Pricing is where sourcing decisions come home. A good buy listed at the wrong price sits for months; a fair price on a weak buy sells and still loses money. This manual describes a repeatable way to set a first price, leave room for offers, and decide when to cut or cut loose. It uses no market statistics, because those vary by category and change constantly. Your own sold comparables and your own records are the data that count.
Start from what sold, not what is listed
Asking prices tell you what other sellers hope for. Sold prices tell you what buyers paid. Most marketplaces let you filter search results to sold or completed listings. For each item:
- Find at least three recent sales of the same model, size or edition in similar condition.
- Note the price and whether shipping was included.
- Ignore outliers you cannot explain, such as a sale with extra accessories or an unusually damaged unit.
- Write the range in your inventory sheet.
The research prices manual covers searching techniques. If you cannot find sold comparables, that is information too: the item may be slow, niche or hard to describe. Price cautiously and plan an earlier review.
Work backward to a floor
Before you set an asking price, decide the lowest price you will accept. The floor should cover:
- what you paid for the item, including any buyer's premium and tax;
- marketplace fees and payment processing at that price;
- shipping and packaging if you pay them;
- a minimum profit that makes the time worth it.
The price floor bench does this arithmetic with your inputs. Write the floor in your sheet. It turns later decisions into a comparison rather than a mood.
Set the first price
A common approach is to list near the top of the sold range for clean, complete items, and lower in the range for items with flaws or missing parts. If the platform supports offers, decide how much room you are leaving for negotiation and stick to it. An offer above your floor is a sale; an offer below is a polite no.
Do not price to recover a bad purchase. The market does not know what you paid.
Plan the markdowns before you need them
Markdowns work best as a schedule, not a reaction. For each category, choose:
- A review interval. Fast-moving categories deserve shorter intervals; slow, high-value items can wait longer.
- A step size. A fixed percentage or amount you lower at each review if nothing has changed.
- An exit point. The age or price at which the item leaves the active shelf.
At each review, look at fresh sold comparables first. If the market moved, reprice to the market. If your listing gets views but no sales, the price or photos may be the issue. If it gets no views, the title, category or search terms may be the issue. Fix the cause before cutting the price.
Exits are part of the plan
Every reseller has items that will not sell at a price above the floor. Options include:
- Bundle with related items to raise the order value.
- Move to another channel where the category does better, or to local pickup to avoid shipping costs.
- Sell below the floor to recover cash and space, and record the lesson.
- Donate or discard, and record the outcome in your books.
IRS Publication 334 explains how inventory and cost of goods sold work on Schedule C, including notes on merchandise withdrawn from sale and donation of inventory. Read it, or ask a tax professional, before assuming how a donation or write-off is treated. The cost of goods sold manual gives the outline.
Watch the age of your stock
A monthly list of items sorted by list date is the most useful report a small reseller can run. Old stock ties up cash and space, and it often signals a sourcing problem. If one category keeps appearing at the bottom, buy less of it or stop.
Prices and safety
Before you discount aging stock, run one more recall search on it. Items sit long enough for recalls to be announced, and a clearance price does not make a recalled item sellable. See recall checks.
A sample routine
- Monday: list new items with first price, floor and next review date.
- Each review date: check sold comparables, then hold, lower by your step, or exit.
- Month end: run the age report and decide on everything past the exit point.
- Quarter end: compare categories by profit per item and time to sale, using the profit bench, and adjust sourcing.
The goal is not the highest price on every item. It is a shelf that turns over at a profit you can explain.
How long should I wait before lowering a price?
There is no single right number. Choose a review interval that fits how fast your category sells, write it down, and stick to it. At each review, check fresh sold comparables and your listing's views and watchers, then hold, lower by a planned step, or exit. Decide the floor price before you list, not when you are frustrated.