Best method to sell off entire collection?

kingraider75

I "may" have to sell off my entire collection. What is the best method? Is it best to try to sell everything together at store, show, etc or piecemail on ebay?

ToppsCo1lector

eBay. Simply, your items will be seen by so many more people.

Stone193

Also King

Just out of curiosity - how much time will you have to dispose of your collection?

If one is looking for quick cash and no hassles and doesn't mind taking less - then selling the entire collection to an ethical dealer wouldn't be unheard of.

But, unfortunately the whole is not equal to sum of the parts.

mike

edit: my manners are in low gear this evening - I wish you all the best and hope everything turns out OK so you don't have to sell. But if you do - I too echo what Griffins said - if you don't have the ebay saavy or time - Zardoz and Qualitycards are superb! I'll bet my life on that!

BigRedMachine

Tim,

First off, hope everything is okay.

Second, I think eBay is a good route but if you must sell your collection as one lot, I don't know if I like it. And piecing items out one by one on Ebay might bring the most money, but is extremely time consuming.

Do you have a dealer or friend you trust to give you a fair amount of money??

I wouldn't know where to start if I had to sell my entire collection. I just think people expect a "deal" when buying large lots, hoping to turn them over and selling individually for a profit, perhaps even after taking out cards they would like. So selling individually is surely more profitable, but I don't know your time constraints.

All the best.

shawn

Griffins

Depends on what you have, how much time til you need the money, and what your expectations are.

If it's super high end stuff, pre WW2, Mastro would be a good bet, or Goodwin.
If it's '50's- 70's graded, and you have time and energy to do it yourself, an ebay store is a great way. Put a price you're happy with on each item and wait for $$ to roll in.
If you don't have time or energy to sell it yourself consign it to an established, ethical dealer. I'd recommend Paul Moss (zardoz51 on ebay) or Jay Wolt at Quality Cards Both are honest and have excellent reputations in the hobby that will translate to more bids.
Best of luck, hope everything is OK.

storm888

Griffins' idea about consignment is a good one.

If you have an eBay ID with 100+/- FB, you can
get a lot more money, usually, by doing it yourself.
It is a lot of work though. Even with Turbo-Lister,
it takes many hours to build a store that will get
the job done.

The decision depends mostly on what you have and
how quickly you want to have the cash. If you have nice
stuff and a little time, I would go the eBay store route,
and list a few at auction to get more folks into your
store.

If you are in a hurry, consignment is probably a good
idea. I think most folks take +/- 20% for listing stuff.

Definitely, try not to sell the whole thing as "one lot."
You will almost certainly lose money.

Good Luck !

storm

theczar

depending on the quality of your collection a lot of auction house have 0% sellers fees if it is decent value. someone mentioned goodwin and mastronet. they are both good. i had great success last month consigning to Mile High.

good luck. selling off a collection would a last resort for me.

RichG

If you have the time to sell each item piece by piece (and lots for smaller end items), this would be the best route to take. Heck, look at the thread regarding how poorly the guy living in California did by selling his whole store/inventory on ebay in one big auction.
Rich

earlycalguy

I would spend $5 on a buy it now price at what you want for the collection. if it doesn't sell you're out a few dollars.

QUIK

Good luck hope you dont have to sell but if you do its just stuff and it could all be bought back probably cheaper!

kingraider75

Thanks for the comments folks. I don't owe the mob money or anything that sensational, just life circumstances making hanging onto a lot of $$$$$ in "street value/ebay value" worth of cards difficult. I have a pretty diverse collections, 50's, 60's through 80's junk, to today's auto and serial #'s SP's. I even have a ton of non-sports stuff that probably is worth a decent chunk.

It would take forever to sell my entire collection on Ebay. I guess if Nicolas Cage can sell all his comics, I could sell my cards. Hopefully, I can find a better method, but then again most of them just sit there on the bookshelf.

Now, if I see ya at the National, then you know that I found a way to keep collecting.