The time is rapidly approaching when I have to give some serious thought to disposing of my collection. My collection is almost exclusively comprised of close to 900 sets between 1975 and 2000.
Options available to me seem to number four.
1. Sell the base set along with all inserts as a single entity
2. Sell the base set and then sell the inserts seperately as a set
3. Sell the base set then sell of the inserts individually.
4. Sell in bulk as in "Buy 10 sets and get ten free inserts.

I would appreciate your input and thoughts guys and gals.

Hi btlfannz,

Well, speaking solely as a collector-buyer ( as opposed to a dealer-buyer) I would want to purchase your collection in terms of either #1 or #3. Either the base set plus inserts all at once, or, pick up the inserts that I was missing from sets I already owned.

FYI, I have no experience whatsoever buying or selling cards in bulk, so time for others to chime in.

It depends on how much time you are able to spend doing it, what titles you are holding, and if you have the ability to connect with people who are interested in buying base sets of products you hold. Hate to be vague, but any suggestion is only as good as it pertains to your own situation.

Obviously any bulk selling, assuming you can find someone who will even want to engage in it, is going to be the fastest and least profitable way to get rid of your cards. Don't think a 2 sets for 1 set is going to get you full price on the one set.

It won't. My experience with bulk sales is that it has been a roughly 10 cent - 20 cent on the dollar return, that's at best. That's if someone even wants it at all. The larger the bulk you are trying to sell the harder it is to find one buyer. I have talked to people who acted like they were doing you a favor to take your cards. Needless to say, I have kept my cards in those cases, but I understand that opting for the convenience of a bulk sale means that the buyer has to know he/she can move the merchandise and make a good profit.

So then it also depends on the merchandise. It's not just 900 sets, it's 900 sets of what? Cards can be old and the set is still pricing at $10. Or you might have something that has gone up in value. What do you mean by inserts? Are you talking about just the small insert sets, or large insert sets, or parallel cards, or premium hits?

If I had to express a broad opinion just based on your four choices, I would say that if you can find a buyer for any particular title, try to sell everything you have related to that title together. Try to sell to another collector rather than a dealer, collectors will give you more. If you do have any premium hits, bundle common hits and sell as a unit, sell the better hits individually. You can sell like title sets as a unit, but trying to sell mixed titles together will lose interest. People usually don't want to pay much for a random unconnected jumble just because they like one thing.

And of course it all comes down to access and how you intend to reach possible buyers. Some methods will cost you time and fees, but will get you more money when and if you find the market for what you have.

Although your collection may be very valuable to you, the task of breaking it up can often be very disappointing. I know first hand from selling off a few passing fancies of mine. I made some money on individual high cards, which is why you should try not to let anyone cherry pick your collection or sell anything really expensive as part of the bulk. In terms of what I got overall however, I came nowhere near getting back the money I spent when I took the easy road and sold to a dealer in bulk. I wasn't cheated, it's a business to them.

Just consider how much work and time you are willing to put in. The more you do the more you can potentially get, but see if you can find data on confirmed sales from that auction site to determine if what you are holding is moving and for how much. Do not bother with price guides, you won't get near those prices unless you are doing individual sales yourself. You have to decide if the returns are worth the effort. Don't rush into it unless you have an immediate need for funds. Lots of luck.

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

Other problem - you are in New Zealand. Speaking from experience of breaking up my collection in Australia (since I couldn't take it with me to UK), there is little to no chance of selling your base sets unless they are particularly rare. Basically, the postage costs aren't worth it.

I sold mine off as mini-masters. For many of them, I bundled together multiple related sets (like all the Lord of the Rings, all the Rittenhouse Marvels). I was getting about $10 for the base + relatively common inserts + promos + (sometimes) binder. I stripped out the autographs and higher end inserts and sketches etc and moved them internationally.

I threw out in the cardboard recycling any base sets that were in excess of the mini-masters.

I'd most likely be interested in stuff from your collection. Especially some of those 3 card subsets . Anyway, I'd say go with number 2.

This isn't the best time to sell. I see all kinds of singles (inserts, promos) that used to be in demand being offered for $2-3 and not getting any bidders. I think you might be able to sell some your older base sets but the 1990-2000 ones may be harder to move, but then it does depend on what sets you have. You will have to be realistic as Tangent was saying because some sets aren't worth mailing in relation to what you can get for them.

You might be able to sell even common sets locally (garage sale/flea market) but you need to advertise. Make it known through an ad that you will be selling a card collection at least a week before you have your sale. Don't be too specific. You want card collectors to come and see what's available. They might skip the trip if you don't list exactly what they're looking for but they might buy something on a whim once they are there. Price your cards to sell but give yourself some room to negotiate in case someone wants to buy several sets. In that setting I would price sets and inserts separately, but if someone is interested, be prepared to make an offer to group a set with its inserts at a group price.

As Raven said, it all depends on how much time you want to spend and what you are willing to accept.

quote:

Originally posted by btlfannz:
The time is rapidly approaching when I have to give some serious thought to disposing of my collection. My collection is almost exclusively comprised of close to 900 sets between 1975 and 2000.
Options available to me seem to number four.
1. Sell the base set along with all inserts as a single entity
2. Sell the base set and then sell the inserts seperately as a set
3. Sell the base set then sell of the inserts individually.
4. Sell in bulk as in "Buy 10 sets and get ten free inserts.

I would appreciate your input and thoughts guys and gals.

I'd say to sell them as complete sets (base cards and inserts together) otherwise you wind up with a really piecemeal collection. Let people who only want parts of the set buy the whole thing and then they can deal with the leftovers once they have the bits they want.

Location is everything in business, and your location is tough as shipping is prohibitive, especially on sets.

How about option 5: Sell sets in lots/bulk then sell the singles individually.

But that is VERY time consuming and you'll end up with leftovers.

There's no real perfect answer unfortunately.

Ed

Another thought that has crossed my mind is that after my demise I could leave instruction to my wife(who knows nothing about cards) to post on this forum for someone to help dispose of the collection by offering a 50/50 deal for one of you to sell the sets and she could mail them to whoever buys them. Is that likely to be feasible? If you might be interest in that, then maybe you might like to email me at btlfan@ihug.co.nz
Sean
PS Not that I plan on dying anytime soon but....you never know!!

I would suggest that you contact the Cartophilic Society of New Zealand as they may have some insights and suggestions. You can find them on www.cardcollectors.org.nz. Although they probably have members who collect cigarette cards they might have some experience in how their members dispose of their collections.

regards

John Levitt

Dont be put off selling your collection. I have been selling part of mine over the last couple of months. Yes there is a severe lack of demand but cards do sell eventually.
It doesnt take long to list them on an auction site, just take advantage of the free listings and put a few up each day. Once they are up its a simple button press to relist them.
As well as the money you get the pleasure of knowing most of the cards are going to other genuine collectors.