Pricing Items on Craigslist

I'm normally the guy that either throws stuff out or hides it in the basement rather than attempt to sell it, but I thought why not try Craigslist and make a couple extra bucks. Problem is I have no idea what to price this at, so what better place to get some ideas than here....

I got rid of the following Surround system. It is pretty basic and I have no idea what it would be worth. It's about 4 years old and looks brand new

Yamaha RX-V559 Receiver
DCM Cinema 1 Surround Speakers, 2 front, 2 rear, center and a sub

'07 Honda HHR2163TDA Self Propelled mulching mower.
I had a friend "accidentally smash this mower between his car and my garage wall. Bent the handle beyond repair as well as the wheel and handle brackets. From what I can see about $100 in parts will make this thing as good as new. I'm guessing the engine alone is worth at least $150?

I know, I'm pretty clueless.

Find what others are asking by searching in Google for make/model/year type keywords, and site:craigslist.org

Do the google thing. It's what everybody else does.

Already hit Google, just looking for more info...

Searchtempest.com

Trace, thanks, that website helped a lot!

And price it $ 50 more or so as everybody will give you a price under what you have listed.

I'd price it for whatever I thought was reasonable. Not everyone will offer you a price under what you ask, and will still buy it at your price if you hold fast. I buy and sell things all the time on CL at the asking price. I prefer to price it close to or at my minimum price as it tends to IMO sell faster.

^^ I agree with John. Most of my items sell within a week with minimal headache. There are mixed opinions on this, but I never put a phone number in my ads. I buy & sell vintage motorcycle stuff a lot, and bored old farts will sometimes call me up and chat for a half hour.

The other really helpful thing is to take good pics and host them on photobucket so you can html them into the ad. The little half-postcard-size pics that CL hosts are a joke.

One more piece of advice: never send someone your address at lunch, and tell them you'll meet them after work. You might find some stuff missing when you get home.

+1 on the address thing. I only provide an address when people are on their way. I usually provide an address to the business near my house if it's in advance. I find it easier to put my email and number phone in the ad.

Another interesting development that occured with me a couple months back is that my hotmail address quit working with CL. I can't post or send emails through CL with hotmail. Other accounts work. In neither case did I get any messages telling me my post or email did not go through. The only thing that alerted me that my emails didn't work was when I tried to post and it didn't work. And that explained why I wasn't getting an answer to my email queries.

I heard about the hotmail thing too. I figure it's up to hotmail users to use another account, or CL to fix the problem. Putting your phone number in ads for boats/bikes/cars/rvs will also bring phone calls from brokers and ad services trying to sell your item for you.

Also be careful with "free stuff". Make sure you can deal with dozens of emails/calls, and people coming by to get it within an hour after you post. It's usually easier to put it on the curb the day before trash day while you're going to be home, and put the physical address in your ad, "first come first serve", with no other contact info.

It is amazing what people will come and pick up because it's free. A friend of mine had a bunch of old unencapsulated dock foam blocks that the dump nor any local recyclers would accept. I suggested he try CL free stuff, and it was all gone within a couple hours - didn't even have to haul it. Two different times, I've had people lining up to dig up and haul off huge nuisance bushes out of my yard that we were replacing with new landscaping.