AI Pricing for Resale and Thrift Stores

TLDR: Price from what actually sold, in a recent window, for the same brand, item, and size. Then adjust for your store, your fees, and whether the floor will sell it faster than the website. Write the floor price and the online price separately, because fees make them different answers.

Ignore asking prices

An active listing is an opinion. A sold listing is a result. When you research a price, filter to sold or completed items, stay inside about 90 days, and match brand, item type, and size before you match color. A medium denim jacket is not a comp for a small one. A new-with-tags price is not a comp for a jacket with worn cuffs.

Collect at least a handful of sold prices, throw out the one that looks like a collector auction, and look at the middle. That middle is your starting online price, often called an average selling price. If you only have one comp, treat it as a hint and price closer to your usual category band.

Do the floor math on paper first

The floor price and the online price answer different questions. Online has a fee and a box. A rough check:

1. Start with the sold-comp price.
2. Subtract a marketplace fee. For a quick estimate, use 13 percent if you do not know your real rate.
3. Subtract packing and the postage you would actually pay, not a guess of "a few dollars."
4. Compare what is left with a floor price this store would tag today.

If the floor number is close, tag it and move on. A $20 jacket that sells this week beats a $32 jacket that sits in a tote waiting for photos. If the online number is clearly higher after fees, that item is a listing, not a rack item.

Example, not a promise: a medium denim jacket with sold comps around $32 might tag at $20 on the floor because it will sell before you pay for a mailer. The online price stays near the comps. Both numbers can be right.

Make the price specific to the store

Two thrift stores in the same city do not clear the same brands at the same speed. After you have a month of your own sales, prefer your sell-through over a national comp. If women's denim leaves your floor in a week, you can hold a firmer price. If it is still there after three weeks, the comp was for someone else's customer.

Keep a one-page band for the categories you see every day: jeans, jackets, shoes, handbags, housewares. The band is the default when comps are thin. Comps override the band when you have them. Write the band down so a Saturday volunteer and a weekday pricer land in the same place.

Markdown on a clock

A price without a date is how racks clog. Pick an age, such as 21 days on the floor, and mark down a set percent. Do not renegotiate every tag in the moment. Online listings get the same discipline: if watchers are not turning into sales, lower the price or end the listing and return the item to the floor.

How an AI price should behave

AI pricing is the same worksheet, run every time. It should show the comps it used, recommend an in-store price for that location, and keep a separate online price when fees change the answer. Staff accept or edit it. A recommendation nobody can see is not a price. It is a guess with a logo.

HAMMOQ uses sold comps and that store's results to suggest the tag price at intake, and the listing price for eBay and your own website. You can do the first version of this with a sold search and a notebook. The software matters when the notebook cannot keep up with the volume.

A worksheet you can copy

Use your own comps. The figures below only show the arithmetic, with a fee estimate of 13 percent when you do not know your real rate.

Jacket. Sold comps sit around $32. The fee is about $4. A mailer and postage might be $8. What is left is about $20. The floor tag is $19.99. Those outcomes are close, and the floor can sell it this week, so the item stays in the store. If you do list it, the online price stays near the comps. Dropping the listing to the floor price gives the fee away.

Skillet. Sold comps sit around $31. The fee plus a heavier box can leave you near $20. A floor tag of $22.99 is the same neighborhood, so it stays on the shelf unless your housewares sit. A fleece tagged at $14.99 almost never clears shipping. It stays on the floor even when a listing would look tidy.

Write four lines on a card at the pricing table: comp, fee, ship, floor. After twenty items the pattern is obvious. That pattern is what you check an AI price against. If the suggestion cannot show its comps, treat it as a guess.

If you want to see these steps run with AI on your own items, book a demo and we will walk through them with you.