It's time to sell the collection...

I first opened up this offer to the locals, and they have priority, but I thought I would test the waters out here to see if anyone else might be interested:

After my last jaunt at TempleCon, I have come to terms with the fact that I really won't be playing VTES enough to justify keeping all of these cards around. And I want someone to have them, rather than throw it all in a landfill.

I have no idea how to ship it, especially internationally, but I am looking to sell my collection of somewhere around 30,000 cards.
The collection ranges from Jyhad to Heirs to the Blood, and contains several promos as well. It is currently stored in 3 BCW Card Houses (3x4x800ct cardboard drawer systems)

I do not have a complete list or a precise count at this time.
But if you have any questions, or wish to make an offer, please get in contact with me. Email would be best, jodaff at gmail dot com
You can also often find me on the sorcery.net IRC channel #vtes

Before I realized just how many cards were in my collection, I was thinking of a nice round "10 cents per card" figure -- knowing that some cards are barely worth a penny each but quite a few are worth a few dollars to balance it out -- but I am not sure if $3000 is a reasonable amout of money to expect.
I am willing to entertain any offers that you think are reasonable.

Also, if you do have any knowledge of how to ship large collections (domestically or internationally), I would gladly appreciate information about such things.

For those who know me personally: I will still keep my last few decks, and still show up to play VTES on occasion. I just do not think it makes sense to hold on to my large collection anymore.

Thanks for reading!

I think that you're significantly overpriced.

See also:
This article from 2004

I don't think the market for V:TES has changed enough from 2004 to 2012 to almost triple the value of used cards...

As far as shipping goes, the Priority Mail® Medium Flat Rate Box (free from the post office) ships at the best price, and you can fit ~5,000 cards in it without tipping the max 20 pound limit for international shipment. The Large Flat Rate Box weighs too much when you fill it up with cards, so you can only use it to ship domestically.

These are the same boxes I used to package the Kickstarters , last year.

Adonai wrote:

I think that you're significantly overpriced.

I did not actually quote a price.
I specifically said in my post that the 10-cents-a-card figure is probably unreasonable and I'm looking for someone to make an offer that they feel is reasonable.
I do think, however, that if I took the effort to go onto ebay with individual cards, I probably could eventually get close to the $3000 figure for the cards in my collection that are worth anything at all. There are certainly at least 3000 cards in there that someone would pay at least $1 each for.
But I know to expect a lower number if selling in bulk.

If you were going to buy my collection with only the description I gave, how much would you offer? I certainly won't be insulted by any offer (or estimate) made by someone with such experience in buying/selling singles.

Thanks for the shipping advice; I guess if someone makes an offer for the whole thing and it needs to be shipped, I will have to break the collection up into several flat-rate boxes and factor that shipping cost into the price.
I just thought maybe there was some shipping service I could use that could cut costs even more for the huge volume/weight of 30k cards, but maybe not...

If nobody comes forward with an offer I feel comfortable with, then I might go the route of ebay after all; it's just tedious work, so I might have to hire some "agents" to put up auctions for me (with commission) or something.

Thanks again.

Greyhound would work for delivery in the US.
Any freight forwarder would work as well.
You can't get a quote without full dimensions and shipping weight though.
It is almost always more trouble than it is worth to explore the alternate delivery options. USPS is cheap and predictable.

If I were to consider buying your collection with only the description you gave, I would consider myself fooled. You've already been selling the 'best' rares on e-Bay. This lowers the value of the entire collection. As a reseller, I wouldn't consider the purchase knowing this without an inventory. As a player in a new group, I'd be less concerned about that.

I think that Preston Poulter would get good use out of your collection for his Barbed Wire project, and he has offered 2-3 cents per card in the past.

Have you checked with RickStock? He's probably your best bet for somewhat local delivery.

Adonai wrote:

If I were to consider buying your collection with only the description you gave, I would consider myself fooled. You've already been selling the 'best' rares on e-Bay. This lowers the value of the entire collection. As a reseller, I wouldn't consider the purchase knowing this without an inventory. As a player in a new group, I'd be less concerned about that.

This isn't a completely unfair assessment. Following my ebay history and in the absence of more details, it's a good assumption that the "good rares" are gone.
But, while I have taken advantage of the popularity of some cards on ebay on occasion, I'll reassure anyone reading the thread that I'm too lazy to ebay _everything_ good. I don't even know everything that I have!
(For example, several weeks ago, some Deep Songs fell onto my (clean, safe) floor out of a pile of loose unsorted cards. And I happened to hear that Deep Songs were selling for a fair bit of money around the same time. So I threw them up on ebay and made a few dollars.)
But I assure you that there are still plenty of "good" cards in the collection; certainly enough that, if I took the time to sell them individually, they'd take in significantly more money than I expect to get for the collection in bulk.

It will take me a while to come up with a full inventory, but I can definitely at least answer specific questions about "How many copies of Card X do you have?" in the meantime.

I think that Preston Poulter would get good use out of your collection for his Barbed Wire project, and he has offered 2-3 cents per card in the past.

Have you checked with RickStock? He's probably your best bet for somewhat local delivery.

Depending on how things go in this attempt to sell the collection in bulk, both of these are definitely options. Thank you.

Hey Joz,

If you find that it's not possible to move the common collection for money, the Indianapolis playgroup would be happy to get your crappy cards, since we distribute them to players here. We're always on the lookout for every card, even tortured confessions and mighty grapple.

Think about us. We'd probably be willing to spring for the flat-rate shipping to get a box of cards that most people think is junk and let new players paw through it.

Some of us even like you.