How do I sell my entire collection??

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chuckrap

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Location
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I haven't been active in trading for over two years now and can't afford this hobby and my others. This one seems to have lost me over the years. How do I go about selling my collection and what can I expect to get for it? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Chuck
 
Generally speaking, the more money, effort, and time you put into selling it, the more you'll get.

Easiest: sell to a dealer or on Craigslist Without knowing what your collection entails, I'd guess 10 cents on the dollar might be about all you could realistically get that way

next: break into lots ad sell to people specializing in those (i.e. Joe Montana lots, 49'ers lots, sets, etc) probably a little better payout, but finding those people is more work

most $: high dollar/high demand cards as singles on ebay, rest as player/team/ set lots Lots of time and effort sorting, listing, packing, and shipping though
 
I haven't been active in trading for over two years now and can't afford this hobby and my others. This one seems to have lost me over the years. How do I go about selling my collection and what can I expect to get for it? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Chuck

Chuck - I just sold a HUGE Andre Dawson Collection. It took me a little over 4 months. I listed 100 auctions per week on Ebay and sold some stuff to collectors online and local. Do as much as you can to draw attention to your auctions. Make threads in the proper forums and bump them when allowed to. Offer shipping discounts to members of the sites you belong to.

Best of luck!

Thanks
Craig
 
couple of things to mention about COMC...they do all of the work basically...so you don't have to scan every card, make and ebay listing, figure out what the BV is, all of that...you ship them your cards and they do all of this...you just put the prices and let them sit there...you can cash out or get a gift certificate to blowout....you will end up paying less fees for a large collection vs ebay...not much, but slightly cheaper and none of the hassle...plus you can move some of the stuff on there you wouldn't be able to sell on ebay such as cheaper low end cards...beats throwing them out and that to me makes it a better choice vs. ebay.

you might also want to split it and sell your higher end stuff and sell that on ebay hoping to get lucky and higher $$$.
 
couple of things to mention about COMC...they do all of the work basically...so you don't have to scan every card, make and ebay listing, figure out what the BV is, all of that...you ship them your cards and they do all of this...you just put the prices and let them sit there...you can cash out or get a gift certificate to blowout....you will end up paying less fees for a large collection vs ebay...not much, but slightly cheaper and none of the hassle...plus you can move some of the stuff on there you wouldn't be able to sell on ebay such as cheaper low end cards...beats throwing them out and that to me makes it a better choice vs. ebay.

you might also want to split it and sell your higher end stuff and sell that on ebay hoping to get lucky and higher $$$.

I just don't get the appeal of COMC. The idea of them doing all the work is great, however at $0.15-$0.20 a card (or more) + the fact that they charge what amounts to a 20% fee when you cash out + you have to pay money to ship the cards there, it doesn't seem like such a great deal.

Craig
 
The point of comc is that you get to sell the cards you would never be able to sell on ebay.. regardless of what you get for them in my expert opinion something > nothing
 
Also, with COMC, you don't have to worry about timing your auctions, paying extra to provide good pictures or even dealing with the customers at all, unless someone makes an offer for a lower price. No worries about feedback, shipping, payment types, international issues, etc.

The fees, altogether, are about the same as eBay, you're just getting hit with them all at once on COMC if you choose to cash out, instead of the separate smaller taxes to list, add extra images, ebay's sales commission and paypal processing fees. And on top of all that, you still had to pay to package and ship the items.

For many sellers there, they just never cash out and use the income to either fund more card submissions or to buy other cards on the site.

But liquidating a collection on COMC would be a fairly pricey proposition up front and probably a lengthy endeavor, waiting for the cards to sell, unless you managed to find a buyer for the entire inventory at once (which IS an option).
 
I sold my entire collection in individual pieces, small lots, and grab bags. The grab bags I really gave away and it cost me the postage to mail maybe 20,000 cards. I took a big loss on the rest, mostly on ebay. I would suggest keeeping the collection for what you will get for it.
 
you send your cards to them and for .10 a piece they scan them, catalog them according to beckett's checklist and book them and all you do is put a price for each one.. if the card sells they ship and you get store credit.. if you cash out they take 20% or something like that or you can just buy more cards with it..
 
I offered mine up on craigslist for $5 per 700 count box of commons. I had someone buy about 15 boxes from me within a day or two of posting it.
 
Thanks for all the help and varying opinions. COMC does sound like the easiest route but I'm not sure I'll want to wait out all of them selling in that manner. I have complete Topps sets in BB and FB from the late 70's to now plus tens of thousands of commons and stars (mostly FB). I'd like to see it all go at the same time. I just have zero idea how much to ask for it much less the time to figure it. I may just search out a dealer. Bummer.
 
what sets to do you have? I have a gap from when I collected in the early/mid 70s and when I started again around 86. I've picked up a few things but would be interested in sets depending on what you have.
 
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