Check out item #321227221295 you know where.
I wish I could afford it.

At $583 per box (average) they are ludicrously over priced. If you couldn't buy them individually for less that $150 a box (average) (i.e.$6300) I would be amazed. Still, as the saying goes fools and their money...etc, etc

Seems to me that an average of $583 per box is quite reasonable. I don't think I've ever seem an Archive box go for as low as $150 for a sealed box. You can call me a fool if you want, but if I could get Archive boxes for $150, I'd be buying them. Heck, I'd even pay double that at $300 per box...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tiggerhouse,

quote:

Originally posted by tiggerhouse:
Seems to me that an average of $583 per box is quite reasonable. I don't think I've ever seem an Archive box go for as low as $150 for a sealed box. You can call me a fool if you want, but if I could get Archive boxes for $150, I'd be buying them...

That's what I thought. It seems really cheap at $583 a box. Most of them would sell individually in the $1,500 range. Sure, there are a few that would only sell for $500-$600, but even at that you are still only into them for $583. Seems like a great deal.

I agree. Most if not all of these boxes go for considerably more than $583.

I do think it may be difficult to find someone who is interested in all of the various titles and genres. And it is also a large sum of money to come up with, so it may be a hard item to sell as a collection. I probably would have listed the boxes individually.

But it is a mighty fine collection as Roswellian indicates.

Maybe btlfannz you thought these were regular boxes and didn't realize they were archive boxes?

How does someone have that many Archive boxes without opening them. I could not resist (resistance is futile).

well if there is a virtually guaranteed profit to be made at this price we will soon know as a dealer will snap it up but I assume it is a big dealer who is selling it.

I saw this. Man, if I only had that kind of cash, I would snap it up. This is a collection you dream about.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
well if there is a virtually guaranteed profit to be made at this price we will soon know as a dealer will snap it up but I assume it is a big dealer who is selling it.

Surely I dealer would not be able to have that much cash tied up in stock?

It is going to difficult to find anyone prepared to invest that much in one transaction. The seller would probably be better advised to sell the Archive Boxes individually.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
Maybe btlfannz you thought these were regular boxes and didn't realize they were archive boxes?

Yes, you are quite right, I did not appreciate that they were archive boxes. If they were ordinary retail boxes the price would most certainly be in the $150 range.
It does beg the question though that even if you had that kind of money it's not really collecting is it? It's just buying a collection 'cos you can!

Well this is one on those cases where you really have to look at the whole picture. So far no one has put a bid down at $24,500, yet many people here say its a great buy and would do it if they had the money. But would they really?

The seller wants to sell this as a package deal. If it is such a good buy, why not get more money by putting them up individually? So maybe he needs it fast you say, but its just as fast for 42 same day auctions as one. Obviously at least the seller thinks it not worth more to him and he would not get that $583 average on the titles he has.

As for the package itself, the majority of the boxes are related to Star Trek, Star Gate, Battlestar Galactica and Xena (28 out of 42) and 3 Bonds. If you are a collector and love these titles you probably have a good portion of these sets already. So you will fill in your holes, but you will also be buying many doubles that you really don't need, while laying out a big chuck of money. Are you going to try to sell the duplicates as individuals? It doesn't pay unless you need and want to keep most of these cards.

If you think its a good investment, remember that the current owner has chosen this way to unload them. What does he know that you don't?

I would love to come across one archive box of anything just for the heck of it, but I wouldn't buy 42 of them even if I could. I like the Bonds here and maybe one of the Star Treks, that's about it. I don't think this deal is that good, or it never would be offered this way.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
The seller wants to sell this as a package deal. If it is such a good buy, why not get more money by putting them up individually? So maybe he needs it fast you say, but its just as fast for 42 same day auctions as one. Obviously at least the seller thinks it not worth more to him and he would not get that $583 average on the titles he has.

As for the package itself, the majority of the boxes are related to Star Trek, Star Gate, Battlestar Galactica and Xena (28 out of 42) and 3 Bonds. If you are a collector and love these titles you probably have a good portion of these sets already. So you will fill in your holes, but you will also be buying many doubles that you really don't need, while laying out a big chuck of money. Are you going to try to sell the duplicates as individuals? It doesn't pay unless you need and want to keep most of these cards.

Lot sale is one way of selling your unwanted items or least liked items, and at a reasonable value too. I'm betting the buyer will just re-sell some of the archive boxes untouched for maximum value.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Well this is one on those cases where you really have to look at the whole picture. So far no one has put a bid down at $24,500, yet many people here say its a great buy and would do it if they had the money. But would they really?

Since I have never really been able to buy a full case and at most I have ever purchased for myself is 4 boxes of a product, if I won lottery style money, then I would. However, that is never going to happen but it is nice to dream.

I agree it's overpriced. Modern archive boxes go for more money because there's 40 autograph cards of which 10 are extremely limited, or 25 sketches with some panels etc. These are mostly much less desirable older archive boxes - Batman, Xena and Highlander are in the 250 or 300 range and stargate maybe 400 etc. Not sure about the Trek and Bonds, but it seems that there's little margin for resale, particularly after you lose shipping, eBay, paypal fees.

It sure would be nice to have though

It's actually not that overpriced. Nearly all the star trek and stargate archive boxes are worth more than the average price, and in some cases signficantly more. The BSG (new series) would also probably be worth more. It's still not a good deal though as when you buy in bulk like that you're expecting to get a good discount on the items.

I posted this on blowout but I will post it here too. Honestly, this is not a good deal

So I went through the entire list of 42 boxes, and I spent about 4 hours on terapeak this morning looking up sold prices on all of them over the last year. If I couldn't find an archive box, I looked for a master set, and if neither existed then I looked up the higher selling cards from the sets to estimate what the archive box would sell for.

I made him an offer of $20,000 of them all and to be honest even at that price it isn't the best deal. On the LOW end of completed sales an estimates I came up with roughly $24,500 in value, and on the HIGH end of completed sales and estimates I came up with $29,000. Factor in fees and on the low end you are just about break even, even at my $20,000 offer. There MIGHT be more money to be made in breaking a few key ones up and selling singles, but again, thats more work and more time.

I looked at it, too. I would characterize it as a good deal for collectors who intend to keep all of the cards (and have 24K+ to spend!) but only a so-so deal for flippers due to all of the work involved in re-selling that many cards.

That said, I'm pretty sure one could buy the lot, sell that which they don't collect and be pretty happy with what they were left with in terms of remaining cards they got to keep and the amount of money not recouped from the original purchase price. That's pretty much how I've been able to build my own collection on the cheap, although in series of much smaller deals over the years.

But if you just wanted to build an instant and pretty amazing collection and had the 24K, there are a lot less effective ways to spend it than on this lot. I'm personally not a fan of BSG, Star Trek Enterprise, James Bond, and Farscape. If this lot had more of the stuff I like in it, I might've actually taken the leap, but it's too large and unwieldy as it is.

I get that the seller wants to sell it all at once, but really, listing it as two 12k auctions, three 8k auctions, or four 6k auctions would more than likely get them their asking price with not all that much more work. (Plus each buyer would get the $100 in Ebay bucks, a nice incentive that would cost the seller nothing. As it is now, the buyer would only get $100 in ebay buck even after spending 24K, since the reward amount is capped at $100 per transaction. The all of nothing method of selling these results a lost opportunity to sweeten the deal for buyers where Ebay bucks are concerned.

What I don't understand about that auction is why not just break it up and sell them individually? A lot of those boxes are completely unrelated to each other which makes it much more difficult to sell. Selling individually you may end up making more than your "Buy It Now" price and it's not like you'll have 1000 auctions. It's 42. I've ran more than 42 auctions in a week a few times (which were mostly vintage glass, ceramic, and porcelain) and had to do far more extensive packing and wrapping for far less money. It's not like these are 99 cent items you're trying to bundle together here. Maybe it's just laziness.

Since I saw this auction in other forum. I'm watching it. Originally was asking $25K. After some relisting then to $24500. The last thing was the free S&H for the USA and USA Territories (Domestic Shipping). And the disclaimer about people offering for specific boxes.

Also some members said that they contact the seller. One said that offer $20K. The seller doesn't accepted.

The price isn't bad as price value, but for starting an auction is difficult to go with it. I just believe the seller isn't really interesting to sell. Maybe he is just proving to someone that can put to sale an important belonging.