Sell Clothes by the Kilo or Piece by Piece? What to Pull Out First

Selling clothes by the kilo is the fast way to clear a wardrobe and the slowest way to earn from it. The clearest published UK rate we found is £5 cash per 10 kg, or 50p a kilo (March 2022), and the market has weakened since. A weight price can’t see a brand or a label, so pull out anything with resale value first. One piece sold for £5 earns as much as that whole bag.

This guide is for someone with a full bin bag and a free afternoon. It shows what buyers have actually published, explains why the number is low, and gives a ten-minute sort to run before anything goes on a scale. For the buyers and apps themselves, see where to sell vintage clothes.

At a glance: what a kilo has paid

Published rates, each with its date. They are examples, not a market average. Conversions use the ECB rates of October 30, 2026. Rates change, so ask the buyer.

Who	What it is	Published rate	About	Date
Cash In Clothes, Wrexham (UK)	Pays private sellers	£5 cash per 10 kg; £10 in vouchers	50p/kg cash ($0.30/lb)	March 2022
Fringokilo (France)	Bought parcels by post	€1/kg by bank transfer	83p/kg	September 2023
King Family, Himeji (Japan)	Buys in store	¥50–150/kg if resaleable; ¥1/kg if recycling only	24p–71p/kg; under 1p/kg	October 2025
Local pickup services (South Korea)	Collect from your door	From ₩200/kg to ₩400/kg	11p–22p/kg	October 2026
German market (trade, not private sellers)	Price per ton of mixed collected clothing	€10–30 a ton, “according to various calculations” (Utopia)	€0.01–0.03/kg	October 2025

For comparison, what shoppers pay by weight: Rethink Vintage in Madrid charged €35 a kilo (October 2024), and Fringokilo €20 a kilo (September 2023). That gap is the sorting: someone picks out the good pieces and sells those by the kilo at twenty or more times the price.

We found no current rate published by a US buyer that we could verify, so there is no US row. Fringokilo’s site today shows sellers’ lots rather than a buyback rate, so treat that line as history. If you would rather sell the better pieces to a store, our guide to stores that buy clothes compares what Buffalo Exchange, Crossroads and ThredUp say they pay.

Why the rate is so low, and falling

A weight buyer isn’t paying for your clothes. They’re paying for a mixed lot they have to sort, and most of its value goes to the few pieces that can be resold. The rest goes to cheap export or to rags.

That trade is in trouble. In October 2024, the European recycling federation EuRIC said that since spring 2024 prices for sorted second-hand garments no longer covered the cost of processing them. In January 2026, the head of the Milan cooperative Vesti Solidale told Il Post the value of what it collects had fallen 40%. France raised its support for sorters to €268 per ton for 2026 to prevent bankruptcies, and the reporting points to saturated export markets and low-quality fast fashion. Older rates are probably generous, so assume a printed rate is the high end until the buyer confirms it.

The sum that decides it

You don’t need a price guide for this. Use one number: what the bag pays.

Weigh the bag on a bathroom scale: step on with it, then without it. Multiply by the buyer’s rate. At 50p a kilo:

Bag or piece (example weights)	By weight at 50p/kg	Equal to selling one piece at
10 kg bin bag	£5.00	£5
1.5 kg leather jacket	£0.75	75p
1 kg wool coat	£0.50	50p
300 g sweatshirt	£0.15	15p

The weights are examples, so use your own. The point holds at any realistic rate: for a single piece, by-weight money is pennies, and any sale at all beats it. Sellers on Vinted UK and eBay UK pay no selling fee, as the fees guide shows, so the sale price stays with you, while in the US fees and shipping come out first.

The real cost is your time. So set a floor. Sellpy, the resale service that does the listing for you, asks for items with a second-hand value of over €5, and that’s a sensible personal floor too. If a piece could plausibly sell for that much, it comes out of the bag. Our guide on how to price clothes on Vinted shows what to ask for it.

What to pull out first

Tip the bag out and look at labels, not at the fabric. This takes about ten minutes for a bag.

1. Old labels. Woven labels, a union label, “Made in USA” on American brands, a shop or brand name you don’t recognize. Our guide to dating Levi’s by the tag shows the kind of clue that matters.
2. Denim. Levi’s, Lee and Wrangler, especially with older tags. They’re heavy, so they look good on a scale, and they’re still worth far more apart.
3. Leather, suede and shearling. Among the heaviest pieces in the bag, and the most underpaid by weight.
4. Real fur. Never by the kilo. Our fur coat guide covers what it’s worth, how to tell the type and where it can be sold; Vinted won’t take it.
5. Football shirts and sportswear. 80s and 90s tracksuits and shirts have their own collectors. Check a shirt is genuine with our football shirt guide before you list it.
6. Wool, cashmere and silk. Read the fabric label. Good natural fibers are often what separates a coat that sells from one that doesn’t.
7. Known brands in good condition. Anything people search by name, from outdoor brands to designer labels. The condition guide helps you judge what counts.
8. Anything unworn with tags. Even ordinary brands sell when they’re new.
9. Matching sets. Children’s clothes in one size can sell as a bundle where single pieces wouldn’t.

Keep what you can’t place. Look at it twice, or check sold listings for that name on one marketplace. The guides hub has more on dating and pricing.

Before you sell the rest by weight

What’s left is what weight buyers are for. Ask these on the phone first:

• What is today’s rate? Printed rates age quickly.
• Is there a minimum? One Korean pickup service lists 15 kg; many won’t come for one bag.
• Cash or voucher? The Wrexham buyer paid twice as much in vouchers as in cash. That’s only worth it if you’d spend them.
• What do you refuse? Wet, dirty or torn clothes usually get turned down or paid at scrap rate.
• Whose scale? Ask to see the weight before you agree. Bags and hangers add to it, so take them off if the buyer pays only for clothes.
• Do you actually buy? “Kilo shop”, “kilo sale” and “vintage by the kilo” usually mean a place that sells by weight to shoppers. Searches for “sell clothes by the kilo near me” return many of these.

If nobody will pay for it

Some of the bag won’t sell at any rate. Clean, wearable clothes can go to a charity shop or a textile bank. Don’t use a bank as a bin: a Belgian collector that stopped in December 2025 said about 20% of its container contents was waste, at a cost of up to €10,000 a month. Heavily stained, wet or worn-out textiles go wherever your local council tells you to put them.