Price the release, not the model
A sneaker model is made again and again: new colourways every season, collaborations, retro runs of an old colourway decades after the first. Pairs that share a shape can sit at opposite ends of the market, and a valuation that stops at the model name — “Air Jordan 1”, “Dunk Low”, “Samba” — has not started.
The release is named by the style code on the label inside the tongue, and the same code is printed on the label at the end of the box. Search that code and the sales you find are sales of your pair, not of its cousins. Where the label has worn away, the box, the order confirmation or the original listing usually carries it.
Age cuts both ways. An early pair of a celebrated colourway can be collected for itself, but the foam in old midsoles hardens and can crumble with time, so very old pairs are often bought to keep rather than to wear, and priced accordingly. A retro of the same colourway made last year is a different release with a different code and a different market.
The model is a family. The style code is the pair.
The size is part of the price
The same release in two sizes is, to the market, two products. Fewer pairs are made at the ends of the size run and fewer buyers want them, so prices can move noticeably from one size to the next — in either direction, and differently for every release.
So read sales in your size. A headline figure quoted for a release is usually an average across sizes, or the most common size, and it can be a poor guide to what yours will fetch.
Condition, in the words the trade uses
Resale has its own vocabulary for condition, and it is worth using because buyers search with it. At the top is deadstock: unworn, as bought, in the original box. Everything after the first wear is priced down from there, and how far down depends on what a buyer can see.
The marks that cost most are the ones that cannot be undone. Creasing across the toe box is permanent. A midsole gone yellow can sometimes be whitened, never quite made new. Worn tread, a heel dragged thin and separation where the sole meets the upper all take a pair further down. Dirt is the cheapest flaw there is: clean the pair before it is photographed or valued.
| Term | What it means | Whose term |
|---|---|---|
| Deadstock (DS) | Unworn, as bought, in the original box | Collectors and resellers |
| Very near deadstock (VNDS) | Tried on or worn very briefly; still passes as deadstock | Collectors and resellers |
| New with box | Brand new, unused and unworn, in the original packaging | eBay |
| New without box | Brand new and unworn, but not in the original packaging | eBay |
| New with defects | New and unused, with flaws such as factory seconds or age yellowing | eBay |
| Pre-owned | Worn, or showing wear to the outsole, insole or lining | eBay |
| B-grade | Genuine pairs with minor factory flaws, usually stamped on the inside tag or the box | Brands; StockX flags them |
StockX's Verified Marketplace takes only brand-new pairs with the original box. Sellers use DS and VNDS loosely, so describe the actual marks rather than relying on a label.
What came with it
The original box is part of a pair's identity as well as its packaging: its label carries the style code, the size and the colourway, and a buyer uses it to check that the shoes inside are what they claim. A pair in its own box is easier to sell and easier to trust; a damaged box, a missing lid or a box from a different release all take something off.
Platforms that inspect pairs say what they will accept. StockX, for one, wants the correct brand-issued box with its lid, and a label that matches the shoe's size and style code; a replacement box may be accepted if it meets the same standard.
The extras do the same on a smaller scale — spare laces, tags, the paper and accessories a release shipped with, and a receipt where there is one. None of them proves a pair genuine. All of them are things a buyer of a genuine pair expects to find.
Asking, sold, and what you actually receive
Every pair carries three prices at once. Retail is what it cost new. Asking prices are what sellers would like. Sold prices are what buyers actually paid, and they are the only ones worth valuing from — an asking price that has sat for months is evidence of what the pair is not worth.
Then the deductions. Every resale platform takes a seller's fee and many add payment processing, and postage and packaging come on top. They vary by platform, by seller level and by country, so read the current schedule of the platform you mean to use before you settle on a figure. The number that matters is the one that reaches you.
Read recent sales, too, because the market for a release moves. Reuters, citing the analytics firm Altan Insights, reported in 2023 that the average StockX premium on new Air Jordan 1 Retro High releases had fallen from 61% in 2020 to 4% in 2023, with some colourways reselling below retail. A figure remembered from a few years ago is not a valuation.
- Find the style code, and search sold listings for it in your size.
- Narrow to pairs in your condition, with or without the box as yours is.
- Take the middle of the recent sales, not the highest.
- Deduct the platform's fees and the postage to find what you would receive.
Verification is part of the price
A buyer is not only paying for a pair of shoes but for confidence that they are genuine, and that confidence has a price. Labels that agree with each other and with the box, clear photographs of the tag, the insole and the outsole, and a sale through a platform that inspects pairs in hand before they reach the buyer all make a pair easier to sell at the figure it deserves.
A pair that cannot be checked sells at a discount even when it is genuine, because the buyer is pricing in the risk that it is not. That discount is the strongest argument for selling a valuable pair through a channel that authenticates.
An unverifiable pair is sold at a discount even when it is genuine. The buyer is pricing the risk.
Where the instrument fits
Shoe Scanner reads a photograph of the pair and names the brand, model, colourway and release year, grades the condition it can see, and sets a resale estimate beside the retail price and the market's. It is the fastest way from a pair in a cupboard to a name you can search and a range you can test against sold listings.
It is a starting figure, not an offer. It cannot read the size, cannot see the insole or the inside of the box, and its original-or-replica reading is a first signal rather than an authentication — every figure it gives is indicative.