To sell an expensive wedding dress...or not?

[sassy1234]

Hi,
I have a fairly expensive wedding dress.  Retail and new it was $3,000.  No face punch needed here, I did not pay for it. 

It is a common small size and it was professionally cleaned and boxed up.  I am sentimental, so I kept it with the hopes of taking it out and looking at it or something corny like that.  Because it is professionally boxed up, for the past 6 years I have never looked at it. 

Should I sell it or hold onto the memories, by looking at a box?  Logically, I have answered my own question, but it is hard to pull the trigger on this one. 

What do you all think?  I think I could get $1300 for it as I live in a major city.  It might take a year to sell it though. 

[EK]

Sell!!!  Is looking at a box with your wedding dress in it once in a blue moon really worth $1300!?

[Elaine]

Sell it, the memories aren't in your dress- that's why you have pictures!

[MissStache]

Sell that thing YESTERDAY! 

[catccc]

Sell. 

But... I still have mine, so I'm being a little bit of a hypocrite here.  But it's ivory and tea length and I have worn since getting married for special occasions/office parties.  And it was only $26- a good find, it is a j.crew bridesmaid dress that I grabbed on clearance.

Unless the dress is a high end designer dress (I'm guessing it is not at $3k), you might have trouble getting $1300 for it, though.

[CommonCents]

Sell - but keep your expectations realistic.  You will find it very hard to get $1300 for the dress 6 years later.  Most places recommend selling w/in the year while the style is still current.

[ace1224]

sell

[Rachelocity]

I'd definitely sell the dress. 

[Mr.Macinstache]

Oh maybe I could talk my wife into selling hers. This ought to be good. LOL.

[NumberJohnny5]

Keep!

Is this your first marriage? That dress should see another 2-3 weddings out of it. By the time you're done, that out-of-style dress will be back in style.

On a more serious note, I'd say sell. My wife still has hers, and it may be silly, but at least a tiny part of me wonders...why? Is she planning on using it again? Then I proclaim "Nah, that's silly, she couldn't possibly fit..." and then I get the not-so-figurative face punch. I really should stop talking out loud to myself when my wife is present.

[lifejoy]

Take so many pictures of it, possibly keep the veil or gloves or some little piece of it.

But sellllllllll

My mom has had hers under the bed in a box specially cleaned and preserved... for 27 years! It's not doing any good under the bed! And I'm not going to wear it. Poofy sleeves. Too big for me. Ugh.

[Frankies Girl]

Sell it.

You will not get anywhere near what you think you will for it though. Wedding dresses are extremely overpriced and a used gown, even a designer gown, is not worth half the retail cost after that long a time period.

Or donate it if you're feeling generous. There are many very worthy charities that would be very happy to get a nice wedding gown (and you could also take a tax writeoff).

wishuponawedding.org/donate
bridesagainstbreastcancer.org
bridesacrossamerica.com
(just a few I know about)

[savingtofreedom]

Sell or donate!!

I bought my dress for $500 but I pretty much ruined it during the wedding.  If your dress is still in great condition I would totally sell it. 

[pom]

Donate? Never thought of it but can you do a good deed and get a tax deduction from that? Any tax lawyer in the house?

[Sacadoh]

Sell. You get the cash, and someone else gets to enjoy it. It would just be left in a box, getting in the way.

I bought my wife hers for £150 and donated it to charity shortly after our honeymoon ended.

[lizfish]

Sell it for whatever you can get for it, or even better donate it. Mine was cheap in comparison and I never had qualms about donating it as I'm not sentimental about it. It's just a dress, and they're a pain to store. Give someone else the gift of a dress they could never afford. All the best whatever you decide.

(I am not even a beginner moustachian, but I feel qualified to answer this question!)

[SnackDog]

Burn it!!

[daverobev]

Sell it, of course. You != your clothes, yes it's nice to touch something with some history but.. ah well, I'm not into wedding stuff to begin with, so I can't really relate to the 'your special day' thing (we had 'two' weddings - the 'real one' at city hall, then the 'one when all the family could come' which was a cool weekend thing.. both in Canada.. and I got some friends together and we went for a walk when I was in the UK for all my home-friends, heh).

[historienne]

I vote sell, although I also agree that you are unlikely to get that much after six years, unless the dress is truly not dated.  You may already know this, but preownedweddingdresses.com and oncewed.com are the big sites for selling wedding gowns online.

[CommonCents]

Donate? Never thought of it but can you do a good deed and get a tax deduction from that? Any tax lawyer in the house?

Also not a tax lawyer and this not legal advice, but generally. you can only get the tax deduction for the fair market value of the item, which would be what you could get for it now (and would be considerably less than $6000). 

[catccc]

Donate? Never thought of it but can you do a good deed and get a tax deduction from that? Any tax lawyer in the house?

Also not a tax lawyer and this not legal advice, but generally. you can only get the tax deduction for the fair market value of the item, which would be what you could get for it now (and would be considerably less than $6000). 

CPA, ex-public (now corporate), in the house.  If you donate it, it needs to be to a 501(c)(3) non-profit to be tax deductible.  You assign fair value, but if it is over $500, you'll need to do some additional paperwork with your taxes... I can't remember the form number.  8283 or something with 8s...

[MakingSenseofCents]

I have been wondering the same thing. I bought my dress for $1,600, and I can sell it for $1,500 after I wear it next year. The dress is in high demand and there are many brides out there paying full retail since the dress was "rare."

I just don't know if I could sell it. I have no family "heirlooms" or whatever, and I feel like this is something that I may want to pass down. Many brides these days use parts of their mom's wedding dress for parts of their wedding, so I kind of want my future daughter to do the same!

[tomsang]

I just don't know if I could sell it. I have no family "heirlooms" or whatever, and I feel like this is something that I may want to pass down. Many brides these days use parts of their mom's wedding dress for parts of their wedding, so I kind of want my future daughter to do the same!

I would almost guarantee that your future daughter would love the heirloom of the $1,500+ investment return more than having to incorporate her mother's dress into her wedding.  Sell it, invest it, and be happy to free up the space!

[apennysaved]

I come from a sentimental family, and yes, my dress has been boxed up for 7 years now.  Mine was @$500, so not too expensive, but expensive enough.  I plan to use the fabric as material for my daughter's first communion dress (she wore my baptism gown, and the thought didn't even cross my mind at that point).  I have also heard of people using their mother's wedding gown fabric for ring bearer pillows or a wrap/ coverup for the bride.  I guess it depends on the style & how much fabric you would have to work with.  I don't want to really hold out & think that my daughter would wear my dress in 20 years when I might be able to create something special as another (smaller) keepsake. Neither me nor my 2 sisters wanted to wear my mom's dress because styles change so much, so I think this may be a good alternative as I don't really expect her to like my style if/ when she gets married (she is a toddler now-so who knows).  Unfortunately, if I choose to sell now, it probably wouldn't bring much $$$.

[MakingSenseofCents]

I just don't know if I could sell it. I have no family "heirlooms" or whatever, and I feel like this is something that I may want to pass down. Many brides these days use parts of their mom's wedding dress for parts of their wedding, so I kind of want my future daughter to do the same!

I would almost guarantee that your future daughter would love the heirloom of the $1,500+ investment return more than having to incorporate her mother's dress into her wedding.  Sell it, invest it, and be happy to free up the space!

See, I would feel differently. Having no family, I would love to have something like that.

[Rural]

I just don't know if I could sell it. I have no family "heirlooms" or whatever, and I feel like this is something that I may want to pass down. Many brides these days use parts of their mom's wedding dress for parts of their wedding, so I kind of want my future daughter to do the same!

I would almost guarantee that your future daughter would love the heirloom of the $1,500+ investment return more than having to incorporate her mother's dress into her wedding.  Sell it, invest it, and be happy to free up the space!

See, I would feel differently. Having no family, I would love to have something like that.

I'm more inclined to think that a bought item is not an heirloom. If your mother or grandmother had made the dress, that would be one thing, but otherwise, I'm afraid that in 20 years it will seem to a young person like just and old dress and you'll have your feelings hurt at a special time.

[Lil_Bit]

Sell it.

You will not get anywhere near what you think you will for it though. Wedding dresses are extremely overpriced and a used gown, even a designer gown, is not worth half the retail cost after that long a time period.

Or donate it if you're feeling generous. There are many very worthy charities that would be very happy to get a nice wedding gown (and you could also take a tax writeoff).

wishuponawedding.org/donate
bridesagainstbreastcancer.org
bridesacrossamerica.com
(just a few I know about)

I would also recommend another website called Tradesy.com - you can sell (and buy) wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, veils, shoes, attire for the groom and groomsmen, etc.

[EK]

I just don't know if I could sell it. I have no family "heirlooms" or whatever, and I feel like this is something that I may want to pass down. Many brides these days use parts of their mom's wedding dress for parts of their wedding, so I kind of want my future daughter to do the same!

I would almost guarantee that your future daughter would love the heirloom of the $1,500+ investment return more than having to incorporate her mother's dress into her wedding.  Sell it, invest it, and be happy to free up the space!

See, I would feel differently. Having no family, I would love to have something like that.

Seeing my mom's wedding dress I'm very glad she never expected me to wear it!!  I would have been put in a very tough position of having to hurt her feelings at a happy time.  Styles change.  Tomsang's idea is fantastic! 

If someone really wants to pass down a dress, how about take the money from selling it, invest it, and let your daughter use that special dress money on a truly incredible dress of her choice?

[dobatseatcats]

I say get rid of it - but, I had an awful time trying to sell mine. Tried for years. Ended up donating it. The consignment sites seem to want something that's no more than a year or 2 old; mine was about 6 years old at the time.

As an added bonus, I discovered that the "professionally cleaned and boxed" thing was a huge ripoff. I opened the box to make sure the dress was OK before photographing and listing it, and it was obvious that it had not been cleaned very well.... there were big smears of dirt along the hem and train. I took care of it with cold water and Oxi Clean... but gosh, I'm SO glad I forked over a bunch of $$$ to the cleaners...

[chicagomeg]

One option might to donate it to Brides Against Breast Cancer. They do events all over the country where they sell used dresses & donate the proceeds to the Susan G Komen foundation. I'm planning to donate mine if I'm ever at my parents' house long enough to clean it & pack it up.

[Hunny156]

I say get rid of it - but, I had an awful time trying to sell mine. Tried for years. Ended up donating it. The consignment sites seem to want something that's no more than a year or 2 old; mine was about 6 years old at the time.

As an added bonus, I discovered that the "professionally cleaned and boxed" thing was a huge ripoff. I opened the box to make sure the dress was OK before photographing and listing it, and it was obvious that it had not been cleaned very well.... there were big smears of dirt along the hem and train. I took care of it with cold water and Oxi Clean... but gosh, I'm SO glad I forked over a bunch of $$$ to the cleaners...

Yup, same here.  Dress wasn't too expensive, I think it was $800.  Then I spent $250 for the professional cleaning & boxing crap.  The satin trim at the back of the dress had gotten dirty, and it still was dirty when I opened the box 7 years later to prep it for sale.  Wish I had thought about donating it, I put it up on Ebay and got less than $50 for it.  Oh well - I was moving across the country, and I had zero interest in paying to move stuff that never sees the light of day.

[N]

Ive been thinking about selling or donating mine-but looking at all those sites, they only want dresses that are about 5 yrs old or less. mine is from 2000.

anyway, Id say sell it if you can.

[mustachejd]

Ditto on the daughters comment.

A coworker of mine just got married this year and while she didn't wear her mother's wedding dress, she used the wedding dress fabric as part of her decorations for her ceremony and reception.  I thought it was a pretty neat idea :).   

[smalllife]

Another option: take the fabric to a seamstress and have a dress made that you will actually wear.

Otherwise, sell or donate for sure!

[Mr.Macinstache]

And no one is offended when their daughters cut up their mom's wedding dresses? lol

Knowing my daughter, she has her own idea of style and won't want Moms dress. I say sell and invest and let that help pay for her big day. She'll have her own wants and needs to use the cash for.

[cynthia1848]

I would keep it.  I wore my mom's wedding dress in a fashion show when I was 10 (my mom was a lot smaller than I!). 

[tomsang]

I would keep it.  I wore my mom's wedding dress in a fashion show when I was 10 (my mom was a lot smaller than I!).

Or sell it for $1,300, go to Goodwill and buy a wedding dress for $25 and then use that for dress up.  Invest the $1,275 for 18+ years to help pay for college, a new wedding dress, or anything else.  You are proposing on trashing $1,300 for a costume so her daughter can play dress up.