So I've decided that it's time to sell off the collection. I have a house I may be buying and I'm going to have my school loans due next year when school ends. I just need to get bills paid off and establish some savings before these extras hit. I've always enjoyed collecting, but it's proving to be too costly and out of all my hobbies, I can do without this one. I've already contacted a few sites (BBTS and transformerland.com) but haven't heard back from them. Being that I'm a regular customer with them I'm hoping they can give me an idea of how to do this without sending in the toys then waiting for an offer I may not like. Has anyone here ever sold in bulk like this? How was the process? Did the buyer cover the high shipping costs? What about those who have sent in their collections to be evaluated - what if you didn't like the offer? And please, do not reply that I need to sell off pieces individually and I'll get more money that way. I realize this, but I'm looking at ease of seperation here, not suggestions on how I should sell. Thanks. EDIT: Please STOP PMing me making offers! If I was selling off my toys to individuals I'd have them listed here - and if I decide not to sell the collection in bulk that's what I'll do. Unless you make an offer on my entire collection, I'm not interested. Any PM inquiring or making an offer on individual toys will be ignored. This is information gathering for me, not a sale (mods, feel free to move if you need to). Thanks for understanding.
I've never done it myself but from what i understand with BBTS at least, you email them and say "yo, I've got all this stuff to sell" - they give you an offer and you haggle. You can accept or not. Also, you have to pay the shipping to them.
I can say that if you sell it to BBTS YOU will pay the shipping costs. And unless you're looking for store credit [which you're not], the offer will probably suck. What exactly are you selling, though? A "collection" may be anything from 5 figures to entire lines. From the context of your post I'd guess a pretty large sum of figures.
There's a link to my collection under my sig - it's a decent collection, nothing too outrageous, IMO. But when you add boxes to almost everything it's going to be quite large.
PM sent for... just kidding. Nevertheless, I do foresee you getting a decent amount on anything below the top shelf and for the boxed figures on that shelf.
Well, I doubt I'll get that much - most of my collection are reissues. I may take the time to research some of the higher priced figures though - as far as what they are going for online - and seeing how much I could expect. That would also give me an idea of what constitutes a decent offer. I'm in no hurry for this - my goal is to have them all gone by th end of this year. So this is just one part of my research process.
I sold a huge lot of reissues to BBTS and I got a great deal I think. Something like $500+ and I brought it with me to botcon and handed it off to them directly. It was awesome
Good luck. Two drawbacks with BBTS: 1) Since you are getting out of the hobby, you'll be settling for their cash offer. You're going to get less cash than you would store credit. Probably 70% of the trade in value. 2) Shipping is going to be a bitch. Looking at all your figures, it'll probably take multiple boxes and you'll have the foot the whole bill yourself.
As I already stated, this posting isn't about recommendations how to sell my collection - I'm looking for advice on bulk sales from those who have some knowledge and/or experience. I work two jobs and am going to school for my masters degree. I can't mess with daily/weekly trips to the post office, buying all the packing supplies, and going back and forth between PMs here and paypal. It's just not in the cards right now. On top of that, individual sales mean researching selling prices - which is more time to spend. I have until the end of the year so if it comes to individual sales then so be it - but it's not happening right now.
Again, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - stop PMing me with offers for individual items. I'm not selling them in that manner right now! That is why you're PMs are being ignored so don't ask why I'm not answering. It clearly states on my initial posting that those types of PMs not going to get a response. Only one PM has been answered, and he wanted to know about the entire collection. The rest are deleted and won't be answered.
Well instead of selling to a reseller why not offer them here on the boards in bulk. You might be able to get a higher offer and the buyer will pay the shipping. The other alternative I would have for you would be to sell on your local craigslist. Post an add and either post your collection pics or link back to your thread here. That way there's no shipping and you can haggle face to face if it comes to that.
That's another alternative I've considered (the boards, not CL...yet). I've had a few asking about conditions and boxes, etc. so it may come to that. I'm just doing research right now, seeing what is offerred.
If anyone is interested in the collection, as a whole, I've updated my collection photos/listing to include completeness and missing parts on figures. The link to it is below my sig.
