[OT] How to dispose of a collection?

[Heretic Apostate]

Probably this thread will be moved, but it's more advice-oriented, rather than trying to sell anything. Thus, I'm hoping it can stay in general discussion, rather than being locked.

Okay, here's the deal. I have a large collection (I put the list in Word, and it came to 15 pages, single-space; of course, there's lots of carriage returns, but there's also lots of "this & this & this" lines). I can't afford to keep up with d20. I need money to pay bills. If I don't sell everything (excepting maybe the core 3 books), I'll always have the temptation to start over again.

So, I have to sell everything. What are my options? I don't want to break up the collection into a bunch of small lots (2-3 items), because that's just too much trouble. I definitely don't want to sell by individual item, because then I'll lose all the good stuff, and be stuck with the leftovers. I'd prefer to sell it all at once, but the only guy I know locally who bought this stuff has gone out of business.

So, what do I do? We're talking about maybe 16-18 full document boxes, with piles covering another five square feet of floor space. (I rent only a single room, so right now I only have space to walk to and from my bed.) That's a lot of gaming material, and it's going to take a lot of shipping, if I can't find someone local enough to come pick it all up. (And if someone DOES buy it locally, it's going to take a pickup or a U-Haul.) How would I go about ensuring payment? I definitely don't want to take a check.... Maybe PayPal, you think? Or money order or cashier's check?

Do people buy mass quantities of gaming material, sight unseen? I don't want it being picked over, as I stated above. I want it gone, gone, gone. And what is the going average rate for used material, assuming fair-to-good condition? I'm guessing $0.30 to $0.40 to the dollar, since I'm probably only going to be selling to a reseller who will be adding their own markup.

So, regale me with advice. If I can't game (haven't gamed in 9 years), and I can't even find a table to sit at (haven't sat in on a game in 4 years), there are things I can spend this money on even better. Car loans, student loans, maybe being able to rent an actual apartment (instead of a one-room with bathroom/kitchen priviledges).

Thanks!

 

[Mouseferatu]

To the best of my knowledge, nobody buys gaming material in bulk, sight unseen. Frankly, I don't blame them. You never know what you're going to wind up with.

If you actually find someone who does, you're going to get a crappy deal. My local gaming store won't buy gaming stuff in bulk, but they will buy bulk comic book collections--for 25 cents per pound.

Sorry, but I don't see any way around it. You're going to have to let people pick through it and buy what they want, or else sell the whole thing for pennies. You can try something like e-bay, of course, but again, for an entire collection, I don't know how high the bids are likely to go. You could probably make more buy selling them individually, even if you had some leftover.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Bump

Getting lots of views. Now, let's see if I can get those keyboards tapping.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Crud....

Then does anyone know of good online dealers? I've bought from Titan Games before, but I think Quentin Koziol got bought out.

Who has sold to dealers before?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Well, I know even less about online dealers than I do about storefronts, so keep in mind that I could be wrong...

But I'd guess that you're even less likely to find an online dealer to take the collection in bulk than you are to find a storefront. After all, at the store they can at least thumb through the boxes and decide, based on content and quality, if they really want it. With an online dealer, you're asking them to shell out money for boxes of stuff that they may or may not be able to sell at all. Some people are willing to do that--that's why I suggested E-bay--but most professionals won't.

Sorry.

 

[Mouseferatu]

You know, if you do decide to sell the collection piecemeal--which I still think is your best bet--you might want to see if you can get yourself some free web space and put up a list of books and asking prices. I'm sure you'd get a good bit of interest from the folks here if you linked to it; I know I wouldn't mind looking it over, although I can't promise anything. And even if you didn't sell the whole collection, you'd get something.

Unless you have something very old or very rare, though, I wouldn't count on getting more than half cover price, at most on any specific item, and that's if you're lucky. Still, it can add up...

 

[Mistwell]

The way I see it, you have two major options:

1) Sell it bulk on e-bay, and include some mass pictures. Yes, shipping is a pain. But it is doable, and you will get a decent price (and possibly an excellent price) from someone looking to buy a collection. For example, see http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1726775169

2) Sell it piecemeal, and open an online shop to do it. There are several freeware web shops out there. For example, http://www.comicverse.com is a good example of a comic book shop on line, home made by a collector, which would work just as well for games. It was made with http://www.theexchangeproject.org/ which is an open source code. If you can't set it up, I know people who can for a relatively small fee. You can also sell the same items in your store on ebay at the same time, and just remove them from the store once they get a bid on ebay. While this is a lot more work, it will also probably make more money than selling it as a lot, and it is easier to ship things piecemeal over time (and you get a small fee for the shipping & handling).

 

[Heretic Apostate]

I've sent an email to Noble Knight, to see what an approximate price range is for an item I know the value of (Complete Book of Necromancers). If, as is likely, the price offered is too low, I'll just have to figure something else out.

 

[ThomasBJJ]

Well, I live in Los Angeles, CA. But I'm leaving tomorrow to go to San Jose, and will be in San Francisco in a week or two. That's only about 45 miles or so from you. If you want to send me a list of what you have, I might be willing to take it off your hands. And I'll have a huge cargo van (work truck).

Thomasbjj@hotmail.com

 

[Mark]

Sell it all to ThomasBJJ.

HA- She got to you, eh? Good luck with that.