Wallpaper and wallpaper borders haven’t always been on my radar as obvious items to resell for profit on Ebay.
It wasn’t until I watched a haul video in which a reseller found and bought a roll of Cath Kidston wallpaper at a jumble sale for £1.00 and sold it a few days later for £95.00. I’ve been hooked ever since.
As items go, wallpaper and borders are also super easy to store, package and post. (Never had a damaged one arrive to a customer yet, just wrap it in some cardboard).
Where to Source Wallpaper to Resell
Since the day I became aware of wallpaper as something I could resell for healthy profit and started looking for it, I found that it wasn’t as random an item as I first thought it might be.
I was clearly just passing it by and not registering it until now.
Majority of charity shops have either a shelf or a basket with odds and sods where wallpaper and wallpaper borders can be found. Depending on your area, the shop and the wallpaper, prices can vary from £1.00 to £2.00 per roll of wallpaper. Wallpaper borders usually cost 50p.
Wallpaper is generally plentiful at Jumble Sales, Trail Sales, Village Hall Sales where you can pick it up literally for pennies.
You are also likely to come across it at car boot sales and garage sales, again, typically available very cheaply for 50p to £1.00 per roll.
It’s also worth scouring Facebook Marketplace and clearance sections of DYI stores.
What I’m Looking for When Buying Wallpaper
You will find that more often than not, there will only ever be one roll of a particular design available for sale. On a rare occasion, you may come across multiple rolls of the same type but that’s definitely not the norm.
I’m happy to report that it doesn’t seem to matter. I expect buyers are purchasing single rolls to either repair patches on their walls that may have become worn/damaged, or they are looking to accentuate a single wall or perhaps a chimney breast. Some rare vintage ones may even be snapped up by collectors.
Although I am probably leaving money on the table, I only buy wallpaper and wallpaper borders that are still sealed in their original packaging.
Evidently certain vintage wallpaper can fetch good money even when the roll is incomplete but it’s not something that I do. I am looking for rolls that are:
- full length
- clean and sealed in their factory packaging
- still have the manufacturer’s label with the product’s official name, brand, dimensions, serial/batch number and any other relevant details. (You may not get all that with vintage rolls but they should still have the product number sticker on them).
I feel these are just easier to list, describe and overall are more salable.
Which Ones Are Valuable?
Not everything you come across will be worth picking up. When you find a roll that meets your condition criteria, look up its resale value before purchasing it.
Experience comes with time. As you sell more of them, you will be able to recognize which designs and brands are worth spending your money on. In the meantime, just look it up on Ebay or search through Ebay’s Sold Listings.
Prices vary depending on the brand and number of rolls (and if they are of the same batch). If you’re lucky and come across sought-after vintage rolls, you’re quids in!
Modern production wallpaper can be valuable, too, and considering how little it costs to buy and how easy it is to store and sell, for me, it’s a no-brainer.
Here come a few examples of what’s sold on Ebay this month:
2 rolls of Laura Ashley sold for £79.00:
Laura Ashley roll of wallpaper border sold for £22.99 + shipping:
1 roll of Cath Kidston sold for £35.00 + shipping:
Open roll of Schumacher wallpaper sold for $167.97:
1 roll of Morris & co sold for $97.95:
The list goes on and on…
Do some research on Ebay’s Sold Listings and write down ten or twenty of the best-selling brands and what they tend to fetch so you can make informed buying decisions when you’re out sourcing.
I, for example, will only buy rolls I can make at least £10.00 profit on. (That’s after the cost of the item, listing/selling fees and postage cost).
Here is Where I Resell Wallpaper and Borders
Although this is an article on reselling wallpaper and borders on Ebay, you can of course also resell it on Etsy and Amazon.
I am a huge fan of reselling across all three platforms. They are all easy to navigate and each offer a different audience.
To Conclude…
Wallpaper and wallpaper borders seem to have made a comeback, especially in the 2020s. During the Covid pandemic most people were cooped up indoors and many have been upgrading their home decor, buying wallpaper.
Wallpaper with floral, geometric and tropical patterns is trending at the moment if you’re at all interested. What I’m interested in though, is how much money I can make reselling it!
Read on:
