Most articles about rug prices talk about auction records and million-dollar carpets. That is not useful if you are trying to work out whether $600 is a fair price for the rug in your basket. So here is our own price table instead, with the reasoning behind each number.
| Size | Rugs | Median price | Per sq ft | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 12 sq ft (2×3 and smaller) | 517 | $315 | $51.60 | $190–700 |
| 12–25 sq ft | 484 | $410 | $22.00 | $150–950 |
| 25–45 sq ft (3×5 to 5×7) | 766 | $610 | $18.70 | $230–1,510 |
| 45–75 sq ft (5×8 to 6×9) | 742 | $540 | $9.50 | $315–2,200 |
| 75–110 sq ft (8×10 to 9×12) | 179 | $2,100 | $22.60 | $745–3,250 |
| Over 110 sq ft | 169 | $2,250 | $18.60 | $1,750–4,900 |
Every active rug on this site with a recorded measurement, 14 September 2026. 2,857 rugs.
Size moves the price more than anything else — but not in a straight line
Look at the per-square-foot column and you will see something odd. The smallest rugs are the most expensive per square foot, at $51.60. The 5×8 to 6×9 band is the cheapest, at $9.50. That is a five-fold difference for the same wool, woven in the same decade, often in the same village.
The reason is that a rug has a floor price that has nothing to do with its area. It still has to be washed, repaired, photographed, catalogued, stored and shipped, and a two by three costs almost as much to put through that as a nine by twelve does. Below a certain size you are paying for handling, not for rug.
Where the value actually sits
If you only take one thing from this page: a 5×8 to 6×9 vintage rug is the best value we sell, by a wide margin, at a median of $540. It is also the size most living rooms want. Our size guide will tell you whether it is the size your room wants.
The step up to 8×10 and larger is steep and real: the median jumps from $540 to $2,100. Large 1970s rugs in good condition are genuinely scarce, because most of them were used hard in the rooms they were woven for.
Origin matters, but less than people think — and not the way they think
Hold size constant and compare origins in the 45–75 sq ft band:
- Hamedan — median $1,172
- Bakhtiari — $1,125
- Mahal — $1,125
- Tabriz — $1,010
- Isparta — $510
- Manisa — $460
Same size, and a 2.3× spread between the top and the bottom. But notice what the split actually follows: the Persian village origins sit high, the Turkish workshop origins sit low. It is not that Isparta rugs are worse. They were woven in larger numbers, to a plan, in a region that still had looms running in the 1970s, and there are simply more of them. Scarcity is doing most of the work that people attribute to quality.
Knot density
A finer rug takes longer, so it costs more. The picture above is a Hereke on the loom, and it is far finer than anything we carry — we are a vintage village-and-workshop dealer, not a silk atelier.
What matters for you is the trade: density buys detail, not durability. A coarse Hamedan with thick wool will outlast a fine rug in a hallway, because the pile has more meat in it. Buy density if you want the drawing to be delicate. Do not buy it expecting the rug to last longer.
Condition, and what restoration is worth
Every rug we sell has been washed and, where needed, repaired by hand before it is photographed — washing, blocking and, where a rug needs it, rewrapping a worn edge by hand. That work is in the price, and it is the difference between a rug you can put on the floor and a rug you have to deal with first.
Low pile is not damage. Almost everything here is low pile after fifty years of use, and it holds its price; what costs money is a rug that has been repaired badly, rewoven in patches, or overdyed to hide wear.
Age does not automatically add value
Nearly everything on this site is from the 1970s, which makes it vintage rather than antique. An older rug is worth more only if it has survived in good condition and can be placed — and most of them have not. A worn 1920s rug is worth less than a sound 1970s one, and we would rather sell you the second.
One thing we will not tell you
That a rug is an investment. It is not. The rug market is illiquid, valuations are opinions, and reselling a mid-market vintage rug usually means accepting less than you paid. Buy it because you want to stand on it for thirty years, which is a thing it will genuinely do.
If you want the version of this with less arithmetic and more advice, read the beginner’s guide or go straight to the full collection.
