I'm about ready to pull the trigger on liquidating my collection, at least the most valuable parts. It includes the full power 9, and playsets of all dual lands (mix of R/U).
I'm planning on listing them on ebay, is that my best bet? what can i do to alleviate people's concerns about being ripped off.
Unless you have good deal of references on eBay, you will either need to have very good scans and pictures of all the big ticket items and be ready to send pictures and even meet face to face with nearby buyers, or start building the refs by selling some medium valued cards before listing the P9's and other high value cards. This all takes a lot of time and effort, I would aim for over 100 perfect refs from selling before listing any high value items and even that is pretty low, which might end up costing you as people are afraid of fakes and scams. One pretty nice way of proving the cards really are yours, have a picture of the card in question with a piece of paper noting your eBay name and a date when you took the picture. This at least shows that you have access to the card in question. (Some buyers will also ask you to take random pictures of the card with a similar note with random word(s), if they want to see if you really have the card.)
One other idea is to find a reliable active eBay power seller, if you know some, and offer the collection as an consignment, so he sells the cards and takes a sellers fee. That way he does the work and if he is a respected seller, people are much more willing to pay better prices, if they can know that he can be trusted to spot fakes and grading accurately. Well respected sellers like Kid Icarus sometimes do this type of thing. Altough he has last sold graded alpha and Summer cards, where the total value has been closer to (or over) 100k, so comissions are also bit more worth the effort. Usually a good name will increase the visibility of the cards and get much better value from rare items, covering the sellers fees.
Thanks, yeah, I've taken scans, and the pictures as well are a good Idea, I'll probably start off with the lower end stuff ($50 or so and work my way up to the high end items).
I am cashing out the top 1% of my collection next week (around $50k in cards). The vast majority is being sold to a major online store. They're paying around 30% under the going rate in cash.
Total eBay fees per card range from 13-20%. Plus what comes out for shipping and tracking.
The difference is worth it to me to not have to mess with individually listing and managing a thousand auctions, deadbeat buyers, shipping, &c. Also a single sale is easier to work with at tax time when you have to report the income.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
Also consider getting anything over $500 graded. Even if they're beat up, having a PSA or BGS grade on it lends a huge amount of credibility as to it being authentic.
The US equivalent is cardshark.com which has been doing business since 2000. Private sales give better returns but have less protections than other avenues. I am still considering having my high-end cards slabbed and selling them privately since 10% on a P9 is some serious overhead.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
I'm planning on listing them on ebay, is that my best bet? what can i do to alleviate people's concerns about being ripped off.
One other idea is to find a reliable active eBay power seller, if you know some, and offer the collection as an consignment, so he sells the cards and takes a sellers fee. That way he does the work and if he is a respected seller, people are much more willing to pay better prices, if they can know that he can be trusted to spot fakes and grading accurately. Well respected sellers like Kid Icarus sometimes do this type of thing. Altough he has last sold graded alpha and Summer cards, where the total value has been closer to (or over) 100k, so comissions are also bit more worth the effort. Usually a good name will increase the visibility of the cards and get much better value from rare items, covering the sellers fees.
Set to default
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We do not allow solicitation outside of Market Street. - cryogen
Total eBay fees per card range from 13-20%. Plus what comes out for shipping and tracking.
The difference is worth it to me to not have to mess with individually listing and managing a thousand auctions, deadbeat buyers, shipping, &c. Also a single sale is easier to work with at tax time when you have to report the income.
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
B Lover Since '09 ~
Standard:
meh.
Modern:
Urzatron GR
Vintage:
Contol-Slaver UBR
EDH:
Drana B
Jhoira UR
Savra BG
Turned into:
Adun Oakenshield BGR
Sharuum BUW
Turned into:
Memnarch U
KiKi-Jiki R
Turned into:
Godo R
Turned into:
Aurelia RW
The Mimeoplasm UBG
Rasputin Dreamweaver UW
Turned into:
Geist of Saint Traft -French 1v1 UW
Nekusar UBR