It’s yard sale season!
Pricing yard sale items can be hard. You want to get rid of your junk — but at the same time, you want to turn a profit. After all, who wants to give up their entire weekend to make a grand total of 30 bucks? Not me.
If you’re successful at decluttering your home and have enough items to make your sale worth it, you should be able to come out with at least a few hundred dollars.
The key is to price your items to sell. Here are three strategies that have worked for me:
1. Price items at 10% of what you originally paid
Yard sale shoppers are looking for a deal — so if you want to unload your items, you have to price accordingly.
The sweet spot is usually ten percent of what you originally paid.
Since ten percent might seem a little low, let’s consider an example. Two years ago, you bought a pair of jeans for $50. Though they’re still in decent condition, how much would you be willing to pay for them now? Probably around $5.
You can break this rule on a couple of occasions. First off, if your items are fairly old and not in the best condition, it might be a good idea to price lower than ten percent. On the other hand, you’ll want to price higher if your items are newer, have tags on them, or are in excellent condition. In these instances, you might want to price your items as high as twenty to thirty percent of the original retail price.
2. Simplify your strategy with set prices
If you’re more into simplicity, and don’t want to come up with a new price for each item you’re selling, this is the strategy for you.
Make a list of prices for different types of items you’re getting rid of. Here’s a sample pricing list:
- Adult jeans: $3
- Adult shirts: $1
- Adult shoes: $5
- Kids jeans: $1
- Kids shirts: $0.50
- Kids shoes: $3
- Toys: $1
- Kitchen items: $0.75
- Wall art: $3
Notice which items are most prevalent in your yard sale stash, and make set prices for them. Then you can display these items together with one sign indicating the price. This strategy will make pricing your items go much faster and smoother.
3. Research prices for bigger ticket items
Sometimes using your gut instinct works when pricing things, and other times it doesn’t. If you have expensive items in your yard sale pile, you should do some research to get the most bang for your buck.
Check out Craigslist, eBay, and Facebook Yard Sales to see what similar items are going for. You might be surprised how much you can get for your big ticket items.
Two bonus tips: Clean your items before selling them. (No one wants to buy dirty things!) Group like items together, and display them in a neat and organized fashion. Remember that first impressions matter — even when it comes to yard sales.
Do you like yard sales? What are your pricing strategies?
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