How do you sell a whole collection?

So, let's say you are, hypothetically, a veteran player of the game with a substantially-sized collection. Let's say that you are reaching the point where you wish to "sell your collection," but:
a) shipping charges of a whole-collection sale seem like they would be prohibitively high outside of a "drive to my house and pick it up" radius, and you are not interested in shipping the whole thing overseas.
b) you do not have the patience, energy, time, or skill to split up the entire collection into bite-sized chunks for ebay (particularly for the run-of-the-mill rarity cards that might be desirable as part of a package, but not on their own). You could sell "just the obvious good stuff" on ebay, but then you are concerned that there would be nothing remaining in the collection that anyone would want.

You are, hypothetically, not interested in making a huge profit, and would be willing to sell the collection for a reasonably low price.

Assume, for a moment, that no player in your local group is interested in a wholesale purchase of your cards.

What would you do, in this hypothetical situation, to sell your collection?

Let's say, hypothetically, that you are the veteran player and that I, hypothetically, wanted to attempt to answer you.

Why not just let the buyer pay for shipping? Of course, if it gets really high you might not actually get a sale (or at least not for as high a price as you might get otherwise), but that would just leave you in the same position as you are in now. Also, why is overseas such a horrible thing? Sure, it adds a cost - but often we "overseas" people are quite aware of this and don't really take offense.

jozxyqk wrote:

So, let's say you are, hypothetically, a veteran player of the game with a substantially-sized collection. Let's say that you are reaching the point where you wish to "sell your collection," but:
a) shipping charges of a whole-collection sale seem like they would be prohibitively high outside of a "drive to my house and pick it up" radius, and you are not interested in shipping the whole thing overseas.
b) you do not have the patience, energy, time, or skill to split up the entire collection into bite-sized chunks for ebay (particularly for the run-of-the-mill rarity cards that might be desirable as part of a package, but not on their own). You could sell "just the obvious good stuff" on ebay, but then you are concerned that there would be nothing remaining in the collection that anyone would want.

You are, hypothetically, not interested in making a huge profit, and would be willing to sell the collection for a reasonably low price.

Assume, for a moment, that no player in your local group is interested in a wholesale purchase of your cards.

What would you do, in this hypothetical situation, to sell your collection?

I'd first have to determine if they were in my driving range or if they were COMPLETELY UNWILLING to mail me their cards if I wasn't. If they weren't, then I wouldn't want to waste any more time on them, obviously.

I'd ask them how many 5000ct (or whatever-count) boxes they had, so I could estimate the total amount of cards that they had; I'd ask them what set they started with and if they managed to get anything before that, since that'd tell me what sets they are missing; I'd want to know if they remembered what sets they got more of and less of, since some sets are worth far more than others and that'd give me a better idea of their collection's value; I'd want to know if they ever sold cards on eBay, since that'd tell me that some, if not most, of the choice cards have already been removed and that'd give me a better idea of their collection's value.

If they seemed reasonable and friendly, I'd ask them if they could go through and look for, say, a dozen cards that would give me some kind of validation of everything they had told me previously.

Then I'd make them some kind of offer, I suppose.


Kevin M., Prince of Las Vegas
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you shall never be in peril." -- Sun Tzu, *The Art of War*
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Kevin, I think you just answered the opposite question, from a buyer's perspective. The question was asked from a seller's perspective. I know you actually have quite a bit of experience in that regard, so I'm interested in your feedback.
Unless you are offering to buy a collection. In which case contact me privately.

wastaz, unless I'm using a shipping calculator I shouldn't, it seems like a collection of size 25000-ish cards would cost hundreds of dollars just in shipping. That seems like it would deter overseas buyers. On the other hand, overseas players have paid some insane amounts of money for individual cards on ebay as well (and the extra $10 for priority shipping a single piece of cardboard). So maybe I'm overthinking that.
The fact of the matter is also that the hypothetical seller is lazy. It would be best if someone drove up to the house with a check and a car, and drove away with the cards, without involving weighing the package, buying appropriate boxes, dragging them to the post office or UPS store, etc.
For the right price, of course, the hypothetical seller is willing to get off his theoretical ass, though.

What you really need is a way to ship a lot of weight cheaply; access to an LTL Freight carrier would be ideal. I'd call a few, and see what would be involved in dropping off a shipment at one of their transfer yards. They can the ship to a transfer yard near to the destination address, where your buyer can then pick up the shipment; might cost you $50 to $100 for up to 500 lbs of cards depending upon distance shipped, which is vastly cheaper than something like UPS or USPS for the same weight range...

Oh, and if you bought a fair amount of KoT, I'd buy your collection, Josh.

Let's say hypothetically that this seller isn't you, but that you know this seller. Why not offer to assist him in packaging and shipping for a couple of bucks. The hypothetical seller should at least give a decent accounting of what is in the collection, so bids could be made.