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How to Price Used Items?

Aug 15, 2020

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When I sold stuff, I often wondered how much I should price my items for. Should I take the long approach and make it expensive, or should I list it cheaply and get a quick sale. Having done some research into this question, I put together this helpful article.

So, how to price used items? You should price your item by researching the current market rate for the same or similar product. When comparing similar products, consider the condition of your item. Then choose a price below or above the average price depending on how fast you want to sell it. If your price is higher than the market value, it will sell slower. But, if your price is lower than the market value, it will sell faster.

It also depends on how much you need to sell it. Below, I will explain market dynamics and market forces so you can arrive at a solid estimate for the unique price you should sell your used items for.

How much should you sell a used item for?

As a general rule, you should price your item based on how fast you want to sell it. If you want to sell it quickly, then set a low price. If you want to sell it very slowly, then list it expensive.

To do this, you need first to determine the average price for your item. This can be a bit tricky, depending on what it is. Most stuff you can find online. But, you want to be careful to get a few price points.

Good places to start price comparison are at Ebay.com and Amazon.com. eBay is superior to Amazon because it lets you search for what your item has sold for. Because you can’t research completed sales on Amazon, you can only see how much they are being sold for and not completed sales.

How can you check the listing price of a product on Ebay?

You should go to the advanced search feature. To do that, click here to go to the page. I have included an image of the checkbox you should tick.

Check the shown by the orange box and arrow in the image above.
Then search as per normal using the keyword box at the top and hitting search.

This will show items that have sold recently and what they sold for. This will give you an estimate of what you should sell your items for. You should check that the items are in a similar condition to yours.

Suppose you can’t find any information at all on here. Then you should go to Amazon.com. To use Amazon, you can search for the product or similar products to get an idea.

The prices they show, however, are just what people have them listed as. They don’t tell you whether products sold at that price or not. Just to be clear on that point.

You can also search the large Chinese wholesalers such as Alibaba.com. They are a supplier to retail companies, though, and their prices will be much lower than prices in the US and Europe.

Look at online stores.

Look for online stores that sell similar items. If you have some second hand Air Jordan shoes, have a look at a store that sells Air Jordans.

Then base your price around what they go for new. Most people are comfortable paying 50% for a used item. If there is no wear and tear and the item is in its original packaging, it can go more than what you originally paid for them.

This is the case of collectible items. Secondhand items that are collectible include music records, sports team clothing, watches, antique furniture, classic cars, and many others. These are unique and are treated on a case by case basis. To get the price for these, you often have to consult an expert. You can find them by meeting up at special events and searching for them online.

Ask in groups

You can join Facebook groups. There you can ask questions about your products. For example, if you are selling antique furniture. You should join a Facebook group about antique furniture.

There are also many good forums. A good rule of thumb when joining groups is to add value by answering questions and giving feedback. That way, you create a positive loop, where other people will answer your questions.

You can also join in-person groups, which you can find on Meetup.com. People will post their event dates. You could even create your meetup group.

What to do when you still can’t find a price?

You can just estimate a value and see if it sells. If it is taking too long, then lower the price.

Start at what would be a good profit for you.

How do you price vintage items for resale?

The best way to price vintage items for resale is to look at what they sell for. There are a few places to look at, one of them being eBay. I provided step by step instructions for this above. Vintage items are a little bit different because, to some people, they can be worth a lot more.

You could look into selling them at a charity auction or fundraiser. When you do this, you could create a buying frenzy, and people can start driving the price up. It very much depends on precisely what the item is.

Vintage is a loose term, and usually refers to vintage clothing. It can also refer to wine and anything that is high quality regardless of what year it was produced.

With vintage clothing, you could charge retail prices. It is what the market can bear. If you are making a lot of sales at a specific amount, you can experiment by raising the price.

It depends on how fast you want to sell your items. If you list them low, they will sell more quickly, but you won’t make as much.

If you list them at a higher price, you will sell less, but profit more. It also depends on your personality, how popular the item is, and how fast or how slow you like your sales. You can always experiment to see which would be best for you.

Some vintage items can command very high prices relative to what you bought them for.

Most retail stores aim for about a 50% markup as a guide, according to Entrepreneur.com. With vintage clothing, most people would be comfortable paying what it would cost to buy new, as that brand or style, maybe hard to come by.

How do I sell used items?

You can list them on online marketplaces, create your website, have a yard sale, or tell your family and friends.

Online marketplaces

Online marketplaces are large websites with many pages and products for sale. They have a large number of visitors and provide excellent customer service. The biggest include:

Rank	Company	Country	Monthly visitors
1	Amazon	Global	5.7B
2	PayPay Mall	Japan	2.1B
3	eBay	Global	1.6B
4	Mercado Libre	South America	661.7M
5	AliExpress	Global	639.1M
6	Rakuten	Global	621.5M
7	Taobao	China	545.2M
8	Walmart.com	USA	469.0M

This, according to webretailer.com.

The website you are on now is an online marketplace. We offer a free account to start, and if you’d like to sell more, monthly plans start from $2.99 and up. The best part is when your items sell; there are no selling commissions or hidden fees. If you are interested in listing your items with us, then click here.

When you list on an online marketplace, visitors will see your listings and purchase them. If you find that you aren’t getting many visitors to your listing, you should market your listings to drive sales.

Create your own website

You could create your website. If you already have a website, you could add them to it. Usually, you will need to drive quite a few people to your listing to make a sale. So, keep this in mind if you are starting a new website.

Creating a big eCommerce website is a major undertaking. It would take you about 80 hours to learn how to design and program it. Then it would take you another 80 hours to build it. So, it is a significant time commitment.

You can have one professionally built for about US$1000+. You should make sure you get it made with WordPress so you can update the products yourself.

Shopify has emerged as a popular choice. When making an e-store on Shopify, you will need to hire a professional web developer to create it for you. It costs about the same to get a Shopify website built as a WordPress website.

Have a yard sale

Pretty self-explanatory. Yard sales are a great way to get rid of unwanted items. Just price them up, and put them on your lawn. Pour a glass of iced tea, wine, or beer, and enjoy the sunshine. If you hold it on the weekend, you will get more folks to come by.

Tell your friends and family.

Send an email or a Facebook message to your friends and family that you have some items to sell. Usually, you will be able to find them a good home this way.

When should I price used items to clear?

If you want to get rid of them fast, you should price your items cheap. Such as at a yard sale. Such a price would make it a no brainer for people to buy it, for example, $2 for a used ironing board, $5 for a coffee table.

They will fly off the shelves, but you won’t make much money. This is an excellent hassle-free option if you don’t have much time and just need to clean your household items. You could also donate them to charity. Some companies will even pick up your used items for free.

Where else can I sell my used items?

You can sell your used items on your online store, an online marketplace, or bulk to a liquidator. You can create a little online store for yourself or use an online marketplace such as Etsy, Amazon, Sheepbuy, or eBay.

You can also create an online store using a website builder like Squarespace or Wix. The disadvantage of creating your website is that it takes time to get people to it.

With an online marketplace, they already have thousands upon thousands going to their website every day. This makes it much easier to sell your products and make a good profit.

How can I charge more for my used items?

You can charge more for your used items by finding a place to sell them where there isn’t much competition. When multiple people sell the same product on the same online marketplace like eBay, it drives prices lower.

This is a known phenomenon called market value.

But, there is also the effect of time. If a person wants to get an item quickly, they are willing to spend more money to make it happen.

So, if customers desperately want to buy an item, that drives up the price.

On top of listing items where you don’t have much competition, you can also add giveaways to increase the product’s value. You could include items that are very cheap to you but make your product look valuable. You can get cheap nick nacks on wholesale websites like Alibaba.com.

You can bundle them together with your used items. For example, if you sell used toys, you could get another toy low priced at Alibaba. Then market your used toys as a bundle saying you pay two used toys and get three or that for every used toy purchased, you get a new one free.

You should think about what combinations of products would appeal to your customers, and try it out. The more value the product has, the more people are willing to pay.

What products have the highest markup?

According to Wisebread.com, they are bottled water, pre-cut vegetables/fruit, college textbooks, designer handbags, and designer jeans.

You are most likely to find college textbooks, designer handbags, and designer jeans secondhand. They are similar to collectibles because the cost people are willing to pay much much more than how much they cost to make.

Conclusion

You should price your used items based on current market rates. You can find these out by joining an online group and looking at marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Sheepbuy, or other online marketplaces. Sheepbuy is the best place to start as they don’t charge selling commission or hidden fees. You can sell your used items on online marketplaces, yard sales, your website, and friends and family.

You can charge more for your items if there is a high demand for your products. You can increase demand by selling in places where there is low competition, such as our marketplace.

How to Price Used Items?

How much should you sell a used item for?