Furniture Price Question

[JoeyGee]

I have in my possession my mom's old vanity/make up desk/whatever you want to call it. It's basically a small desk with 3 drawers good sized drawers on each side, a flat top and a large (original) mirror that attaches to the back (I'll post a pic when I can clear out the junk in front of it...I should have taken one while I had it out for the sale)

It's solid maple, and all the drawers are fully dovetailed and are also solid maple (not a secondary wood, which surprised me). The finish is still in good shape, except for some minor sratches on the top. She got it when she was 12, which was approximately 1950. No one in my family wants it, and my parents just moved to a smaller house, so I stopped my dad from taking it to Goodwill.

We had a garage sale this weekend. I put a price of $65.00 on it, figuring I would go down to $50. I really didn't think I would have any problem unloading it. I am not emotionally invested in it, so I don't think I overestimated it's worth, but no one even asked about it, or even looked at it twice.

Did I over price it? I know we live in a Sauder World where particle board furniture is accepted as great quality, but for 65 bucks, I thought this was a great deal. I even put a sign on it pointing out that's solid maple, with full dovetails, etc.

Help me please! This thing is taking up the space in my garage reserved for my BT!!

[TheRic]

I recently sold one, sounds about the same but a little different. Seeing the pictures would help. I asked $150 last year at garage sale, no takers. This year I came down to $100, ended up taking $75. The guy who bought had a garage sale a couple of weeks later. I heard he was asking $125, the next day the sign was saying $100. I don't know if he sold it and for what price.

I can tell you that selling things at garage sales is hit and miss on prices. I have also found that if you list it at one price, cross out that price with a new lower price it seems to go better. More than once I have tried to sell something, with no one interested. I put a new sign on with a higher price crossed out and the "new" price the same as yesterday and I'll have several people asking about it. Brother mocks me when I do that, but I just smile as I collect the money.

[LinuxRandal]

Around my parts, you can have one as part of a high dollar set of furniture, and you would have to stand over the people who bought it, to make sure they get loaded, and don't just leave it on your lawn.

[cabinetman]

I'm a real garage sale junkie. Items like that could go instantly, or become an antique in your garage. It's an item that hits a fancy or not. Tell you what, take that to a Christies auction and it might go into the thousands. It's a weird demand market. Someone might have a set of furniture that the desk may go with and they would pay any price for a piece within the same time range.

I think having "mark down" signs may reveal your desperation. The way to mark down is either to see if anyone wants to negotiate a price, or not put a price on it and see what happens.

[Pappy]

I would list it on craigslist.org at $100 obo in the collectables section.