Time to pull the pin?

[Nomad]

Originally Posted by Team Jetfire

Keep them if you don't need the money. How many people have unloaded a ton of TF's only to buy them all back when the spark is back?

Answer: A shitload

Just pack em up and keep em.

Well said, fellow enabler



... in other words, don't sell your shit, at least not before you make damn sure that you won't miss or wanna buy em again. Far too many people make that mistake far too often, and it's always sad to see, let alone be a part of.

[canprime]

Couple of points I will make:

1) As others have said, take a breather, review and then make a decision. Lots of people liquidate and then restart because they find they really weren't done.

2) If you are going to sell, stick with boards like this one, or Ebay. I know people have a hate for Ebay, but it really is still the standard. This and other TF boards are also good for selling both because it lets you sell to other fans, and it cuts out fees from sites like Ebay. Kijiji is good for local deals, but I have found that it is mostly full of people who want to buy "something for nothing" meaning a deal to them is getting you to sell for 50% less than what you might normally get.

3) HONESTLY evaluate your stuff and the marketplace. IF you are serious about liquidating. Too many times I see people claiming they are selling because they have to, or need money, and sure enough they are asking prices that no one with any knowledge is going to bite on. Ebay has a large population of professional sellers who do nothing but post items are retail or higher prices just waiting for someone to bite. People will say that the value is whatever someone is willing to pay, but a one time fluke of someone paying 50% over 'normal" pricing is not the true value of an item. Look on Ebay for completed auctions and you get a better idea of the marketplace.

4) Finally, selling items individually USUALLY nets more money then selling lots, but again it depends on an honest evaluation of what you have. Common, low interest items probably aren't worth the time/money selling indvidually, but rather group them for a chance at recouping some money. High interest, rare items are usually better sold individually. The one exception I have found is if it a "team" or individual items make a whole. In those cases you might get more selling as a lot.

[Nomad]

Well in either case, taking a decent picture of each item & pricing it at market value in a well organized fashion seems like the best way to go. Make a thread on here, make one on TFW, do the same for a local add, check your shit every day, and you've probably got as good of a chance as any.

Getting to know ebay stuff will be good too (I've never been a fan of selling on there either, but its hard to ignore this all together), especially once you've taken other routes without much success. Yeah, Canada Post works hard to make things difficult at times (aka, by making shipping costs higher than most are willing to pay), but if you have decent volume/selection & if you're willing to keep up with shit you should be alright. Plus, you live in a big city, so finding local buyers won't be impossible, and selling stuff to the states is usually cheaper than selling within Canada... so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

[Bruticus82]

Originally Posted by joshimus

I'm in the same boat. I am looking for a better way to sell off toys I really dont even look at anymore, not just tf's. Shelflife beta is still testing or has started, not sure, but is an idea. I think has just started so I am curious as to how it works. Wouldn't mind making a list and taking pics of my stuff to sell off things I no longer need clogging my toy room.
I'd like to avoid craigslist/kijiji as well as meeting people.

I wouldn't mind looking at that list and seeing if I could help you out by buying some things. Unless your prohibition on meeting people extends to people you already know.

[Scrapper6]

I see threads like this every couple of months, folks, here's the nitty gritty as I see it.

I've been a fan of the Transformers (Toys) since 1987, or 88, whichever year Pretender Starscream got released because I believe he was my first actual TF alongside Wildfly of the Monstructor Set.

I've officially been a collector since the days of G2 and Beast Wars, as I only had a limited amount of G1s to the point where you could count them all on two hands. (Unless you counted Micromasters individualy and not by group packaging)

The point is I've collected and collected and sometimes, very rarely, I begin to wonder about what my collection is trying to be? Am I doing it for myself, for the sake of having a ton of toys or just to enjoy things legitimately? The answer always comes back to one thing, I have always loved the Mythos and I will always love the Mythos, the Toys I can take or leave at any given time.

There are some lines I can not, nor will not part with, most of my BW stuff, all of RID, Animated, Classics, Movieverse. Things like that, even a few figures of the Unicron Trilogy should stick around, but I can live with it if I sell a few off to make space, or just to clear out some of the series in order to let someone else have the chance to enjoy and fiddle with those toys they may not have gotten to when they were younger.

Toys are meant to be enjoyed, when it gets to be too much, when your collection is too large, letting others enjoy your old favorites is also part of collecting. It allows the WOW factor to be passed on and shared with others, some of which may never have thought those toys/figures were wow worthy at the time.

The hard part is getting the buyer interested. Even with pictures of some of the stuff I have for sale it can take a while before somebody bites.

That being said, only sell what you can do without. I have never understood the mentality of those who start collecting for a few years, maybe five max, they buy up a pit ton of toys, perhaps even complete a few entire series, and then they lose complete interest and just sell it off entirely to be rid of it as if its the plague.

I've had my ups and my downs, but I've been a fan and collector since childhood, and I don't intend to stop unless I drop dead or they stop making these toys, whichever comes first.

Do what you feel is right, but just remember, the bug may bite you again down the line if you can't stop thinking about the Mythos and Characters. (Unless you're Boardmember Batman.)

[juxtapose519]

I find that the times I'm most apathetic towards collecting are times when there are gaps in releases. Now is definitely one of those times. I'm not particularly interested in Prime, so I haven't picked up a whole lot as of late. It feels a bit like I'm losing interest in my Classics collection, and I'm turning my focus more and more to my TMNT and Joe collections. However, I know that as soon as I have FoC Shockwave in my hands, and we get more information on the rest of the 2012 Generations line, that interest is going to come flying back. The same thing happened with the 2010 Generations line. When I get new stuff to play with, it always makes me appreciate the stuff I already have more.

The best thing you can do is wait on it. Unless you really need the money there's no sense in rushing to get rid of it. If you still feel the same way a couple months from now, the value of your collection isn't going to have done a nosedive between now and then. You can always sell it later, but you can't buy it back... at least not for the price you sold if for.

[Sun Swipe Prime]

Originally Posted by Team Jetfire

Keep them if you don't need the money. How many people have unloaded a ton of TF's only to buy them all back when the spark is back?

Answer: A shitload

Just pack em up and keep em.

Ditto.

I have stretches where my interest wanes but when waxes again and I unpack stuff again it's like Christmas mixed with a bindge buying spree inside Easter egg containing your childhood.

Be sure. I sees these threads all the time.

[Shepp]

Go through your entire collection. Have four piles.

Pile 1 - Get rid of. No questions asked.
Pile 2 - Undecided. Hold for 1 week.
Pile 3 - Keep. No questions asked.
Pile 4 - Undecided. Hold for 1 month.

For each and every figure or series, divide them into those four piles.

Immediately after, go through the undecided 1 week pile and move things accordingly. Do the same with the 1 month pile.

Sell pile 1.

After a week, go through the 1 week pile and move things accordingly until nothing is left in that pile.

Sell pile 1.

After the month, go through the remaining undecided pile and arrange things accordingly, but make a new hold for a week pile.

Keep repeating the process until you only have the pile you want to keep.

Make sure you go specifically figure by figure. Don't keep something just because you have all of the others (unless you just want to keep the whole set as a whole unit). Combiners are an exception to this rule, as one can't really function together without the other.

Best of luck. Just document everything out the whazoo.


If, on the other-hand, you just want to purge it all (it happens) then consider us on the boards here and post the collection for sale. You can arrange it into lots if you'd like, that you'll be selling in bulk instead of people cherry picking.

[Echotransformer]

^^ Nicely put.

Have you considered getting a table and selling at TF Con? Could be a lot of fun, you'll meet lots of people...it's not for everyone but may be a nice way to 'close out' your collecting career should you decide...

[Shepp]

Originally Posted by Echotransformer

^^ Nicely put.

Have you considered getting a table and selling at TF Con? Could be a lot of fun, you'll meet lots of people...it's not for everyone but may be a nice way to 'close out' your collecting career should you decide...

Get a table, and silent auction THE WHOLE COLLECTION AS A LOT!

Highest bid at the end of the convention gets everything.

Payment would be a bit difficult though. And you'd get much less than selling individually, but you wouldn't get stuck with anything that might be difficult to sell.