How Much Are Secondhand Kids' Clothes Worth? The Items That Deserve a Second Look

If you're sorting through a wardrobe full of clothes your children have outgrown, it's usually easy to spot a few pieces that look valuable.

The designer dress. The expensive jacket. The outfit that was worn once to a wedding.

But after pricing more than 150,000 pieces of baby and children's clothing at Daisy Chain Clothing, we've found that some of the items worth looking at more closely aren't always so obvious.

A wool coat from a fairly ordinary brand can be worth more secondhand than an everyday item from a premium label. Some baby sleeping bags retain surprisingly strong value. And an old pair of children's overalls that looks dated to one parent might look vintage to somebody else.

So rather than trying to put an average price on a bag of children's clothes, here are some of the things we'd look for.

1. Check what's actually inside the jacket

Outerwear is one of the first places we'd look when sorting outgrown children's clothes—but not simply because jackets generally cost more than T-shirts.

The construction and materials can matter enormously.

In our historical data, preloved children's jackets containing wool, down or feathers, along with proper ski and snow outerwear, were disproportionately represented among higher-value items.

We've seen this across both premium and more everyday brands. A substantial wool coat or down-filled winter jacket can therefore deserve a closer look even when the brand itself doesn't immediately jump out at you.

So before putting an old jacket into the ordinary clothes pile, check the labels.

Wool? Down or feather filling? Proper ski or snow gear?

It may be one of the more valuable pieces you're holding.

2. Do the same thing with children's knitwear

Brand isn't the only label worth reading.

Our data also suggests that what a garment is made from can sometimes be a useful clue to its secondhand value.

We found this particularly interesting with children's knitwear. Wool, merino, cashmere and other premium natural fibres appeared disproportionately among higher-value garments.

The effect was especially noticeable in baby knitwear. The sample is relatively small, so we wouldn't suggest that every merino baby jumper is valuable. But the difference was large enough that we'd certainly check the composition label before dismissing a little cardigan or jumper as another everyday basic.

This is one of the easiest potentially valuable details to overlook when clearing out a child's wardrobe.

3. Don't overlook baby sleeping bags

This was one of the more interesting findings in our data.

Parents accumulate an enormous amount of clothing during the baby years, and much of it is outgrown remarkably quickly. That can make it tempting to treat everything as one enormous pile of baby clothes.

But some specialist baby products deserve a closer look.

In our historical data, preloved sleeping bags from brands such as Love to Dream and ergoPouch were much more likely to appear among higher-value baby items than ordinary baby basics.

For example, almost a third of the preloved Love to Dream baby sleeping bags in the dataset were priced at $15 or more.

That's not a valuation for every Love to Dream sleeping bag—model, condition, size and other factors still matter—but it demonstrates why it's worth identifying these items rather than treating them like another bodysuit or pair of baby pants.

4. Look at the brand and the garment

It seems obvious that brand affects secondhand value. What's more interesting is that the brand alone doesn't tell you very much.

Our data shows substantial differences between different types of clothing from the same brand.

A premium-brand jacket, dress or piece of knitwear, for example, can occupy quite a different part of the secondhand market from one of the same brand's basic T-shirts.

The reverse can also happen. We've seen substantial winter garments from relatively mainstream brands achieve stronger prices than basic garments carrying considerably more expensive labels.

So when deciding which clothes deserve particular attention, we'd ask two questions rather than one:

Who made it—and what is it?

This is also why rules such as "Brand X is worth $Y secondhand" aren't particularly useful. There can be enormous variation within a single brand.

5. Think twice before dismissing something as simply "old"

This was another interesting feature of our historical data.

Being old certainly doesn't make children's clothing valuable. Most older clothing isn't collectible, and age alone shouldn't be confused with vintage value.

But some distinctive older children's clothing operates differently from ordinary secondhand clothing.

We've encountered vintage OshKosh and Baby B'Gosh pieces, older Disney clothing and other distinctive vintage garments commanding considerably higher prices than you might expect from their age alone.

The effect wasn't universal. It appeared much more strongly among particular garments—such as dresses, jackets and overalls—than across vintage clothing generally.

So if something has survived long enough to be handed down through the family, has a distinctive older label or design, or simply looks unlike children's clothing currently in the shops, it may be worth checking what it is before deciding what to do with it.

Sorting baby clothes? These are the pieces we'd check twice

Baby clothes present a particular problem: there can be so many of them.

If you're staring at several years' worth of sizes 0000 through 1, you don't necessarily need to research every bodysuit individually.

Based on what we've seen in our own data, we'd pay particular attention to:

• specialist sleeping bags, including Love to Dream and ergoPouch;
• wool and merino knitwear;
• substantial jackets and coats;
• better-brand dresses and special-occasion clothing;
• premium children's brands; and
• unusual or distinctive vintage pieces.

That doesn't mean ordinary baby clothing has no resale value. Daisy Chain Clothing accepts everyday brands as well as premium brands through the Outgrown Kit, provided the garments meet our acceptance criteria.

It's simply worth knowing that a large bag of seemingly ordinary baby clothes can contain a few pieces that deserve considerably more attention than the rest.

So, how much are your children's clothes actually worth?

There isn't a reliable percentage of the original retail price that works across children's clothing.

Brand matters. Garment type matters. Condition matters. Materials can matter. And for certain pieces, things such as age, rarity, construction and collectability can matter too.

That's also why we'd be cautious about online rules suggesting that used children's clothing is generally worth a particular percentage of its original price.

If you're selling clothes yourself, the most useful guide is usually to look for comparable secondhand items, paying attention to the actual garment rather than the brand alone.

And remember that an advertised price isn't necessarily evidence that somebody has actually been willing to pay it.

Selling them yourself isn't the only option

Selling directly through Facebook Marketplace, eBay or another marketplace can potentially produce a higher return because you're doing the selling yourself.

If you're not sure which selling method makes sense for you, see our complete guide to where to sell secondhand baby and children's clothes in Australia, including the pros and cons of marketplaces, eBay, resale services and other options.

But that also means sorting, researching prices, photographing, writing listings, answering enquiries, storing the clothes, dealing with individual buyers and arranging collection or postage.

For some parents, that's worthwhile. For others, getting the clothes out of the house without turning them into dozens of individual selling jobs is worth more.

That's the reason we created the Daisy Chain Clothing Outgrown Kit.

You choose a satchel size and send us suitable outgrown baby and children's clothing. Daisy Chain Clothing assesses the garments and calculates your payout under our published payout structure, with a choice of cash or higher-value Daisy Chain Clothing credit.

The clothing isn't sent to us for a no-obligation valuation and isn't returned after assessment, so we recommend reading the acceptance criteria and terms before ordering your kit.