Toy Collections and EBay

[Sinscia Fat'o]

Recently I've noticed that my toy collection has gotten out of control.
Well it's not a recent thing, but a my entire life since i was one thing...
I've been collecting toys since well i don't recall. I have a very large collection of loose and carded toys from the 80's till today, and with my intrest going away from the mass part of the hobby and to carded figures from the "Vintage" years, and to Star Wars both modern and vintage...I want to get rid of my collection.

I talked to one of my friends whose a power seller of stuff on E-Bay and he suggested that, is that a good move? Has any one had any EXP. with doing this and if you had do you have any advice?

[Kidhuman]

Sell stuff in lots. Toss in a rare piece or a HTF piece in a lot of weaker figures to moe them
Best way to recoup some of the money on the weaker stuff. Example: Ephant Mon, Mon Mothma lot(something like that for the other toy lines)

[stillakid]

Maybe group them into "scenes." So have a "Complete Hoth Set" that has all of the figures, vehicles, accessories, and playsets from Hoth. Same for all the other planets, scenes, sequences, all McQuarries, all "concepts", all "mail aways", etc. It makes it more interesting for new collectors and infinitely easier for people to find those pieces they're looking for even if they already have much of what is in each set. And yes, you could toss in a hard-to-find or exclusive figure into each set as the bait.

Otherwise, if you do it on a piece by piece basis, it'll take you absolutely forever to list them all and you'll likely never unload most of it.

[TheRealDubya]

Sell stuff in lots. Toss in a rare piece or a HTF piece in a lot of weaker figures to moe them
Best way to recoup some of the money on the weaker stuff. Example: Ephant Mon, Mon Mothma lot(something like that for the other toy lines)

Lots, lots, lots. That's the way to do it.

[fyifoff]

I sold loose 12 gie joe, and star wars figures by themselves, and placed the loose star wars micros together as best I could then "grouped" the rest I scored all this in a storage unit and didn't want it and I rolled in big $$$$!!

PS: I only collect carded stuff. (minus my old childhood stuff)

oh I almost forgot the simpons action figures loose, they all sold.

List it in the right area, look at was is selling, spell it right, list it to end after 5 pm est; this gets west coast office works and europe buys.

[JON9000]

I sold my modern collection on ebay piece by piece, and I wouldn't do it any other way. Here are the advantages:

1. Collectors want to complete their collections, not wind up with a bunch of stuff they don't need.

2. Giving a carded figure a $3.99 ship cost means you'll recoup at least a little from even the lamest figures, 1995-1999 POTF2.

3. big lots means a higher per auction payout, but ultimately less per figure, because there are folks who have $3 to throwaway on a random fig they need, but may not have $150 to get a big group of figs/vehicles.

Here is how I ran my auctions:

1. Individual figures 1995 to 2003 need to be priced to move. The market is saturated with these, and demand is low in light of the recent improvements, so you will NEVER get your money back out. Price 'em at $.99 a pop and let the market decide. Sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised, other times you'll have to let them go low.

2. Always offer some sort of combined shipping. I used to ship a carded fig for $3.99 + $2 for every additional, a loose fig for $2.99 + $1 for every additional. People are not going to pay $6.99 for shipping. Use bubble envelopes for loose figs.

3. Save your vehicles for Christmastime. Vehicles can sometimes get double around the holidays. Be sure to take good pictures and always state in BIG LETTERS that the item is scaled for use with 4 inch figures.

4. Run 20 auctions concurrently if you can. You'd be surprised how much buyers use the "see my other items" button. It drives traffic to your auctions.

5. Always end around 8pm on Sat or Sun night.

I sold almost all my modern toys this way, and came away with 3 thousand. If I had sold in lots, I would have been lucky to get a grand.

Whatever you have left over after attempting to sell on ebay you can bundle for Craigslist.

Oh, and sell your lamest stuff first to build up a feedback rep. nobody's gonna give $150 to a guy with no feedback.