# What To Record About Every Scan
Saturday's still shows a page most sellers scroll past: the history of everything they have scanned. Each row is a decision you already made, with the price you set sitting next to the price that was suggested. That page is only useful if the rows contain the right things.
A scan at a garage sale or in a thrift aisle takes a few seconds. What you record about it decides whether those seconds pay off the next time you see the same item, which for most resellers is sooner than they expect.
The Suggested Price And Your Price Are Different Numbers
A suggested price is a reading of what similar items have sold for. Your price is a decision about this item, in this condition, with your fees and your patience. Keep both. The gap between them is information.
If your price is consistently above the suggestion and the items sell, your condition judgment is worth more than the average. If your price is consistently below and items still sit, the category may be softer than the comps imply. Neither lesson is available if you only keep one number.
Record The Walk-Away Too
The scans you did not buy are as valuable as the ones you did. A row that says you looked at a figure, saw the sold prices and marked it not worth listing saves you from looking it up again next month in a different store.
Mark the walk-aways in the moment. A quick note such as "common, too many listed" or "needs the box to be worth it" turns a dead row into a rule you can apply without re-researching.
Note Condition Where It Changes The Price
Two scans of the same item can be two different items. One has the original packaging, the other is loose and missing a hand. If your record does not say which, the price history will mislead you later.
Add the condition that drove the price. Complete, loose, sealed, missing parts, tested, untested. Those words are what make a past price usable for a future decision.
Keep The Shipping Decision With The Price
A price is only half the math. Whether you offered free shipping, charged for it or accepted offers changes what you actually netted. When those choices are stored beside the price, the row tells you what the item was worth to you rather than what a buyer paid.
Set those defaults once per category if your tools allow it, and only override them when the item calls for it. Consistency here is what makes the history comparable across months.
Use The History Before You Buy, Not After
The record pays off at the table. Before you make an offer on a lot, look up what you have scanned from that category before, what you paid, what you listed at and how long it took to sell. That is a better guide than any single comp because it is your own result, in your own store, with your own buyers.
Sellers who keep this habit stop re-learning the same prices. The scan becomes a lookup first and a research step only when the item is new to them.
A Short Checklist
For every scan, aim to have five things recorded: the item name, the suggested price, your price, the condition that drove it, and whether you bought it. If your scanner keeps the first three for you, the last two take seconds.
Five fields, every time, and the history page stops being a log and starts being the most accurate price guide you own.