Clearing a house

Garage sale pricing: what to charge, and what to check before you tag it

Published September 26, 2026 7 min read

Garage sale pricing comes down to one rule and one exception. The rule: price most things at 10% to 20% of what they cost new, and keep most stickers under $5. The exception: a few items in a house can sell for real money online. Check those against eBay sold listings before they get a sticker.

Both halves of the rule come from the Pete Castro Group's pricing guide, which also gives the reason for the second: buyers expect, and come ready to pay, under $5. The exception is where the money is. Put a $2 sticker on something that sold for $60 on eBay last month and you hand $58 to the first reseller through the gate.

How much should you charge at a garage sale?

Charge 10% to 20% of what the item costs new today. That is the figure in the Pete Castro Group's garage sale pricing guide, and it sits close to Google's AI Overview for "yard sale prices" in September 2026: 10% to 25% of original retail, with most items under $5. Three things move you around inside that range.

• Condition. New with tags goes at the top. Worn, stained or missing a part goes at the bottom, or in the free box.
• Electronics and small appliances. The Cobb Group's guide caps them at a third to a quarter of the store price. Have an outlet handy so buyers can see they work.
• Who wants it. Price everyday things people need toward the top of the range. Things only a collector would want are the ones to check before they get a sticker.

Garage sale price guide by category

These ranges are what one published guide prints. They are a starting point, not market data, and they come from The Cobb Group's pricing guide, published in 2021. Adjust for condition and for your area. The last column is the part the guides leave out.

Only the right-hand column needs a sold-listing check. Everything else is priced to leave the driveway.

Which items should you check before you price them?

Check any item that shows one of these six signs before it gets a sticker. Each one is quick to spot.

1. A name on it. A brand, maker's mark, signature or model number on the item, its tag or its base.
2. Complete in the box. Sets with every piece, and anything still sealed or with its papers.
3. A hobby behind it. Music gear, cameras, fishing tackle, sewing machines, model trains, games and cards. Hobby buyers look for parts and pieces, too.
4. It works and has a model number. Electronics, power tools and small appliances that switch on.
5. It's old. Vintage clothing, glassware, toys, paper goods and advertising signs.
6. It cost a lot new. This site's rule of thumb: anything that was $100 or more new is worth a check.

Everything else goes on the table at the guide price. The check below is for the few items that pass one of the six tests. If one passes and nothing close has sold, price it the way you'd price a rare item.

How do you check what an item sold for?

Checking what an item sold for is a short job on eBay. Search its exact name, turn on the Sold items filter, and read the prices for items in the same condition as yours. How to see sold items on eBay has the full steps for the website and the app.

1. Search the exact itemType what's printed on it: brand, model, pattern name. Words from the label beat your own description.
2. Filter to Sold itemsTurn on Sold items, or use eBay's Advanced Search and tick it there. Sold results cover the last 90 days.
3. Take the middle of the close matchesSkip the highest and the lowest sale, then take the median of the rest. Paste the prices into the Sold comp analyzer and it sorts them for you.

Don't know what the thing is? Start from a photo. Google Lens identifies items and shows where they're for sale now, which gets you a name to search. Worth It, a feature of FlowLister (the team that publishes this site), gives an eBay value from a photo using recent sold listings, and shows the sales behind the number. It's AI and it misses things, so read the sold examples before you trust the figure.

Is it worth listing it online instead?

Listing an item online pays when the sold price, after fees and shipping, is several times the table price and you'll get the listing done. A made-up example shows the arithmetic.

Online pays close to five times as much in this example. It also takes time and patience, and the lens has to sell. If it sits for two months, the $10 sale looks better, and a price-drop schedule tells you when to stop waiting. The full pricing method covers where to set the price and the lowest number you'd take.

How much room should you leave to haggle?

Leave about 15% to 20% of room on big and pricey items, as The Cobb Group suggests. The Pete Castro Group goes further: shoppers expect the sticker to sit 25% to 50% above your bottom line. Pick the bottom line before the first car pulls up. You won't pick it well while someone waves a $5 bill at you.

Group the small stuff under one price. The Pete Castro Group's example is four paperbacks for $1.

Price the table for speed. Check the handful of items with a name on them for money.

What shouldn't you sell at a garage sale?

Don't sell anything that has been recalled. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it is illegal to sell any recalled product, and its rules cover people holding yard sales (CPSC Resellers Guide, February 2025). Check cpsc.gov/recalls before you put out anything made for babies or young children. The same guide says not to sell nursery furniture or infant and toddler gear that is broken, wobbly or missing parts, even if it was never recalled.

The other thing not to sell at a garage sale is the valuable item nobody checked. It belongs online, or at least at the price it sold for.

Keep reading

• Median, outliers and reading a price spread

  Why the median wins, how to spot real outliers, and what a wide spread means.

• When to lower your price on eBay, and by how much

  A schedule that avoids both panic discounting and listings that sit forever.