How to Price Used Items to Sell Online?

Pre-owned home objects can be sold for decent money on the best online selling platforms, and any additional income is always welcome. Moreover, a successful online business can be started using these online selling tools. However, it is important to know how to price used items to sell online. With the right approach to pricing, you can even increase the value of some objects.

woman posting for online selling
Vintage and used items can be sold online with the best tools

How to Price Used Items to Sell Online? The First Step Is to Find Out the Original Cost

If you are looking to become a reseller, this is the first and basic tip for your new eCommerce business. Whichever the item may be, you need to make sure that you are looking at the right model. A single feature can raise or lower the cost a lot. It's always better to enter a serial code if the object has one. Finally, it is best to see the prices of at least a few retailers in order to see if there are any differences.

Next, you should check whether there are other ads for the same item on all the other best online selling software and compare the prices. If you own a multichannel listing software for selling online, it will be even easier to switch between platforms. The prices of pre-owned objects in similar conditions shouldn't differ much. Moreover, there will be many pictures and videos of objects, so determining the state of your own item shouldn't be a problem. All in all, you can't ask for too much, but you shouldn't also ask for too little.

Arbitrage Opportunities Should Be Taken, but It’s Best to Follow a General Guide for Establishing a Price

How to price used items for resale? You can check some Youtube channels about reselling if you want to start an eCommerce business in this field. However, here is what various sales experts say about pricing:

  • If the item is recently bought, usually the merchants ask for half of the original figure.
  • If a product is a few years old, anything above 25% of the original amount will most likely seem unrealistic. 
  • All other older objects should be sold for 10% of the original figure.

However, this is all highly flexible, and many other factors can affect the overall cost. First of all, there are items that become more valuable as time goes on (jewelry or collector's objects,) so you need to know what you're selling in the first place before advertising it on multiple platforms with a crossposting tool. Also, the value of an object can increase if it is still in the original packaging

off-screen person doing online shopping
Having a cross-posting tool for selling online

A Popular Method of Increasing the Value Is Adding a Story if the Object Has One

Whether you are advertising the object on the Etsy platform, or the eBay website, adding a background story, if one exists, can certainly make the item more interesting. Suppose you are selling a vintage pilot jacket that was actually worn by a pilot on Vinted online marketplace platform for pre-owned clothing and other platforms like Shopify using a crossposting app. In that case, you should definitely add that to the description. However, this might not always work. Even though your story is genuine, people will usually require proof, so make sure to post any pictures or other proofs that you might have in the description. 

When Placing a Vintage Item on an Online Marketplace Platform Like eBay, Different Pricing Rules Apply

Vintage is a term that encompasses many different things, but overall, vintage objects are luxuries that usually have a collector's value. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you know the real cost of the particular object. Usually, you can compare the prices as there will most likely already be the same object on eBay, but you can also search for professional opinions from vintage wholesale suppliers. All in all, vintage objects can be sold extremely fast by lowering the average cost if you need some fast money. Crossposting on multiple eCommerce sites with cross-listing software can speed up the process a lot. 

Postage Costs Can Affect the Price of the Object a Lot

When it comes to postage costs, regardless of what platform you are using for advertising and selling, you have to make sure that you are completely transparent. Whether you are a reseller of top-quality pre-owned clothes or something else, you'll not be able to start a new and successful business on Shopify or any other platform if you fail to mention a fee. People will immediately perceive that as dishonesty, and most likely, your online business will be ruined from the start. 

Nonetheless, you'll have to charge for postage. Your income will suffer a lot if you do not. But postage is the main discouraging factor for many customers. People are often reluctant to pay postage fees, even though they are prepared to pay a lot of money for something. Postage costs are determined by the shipping service (number of packages, height, weight, width, the time required for shipping, everything is considered when determining the cost). All in all, you should look for shipping services that do not increase the overall cost of the object a lot, but you shouldn't take the responsibility of paying for shipping. Profit can hardly be gained in that way. Here is a useful video on the issue of postage costs.

How to Price Used Items for Sale? Doing Research and Comparing the Prices Is the Key

As you can see, a lot of research about pricing is coming your way if you want to start a new and successful online enterprise and meet the demands of the online market. Definitely, all the most popular platforms for resellers will need to be employed if you want to maximize your profits. However, having cross-listing software to sell on both eBay and Depop platforms, for example, is extremely useful. And we at Zipsale developed just the app you need. 

Depop
Ebay
Etsy
Vinted
Shopify

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