Ask and you shall receive!

Reader Tamara Austin sent me a few Poshmark listing questions that I thought should be answered in a blog post:

“What you recommend pricing items should be? I was only able to find one other Poshmarker who made the recommendation that you should mark 50-40% off retail price, and 30% items that are new with tags. What is your take on pricing? Do you mark off a different percentage if the item is new with tags? Do you wait for a certain amount of time to go by before lowering your pricing? I see there is a price drop button (still learning about that through your formula).”

Disclaimer: I for one am not a business expert. I also am not a marketing expert, so please don’t take my word as the bible. I am only an expert on my own experiences and what has been proven successful to me. So your mileage may very.

I generally have a rule of thumb when it comes to pricing things: Don’t spend what you can’t sell. I for one have this problem allllllllllllll the freakin time. I buy something to resell and then for whatever reason forget to list the item and then later can’t sell it afterwards. OR spend on an item only to break even or lose money on a deal. Pricing your items needs to be at a sweet spot to where people will purchase your items at a decent price and you can make some sweet cash off of it!

First and foremost, you can price anything however you want to. I don’t know if you’re Jennifer Lawrence or if you’re Dita Von Tease. Because if you are, you can pretty much get away with selling an old pair of gym shorts for an obscene amount of money and forego all my advice. But if you’re like me, then listen up!

NEW with Tags! (NWT)

There are two parts of this puzzle. Having something new with tags doesn’t mean you get free reign to price however you want. Obviously there’s a price cap, and condition still plays a huge role when you are pricing. If something is NWT it doesn’t automatically make it in pristine condition. Additionally if it’s new but also very old you probably won’t get to price too high. Alternatively, if you have a brand new item that’s well worth its value then feel free to price even up to retail. The only problem with that is, people don’t like to buy anything that’s priced retail, otherwise they would just buy it retail. You can only get away with this if it’s a limited edition kind of product, if that’s the case then it’s no holds bar at that point. But if you’re buying it cheap, I never go buy what’s on the price tag, I always go by what I PAID for it. I tend to put at least a 50% markup on items because I know Poshmark’s commission is 20% and I would like to get at least 30% more for the item. Does that always happen? No. Because people lowball the fuck outta me, and I get desperate or if I’m too lazy to check my spreadsheet to see if I’m losing money on something or not. So learn from my laziness and keep your prices handy!

Brand name items

My favorite category! For me personally, this is something I stick with if I am planning on reselling at all. People LOVE brands, they stick to brands, they follow and pledge their allegiance to brands. It’s one of the safest bets you can make as a seller in this Poshmarket, so choose your brands wisely! When you’re pricing your brands you can get away with  close to retail because people are loyal. However keep you eye out for dying brands. Some brands lose value on the market if they are constantly being sold for less and less, so check how the brand is doing on the app and see what people are selling it for and price around there. But like I said earlier, it’s your prerogative how you price, you just don’t want to be completely unapproachable to where people are embarrassed to give you a reasonable offer for an item when it comes off as a lowball.

Used Items

I personally have a rule for used items that are:

1. Not brand named.
2. Not in season.
3. Excellent – Good condition.

I don’t price with the expectation that I am making over $20. That’s just a going trend on items that have sold with me on my closet. Now I don’t tend to have super cute clothes in my closet, but if there’s an item that should just go to the goodwill or a local women’s rescue mission, i’ll just either part with it or sell it cheap. Now believe you me I take nice pics of the item, and clean it and spiff it up to market the crap out of it. But if it doesn’t sell and you’re sure it won’t sell, then cut your losses and move on. Now you can list higher than $25 if you want, but if it’s handmade, one of a kind item then it’ll take much more convincing on your end to get it sold.

In closing…

This is not BIBLE but this is a guide on how I price things based on how I sell. I usually sell at least one thing a day, if I am doing everything right. So hopefully you adjust on your items and then they can start flying off the shelves at reasonable rates.

This is all my little brain can throw out on paper for now. I’m completely fried. If you can find a typo please do so by clicking ‘Leave A Comment’ underneath the title. Hopefully this helps you sort out some of the questions you have on how you need to list your items at. Good Luck! If you have more questions please leave a comment, and I will answer it below fairly quickly, because I’m super nice like that =)

Stay Healthy,

-E