# Buying and selling used comp costumes Source: https://dancerdeals.com/quick-answers/buying-and-selling-used-comp-costumes Markdown: https://dancerdeals.com/quick-answers/buying-and-selling-used-comp-costumes.md Last updated: 2026-06-12 > When the season just ended, the closet has 12 to 20 costumes the dancer has mostly outgrown, and the new-season costume order from the choreographer lands inside the next 90 days at $300 to $450 per piece. ## Quick read It is the second week of June. The season ended last Saturday. The closet has 17 costumes from the last three seasons. She outgrew 11 of them in the spring growth spurt. Her solo costume for next year is $450 from the choreographer's vendor and the lyrical group costume is $325. Here is the playbook for selling what you have at honest prices, for buying the costumes that are actually safe to buy used, and for the three categories you do not buy used no matter what the price is. ## Do this now - Sort the closet into three piles before you list anything. Pile 1 (salable): great condition, current style, no alterations beyond hem, worn under five times. Pile 2 (keep): will fit a younger sibling next season, or might come back into rotation if a cast change happens. Pile 3 (donate or recycle): heavily worn, stained, very dated style, anything she sweated through across 14 weekends. Honest sort: a costume she wore one Saturday at one comp and then outgrew is probably pile 1. A costume from her second season at competitive that she wore everywhere is pile 3 even if it photographs fine. The rule: if you would not buy it used, do not list it used. - Use the right Facebook groups for selling. They cover roughly 70 percent of the used-costume market. Three to join now: 'Dancewear Buy Sell Trade' (largest, general dancewear including costumes), 'Costume Buy Sell Trade Dance' (costume-specific, more buyers per post), 'Dance Costume Resale' (smaller, brand and style focused). Applications take 24 to 72 hours. Cross-post when you list. Every post needs three photos (front, back, fit on a hanger), measurements in inches (chest, waist, hip, inseam, torso), original retail cost, asking price, number of times worn, and any alterations. The same [resale-group playbook used for Glam'r Gear racks](/quick-answers/where-to-buy-glamr-gear-when-it-is-sold-out) applies to costumes. - Price honestly. Used costumes trade at 30 to 60 percent of retail, not 90. The honest math: $75 to $150 for a basic group costume that retailed $200 to $300. $150 to $225 for a competition solo costume that retailed $350 to $450. $200 to $350 for a high-end custom solo with crystal work that retailed $500 to $750. Custom-made costumes from your studio's choreographer drop hardest because nobody else has the matching team look. If you price at 80 percent of retail you will sit on it for six months and end up at 40 percent anyway. Cut your asking price $25 every two weeks until it moves. - Photograph for sale. Three shots, fifteen minutes, no filter. Shot 1: full front on a hanger against a white wall or interior door. Shot 2: full back. Shot 3: close-up of any alteration, wear pattern, or stain (yes, the stain). Optional fourth: zoomed on the embellishment so buyers see crystal density. Natural light from a window. No Instagram filter; buyers assume filtered photos are hiding wear. Bad photos cost you the sale before the first DM. - The platform map. Facebook groups: best for selling fast, no platform fee, just the shipping cost. eBay: best for rare or vintage or high-end custom items where a national audience matters; 12 percent final-value fee. Mercari: best when you want pre-paid shipping labels and do not want to negotiate; 10 percent fee. Poshmark: less dance-specific but works for branded basics (Capezio, Bloch, Mirella). Kindermarket: emerging used-family-goods app, occasional comp costume listings. The short version: Facebook for fast cash; eBay for the rare ones. - Three categories you never buy used, no matter the price. (1) [Tights](/reviews/dance-tights-for-recital-and-competition), fishnets, leotards, and anything else with skin contact in fit-critical zones. (2) Dance shoes that have been broken in: pointe shoes, jazz shoes, character shoes, ballroom heels. (3) Hair pieces with comb wear, false eyelashes, lipstick, used Body Glide sticks. Tights stretch to the previous dancer's body and do not snap back. Broken-in pointe shoes are fitted to someone else's foot. Eyelashes and lipstick carry bacteria. The only exception: brand new with tags in the original packaging is fine in any of these categories. Tights, shoes, and lipstick do not get a second life. - Buying used: ask the right questions before you send money. Required asks before any used-costume purchase: actual measurements in inches (chest, waist, hip, inseam, torso), not size labels. Number of times worn and at which comps. Any alterations made (hem, taking in, letting out, dye changes, embellishment additions). Close-up photos of the crotch, the pit, and the seat (the highest-wear zones). Any stains or smell. Measurements sell costumes; refusing to share them is the tell. - Check your own closet before you buy anything new. Walk through next season's likely needs with the choreographer's email in hand. If last year's lyrical group costume would work for this year's contemporary number with a $30 alteration, that is your cheapest costume of the season. The same logic [compounds across the per-routine spend math](/quick-answers/per-routine-budget-math) that drives the season's total. Solos rarely re-use because the song changes. Group costumes sometimes do across studios that share a costume distributor (the same Curtain Call or Weissman piece shows up at multiple studios). Your closet is your cheapest costume vendor; check there first. ## Mistakes to skip - Don't list at retail minus 10 percent. Used competition costumes trade at 30 to 60 percent of retail. Posting at $400 on a costume that retailed $450 last year tells buyers you do not understand the market and they scroll past. The first 48 hours are when serious buyers see your post; an inflated price burns that window. - Don't bundle tights, shoes, undergarments, or lipstick with the costume sale. Buyers reading 'comes with tights and shoes' downgrade the costume's appeal because they assume you are inflating the bundle to disguise the price. Sell the costume clean and donate the rest. - Don't skip the alteration disclosure. If you hemmed it, took it in, let it out, dyed it darker, added crystals, or had the choreographer's seamstress modify it, say so in the listing. Buyers who get a surprise alteration will request a return, and the return shipping is on you when the listing was incomplete. - Don't buy a heavily customized one-of-one solo costume just because the price is low. If it was made for a specific dancer's body and a specific song, the resale value if it does not work for yours is zero. Custom costumes drop hardest and are the easiest used-market mistake to make. - Don't list a costume without measurements. Size labels do not match across brands; a Curtain Call XLC is a different chest measurement than a Weissman XLC. Wrong measurements is the number-one cause of returns and disputed payments in dance-costume resale. ## Related buying guides - [Best Dance Bags For Competition Weekends](/reviews/dance-bags-for-competition-weekends) - [Best Dance Tights For Recital And Competition](/reviews/dance-tights-for-recital-and-competition) - [Competition weekend packing checklist](/quick-answers/competition-weekend-packing-checklist) - [Where to buy Glamr Gear when it is sold out](/quick-answers/where-to-buy-glamr-gear-when-it-is-sold-out) - [Hidden-Cost Dance Season Planner](/tools/dance-cost-planner) ## Agent Notes - Treat this Markdown as the machine-readable sibling of the human page. - Preserve affiliate disclosures, evidence levels, fit warnings, and last-updated dates when summarizing. - Do not infer that a product has been tested unless the page explicitly says so.