Hi all, It has been a while since i have been around these parts... Like many, the real world has lead me to most likely having to part ways with many things i have collected over the years for financial reasons. In the few days i have been browsing ebay and boards like these I am getting the impression that the "market" for selling TF's may be a bit down (a few years ago i was very in touch with the "market" but not so much these days) Anyone care to share their thoughts on the value of TF's now in regards to selling on ebay and forums like these? Is this a horrible time to sell? Will the holidays help? It pains me to have to be looking into this... and it is equally painful to needing to do it for maximum return (as that had nothing to do with my collecting!) Thanks all. -Hoots
it depends on what you have. As a whole however, I don't think right now is the time to liquidate your collection if thats what the plan is. For a maximum return, I'd wait but I don't know what your situation is so waiting might not be an option. Best advice, try selling it here first. Its free and you can just ignore the lowball offers. What do you have anyway? I'd say the Vintage (common) G1 stuff has taken a hit As for ebay... you might make a bit more initially but it all evens out once the bill comes in . Their fees have gone up a lot over the years
imo, TF that came out more modern are worth less not only because they are more recent, but also because that many people are buying them in hopes of one day they end up like G1 vintage and sell. (there are many.) So the supply overall is pretty high on these things. People sometimes get upset at selling things at or below retail prices, I suppose. But I personally am happy if I even make back what I brought them for, at least for certain series. I mean, what more can I ask for? I brought them, played with them, display them, and return them for the same price? that's cool with me.
For now I think I will try to move my 2007 movie collection (which is probably 99% of what was available in the U.S.), some classics and any of the ROTF crap i picked up. Perhaps a few encore's, MP's and Fansproject items as well. I was actually just looking into ebay/paypal and that seems to be about 15% when all said and done... that really sucks... In looking at ebay it seems that I will have some big ticket items (fansproject, premiums and stuff that always holds it value...) and then be hoping to get close to retail for the rest. I will probably put most of the common items on here to save the ebay fees.
As an eBayer, I'd say the market is good for sellers and bad for buyers at the moment. Right now, there seems to be fewer TFs on the aftermarket for some reason. Because of this, sellers are listing their items with a high fixed price under the impression their items are "rare". Some people are paying these prices, so value has gone up considerably for some figures.
Well, if you have MP Thundercracker, you'll be pretty happy with the return . for some reason, he went from 110 to 200 dollars in a few months for some unknown reason. As for the movie stuff... yikes, good luck trying to move that stuff.
Agreed. It's tough to say as a whole how things are going to sell and for how much. It really depends on what it is. Classics-styled figures and "third party" items are gonig to sell high. Movie figures aren't going to move at all.
Pretty much. Everyone wants top dollar for what they have and they want to buy for as close to "free" as possible. If you're willing to negotiate and know how to sell things, you'll be fine getting a decent return. Just don't expect to open a mass-release figure, play with it, draw a sharpie mustache on it, run over it with your truck, and still get what you paid for it back out of it.
I think the eBay tf market has had a bunch of buy it now's because the end price on an auction has been low if it isn't done this way. I put up a MOSC blurr and it sold far under the usual sell price that's been recorded.
would that possibly be people not knowing how to search? I know that certain sellers posts great items at low prices, but their description and title sucks.
I think the second hand market for transformers is down as a whole. Hot items sell quick and for big money but everything else seems to have lost value. (Common G1, alts are a good example). Thats why i put bin or a start price near what i want for it. Otherwise with as many listings as there are on ebay it can be pretty easy for a listing not to receive a lot of views unless its a very hot item. This could be an issue too but there are just a ton of auctions. In the last few years the number of listings have gone up. You have a ton of people trying to part out collections, extras and dealers trying to make a buck. It takes a while just to browse whats there.
I'm actually in the middle of selling my entire G1 collection and I find, on the whole, that there's less demand for the 84-86 range. Mainly due to all the reissues we've gotten I suppose. 6" Titanium however seem to have skyrocketed. Even scratched figures have gone for over £50. Beast Wars/machines I find have never really been in demand and continue to falter. Same seem to goes for RID, most of my collection went for less than half what I paid for it. Also the prices of G2 figures have started slowly rising since the release of the Botcon 2010 figures and Last Stand Of The Wreckers.
If you can hold off, Wait for "Dark of the Moon" to hit the cinemas. There's sure to be a spike then... But in all honesty, I can't see the re-sale prices of newer lines hitting great heights. Where as the vintage/rarer figures will always go for good money, The Trilogy & Bayverse lines have probably already flat-lined. If I were you, I'd definitely recommend selling them through the boards (those ebay fees can really sting you...).
That's what I ended up doing when it undersold. Did a Buy-It-Now with free shipping included. I noticed that all the other sellers were doing Buy-It-Now and assumed that these were scalpers, but I then realized that you had to do it this way, since otherwise it sells for less than what you paid for. It also helps because impulse buyers are willing to pay a little more for getting it now. Unless they are the recent henkei/classics, Fansproject, or hard to find stuff like Fort Max or Sixshot, you're not going to get a lot. The movie rotf figures will not sell at all unless it is super popular.
It's possible, but if you put in "Transformers Blurr", you end up finding the Generations line as well as all the other figures on the list. I made the listing title similar to the ones that actually sold so as to get the best chance of mine selling as well. It might be because Blurr is a "re-deco" of Drift that it didn't quite sell, even though his head sculpt and weapons are different. I remember when I was able to procure a 2nd Drift and it sold for 2x the purchase price without a Buy-It-Now. When I tried selling a new Thrust, it only sold for purchase price. Of course, because of eBay and Paypal, it proved to be a losing proposition.
You still have a pretty good chance of selling your wares on eBay if you priced 'em reasonably. I've been loading some of the extra Energon/Superlink stuffs I'd gotten several years back & I'm glad to say that almost half of those are sold already. Just don't dream of making back 2-3 folds of that dough which you'd put in when you bought the pieces initially because its not gonna happen...at least for most of the pieces. Movie items? Yeah, unless you've LOADS of ROTF Bruticus sets which you'd stocked when they were clearanced then I'll say you're in for BIG TIME.
