OT: Is ebay worth it? Selling old DnD stuff

[Cithindril]

Ebay and DnD

I've bought quite a lot of RPG material on Ebay and second the suggestions above. The only other advice I can give a seller to avoid getting into a bidding war is this: don't bid on an item until the end of the auction. Put it on your watch list, note the closeout time and decide what you're willing to pay for it (to include the shipping charge). Come back at the end of the auction (last 20 seconds or so) and put down one bid for your max value. If you're the high bidder, great! No one else will be able to come in and outbid you. If you're not, no problem. You already decided you didn't want to pay more than your max anyway. The nice thing about Ebay is that you'll always see a similar item eventually if you lose...

 

[grodog]

The Acaeum boards at http://www.acaeum.com/phpBB2/index.php are a great way to get some good advice about what to sell, what not to, how much you'll get, and you're also likely to get good offers for your more collectible items there. Well-worth checking out

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Hi-

ya I remember those days. personally, I'm a pack rat by nature, so I just cant let go of all my old stuff.

Anyway, I see this auction and it makes me wonder, is it 400 bucks of crap?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2544&item=5913922846&rd=1

has anyone else taken a chance on such an auction?

thanks

Scott

I wouldn't.

1) I don't have $120 to spare.

2) No description of what I'd be getting until the box showed up.

3) If I'm forking out that kind of dough, I'd BETTER know what I'm getting for it.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

I never have sold on eBay

I've sold stuff on ebay. It's a hit or miss market there. Sometimes you may have to relist stuff to get it to sell the second time around.

You'd probably get more than trading the books to a local bookstore/game store.

 

[synecdoche]

Hey all,

I am thinking about selling off my old 1E and 2E materials. I have not made the final decision as yet, but I wanted your opinion.

Has anyone used ebay to sell DnD stuff?
Did you get good prices?

I have hundreds of books, boxed sets, and adventures. This stuff is near and dear to me, but I am getting married in around a year and I need to make room and have money to help pay for the honeymoon etc.

What do you all think?

Dave

I've done pretty well selling on e-bay, but I don't do it often. The best sales I've made have been things I've picked up at used book shops around here that are selling for next to nothing (presumably because the shop owner has no clue about how much they might be worth) which I've sold for a neat profit (ie paid around $2 for something, then sold it for $10).

The only thing that I bought new and sold there was the MERP book, and I made a profit on that, too. I think I paid around $30 (CDN) for it, and sold it for $35 (US).

 

[ephemeron]

IME, as recently as 1999, you used to get much better prices on Ebay - prior to the announcement of the WotC ESD program when E-bay was the ONLY way to find the information/books you were looking for. Now that people can pay $5 for an electronic copy, the demand seems to have abated significantly.

I hadn't even thought about ESD's as a factor -- I'd just figured that the dot-com boom and bust had caused a temporary spike in eBay prices for gaming stuff, as lots of geek-types saw their income rise and then fall precipitously.

Regardless of how it got that way, eBay is definitely a buyer's market now. Four years ago, I sold off my 1e books on eBay. This summer, I happened across an opportunity for some gaming nostalgia and replaced my PHB, DMG, MM, FF, and MM2 -- eBay again -- for a total of $22 plus shipping. In 2000, I'd gotten around $35 for my Manual of the Planes and averaged close to $10 each for other books.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

Hi-

I agree, for D&D it really is a buyers market, but let me tell you, Wargames, those go for some nice prices, especially advanced squad leader items.

Scott

 

[Krieg]

Thanks for all the helpful advice! Too bad EnWorld does not have their own version of an auction or place to sell used materials. It would be very helpful to have a place to sell DnD stuff to DnD players.

Dave

You mean like this...

http://www.enworld.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=54


?

 

[frankthedm]

Anyway, I see this auction and it makes me wonder, is it 400 bucks of crap?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2544&item=5913922846&rd=1

has anyone else taken a chance on such an auction?

Yes and he got burned
This seller looks like a ripper! I paied $300+ a mounth ago and got nothing! Buyer;zidwig--Apr-19-04 08:50 -item 3180999777

That seller has a LOT of negative feedback plus;

PLEASE NOTE..We will not be contacting you at the end of this auction; THIS IS YOUR INVOICE. Payment may be made through paypal to the address jef@iserv.net or by check or money order (no cash) to: The Outpost, 4301 Kalamazoo Ave Suite 5, Grand Rapids Michigan 49508. Payment is anticipated within 14 days of auction's close..we reserve the right to re-sell any auctions not paid for within that time, and any payments recieved after 14 days will be transferred to an eqal amount of store credit. Please include the auction name and number with your payment.

Late mail will let them rip you off with store credit.

 

[pogre]

You mean like this...

http://www.enworld.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=54


?

I almost made the same post Krieg, but look at the date on the post where the question is posed. I think it may predate the forum you are directing him to.

Back on topic - I love ebay. I use it constantly, but I'm not sure what people find a hassle about it. Folks are generally correct about the RPG market there right now, but packaged correctly it will still beat almost any other outlet. Good luck.