How to Price Garage Sale Items: a Chart and a Method That Works
Published · 5 min read
A garage sale pricing guide is only useful if you can stick to it on Saturday morning. The usual advice is sound: ask 10 to 30 percent of what the thing cost new, round to a number people can pay in cash, and drop what's left at the end. The part that breaks is doing that from memory on the driveway.
Price from a list, not from the pile. Walk the house once, put every item you're selling into a Garage sale box in Hoardo, add an asking price, then export a CSV as your price sheet. You decide the numbers. Hoardo remembers them.
Garage sale pricing chart
Use this as a starting point, then adjust for condition, brand and how badly you want the thing gone. Prices are typical US asking prices in 2026, not promises.
| Category | Typical asking price | Share of what it cost new |
|---|---|---|
| Adult clothes | $1 to $5 | about 10% |
| Kids clothes | $0.50 to $2 | about 10% |
| Books and DVDs | $0.50 to $2 | 10% or less |
| Toys and board games | $1 to $8 | 10 to 25% |
| Kitchen gadgets | $2 to $10 | 10 to 25% |
| Small furniture | $10 to $40 | 10 to 30% |
| Bikes | $15 to $50 | 15 to 30% |
| Working electronics | $5 to $25 | 10 to 20% |
| Hand tools | $3 to $20 | 15 to 30% |
| Decor and frames | $1 to $8 | 10 to 20% |
Round to numbers people carry: 50 cents under a dollar, then $1, $2, $5 and $10. $7.50 makes someone hunt for coins. $5 makes them nod.
Designer, vintage or sealed things do not belong on this chart. Check eBay sold listings (completed sales, not asking prices) before you put them on a folding table.
How to price items for a garage sale
Do this in the house, in the week before the sale, not while the first car is pulling up.
- Make a Garage sale box in Hoardo. Number it. The name can be "Garage sale". Unnamed boxes still show as "#12".
- List every item. Walk a room and add as you go. Three ways in: type it, AI Image scan (snap one photo per item, or one photo of a pile), or AI Speech scan, which is fastest when there are many things.
- Turn on Price in Settings › Show on items if it is hidden. Put your asking price on each item. You decide the number.
- Export. Open Export in the room menu. The CSV is your price sheet: box number, item, quantity and price, ready for Numbers, Excel or Google Sheets.
- Print QR labels via Prints in the room menu if the sale stuff lives in bins. Scan a bin on the day and see what's in it and what you asked.
Voice add is the fastest way to list a lot: say ten things in one go. Each item can have one photo. Hoardo is 100% free.
How to price items at a garage sale (on the day)
The chart is your opening number. On the day, three habits stop you underpricing in a panic or overpricing until 2pm:
- First hour, hold the list. Early shoppers came for deals, not for a fire sale. If you priced from the chart, you already left room.
- Bundle. "Two games for $5" moves more than three lonely $3 games. Change the price on the item in Hoardo, or jot the bundle on the CSV.
- Last hour, halve what's left. A half-price sweep at 1pm is easier when the original number is on the sheet, not in your head.
If someone names a fair offer on a $10 lamp, take it. If they offer $2 on a working bike, smile and point at the sign.
How to price garage sale items in 2026
Nothing about the percentages has changed much. What has changed is that buyers have phones: they will look up a brand on Marketplace while standing in your driveway. So:
- Price commodity stuff (mugs, paperbacks, plastic toys) cheap and move it.
- Price name-brand, complete and clean things closer to 25 or 30 percent of retail.
- Pull anything that sold recently on eBay for more than $40 and sell it there or on Marketplace instead.
The declutter and sell guide has a longer split of garage sale vs Marketplace vs OfferUp vs Mercari vs Decluttr.
Price from a list, not the driveway
A paper sticker on every toaster works until the wind picks up or a toddler peels them. A list on your phone does not peel.
In Hoardo the list is the box. You can share the room with whoever is taking cash. They search "lamp", see $5, and do not have to shout across the yard. After the sale, what's left can go to donate, or into numbered keep boxes with QR labels.
| Box # | Box | Item | Quantity | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garage sale | Coffee maker | 1 | 8 |
| 1 | Garage sale | Kids bike | 1 | 25 |
| 1 | Garage sale | Board games | 3 | 3 |
| 1 | Garage sale | Desk lamp | 1 | 5 |
| 1 | Garage sale | Winter coat | 1 | 6 |
| 1 | Garage sale | Toaster | 1 | 4 |
| 1 | Garage sale | Picture frames | 6 | 1 |
| 1 | Garage sale | Slow cooker | 1 | 10 |
| 1 | Garage sale | Camping chair | 1 | 8 |
| 1 | Garage sale | Paperbacks | 12 | 1 |
Keep reading
- How to have a garage sale: a step-by-step checklist
- Moving sale: sell what you won't move
- Declutter and sell: what's your stuff worth
- Best garage sale apps for sellers
- What is an inventory app?
Free to list every item
Hoardo is 100% free. One photo per item. There is no paid plan.