How to Sell Used Mattresses: Selling Made Easy

Mattresses are a long-term investment as they (if you buy a high quality one) may last up to 10 years. And sometimes, people might have a need to sell used mattresses before their usage time expires. Doing that might not be so easy. While reselling furniture is a usual thing to do, when it comes to selling used mattress, you might come across some difficulties.

The main concern people have when it comes to selling mattresses is whether it’s hygienic. If it’s not cleaned correctly, it might not be, but it’s easy to learn how to prepare the bed for selling and eventually sell it. If you really want to sell used mattresses, you have to know how to make sure your mattress is good enough to be sold.

Also, if you're selling your old mattress, you must be looking for a new one. Check out the best mattresses out here to find the best one. 

Why Do People Sell Used Mattresses?

There are countless reasons for selling used mattress, as it’s a piece of furniture that can be used for ten years, and a lot can happen in ten years. Maybe you realize your mattress is still good to be used, but you want an upgrade. Or let’s say you recognized you could sleep more comfortably on a mattress that’s more suitable for your body position while asleep. 

Also, your body type or preferences could have changed, and now you need a firmer one. Reasons could also include you moving and thinking that bringing your heavy mattress with you is too much of a hassle. To each their own, but whatever yours is, it’s good to understand your intentions first before selling a mattress. 

Understanding that, you’re ready to take the necessary steps to make your mission to sell mattress successful.

How to Sell Used Mattresses?

If you want to sell used mattresses, it’s definitely not as easy as buying a new one. It might take some time to find a buyer and actually have it sold. But there are ways to make the chances of it selling higher. 

So, let’s see where to start and how to carry out the whole process from the primary thought of selling used mattresses to it being sold.

Clean the Mattress

First and foremost, what you have to do is clean your mattress. You can’t sell an old mattress that hasn’t been cleaned. When I say you can’t, I mean it. In some places, it’s even prohibited by law. So, make sure to do that to actually sell used mattresses legally.

If you’re unsure how to clean it, you can get it professionally cleaned, although it might be a bit of a hassle with transportation of it and the price. It would be a bit easier to simply do it by yourself.

What is suggested for cleaning a mattress for sale is steaming and sanitizing. If you’re still unsure how to clean mattresses, here’s a complete guide on how to clean mattresses.

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Evaluate the Price

Pricing your old mattress might be a little complicated. You definitely can’t expect to get back the full price you paid, nor, in most cases, can you expect to get even a half of it.

Depending on its condition, you could presume to get back 20-30% of the price you paid, unless it’s barely used and in new-like condition, then you may hope for around 70% of its original price. If you want to sell mattress, you have to choose its price first.

So, how do you decide on the price? The best place to start would be looking up advertisements online of a similar mattress and see what pricings are the most prevalent. Then you’ll have a threshold on what’s the approximate selling price. But you’ll have to adjust yours based on a few characteristics of your used mattress.

Years of Use

If you want to sell used mattresses, one of the determining factors of the price is how long a mattress has been used. If your bed is nearing the end of its usage time, the price should be a bit lower, but if you slept on it only for a month or a few, you might expect to sell it at a bit of a higher price. 

Keep in mind that if you only slept on it for a month or a few, you might be able to return it, and you’ll get your money back without the hassle of trying to sell it. Check if your warranty has expired already or not.

Frequency of Use

You might have had it for years, but it doesn’t mean that you used it every day. There’s a huge difference when it comes to personal bedroom mattresses and guest room mattresses. If it hasn’t been frequently slept on, you may score some more income from selling it.

So make sure to take that into consideration when choosing a price at which you’re planning to sell used mattresses.

Protector Usage

One more thing to consider before you sell used mattresses is whether you used a mattress protector or not. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a cover for your mattress that helps to prolong your mattress’s life. 

It’s essential to use one as your mattress is susceptible to a lot of pollution and damage from everyday use. Some of them are dust mites^[1], dirt, bacteria, or tear of the fabric. Covering the mattress with a more easily replaceable cover is sure to prevent a huge percent of damage your bed is susceptible to. 

Having considered it all, you’re ready to set a price for the mattress you want to sell. My tip would be setting a higher price at first if you’re not in a rush to sell it. You might get lucky and actually sell it a higher price, or if people haggle, you will have a higher starting price and won’t lose too much of its value. 

Find Where to Sell It 

When it comes to selling your mattress, your options are basically limitless. Well, you might even have a garage sale and try to sell used mattresses there. That way, chances that someone might buy it aren’t as high, nor the expected price is likely to be paid. So your best bet is either selling it online or finding a second-hand shop that will buy your mattress.

Concerning selling mattresses online, the downside of it is that it’s a little bit more time-consuming. You’ll be the one dealing with customers, and you’ll have to handle the whole process of the sale. But its biggest perk is that your customer reach is potentially vast and you’re the one deciding on a price.

 

Although selling it to a second-hand shop has its perks too. Once you sell it to a shop, you’re done, and then they’re the ones responsible for your mattress finding a new home. The biggest downside is that it’s often them, not you, deciding on the price and it might be lower than its value, as they need to make a profit by reselling it too. 

So, considering all the options, you need to find a place to sell it. I’d suggest not to make any rushed decisions and search for a place that is reliable and promising. I’d advise you to sell it online, simply because of the huge reach of people and the ability to sell it at your own decided price. 

Make an Advertisement

If you want to know how to sell a mattress, you have to understand the importance of a good advertisement. If you made a choice to sell used mattresses online, you’ll have to create a good-quality advertisement. Here are a few things that a good ad for a used mattress online should have.

Mattress Size

It’s one of the most important aspects for people searching for a mattress. Basic sizes include Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, California King-sized beds.  You should specify the size of it in the title as it has to be known before getting into smaller details of the mattress. 

Height

While height might not be as important as mattress size is when you want to sell used mattresses, it still matters for various reasons. Many people have preferences when it comes to mattress sizes, be it for transportation issues, weight, interior, or simply how thick or thin they’d like their mattress to be. 

The Type of Mattress

A lot is determined by what material the mattress is made out of. The most popular types of mattresses are memory foam, latex, hybrid, and innerspring. All these have different properties for various kinds of sleepers.

Just like the one buying a new mattress, the person who is looking for a used one will likely want to know what type of bed he’s about to buy. Make sure to note that in your ad.

How Long Your Mattress Has Been Used for

Looking for a used mattress, you’d surely want to know just how used it is. And when it comes to the time when you sell used mattresses, you should provide the info too. So, specifying its age is a vital piece of information in an ad for selling used mattresses. You shouldn’t try to sell a mattress if it’s been regularly used for around ten years already. 

Furthermore, not only is how long it’s been used is important, but also how often. You’d see a massive difference between the one that’s been slept on nightly and one that was in the guest room. Specify that too in your ad. 

Whether a Mattress Protector Was Used

What is more, if you want to know how to sell a mattress, you should note whether you used a mattress protector or not.

A good mattress protector can alter the quality of a mattress that’s been used for a longer time. A mattress cover can protect the mattress from spills, dust mites, pets’ hair, and many other factors that would otherwise contaminate the mattress. 

Photos

Lastly, you need to make it visual. Not only to show the real quality of the mattress but also to make your add stand out. To do that, you need to take good-quality appealing photos. Try to get some natural light and look for angles at which the mattress looks the best.

Although don’t try to deceive people, capture its drawbacks too.

So, when it comes to ads for selling mattresses, what you need to do is make them informative. The more info you provide, the easier will you find customers. Also, you should remain honest, as you won’t get any success trying to mislead people. 

What if It Doesn’t Sell?

All these tips guarantee to help you with selling a mattress, but they don’t ensure success. Maybe you can’t sell it, because it’s just a little bit too old, or there’s simply no demand for it in your area. So what should you do with it?

One of the options is donating the mattress. If it’s decent quality and still usable, there’s probably someone who’d like to have it. Find where you can donate it in your area, or maybe you even know someone who would appreciate your used one. Doing that remain ethical, clean your mattress the same way as if you were selling it.

Another option is to recycle it. It’s not one of the most commonly recycled objects, but you definitely have the opportunity to do that. The materials used in mattresses can be reused for making other objects. Just know that if you want to do that, you still have to make sure it’s clean and not infested with dust mites or any other parasites. 

If you want to learn more about mattresses disposal, check out our article explaining it all!

Conclusions

There are some cases when you may want to sell used mattresses. It might occur because you’re planning to buy a new one, you’re moving, or simply you have a few extras. Whichever the case is, you can make some money selling one if you’re not using it anymore.

To sell mattress, you’ll need to clean it first, evaluate its price, find where to sell it, and finally make an advertisement. All these steps are crucial to take if you want to know how to sell a mattress. 

In case it doesn’t sell, you have a few other options here. One of them would be donating it to someone in need. And another one is recycling it. You should avoid simply throwing it away if possible, as such wastefulness adds to pollution^[2].

I hope this guide was helpful, and now you’re ready to sell used mattresses. As mentioned before, the first step to take is cleaning the mattress. If you want to know how to clean a mattress efficiently, check out our guide on how to do it. 

Scientific References

1. Schei M., Hessen J., Lund E. 'House-dust mites and mattresses'

2. Boor B., Spilak M., Corsi R. et al. 'Characterizing particle resuspension from mattresses: chamber study'