenty of eyeballs. And, if you’re selling an expensive gown, the flat fee is going to cost you significantly less than the sites that take a percentage of the sales price. Finally, the site attempts to limit scams by sending sales through Escrow.com — a good idea and important when you’re selling an expensive item. You may also want to check out Preowned Wedding Dresses and Still White.

What their users say:

From Wedding Bee:

“I wore 2 wedding dresses to my wedding and i wanted to sell both now that my wedding is over, so i posted them on oncewed.com. One dress was sold to someone in the US – thankfully no issue. Another dress, a very popular style, has about 8 inquiries so far – and 7 are from Australia!! is that possible or is it a scam from same group that scams that dress using different email accounts? Questions I have been asked: Some people asks for photos: ok not that weird. Some people say “please tell me since my fiance is funding it” (which sounds sketchy since i read somewhere that’s a phrase commonly used in a scam scheme), and that same person asked how much my dress would cost if she handles the shipping (whatever that means, how does someone handle shipping when i have the dress?)”

From Wedding Wire:

“Bought a dress off OnceWed (I may have bought two actually – but I cannot recall because I sold one of them on Tradesy), and had a great experience. It was a $900 BHLDN dress I got for $600. I also bought a second dress off Tradesy and had a good experience – that one was a $1400 BHLDN dress I purchased for $900. If you know your size in a specific dress (or designer), and are smart about knowing what an easy alteration is vs. a challenging or risky one – these sites are for you especially. Both dresses I purchased off these pre-owned sites were New With Tags and I saved a lot. I plan to sell the final dress I wore… on whichever of the two sites it sells on first!”