Are Transformers Collections Harder to sell

[Nugundam2.0]

I need to purge. Basically I want to get rid about 90% of my transformer collection. I have posted for sale threads everywhere, ebay, kijiji and reception has been lukewarm. Heck my Zoids sold faster.

Seems to me a lot of people are purging. Seems the brand is reverting to 1986-95 era.

Whats going on. I blame it on the economy. People have less disposable income and toys are a luxury few can afford now

[sarmick01]

More than likely due to overspending.

[Oreobuilder]

Really bad distribution and a surplus of DoTM toys have turned away a lot of collectors I think. Nothing new at retail has made people turn to other collections. Somehow, Hasbro managed to wreck a lot of the good will and brand equity that they built up during the movie's run. Less product = fewer new fans to buy our stuff.

Personally, I'm getting rid of a lot of my Hasbro TFs and refocusing my collection toward a lot of 3rd Party stuff. They are making the toys I want to collect.

OB

[juxtapose519]

Are you trying to sell it as one big lot, or are you piecing it out individually? I, personally, would have absolutely no interest in buying up a huge collection for hundreds or thousands of dollars. I have a feeling a lot of people feel the same way.

[Scrapper6]

Originally Posted by juxtapose519

Are you trying to sell it as one big lot, or are you piecing it out individually? I, personally, would have absolutely no interest in buying up a huge collection for hundreds or thousands of dollars. I have a feeling a lot of people feel the same way.

Even piecing it out individually takes time, I've been sitting on things for a good few years now, others for only a few months, it is slow going to find that one buyer who is interested in that figure you happen to be selling. Time consuming, but worth it in the end, if you can afford to be patient and wait a little.

You aren't too far wrong though, most individuals who only buy whole lots of collections are interested in flipping them for individual profits and such, people who can afford that sort of thing are usually well off or in the business of buying and selling collections, IE Comic/Hobby Shop Owners.

Also I'm not sure on this, but I'm fairly certain that if the 90% you're trying to sell is Movieline stuff, you're going to have a hard time getting rid of it. The market for Movieline toys isn't as predominant these days as say, Unicron Trilogy or Beast Era buyers, because most people these days have started to get really turned off the Movieverse designs and Hasbro's pathetic oversaturation of the market with these products.

[roballan]

Originally Posted by juxtapose519

Are you trying to sell it as one big lot, or are you piecing it out individually? I, personally, would have absolutely no interest in buying up a huge collection for hundreds or thousands of dollars. I have a feeling a lot of people feel the same way.

I think you're going to find this. In order to make a reasonable amount on a collection, you have to sell pieces individually. Otherwise, you're going to end up selling as a lot to a re-seller who will need to make a profit on the goods still.

This is a truth across most if not all "collectible" type hobbies.

If you're parting it out and still having issues selling, it might be a question of price point, which is a tough thing to deal with.

You're right about the economy too, there might be less players right now. But there's other factors to consider as well.

[big dawg]

honestly I looked at your sales thread and saw a wall of text with things that were marked "NFS" (not for sale) and got turned off so that's a start. My recommendations to you would be:
-take pictures of certain lines together (animated, energon etc) so people know what they are getting.
-don't list thing that aren't for sale. you will just confuse people and get more questions whether or not they really "aren't for sale"
-if you are firm on the prices you have set you just have to wait on the right buyer as Scrapper6 said. Otherwise you need to lower you prices, alot, if you want to move those items quickly (the more in demand ones can stay at higher prices but you'll never get $10 for guys like undermine or wreckloose)
-offer discounts if people buy things in lots (goes back to my first point about taking pics in groups and include at least one super desireable guy in each lot)
-your shipping on ebay is too high- you're asking for $25 to ship something that would probably cost $12 to ship.
-if you aren't just trying to liquidate and want to focus on other hobbies, throw up a list of the other hobby related things in your "wants" so people can offer you trades (again doesn't really work if you are just trying to sell for $$$)

anyway, this wasn't intended as a jab at you or anything, just giving some pointers as to what I found works for me.

[Rev]

One thing I have noticed is that when I hit "new posts" all I see are threads for people bumping their sales thread. In my head I call this forum the Canadian sales forum. Too bad really.

Second, and this is another general observation, I notice that everything is priced way too high. Unless these items are in demand you can't price them near what they originally cost or more. People expect to make money out of toys that hold little value. So I stopped reading teh sales threads.

[xueyue2]

One thing I noticed, kind of funny.
I bought a lot transformers from here and from kijiji in the last few year, spent a lot.
And during the past boxing day, I bought a ps3 with a 55 inch 3D LED TV. So I started to buy games, used or new ones on-sale, since I have a lot to catch up. I found compare to games, Transformers toy are so expensive. I can often found good game for 10 to 20, some new ones is around 30. And video games usually offer longer time of entertainment than transformers. I can play a game for at least 5 to 10 hours, while transformers only 1 or 2 hours max then I put them aside.

[Scrapper6]

Originally Posted by Rev

One thing I have noticed is that when I hit "new posts" all I see are threads for people bumping their sales thread. In my head I call this forum the Canadian sales forum. Too bad really.

Second, and this is another general observation, I notice that everything is priced way too high. Unless these items are in demand you can't price them near what they originally cost or more. People expect to make money out of toys that hold little value. So I stopped reading teh sales threads.

Well, considering there is very little to discuss in Canada, I mean seriously we've had Prime Wave 1 for the better part of 12 months without a single new case or wave showing up at all, I suspect that come Spring Winners and Giant Tiger will be bogged down with cases of Prime Wave 2, 3, 4 and 5. Is it any wonder that only bumping of sales threads is happening currently?

If you don't bump your sales thread you won't see anyone interested in your products, as there is a lot of traffic on that forum.

Plus we don't have nearly the number of members that TFW has, so yeah, not a lot to say or discuss and not as many members means threads and conversations are slow to happen/update. Just a sign of the difference between a global message board and one dedicated to Canada, we Canadians can take an awful long time to get around to discussing salient points.