Garage sale pricing is part of the setting up process

How to price garage sale items is always a source of concern. If your pricing is too high, then the stuff won't sell, pricing that is low means poor profits. What you want is a nice balance so that you will get the most money for your garage sale items, and end up with a cleaner house too. This page will give you a couple of quick ideas about how to determine good garage sale pricing levels so your items will sell.

Before we start, we need to deal with the largest challenge in garage sale pricing - that is economic value vs. personal value. This problem goes something like this: Some items are useless to you, but valuable to others. Of course the opposite is true too, things that you value may be absolutely worthless to anyone else on the planet. This is important to remember as you go about your garage sale pricing because it is the most common cause of garage sale failure – giving a personal value to a garage sale item rather than an economic value.

Price items based on what they are worth as second hand items in cash. Don’t price garage sale items in terms of memories, or what you paid for them new. Nobody else cares that it was an expensive blender from your grandmother. People want cheap prices at garage sales, not memories.

So then, the first order of business in garage sale pricing is, of course, to determine just how much you should charge for each item. This is the point where you must consider an item's real value versus its aesthetic value. Always get what you can for an older, possibly antique or soon-to-be-antique item when doing garage sale pricing. One-third to one-half of retail price is can be a good place to start with garage sale pricing on reasonably new items (2-5 years). Of course be prepared to negotiate prices as the garage sale goes on.

As you are pricing items, you should make a list of every item you are selling. Write down its name or a description and the amount that you are asking for it. This will help you keep track of what sold and for how much.

If you are still stuck on how to set the prices for your garage sale, then a quick trip to the local Goodwill, thrift store can be very useful. Also, going to a local garage sale a few weeks before your own is another good method for coming up with some guidelines for garage sale prices. If you visit a local garage sale for pricing ideas, check early in the morning and just before closing to see what sold and what didn't.

Finally, remember the law of supply and demand: if you want goods to move fast, price them cheaply.

For a really complete garage sale guide with far more information and tips on pricing items effectively for your next garage sale we suggest you get a copy of the Garage Sale Guide today.