Guidelines for pricing your items and other information
- We are often asked for guidance on pricing your items, and unless you have done a few sales it can be difficult to get this right. The best way to learn is to volunteer at a sale and see what sells and what doesn't, and also to see what prices individual sellers put on their items. The guidelines for using labels can be found in PDF format at the bottom of this page... However, here are some basic rules to get you started.
Remember, the lowest you can price is 50p.
Safety pins can be bought quite reasonably from Hobbycraft or Dunelm Mill (45 assorted for 39p) as well as online..
If you have experience of selling and buying on eBay, please remember that the emphasis of Nearly New Sales is to sell as much as possible in one big hit, rather than to pin your hopes on a few items selling for as much as possible. For some high end items as well as some baby equipment, you will undoubtedly get more on eBay, and you cannot expect to fetch the same kind of money for them at a Nearly New Sale. Better to sell lots of items at more reasonable prices than only very few items because the buyers were put off by the price!
Items that always sell well are: (and you may be able to put an extra 50p onto them because of this) - toys
- baby equipment
- boys clothes between the ages of 2-6 (there is often less available than for the girls, making them easier to spot for buyers)
- clothing which is in season
- items which are branded, e.g. NEXT, Monsoon, BabyGAP, Marks & Spencer, Zara, Boden.
Very high-end designer brands such as Ralph Lauren do sell, but people are generally not prepared to spend over the odds for such luxury items, as the emphasis is normally to buy as much stuff for as little money as possible. If you have high-end designer items, you may get more money by selling them on eBay.
Low-end brands, e.g. GEORGE (ASDA), TU (Sainsbury's), Matalan, Primark etc sell much better in bundles at very reasonable prices. These clothes are often very cheap to buy new, so your second-hand items, as nice as they are, have to compete with this. If you bundle items together, e.g. 2 TU jeans in the same size for £1.50, you are more likely to sell them than putting them at £1.50 each.
Character clothes, e.g. Bob the Builder, Dora, Tinkerbell etc, also tend to sell well and you can add an extra 50p.
Baby clothes sell much, much, much better in bundles, as people tend to buy in bulk and you are competing with very cheap new clothes on the market. We always have lots of Newborn - 12 month clothing so always price competitively.
Nightwear / Underwear generally does not sell that well, unless in absolutely pristine or new condition - this is a personal choice for many buyers and quite a few will not accept second-hand underwear for their children. Underpants / Knickers are particularly tricky, vests fare better. A very reasonable price is recommended to increase the chance of selling. Personally, I only tend to sell PJ's occasionally, and I give away underwear to friends so that I save my labels for things which are more likely to sell!
Washable nappies sell well, if presented as sets. For a big set, you can expect a price up to £25. At some sales, all of our washable nappies sell, at others, hardly any sell - it just depends what kind of buyer walks through the door!
Books - baby books sell better individually if priced at 50p, remember, buyers mainly come for clothes, toys and clothes and tend to go for books later on in the sale, so the more reasonably priced they are the better they sell! Books for readers, e.g. Oxford Reading Tree, sell better as sets as they are very desirable for parents of school-age children. Generally, books do not sell well if priced above £1.50.
Soft toys - unless they are a character toy, or Build a Bear with accessories, they don't tend to sell that well.
Examples of reasonable price ranges (from cheap brands to good brands)
- t-shirts 50p to £2
long-sleeved tops £1 to £2.50
hoodies/fleeces/gilets £1.50 to £4
Coats £3.50 to £7
Jeans/trousers £1 to £4.50
PJ's as set £1 to £2.50
Travel Cots £5 to £15
Bumbo Seats £5 to £10
Buggies £5 to £10_
Prams/Travel Systems £30 to £120 (be aware that buyers may not carry this much cash with them)
Cots £25 to £50 (without mattress, for hygiene reasons)
Moses Basket £5 to £15 (without mattress, for hygiene reasons)
| How to use your labels |
| Pushchair Regulations. Very Important! Please read if you intend to sell one! |
