"I live in a strongly middle class neighborhood and I hope people are reasonable."
Yeah, me too. It didn't work that way for me....but I hope better for you. I live in a large metropolitan area and people were looking for stuff for free...OTOH I havn't done one in a long time and things may have changed.
We always went with *how* people asked "can you do better on the price" or would you consider x for this" was always better then "this is junk i'll give you $.10 for it" (this being say an antique egg beater worth at least $10)... ;)
anyhow good luck with your sale.