Buy & trade calculator

Cash (buy) and store-credit (trade) offers for resale items. Saved on your device

Item total$0.00

Buy$0.00

Trade$0.00

How it works

For resale, trade-in and consignment counters: the buy price is the cash you'd offer (a lower percentage), and the trade price is store credit (a higher percentage). Set both percentages once in Settings — they're remembered on this device — then list the items and read off the totals. Everything stays in your browser.

How to use the buy & trade calculator

Open ⚙ Settings once and set your two rates: Buy % is the cash offer (default 70) and Trade % is the store-credit offer (default 80). Both clamp to 0–100 and are remembered on this device.
List the items — each row takes a name and a resale price. Click + Add item for the next row; focus jumps straight into it, so you can enter a whole stack without touching the mouse.
Watch the three totals update live: Item total (summed resale value), Buy (cash) and Trade (credit).
Quote both numbers side by side — three games at $20, $35 and $12.50 total $67.50, which at the defaults is $47.25 cash or $54.00 in credit.
Remove a row with ✕, or hit Clear to reset the list for the next customer — the percentages stay put. Everything persists, so a closed tab picks up where you left off.

Common uses

Run the trade-in counter at a used-game, record, comic or book shop: enter the shelf prices of what the customer brought and read off both offers instantly.
Handle consignment and buy-outright negotiations at clothing or gear resale stores, where credit is deliberately more generous than cash.
As a seller, sanity-check an offer before accepting: enter what your items resell for and see what typical percentage splits would pay.
Set up a shop tablet as a standing rate card — configure the percentages once and every employee quotes the same numbers all day.
Sort a bulk buy bin by bin: the running total grows row by row as you appraise the pile.

Tips & limitations

The two percentages apply to the whole list — there's no per-item rate. If a rare first edition deserves 85% while shelf stock gets 60%, run them as separate batches.
Enter resale value (what you'll sell it for), not what the customer originally paid — the percentages assume you're working from your own selling price.
Trade above buy is convention, not enforced: store credit costs the shop less than cash, so it can afford to be more generous. Set any split you like.
Data is saved in this browser on this device only — another computer, profile or private window starts from defaults, and clearing site data wipes your list and rates.
Blank, zero or negative prices are simply left out of the total, so a half-filled row never skews an offer.

How it's built & why it's safe

A small vanilla-JavaScript app: item rows are rendered from a state object, and the totals are one multiplication each — item total × buy% and × trade%. That state (both percentages plus every item name and price) is written to localStorage under the key toolkit:buytrade on each edit and restored on load, which is what makes it work as a day-long counter tool. Percentages are validated and clamped to 0–100. There's no server, account or sync — your inventory and rates never leave the device, and Clear or clearing site data erases them.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between the buy and trade prices?

Buy is the cash offer and trade is the store-credit offer, each a percentage of the item total. Credit is usually set higher (defaults are 70% cash, 80% credit) because credit keeps the money in the store and costs less to honor.

Will my items and percentages still be here tomorrow?

Yes, on the same device and browser — the list and rates are stored locally and reload automatically. They won't follow you to another computer or a private window, and clearing the browser's site data removes them.

Can I give different percentages to different items?

Not within one list — the rates apply to the summed total. For mixed-quality lots, process the premium items as one batch, note the offer, then Clear and run the rest at the other rate.

What percentages should a shop actually use?

There's no universal answer — margins vary by category, condition and how fast stock turns. The 70/80 defaults are a reasonable starting spread; what matters is that trade sits above buy, and the settings accept whatever your economics support.

How do I clear everything for the next customer?

The Clear button resets the item list to one empty row while keeping your percentage settings — the between-customers workflow. To reset the rates too, reopen Settings and type new values.

Is any of this uploaded — could a customer's list end up online?

No. The calculator has no server component: items and rates live only in your browser's local storage on that machine. Nothing is transmitted, synced or backed up anywhere.