Almost every new reseller prices the same wrong way: they scroll the active listings, see a bunch of the same thing at $200, and figure that's what it's worth. Then they buy one, list it at $190, and it sits there for two months next to a dozen other $190 versions that are also just sitting. Those $200 listings weren't the market. They were a room full of people all wishing for the same number.
What you want is what stuff actually sold for. That's a different number, and it's usually lower than the wish. Here's how I pull it and turn it into the most I'll pay.
Look at sold, not listed
A comp is something comparable that recently changed hands. On eBay the trick is to run your search and then check the "Sold items" box in the filters. Now you're looking at real prices with real dates next to them instead of hopes. I do this on my phone standing in the seller's driveway, and it has talked me out of more bad buys than anything else.
When you're picking which sold listings count as your comp, match the stuff that actually moves the price:
- The exact model. "A blender" tells you nothing. "Vitamix 5200" tells you everything. Model numbers are your friend.
- Condition. New-in-box, used-and-working, and for-parts are three separate markets that happen to share a name. Compare like to like.
- What's included. The one with the original box and all the attachments sells for more than the naked one. Obvious, but easy to forget when you're excited.
- How recent. Last month or two. A price from two years ago is a rumor, not a comp.
Take the median and toss the weird ones
Get five to ten solds and grab the middle value, not the average. Averages get wrecked by one collector who overpaid or one guy who dumped it in a panic. The median just quietly ignores both of them, which is exactly what you want.
Say the solds are $95, $110, $120, $125, and $240. Your number is around $120. The average is $138, and that extra $18 is entirely one person's bad decision. Don't build your buy price on someone else's bad decision.
Now subtract the stuff nobody counts
Resale value is not profit. I wish someone had beaten this into me sooner. Between "it sold" and "money in my pocket" there's a whole list of leaks:
- Selling fees. Figure 10 to 13 percent on eBay and most shipped platforms. Local cash, none.
- Shipping. Anything with size to it is $10 to $25 out of your pocket, and it always feels like more than you guessed.
- Cleaning and small fixes. An hour with a rag and some Goo Gone is still an hour.
- Your time. The pickup, the photos, the listing, the ten "is this still available???" messages, the meetup. This is the cost everyone skips, and it's the one that decides whether any of this is worth doing.
Run the math backward
Here's the part that changed how I buy. Flip the whole thing around. Median resale is $120. Fees and shipping eat $20. Cleanup is nothing. I want at least $40 for the hassle. So the most I'll pay is about $60, and I decide that before I ever message the seller.
Writing the ceiling down first is what saves you from yourself. The item always looks nicer in person, the seller's always friendly, and it is genuinely hard to walk away at the curb once you've driven out there. A number you set at home doesn't care how nice the dresser looks.
Price your own listing to move
When it's your turn to sell, park it right around that sold median. A hair under if you want it gone this week, a hair over if it's rare and you're patient. Pricing high to "leave room to negotiate" mostly just leaves your thing sitting while cheaper copies sell around it. And remember days-on-market is its own cost: every dollar tied up in a stale item is a dollar that can't go buy your next flip.
Or skip the driveway math
Pulling comps and doing this arithmetic on every single listing is slow, and slow is exactly how the good deals get scooped by someone faster. Worth Radar does it in the background: it checks real sold comps for you, tells you how far under the sold median the asking price is ("32% below sold comps"), and works out your max-buy price and profit-per-hour before you've typed a word to the seller.