How to Price a Dining Room Table for a Garage Sale

Pricing a dining table for a garage sale is often complicated by the owners putting more value on their possessions than the resale value is worth. People think about the item’s price when new and, subsequently, price it too high. Remember, used property has a greatly reduced value, unless the table is an antique in mint condition. Use price and donation value guides to find the market value of the table before you price it.

Salvation Army price guide
Goodwill price guide
Goodwill donated goods value guide
Internal Revenue Service donated goods values

Instructions

- 1
  Study the Salvation Army and Goodwill price guides to get an idea of what people who shop second-hand stores are willing to pay for a pre-owned dining room table. Goodwill Industries sells a table in good condition for about $40. A full dining set, the Salvation Army notes, could start at $150.
- 2
  Study the value of donated goods allowed by the Internal Revenue Service. According to Bankrate, the IRS permits a taxpayer to claim a value of $35 to $170 for a complete table and chair set. Goodwill suggests a more conservative tax value of $20 to $75 for a table without chairs, based on the actual price a table can fetch.
- 3
  Price the table for what it is. Remove any sentimental attachment to your table and acknowledge any imperfections. Set a price that you’d be willing to pay for this table if you saw it at a garage sale, taking into account the used furniture values you have researched: values from $20 to about $75 make sense.
- 4
  Add to the price sticker that you will consider offers. If you get an offer for 50 or 75 percent of the asking price, take the offer if you really want to get rid of the table.

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