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How to Price Antiques by Comparing Marketplaces (UK, 2026)

Price an antique from what similar pieces have actually sold for, on the marketplace where you plan to sell it, and then take off that marketplace's fees. Asking prices on unsold listings are useful only to see where your competition starts.

Key points

• Sold prices beat asking prices. An asking price is a hope; a sold price is what a buyer paid.
• eBay shows the most sold data in public. eBay's own help page says its completed listings cover items that sold in the previous 90 days, and its Product research covers the last 3 years.
• Most specialist sites do not show sold prices to the public. Measured on 19 October 2026: Chairish's sold search and Ruby Lane's sold search both show sold items with no price.
• Compare like with like: the same maker, period, material, size and condition.
• Then work out what you keep. The same £800 sale leaves you very different amounts on eBay and on Vinterior.

What is the difference between a sold price and an asking price?

A sold price is what a buyer actually paid. An asking price is what a seller would like to get, and an item can sit unsold at that price for months.

eBay's own Product research help page makes the point clearly: its sold data shows "the actual price that the item sold for, even if a Best Offer was accepted". So an item listed at £400 that sold for £320 on an offer counts as £320.

Chairish, the US design marketplace, says the same in its own pricing guidance for sellers: use realised sales and true comparables, not the highest active listing.

Which marketplaces show sold prices in public?

This is the question most pricing guides skip. Here is what each marketplace showed on 19 October 2026, from its own help pages and its own website, viewed without logging in.

So for most antiques, eBay's sold results are the widest public record of real prices. The specialist sites are better for selling than for researching what things sold for.

How do I find sold prices on eBay UK?

eBay offers two kinds of sold data. Its help page on Product research (read 19 October 2026) says:

• Completed listings include only listings that "ended sold in the previous 90 days".
• Product research gives "access to the last 3 years of eBay sales data", with sales trends, average sold prices, the sold price range, average postage costs, the sell-through rate and the number of sellers who sold the item. You can set any date range from one day to 3 years, and filter by buyer location, seller location or eBay marketplace.

eBay's page does not say whether Product research costs anything or who can use it, so check that in your own eBay account.

What is sell-through rate and how do I use it?

Sell-through rate is the share of listings for an item that actually sold over a period. eBay shows it in Product research for searches of items sold in the last 90 days.

How to read it:

• A high sell-through rate with a low average price means buyers want the thing, so the price is what decides it. Price close to the middle of recent sales.
• A low sell-through rate everywhere means few buyers want that thing on that marketplace. A lower price may not help; a different marketplace might.
• A wide sold price range usually means condition, maker or size are doing the work. Compare more closely before you price.

How do I compare like with like?

A price only means something next to a genuinely similar piece. Match as many of these as you can:

• Maker or factory, and any marks.
• Period, as narrowly as you can date it.
• Material and construction: solid or veneered, hand or machine made.
• Size: a 4 ft bookcase and a 7 ft bookcase are not the same item.
• Condition: original finish, restoration, damage and missing parts.

Use the middle of the matching sold prices, not the top. Chairish's own guidance is to anchor near the recent median for comparable condition. The median is the middle price when they are lined up, so one unusually high or low sale does not pull it.

If you compare with Chairish or Ruby Lane, remember both price in US dollars, and Chairish's help says it only arranges shipping within the continental United States, so a UK seller arranges their own.

How much will I actually keep on each marketplace?

The same sale leaves very different amounts in your pocket. These examples use each site's fees as published on 19 October 2026. The UK sites are worked on a £800 sale and the US sites on a $1,000 sale, because no exchange rate has been applied here.

That is why a piece often has to be priced differently on different sites to leave you the same amount.

What do the marketplaces themselves advise?

Chairish publishes unusually specific pricing advice for its sellers:

• As a starting point, list at 25 to 30% of the item's estimated retail price.
• Anchor near the recent median for the same condition.
• If a listing gets plenty of views but few saves or enquiries after 10 to 14 days, consider a 10% adjustment or better photographs, and look again at 30 days.

Vinterior's advice to private sellers is to browse similar items on its site to see how others have priced them. Those are asking prices, so use them to see the competition, not as proof of value.

Where do asking prices help?

Asking prices are not useless. They show what a buyer sees today next to your piece, and the ceiling of what they might be willing to pay. If similar pieces are all listed at £300 and yours is £600, it needs a clear reason: better condition, a known maker, or better photographs.

Artifactly Studio shows eBay comparable asking prices next to each piece as a pricing guide, so you can see the competition while you write the listing. It then publishes to eBay, Shopify and WooCommerce and prepares listings for Chairish, Ruby Lane, Vinterior and Pamono, so one price decision goes everywhere. See pricing for the plans.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best way to compare antique prices across marketplaces?

Start from sold prices, not asking prices, for pieces with the same maker, period, material, size and condition. eBay shows the most sold data in public. Then work out what you would keep after each marketplace's fees, because the same sale price leaves different amounts on different sites.

How do I see sold prices on eBay UK?

eBay's help page says its completed listings show items that sold in the previous 90 days, and its Product research covers the last 3 years with average sold prices, the sold price range and the sell-through rate. Product research also shows the real price paid when a Best Offer was accepted.

Does Chairish show sold prices?

Not to a visitor who is not logged in, measured on 19 October 2026: its Pink Book and sold search list sold items without prices. Chairish's help says that when no price shows, the item sold to a member of its trade programme. Whether a logged-in seller sees more was not checked.

Does Ruby Lane show sold prices?

Ruby Lane has a public "Sold Items" search, which listed 148,183 sold items on 19 October 2026, but the search results do not show the sold prices.

What is a good sell-through rate?

There is no single good number, because it depends on the category. Read it alongside the average sold price: high sell-through with low prices means price decides it; low sell-through everywhere means few buyers for that item on that marketplace.

Should I price at the average or the median sold price?

The median is usually safer. It is the middle price when the sales are lined up, so one unusually high or low sale does not drag it the way it drags an average.