# How to Price Garage Sale Items: a Chart and a Method That Works

> Ask 10 to 30 percent of retail, round to cash numbers, and drop what's left at the end. Price from a Hoardo list (photo, voice or type), not from memory on the driveway, then export a CSV as your price sheet.

Published 2026-10-16 by Hoardo. Original: https://www.hoardo.com/articles/how-to-price-garage-sale-items

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](https://www.hoardo.com/), add an asking price, then export a CSV as your price sheet. You decide the numbers. Hoardo remembers them.

*A Garage sale box in Hoardo: each item with the asking price you typed.*

## 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.

1. **Make a Garage sale box** in Hoardo. Number it. The name can be "Garage sale". Unnamed boxes still show as "#12".
2. **List every item.** Walk a room and add as you go. Three ways in: type it, [AI Image scan](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/ai-photo-scan-box-contents) (snap one photo per item, or one photo of a pile), or **AI Speech scan**, which is fastest when there are many things.
3. **Turn on Price** in Settings › Show on items if it is hidden. Put your asking price on each item. You decide the number.
4. **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.
5. **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.

*AI Image scan in single-item mode: the brackets frame one object so the scan names that, and nothing else.*

*AI Speech scan in Hoardo: say a pile of garage-sale things and it writes them as items.*

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](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/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.

*Sample rows from a Hoardo room CSV export: the real column names, with garage-sale asking prices filled in. This is the file, not a picture of a Hoardo screen.*

## Keep reading

- [How to have a garage sale: a step-by-step checklist](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/how-to-have-a-garage-sale)
- [Moving sale: sell what you won't move](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/moving-sale)
- [Declutter and sell: what's your stuff worth](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/declutter-and-sell)
- [Best garage sale apps for sellers](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/best-garage-sale-apps)
- [What is an inventory app?](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/what-is-an-inventory-app)

## Free to list every item

[Hoardo](https://www.hoardo.com/) is 100% free. One photo per item. There is no paid plan.