Best way to turf your collection

[Ground Zero]

I've been giving some serious thought to getting "mostly" out of collecting Transformers. I'm considering selling off most of my collection, keeping only my G1, Reissues and Masterpiece figures.

That being said, I'm not entirely sure what the best route would be to offload several hundred figures. Anyone have any suggestions? I've got figures from every line starting from Beast Machines through to Animated -- including Alternators.

Still debating -- so nothing is yet for sale -- just curious.

[Ground Zero]

I should clarify...

By best I mean "give me the best return from my investment"

[chroma23]

........ebay?

but you will have to pay fees and account for high canadapost shipping costs which may be a dealbreaker for people outside of the country

[herooftheday316]

Hey Groud Zero,

I think this has been covered a few times and from what I read this seems to be the run down:

Most money: eBay: If I were you I don't think I would do a single lot but rather split them off in to lots that contain one or 2 "rare" or "most wanted" pieces. I find that lots that get too big scare of bidders due to the large investment needed. Splinting them up will take more time but I think your return will be greater.

Quickest turn around: Selling complete collections to a place like BBTS or TFSource, you will sell it all at once hassle free but the return on investment won't be as high.

Most rewarding: Selling on the boards. This is freaking time consuming but you will get a LOT of interest and in theory you are selling your prized collection to someone who can/will fully appreciate it. I would say, start with the boards, see how it goes, after a couple of weeks just dump the rest on eBay to get rid of it.

I am sure the other guys will have plenty more opinions on the matter. Good luck with your sale!

-Mike

[Cheers Ian]

eBay won't get you the best return. They take almost a third of the final sale price once the eBay final value fees and paypal fees come out, plus the hassle of trying to ship it all cheaply with tracking numbers (since you don't have a leg to stand on without one if the package goes missing)

I've sold off a huge chunk of my collection in the past year and a half - here's how I did it

Toy Shows: Now this may not be an option in your area, but I've had the best returns selling at toy shows, usually a table will run you $60-120 for the day, but at the bigger shows, I've always made several hundreds of dollars in one day. Plus it's a great way to move your "less desirable" items that maybe are only worth $5-10 and people hesitate to pay shipping on top of it.

Selling on the Boards: Place a sales thread up. I tend to keep mine here on Cybertron.ca since selling within Canada is much easier, you can set your prices and then deal with people directly, no ebay fees and you can avoid/deal with the Paypal fees.

Kijji: I've had a bit of luck selling. Throw a list up with prices and see what happens. I've moved a good bit of stuff through local sales.

[Gaetznes]

I've had extremely good luck with taking pictures and linking it to my Sales/Trade Thread, Vs, just listing the items and price.

You could also do it by lot. Each picture is a lot. or have a minimum purchase of $100, or what ever dollar amount is good for you.

However if you do go the ebay route. You may want to stick to moderate size lots. Like 5 to 10 figures vs all your BW figure in one huge lot. So as previously said, not to scare people away. But to limit the bull of selling one figure here and there. You don't want your time to be eaten up along with your profits.

Also I notive were in the same city, so I wouldn't mind drop some money your way. Seeing as you wouldnt have to do any shipping. If you decided to sell that is.

Either way you go, best of luck.

[Shepp]

Three options.

Option A: Sell it as a lot. You'll save much time and frustration in many little transactions, and You'll be able to get rid of figures that won't be easy sells and lag on forever in your possession. Unfortunately, you'll get less than the other options in return.

Option B: Sell them each individually. While this will take longer, you'll be able to sell many figures for more than what you could by batching them up in a lot. The major downside is that many of the less popular figures will take forever to sell. On top of that, you'll have to deal with many different people, some of whom may decide at the last minute to cancel their sale.

Option C: Sell every individual piece as a separate item. This will get you the maximum money from the collection. But the downsides are that you'll be dealing with even more people, and in the end you may be left with a number of parts that take forever to sell. This is also considered a "dick move" because you're breaking up hard to assemble sets and charging someone 3, 4, maybe 5 instances to finally get a single figure for more than it would cost to get complete.


Personally, I'd go with option A and save so much more of my time and frustration.

[brr-icy]

try selling on the boards for a week or two, but i've had better luck with ebay, but i was selling mostly g1s and a/e/c, always sold individually with "will combine shipping", and posted all at the same time, that way, you get more bids from people that want multiple items, and if it ends on a weekend at like 10:30 PM or so, most people are home, so more snipers as well. selling as a lot, you will not get the most return,

@cheers ian: they actually take 1/3 now? wow, last time i used it, it was only about 10%. if they have upped the fees that much, it might be time for someone to make a cheaper version of ebay, and get it promoted lol

[Mike]

patience will give you the best return

Ebay will definitely get them gone, but you may end up getting half or less then what you'd like for them.

Best bet is to take lots of pictures and post em on boards like this one, or come on down to TFCon in the summer, get a dealer table, you'll have hundreds of people looking at your toys. You can get a lot more sales that way on impulse buys alone, plus you do have all those people who may be looking for specific figures.

[chovner]

Sell it on the boards, it's a lot less work than putting it up on ebay.
Take several pics of 10 tformers in each pic, and then put a list with prices for each one. Then after a few weeks on here if you have stuff still sitting un-sold then put them up on ebay and kijiji.