When volunteers look up an item online, they usually search and look at the first few results. The trouble is that those results are mostly items still for sale, and the price on an unsold listing is only what the seller hopes to get.
Asking prices are a ceiling, not a guide
An item listed at £60 might sit unsold for months, then sell for £25 or not at all. If you price your donation from the asking price, it is likely to sit on your shelf for just as long.
Sold prices are different. They record what a real buyer paid, on a real day. They already account for condition, demand and competition.
How to find sold prices on eBay
On eBay, search for the item, then tick “Sold items” in the filters (on the app, it is under “Filter”). Sold prices show in green. Look at the last few months only, since prices change over time.
What to watch out for
Even sold prices need care:
- Bundles and job lots. A sale of “six Royal Doulton figures” tells you little about one figure.
- Different sizes or models. A size 4 and a size 10 of the same shoe can sell for very different amounts.
- Overseas sellers. Items posted from abroad often carry high postage that changes the real price.
- One-off highs. An unusually high sale can be a bidding war that won’t happen again.
Use the middle price of several genuine matches rather than any single sale.
The time problem
Doing this properly for every item takes several minutes. Multiply that by hundreds of donations a week and it simply isn’t possible in a busy shop, which is why so much pricing comes down to gut feel.
Let the evidence do the work
PricedRight checks recent eBay UK sold prices automatically from a photo, leaves out bundles, other sizes and look-alikes, and shows the volunteer the sales behind the price. Your charity’s rules then set the final shelf price. It takes seconds instead of minutes, and every shop prices the same way.