Selling a Collection

[evenflow]

Not sure if this is the right place, but has only sold their entire collection. I basically want to sell off my entire collection besides my vintage figures and current Hot Toys figures. So everything from Hasbro 95-few years ago.

Suggestions on how to unload it all?

[Jesse James]

That's tough to say.  Had a friend sell it all to a local dealer we know...  that's a fast way to be done.  If you're looking for maximizing $ out of it the only good way is eBay I think.  Tedious and full of danger from buyers who are tool boxes.

And a lot of things will sell for peanuts while other things will get more than you paid, but I'm not sure that'll be the majority.  Resale is kind of high now for SW stuff especially post 2005

[Darby]

I'm not selling everything, but I'm downsizing significantly and I've gone to eBay to start. I'm doing pretty well on TVC, so far. Like Jesse says though, it is tedious. I have a lot of stuff I just don't need, including some bigger vehicles that I'll probably try and unload locally.

[Brian]

Same as Darby said, I'm not selling everything but I have been scaling things down and have gone the eBay route as well. It seems like you can do pretty well that way. I guess it really depends on if you want it all gone quickly or if you are ok going little by little.

I've been meaning to post a thread somewhere, but wasn't sure where it was most appropriate. I wonder what the common thread is to see so many collectors either getting out of the game, scaling back, or shifting (narrowing) their focus. Is it because of the status/quality of the line, a difference in interests or funds, age, or space? It just seems like there have been more and more of our "old" JD crew that have been scaling back or getting out.

[Nicklab]

I'm not the biggest fan of eBay in general.  And I can understand your trepidation in going that route. 

In an ideal world?  I would love to be able to sell of a collection in a forum of collectors who are knowledgeable and into what I've got.  But when you look at some of the sale forums on a number of reputable sites, it can be a mixed bag.  Some of those forums are just inundated with a lot of stock.  And keeping things current on those sites can be trying.

Selling it all to a shop is an easy way to go.  But you may not get the value on certain items that you're looking for.

I've decided to sell off a good amount of my surplus collection.  Some of this was about making space.  And a contributing factor there included not paying for outside storage.  It's also an attempt to make the collection a little more manageable and get some cash back, too.

So I've been going the eBay route.  Mostly because there's no better marketplace that I've been able to identify.  If you follow all of the rules with PayPal and eBay you should be okay.  I choose to only deal with domestic buyers.  But people there tend to look for things with a degree of focus that can help the seller.  One thing to consider?  Selling in bundles with items that might not have the most appeal.

[evenflow]

Thanks for the thoughts. I think i would just like to unload all at once and save the hassle. I know i could probably get more parting it out but i think my time is more valuable. I just have to find someone who wants to buy it all.

[Brian]

Hoe did your sale(s) end up going? Did you unload it all at once? Hope things went well.

[Nicklab]

My sales have been ongoing.  I may wind up shipping a dozen items a week, and other weeks it's less.  I'm seeing some progress, but for me this is going to take a while.

For some figures I'm going to start putting together lots.  It just makes more sense to do that rather than to sell every figure individually.

[Matt_Fury]

As with just about anything in life the best answer here is "it depends".

I have every POTJ and EP1 figures carded.  If I were to sell them, I would probably try to sell them as a collection.  I also have some prop replicas and larger vehicles, that if I wanted to sell they'd most likely go individually.

Nick....could you PM me some of your ebay links?  I'm curious to see what you have going out there.

[Rob]

I have a buddy who just paid $200 for a table at Phil Wise's Sci Fi Expo (not sure what it's called these days) and had himself a two-day fire sale.

He didn't make a killing on it, but it was gone in two days with minimal effort.

Unfortunately, what you get out of it is going to be proportional to how much work you're willing to put in.

[Matt_Fury]

I'm assuming the $200 fee for the table?

I cannot stand Philip Wise.

[EdSolo]

Just wondering if anyone has any more success in this realm.  I have purchased anything new in quite some time except for the Doctor Aphra set.  My collecting has been limited to legos, books and comics and the hallmark ornaments.  I think I am ready to unload all my Hasbro stuff, but it is such a daunting task.  I have just about every carded figure from the POTF2 Orange cards to somewhere through the vintage collection figures when they did the convention exclusive set that has the Jar Jar in Carbonite.  Not sure what year I ended, but it would have been just after the Disney sale since I knew there was no way I could keep up any more.  I have a ton of vehicles as well as pretty much every Hasbro 12" figure.  At this point, it has all been in boxes for so long taking up space.  I just want to try to break even with what I paid for everything.  Can you even get $4/figure for the old POTF2 stuff or $20 for a Hasbro 12" figure these days?  I just need to move on and declutter.  I have seen a few people in Star Wars groups use Facebook market place to list stuff.  I may contact one of them to see how it goes.

[Dave]

Ed - not sure about the POTF2 figures.  My guess is you'll be lucky to break even.

If the ships are still boxed you should be able to break even or make a profit on them.  Same goes for the 12" figures.

I sold all my boxed 12" figs a few years back for a small profit.  I sold all my extra boxed vehicles for a decent profit as well.

Its work to sell these things on eBay, and I would encourage you to open up the auctions to international buyers (I don't think a lot of this stuff was ever easy to come by internationally), but you should be able to get most if not all of your money back.

Over the past five years I've downsized and sold off extra vehicles, some 3.75" figures, all 12" figures, all Galactic Heroes, and all Titanium.  I've kept track of it all and overall I've broke even and got $11k and a ton of space back. 

[Matt_Fury]

Ed,

I haven't looked into selling anything in my collection, but I think your best bet would be to try to sell stuff at a comic and toy show if possible.  You could try eBay, but there's going to be the hassle of packing and shipping everything going that route.

[Pete_Fett]

I've been contemplating making a change myself. There was a point in time (prior to the sale to Disney) where I always had the thought in my head that "this line will be done soon" and I've been continuing to hang in for that reason.

But now? It's getting to the point where I'm starting to ask myself "why am I still doing this?"

I'm not going to stop collecting - I will still get at least one of everything to open and even if I do sell items out of my MOC/MIB/MIP collection, I'm going to hold on to everything that's been done in the Vintage Collection style packaging - that packaging design has a special place in my heart so I would definitely keep going with having a packaged collection of Vintage Collection items and I may also hang on to all of the Black Series stuff too. But everything else? Nope.

I would love to sell it in one lot to a place like Brian's Toys and just be done with it, even if it meant that for some items I wouldn't get as much as I could if I sold on eBay. Does anyone know anyone who went that route and if so, what kind of experience they had?