Hazendonk Vintage vs Vinted and Marketplaces: What's the Difference?

This question comes up a lot, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a marketing one: no, we're not cheaper than Vinted or a local marketplace. If price is the only thing that matters to you, those platforms will usually win.

What we offer instead is certainty. Here's an honest breakdown of what actually differs. For the wider picture, start with our guide to buying vintage clothing online.

Authentication

On Vinted or a marketplace, you're trusting an individual seller's word that something is genuine. Most sellers are honest, but most sellers also aren't experts. They're passing on what they were told, or what they assume. With designer pieces especially, that's a real risk: counterfeiting rates on peer-to-peer platforms are meaningfully higher than through verified sellers.

Designer and premium pieces are checked through LegitApp, one of the world's leading authentication platforms. If a piece can't be verified, it doesn't go into the shop. There's no listing it anyway and letting the buyer take the risk.

Condition and cleanliness

A marketplace listing is a photo taken by someone with a phone, of an item straight out of a wardrobe or a box. What you receive is exactly that: unwashed, uninspected, whatever state it was already in. We clean every single piece professionally before it's listed, regardless of price point.

We also grade it. Every product carries one of four condition labels, from Deadstock through to Fair, with any imperfections described in words rather than left to the photographs. What each grade means is set out in what deadstock actually means.

Sizing information

Marketplace listings usually give you a size label and nothing else. Vintage sizing rarely matches modern sizing, so a label alone tells you very little, which is exactly why sizing disappointment is one of the most common reasons for returns on those platforms.

How little a label tells you is measurable. In our own Ralph Lauren stock, a chest measurement of 55 cm appears on garments labelled medium, large, extra large and double extra large. In our Carhartt stock, jackets labelled large run from 54 to 80 cm across the chest. We measure every piece by hand, chest, length, sleeve, waist and inseam where relevant, so you're ordering on actual centimetres rather than guessing from a tag. The method is in our guide to measuring vintage clothing.

Photography

One photo, sometimes blurry, sometimes with bad lighting, is standard on marketplaces. We photograph every piece individually against a neutral background, and where possible on a model, so you see exactly what you're getting rather than hoping the listing photo is accurate.

Returns

Private sales on Vinted and marketplaces typically don't include a formal return policy. You're negotiating directly with an individual, and outcomes vary. We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on everything, more than twice the statutory minimum, no negotiation required.

Speed

Marketplace sellers ship on their own schedule, which can mean days of waiting and back-and-forth messages. Order from us before 15:00 and it arrives the next day.

So when does a marketplace make more sense?

Being fair about it: if you're hunting for something ultra-specific and rare, don't mind some risk, and enjoy the process of scrolling and negotiating, marketplaces have a wider raw selection and can turn up genuine finds. If you want a specific piece, verified, cleaned, correctly sized and quickly delivered, with a real return policy behind it, that's what we built.

Browse the full collection, for men and women, or read about exactly what happens to every piece before it ships.

Frequently asked questions

Is Hazendonk Vintage cheaper than Vinted?
Not usually, no. We're priced against new retail (up to 80% below), not against the cheapest marketplace listing. What you're paying for is verification, cleaning, accurate sizing and a return policy.

Is everything on marketplaces fake?
No, most sellers are honest. But there's no verification step, so the risk sits entirely with the buyer, especially on designer pieces.

Can I return something bought on Vinted?
It depends entirely on the individual seller, since there's no platform-wide guarantee. With us, 30-day returns apply to everything automatically.