How to Make Sure Your Items are Priced to Sell

You took high-quality photos of your stuff, wrote a compelling title and description, and now it's time for the finishing detail before publishing your listing - the selling price.

The price is one of the biggest factors in determining your success in selling your items. Set your price too high and the buyer will not even show interest. Set it too low and you'll have no profit margin. The price needs to be the perfect balance between fair and reasonable.

Fair and reasonable to you as the seller to make a little money off your stuff and fair and to the buyer to feel like they're still getting a good deal.

But how do you even price a used item? You know the retail price when it was brand new but that was a while ago. Now that it's been used for a certain amount of time and probably not in the same pristine condition, it's obviously not going to be worth the same.

Don't worry, we got you covered. Here we share our top 5 tricks for pricing items to sell on Craigslist. These tricks will help you set a fair and reasonable price for your items and and will increase the chances of your items selling quickly and for a good price.

Read on to learn my top 6 tricks for pricing items to sell on Craigslist.

1. Research Similar Items

The easiest way to begin setting the right price for your item is to research what similar used items are going for on online marketplaces. If you've come to the decision to sell your item, surely someone else has too. Search on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, and eBay to get a range of what your price point should be.

Not only does this help you understand the value of your items, but it also helps you recognize your competition. Even if you disagree with the prices other sellers set, this is who you are competing against. If having to choose between you and a lower price somewhere else, people will go with the lower price somewhere else.

So consider a handful of prices from similar items, consider their age and condition, and try to set a fair and reasonable price for your product within that range.

2. Offer a Competitive Edge

Once you've researched similar items on other online marketplaces, you now know what your competition is and the prices they have set. If you want to add that competitive edge, you can purposely lower the price of your item to make it more appealing than what your competition is offering.

You can even add "Lowest Priced" or "Reduced" to catch the attention of potential buyers. Make sure your listing looks just as good, if not better, than your competition's listing.

Or you can set the same price but throw in some "extras" like packaging, extra cords, manuals, etc. to really show your item is the better deal.

3. Be Realistic

When researching similar used items online, you may find yourself disagreeing with the prices others have set. You spent a lot more for your item brand new and feel it still holds a lot of worth.

Sometimes we think our items are worth more than they really are. This can be seen when people try to sell used items on Craigslist for more than what you can find brand new on Amazon. It's true that you may have spent a lot of money on it brand new and you kept it in excellent condition.

However, there are other factors that can impact the price. For example, if you're selling an iPhone, maybe the newest model just came out and now AT&T is having a spectacular deal and selling your model for a fraction of the cost it was even just last month.

The truth is the market price for your item is whatever someone will buy it for. If others have their price set lower than you expected, adjust your expectations or you may struggle to sell your item at all.

4. Put More Effort Into Your Listing

So let's say you really did take excellent care of the iPhone you're selling. It's possible the other lower-priced listings of similar iPhone models are a reflection of their lesser, well-used condition.

In order to price your item at a higher price, you need to spend extra time and effort marketing your item in the listing.

Explain in the title and description that it's in like-new condition, that it's stayed in a case the whole time, that it belonged to a sweet elder lady who rarely ever used it... Share whatever details you can to demonstrate it's worth the extra money.

You can also demonstrate this by cleaning your item really well and taking high-quality photos to prove its excellent condition. Show there are no flaws or defects, that it's in perfect working condition, and so on.

By demonstrating your item is in excellent condition, you can prove the higher price you set is fair and reasonable and ultimately make more money off of it.

5. Consider the Demand for the Items

Markets work by supply and demand. If the supply is up and demand is low, the price will be lower to encourage customers to buy. If the supply is low and demand is up, the price can be higher because customers will pay more for it.

Back to the example of the used iPhone, you may find you can set a higher price when it's a new model and it's hard for anyone to get their hands on it. Alternatively, if a newer model just came out and retailers are racing to get rid of old inventory, you may have a harder time selling it without a reduced price.

Consider how much today's consumers demand your item and how much supply is out there. Don't just look at the market but also research Craigslist and other online marketplaces to see if a lot of other people on online marketplaces are selling similar items. If they are, you may need to set your price lower.

6. Be Open to Negotiate

People on Craigslist are looking for a good deal so it's a fairly standard practice to negotiate the price of items on Craigslist. Instead of immediately shutting down negotiations, be sure to include flexibility for negotiations in your pricing strategy.

By being open to negotiations and willing to compromise, you show your interested buyer that you're willing to work with them to reach an agreeable price which will make them more willing to finalize the sale.

If you are not comfortable negotiating prices with potential buyers, consider using a service like OfferTrackr. OfferTrackr can automatically track the availability of your items, negotiate prices, schedule pickups, and send out reminders on your behalf. See our blog post Using OfferTrackr to Make Selling Items Locally So Much Easier for more details.

Finding the perfect price for your Craigslist item can seem intimidating at first. However, with these top 6 tricks, you can now find a starting point and try out a few different tricks to find a fair and reasonable price for each unique item.

Be sure to research similar items on other online marketplaces to see what they're going for,. Try to be realistic even if you think your item is worth more, or you can put a little more effort into your listing to prove it's worth the higher price.

Find out if there's a high demand for your item or if you need to set a lower price, offer a competitive edge by beating out your competition, and be flexible during negotiations.

By following these tricks for pricing items to sell on Craigslist, you can set a fair and reasonable price for your items and increase the chances of your items selling quickly and for a good price.