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Does anyone have a good rule of thumb as to how much furniture depreciates percentagewise from original price and what is a fair price to sell items? I'm Talking about nice furniture that was purchased new from places like Crate n Barrel and Pottery Barn about 5 to 7 years ago, it was purchased new and is still in very good shape and only has had 1 owner. I'm talking about dresser, china cabinet, large desk, etc.
Some cities have active markets that will take things on consignment. But if the pieces are large it's hard to move things there and then have to take them back if they don't sell. Shipping costs make selling large pieces online prohibitive. You being able to deliver the piece makes it much more likely it will sell if you list it via Craigslist or some local website. But then there is the problem of having strangers come to your house to look.
Your area might have an auction company that will take your pieces and auction them for a fee. Some companies have sales where they gather pieces from a bunch of different sources and auction them all off together.
Of course you can always do a moving sale out of your garage. That's about the only way, other than Craig's List that you won't owe someone else a considerable fee. Prices depend on where you live. Where I am you'd be lucky to get 25% of a retail price at a house sale, even on pieces that are virtually new.
If you itemize your taxes, you might be better off donating your items and taking a write-off. Habitat for Humanity's ReStore and HabiStores support a good cause and most will pick up your items.
Pitt Chick is correct in my experience. Look at it another way and I am not trying to sound mean, just realistic. You bought what you LOVED at the time of purchase and made use of it for 5 - 7 years. Someone who is buying it used will LIKE it, but chances are they are looking to buy used because they are trying to save some $$ and therefore it may not be exactly what they would buy if purchasing new. (They could also be into the recycling but that is a different subject.)
The dilemma for you is that you could price it high at 50% - 70% and take your chances but if your furniture was expensive to begin with, at a 50 % discount, one could buy lesser quality new. For a very extraordinary piece it might be to 35% but that's the exception to the rule.
It could be hard to sell. The buyer needs a truck. That limits your customer base. I sold all of my furniture and all of my parents and never got close to 25%. As mentioned before a lot depends on your area.
I have the furniture and the person considering buying it will only have to move it literally 10 feet into his apartment and he's an expert at "moving things" so he's handy in that regard, so moving it is not a problem.
As far as 10 percent, yeah, i'm not going to "give it away" because it will cost me a lot of money to replace it if i ever need to replace it at some point.
I guess it comes down to what someone thinks its worth.
If you sell it on consignment the consigner will probably sell it for 1/3 of the price new. Then you will get usually 50% of that. Outcome is 16% to you. I have noticed that many folks on Craigslist try to sell for about 70% of what they paid. More power to them, but those ads stay up a long time, so I'm guessing they are not successful. I think for myself 20% of new for something in excellent condition is good.
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