Where to Sell Antiques: Auction Houses, eBay, Etsy, Chairish and Specialist Sites Compared

Where you sell an antique depends on what it is, what it is worth and how easily it travels. A Georgian chest of drawers, a box of Victorian postcards and a piece of Moorcroft each have a different buyer. This guide compares auction houses, specialist sites and general marketplaces on what they charge and who they suit. Fees come from each company’s own pages, checked on 10 November 2026.

We make FLUF Connect, a tool for listing the same item on several marketplaces. Most of this guide is about the marketplaces themselves.

Which Marketplace Should You Sell Your Antique On?

How Do You Find Out What an Antique Is Worth?

Start with what you can see. Look for a maker’s mark, stamp, label or hallmark, and photograph it. Note any repairs, replaced parts or restoration, because collectors pay less for them and an undisclosed repair is grounds for a return. Gather whatever history you have: receipts, letters, old photos of the piece in the family home. eBay UK requires provenance or ownership history in listings for artefacts and cultural heritage items, and on other antiques it helps a buyer trust the description.

Then compare sold prices, not asking prices. On eBay, filter a search to sold items. For anything you can’t identify, ask an auction house. Woolley & Wallis values items brought into its salerooms for free and holds free monthly valuation mornings in Salisbury and London. Hansons offers free valuations in person, by appointment or online, with no obligation to sell. A valuation also tells you whether the piece belongs at auction or would sell faster online.

Who Buys Antiques on Each Marketplace?

Auction houses: for valuable or hard-to-price pieces

An auction house catalogues, photographs and markets your item to its own bidders, and an auction lets competing buyers set the price. You pay for that service. Woolley & Wallis charges sellers 15% + VAT on each lot sold, with a £5 + VAT minimum, plus insurance at 1.5% + VAT of the hammer price, and normally nothing for unsold lots with agreed reserves. Settlement is about five weeks after the sale. Hansons charges 17.5% + VAT, which covers insurance, cataloguing, photography and online coverage, plus a £5 + VAT processing fee per lot whether it sells or not.

Online auction platforms work through the houses. LiveAuctioneers doesn’t act as an agent for your item: you describe it on a form, and an auctioneer who is interested gets in touch. If you run an auction house and want to put unsold lots in front of marketplace buyers, see FLUF Connect for auction houses.

Catawiki: expert-reviewed online auctions in Europe

Anyone can sell on Catawiki. An expert reviews each submission, places it in an auction and agrees any reserve price with you. Submitting is free. When a lot sells, Catawiki charges a seller success fee of 12.5% plus a fixed amount from €1 to €10, depending on the price, with VAT added where it applies. You ship within 3 working days of the buyer paying, and the buyer pays for shipping.

eBay: smaller antiques and a global audience

eBay suits antiques that post easily: ceramics, silver, clocks, books, tools, postcards. An auction helps when you don’t know the price. In the US, eBay’s fee table doesn’t list Antiques separately, so it falls under the most categories rate of 13.6% on the total sale up to $7,500 and 2.35% above, plus $0.30 or $0.40 per order. In the UK, private sellers pay no final value fee and get 300 free listings a month.

For furniture, eBay UK lets you offer collection in person. The buyer pays at checkout, and you scan or enter their code when they collect. Our eBay fee calculator works out the fee for your price.

Etsy: vintage pieces at least 20 years old

Etsy has a vintage section with a clear rule: an item must be at least 20 years old to be listed as vintage. Etsy may ask you for sourcing details and photos to prove it. Fees are a $0.20 listing fee and a 6.5% transaction fee on the item price plus delivery, then payment processing of 3% + $0.25 in the US or 4% + £0.20 in the UK. The Etsy fee calculator shows what you keep.

Chairish, Vinterior and Selency: furniture and decor

These three sites specialise in vintage and antique pieces for the home. Chairish, in the US, starts new sellers on its Consignor plan at 40% commission and moves them to Professional, at 30%, once they have 10 live listings. Its Premium and Plus plans bring the rate on vintage and used items down to 25% and 22%.

In the UK, Vinterior charges individual sellers a flat 24% of the item price, with no listing or monthly fees, and its curation team reviews each listing. Dealers who run a vintage or antiques business can apply to sell at 17% on the first £2,500 of each item. In France, Selency is open to both professionals and private sellers. Registration is free, you pay commission when something sells, and every listing is moderated. Our guide to selling furniture covers delivery for large pieces.

At the top end, 1stDibs lists items from professional dealers who have passed its vetting. A private seller would go through a dealer or an auction house instead.

TodoColección: antiques and collectables in Spain

TodoColección calls itself a site for buying and selling antiques and collectables (“compra y venta de antigüedades y objetos de colección”). Registering as a seller costs €0.01, and commission is charged when something sells. It falls as the price rises: 8.75% up to €300, 7% from €301 to €500, 5.5% up to €1,000 and 4.5% above that, with VAT on top.

Whatnot: selling live to collectors

Whatnot sells through live video shows and has an Antiques & Vintage Decor category. It suits smalls, ephemera and collectables you can show on camera. Commission at the standard tier is 8% in the US and 6.67% + VAT in the UK, on the item price. Payment processing is 2.9% + $0.30 in the US and 2.42% + £0.25 + VAT in the UK, on the whole order.

Local sites: heavy pieces and quick sales

A wardrobe or a dining table is often easier to sell to someone who can collect it. Gumtree charges sellers no fee when the buyer pays through Gumtree. Kleinanzeigen is free for private ads in most cases. In the Netherlands, Marktplaats is where furniture changes hands locally. On Facebook Marketplace, US shipped orders carry a 10% fee, while local sales are arranged between you and the buyer.

How Much Does Each Option Take From a Sale?

Here is what each would take from an antique selling for $500, £500 or €500, leaving shipping aside.

The cheapest route isn’t always the one that pays most. An auction house or a curated site may find a buyer who pays more for the right piece, so compare sold prices before you decide.

Which Antiques Need Paperwork Before You Sell?

Ivory in the UK. Under the Ivory Act, you can sell an item containing ivory from elephant, hippopotamus, killer whale, narwhal or sperm whale only if it fits an exemption and you have registered it or got a certificate. Exemptions include items made before 3 March 1947 with less than 10% ivory, portrait miniatures made before 1918, and musical instruments made before 1975 with less than 20% ivory. Registration costs £20 per item. A pre-1918 item of outstanding artistic or historic value needs a £250 certificate, which takes about three months. The penalty for selling without one is a fine of up to £250,000 or five years in prison.

Ivory in the US. Selling African elephant ivory across state lines is banned, apart from antiques at least 100 years old that meet the Fish and Wildlife Service’s other conditions, and small de minimis items.

On eBay, ivory from elephant, hippo, walrus, narwhal and other listed species is not allowed, and the policy page lists no exception for antiques. eBay UK also notes that items made more than 50 years before they are exported need an export licence, so check before you agree to post an older piece abroad.

How Do You Pack Antiques for Shipping?

• Double-box anything fragile. eBay’s packing tips suggest that extremely fragile glass or ceramics go in one box, then into a slightly larger box with cushioning between the two.
• Do the shake test. Shake the packed box gently. If nothing moves, it is ready to seal.
• Use proper shipping tape, not masking tape or string.
• Wrap pieces separately. Take lids off teapots and drawers out of small cabinets where you can, and wrap each part.
• Photograph the item and the packed box before it goes, and keep the proof of postage. Add insurance or the carrier’s extra cover for anything valuable.

For heavy furniture, offer collection, or use the site’s own delivery service where it has one.

Can You List the Same Antique on Several Sites?

Yes, and it helps a one-off piece find its buyer. A Victorian writing slope might sell on eBay to a collector abroad, or on Etsy to someone furnishing a study. You can’t tell which will come first. Because there is one of it, the other listings have to come down quickly once it sells.

FLUF Connect lets you create the listing once, with your photos and description, and send it to the marketplaces you choose, out of 80+ it connects to. What happens after a sale depends on the marketplace:

You need your own seller account on each marketplace. Selency connects with your Selency email and password. Facebook Marketplace and Whatnot connect through the FLUF browser extension or the FLUF Mobile app, and TodoColección and Gumtree through the browser extension.

How Do You Get a Better Price for Antiques?

• Don’t over-clean. Polishing off old patina or repainting can lower the value. Dust it and leave restoration to a specialist.
• Photograph what a collector checks. Marks and labels, joints and dovetails, the underside, the back, and every chip, crack or repair, in daylight.
• Give measurements. Height, width and depth for furniture; diameter and height for ceramics and glass.
• Say what you know and what you don’t. “Believed to be” is fine when you aren’t sure. A confident wrong date leads to a return.
• Share the history. Where it came from and how long it was in the family adds interest, and a document backing it adds value.

Selling other collectables? See where to sell vinyl records and where to sell books. If you sell across several categories, our crosslisting app comparison covers tools for listing on several marketplaces.