How to price used furniture without guessing

Updated October 30, 2026

You’re moving, or the couch doesn’t fit the new room. Selling it is easy. Pricing it is the hard part. Ask too much and nobody writes back. Ask too little and the first person who messages gets a bargain you’ll think about for a week.

Here’s how to land on a fair number.

1. Look at what sold, not what’s listed

Asking prices are wishes. Search your local marketplace for the same item, or the closest thing to it, and pay attention to the ones that disappeared quickly. Those prices are what buyers near you actually pay. If a listing has sat for a month, its price is a sign of what didn’t work.

2. Adjust for what buyers care about

Condition. Stains, scratches, wobbly legs, pet hair and smoke smell all lower the price. Be honest about them in the listing. A buyer who finds a surprise at pickup will try to renegotiate on your doorstep.
Materials and brand. Solid wood and well-known brands hold their value better than particleboard and no-name pieces.
Size. A big, heavy piece needs a truck and two people. That shrinks your pool of buyers. Offering to help carry it out, or to meet them at the curb, makes it easier to say yes.
Timing. The end of the month and the start of a school year bring more people moving in and out, so there are more buyers and more sellers.

3. Know your number before you post

Decide the lowest price you’d accept and write it down. When someone makes a quick, low offer, it’s easy to say yes just to be done. Your number protects you from that.

4. Pick how you’ll take offers

Fixed price. Simple, but if you priced it low you lose money, and if you priced it high you hear nothing.
“Or best offer.” It invites conversation, which often means haggling in your messages at midnight.
Let buyers make offers. When you really don’t know the price, let the people who want it tell you. If several people want it, the offers go up on their own.

How Soldu helps

Soldu is built for that last option. It’s like running your own small auction. You make one link and paste it under your post. Buyers open it in a browser and type one number, and each offer has to beat the highest one so far. They don’t need the app or an account. You see the three highest offers, each with a short record of the buyer, and you say yes to the one you like. There’s no countdown.

You can set a starting price that buyers see, so offers begin there. You can also set the lowest you’d take. Only you see it, and offers below it never reach you.

Quick checklist

Find two or three similar items that sold near you.
Note the flaws and photograph them.
Measure it and put the size in your post.
Decide your lowest acceptable price.
Decide how you’ll take offers.