Advice on Selling a Massive Star Wars Collection

[Scackmgack]

Well, my wife and I just moved into a new condo, and right now my Star Wars collection of 600+ figures and Lord knows how many vehicles and playsets (just about everything from POTF2 through ROTS) is sitting in the guest bedroom, individually-bagged in sandwich bags or packed carefully in large cardboard moving boxes respectively, all catalogued.

I am at a loss as to where I am going to put it all. We bought most of our furniture from IKEA, and they have a shelving line (Ivar) that I could use to probably put together adequate shelving into which I could store most everything I have, but it would cost upwards of a thousand dollars just to get all the cabinets and drawers I would need, and I am not even sure that would contain everything. I might still have to put the larger boxes up top and have to worry about sunlight and dust exposure.

I have recently begun collecting and painting a Warhammer 40K army, and I find myself attracted to the allure of a hobby that feels more mature to me, both because I actually have to assemble and paint it myself and because it involves using the pieces as part of a game rather than having them sit in boxes while I get more pieces, and also because unlike with Star Wars collecting, I can get what I want when I want it, whenever I want it, with no early morning toy runs or ordering online with shipping costs and waiting or through EBay and getting ripped off.

So...I am seriously considering calling it quits and selling the entire Star Wars collection. I have to have at least a couple thousand dollars' worth of stuff, if not more...but the final profit is going to depend a LOT on how I sell it.

I am hoping to get some advice from the fellow collectors whose advice has been so helpful in the past.

Now, some details for your consideration: first and foremost, I am an opener. I am fastidious about keeping boxes and directions for vehicles and playsets, but not so much for deluxe figures. That said, most of my figures are in Near Mint condition, with the rest in Good condition and very few Fair. I would pretty much write off the latter group, but there aren't many of them so no big whup.

I keep the figure cards, and for the red card figures I actually cut out the little "file cards" from the back. I kept all the slides from the green card POTF2 figures that came with them, all the CommTECH chips, etc. You get the idea.

My vehicles and playsets are in equally-good condition, with all parts and directions.

I have very little vintage stuff, just an old-school Imperial Shuttle, AT-AT, and Twin-Pod cloud car, all the Mini Rigs including the Droids Side Gunner, and maybe ten figures at best.

I've got one AFA-graded Nien Numb figure, some of the recent ROTS exclusives, the Celebration III Vader, but I think that is it for "special" stuff.

Now, I know that I have two basic options: sell it on EBay or sell it as a collection to a store. It is the latter option that I have more thoughts on.

I've sold collections on EBay piece by piece before, which garnered me the largest profit but which was also a pain in the patookus and took forever. My fear, though, is that if I sell the Star Wars collection as a single unit, I will get very, very ripped off.

So, first concrete question: how do I accurately price my collection?

Second concrete question: does anyone know of a store/place which offers reasonable prices for entire collections?

After that, the floor is open to whatever general guidance anyone can offer.

I haven't decided for sure what I am going to do, but spending $1,000 just to store the stuff is sounding more and more outrageous to me every day, especially when most of the joy of collecting has been ripped out of the hobby by scalpers and bad assortment choices by Hasbro, and when I could sell it all for at least a couple thousand dollars and pay off a credit card and purchase a Space Marine army for WH40K that would keep me modeling and painting for a year.

So...any thoughts, gentlemen and ladies?

[Kidhuman]

If you want to go Ebay, the best thing to do is sell LOTS. Put a mixture of a few good figs and a few bad figs together to "force" the good ones. You would never sell off the bad ones solo for much money.

Vehicles, playsets and such you can do the same with.

[JON9000]

You could see when a toy fair or convention is coming to town and then rent floor space. You can perhaps get rid of some of your best items there, then move on to ebay to unload the bulk. I am willing to spend a little more at those places, because there is no shipping and I can see the condition of the item directly. I suggest asking $2-$3 for the majority of loose figures.

[Turbowars]

Since it's a loose collection there's only going to be a few figures that will be worth much. I'd do what Kidhuman said and go with e-bay and sell figures is small lots or themes.

[plasticfetish]

If you sell on eBay, you're more than likely going to get next to nothing for your collection. You will have to sell things off in lots, and right now (not hard to believe) there's no shortage of Star wars stuff going for cheap on eBay.

If you're just itching to clear the stuff out, I'd say go for it, otherwise you might think about holding onto it all for a little while longer.

[Kidhuman]

Another thing you can do is offer it up here. Some people need to fill in holes in their collections, so it could help them out.

[Scackmgack]

Thanks for the advice, all. I still have a lot to think about. I LOVE my Star Wars collection - I just wish I had the room I used to have to display them.

My parents offered to store the collection in their attic but the temperature is 110 degrees in the summer and minus-twenty in the winter. Not the most optimum conditions, though I did appreciate their offer and said so.

What kills me is that someday I am going to have a house with a finished basement in which I could make dioramas for all my stuff (something for which my new Warhammer 40k hobby will put me in good stead for per modelling environments for games). I would hate to have to part with everything just because I don't have the space right now.

Storage is really expensive, though.

[plasticfetish]

You know, for pretty much the same reason I've thinned my collection out a bit from time to time. I've lost interest in some things or decided that I don't have enough room to store other things. The good thing is, if you get rid of something, chances are great that you can find it again... but take that into consideration before you start selling things off. If there's anything that's rare or was important at some point (really important) then you might want to just hold on to it.

[Banthaholic]

The past 4 years my collection has been boxed up and unable to be enjoyed. Didn't have the room I'm glad I didn't sell anything off, because having the room to enjoy it made the time with it boxed up worth it. It was crazy I had stuff in every closet in the house, and it was chaos, but in the end worth it.

As Plasticfetish suggested if you do sell off anything think twice about the rare stuff. Not because of the value as much as it would suck to pay alot if 3years form now you decide another go at it. If room is a big thing maybe just keep the figures and sell vehicles or prioritize stuff you know you don't want first and see what happens. If you do sell, sell in lots big enough that you don't have to send 600 figures to 600 different addresses, you'd be going crazy with the ebay fees, stops at the post office and the time involved.

[Turbowars]

The way I look at it, if you are even thinking about selling your whole collection you probably are growing out of it and should get rid of it. Sometime I wish I never got involved. I have so much $ invested and it's really get stupid to by everything. Last year I stopped buy every figure in a wave and just get the ones I want. I have taught myself that I don't need it all, most but not all.

Break up your collection into small lots and thow them up on e-bay with a reserve. Just test the water and see what happens. You call also look up completed auctions and see what people are buying. Also don't list your items when they will close in the middle of the night or real early morning. You want as many people watching as possible.