What is the best way to sell a large collection of cards?

[Jawman16]

Hi all

Time has come for me to sell my magic cards.  I have lost interest in the game due to other hobbies, namely triathlon.  I also want to invest the money to use for a car/condo when I graduate from law school in 2 years.  That said, what is the best way for someone in Northeast Ohio to sell a collection consisting of full UL power, Library, drains, duals, etc...  I really do not want to get hammered with $500+ of fees between Ebay and Paypal.  That said, Ebay is obviously convenient and all but guarantees a market price.  I do not know of any dealers in the area who would buy the whole collection.  I have a perfect Ebay rating ~100 + and have sold power before.

Is it best to sell each card individually via Ebay or wait until a convention and sell the whole collection at once?  I do not like to haggle b/c (1) I am not very good at it and (2) I would rather be doing other things than spend an entire day trying to get $20 more out of someone.  This really is a bottom line deal to me and I am looking to get the most money I can.  Thanks for the help.  I am not trying to advertise or sell the cards here at TMD. 

To the Cleveland crew (Chewy Nips):  Do any of the stores in Lorain/Rocky River pay Ebay prices for power?  (i.e. ~$380-400 for a Sapphire, Ancestral, etc...)

Jeff Wilson

[seer]

You'll get more for it if you sell it individually on ebay.

Selling it in bulk will lead you getting ripped off. It is also very hard to find people IRL willing to pay fair market value.

[nartman99]

To the Cleveland crew (Chewy Nips):  Do any of the stores in Lorain/Rocky River pay Ebay prices for power?  (i.e. ~$380-400 for a Sapphire, Ancestral, etc...)

Jeff Wilson

Woah, we were just talking about you the other day. "Whatever happened to Jeff Wilson?"

I don't really know if I would recommend anyone. From what I hear, Compendium is having problems keeping their lights on. I wouldn't want to try and deal with Jim at Altereality either. The Attic just closed down. I'm sure Goblin Trading Company is on the verge too. I think the Dungeon in Lorain may be interested in some cards to hold future Mox tournaments, but I'm not too sure since I've only been there once. The Hero Zone in Sandusky may also be interested in some cards for future Mox tournaments, but they just had to close their store out by Bowling Green, so I don't know how good of an idea that may be.

Chris at the Warzone may give you a decent price. I remember a year or two ago that someone walked in with like 7/9 pieces of power and 40 Savannah Lions and he gave him $2,500 for it. I don't know if that is close to what your expecting but that isn't bad. He has had several people approach him recently though, selling collections. "Does anyone still play this game?" was his last reply. We haven't been able to have a tournament going there in months so yeah.

Like rleidle said though, you are better off selling things piece by piece than all together. I'll let some of my friends know about this too, because I know some of them were looking to pick up some power. I'll ask Chris too, the next time I see him, and see what he says. It would be cool if you could compile a list of cards, or at least the good stuff, for a proper estimate.

Sad to see you go, but I figured it was coming eventually. Good luck!

[Evenpence]

and 40 Savannah Lions

Midget vs. 40 Savannah Lions.  Who wins?

[Bahza]

I am looking to unload most of my collection of magic cards and am wondering the best way to sell them.

Obviously if I try to sell them to a dealer it would be the easiest way to unload them but I would probably not get there value. If I go the eBay route would it be better to just sell it as one auction as a large collection or would it be best to put individual auctions for each playset?

Just to give an idea I estimate the collection to be between $3000-$4000 with 2 pieces of power and many play sets of exspensive cards (duals, drains, etc).
I have a 100% feedback rating from eBay with about 100 feedbacks most of which are buying but a few are as a seller.

Threads merged.
-Godder

[Atlatl]

First, you need to come to the realization that you will not get 3-4k for a collection worth 3-4k. When you figure that out, you can start trying.

Selling your singles on Ebay will yield the greatest return, most likely, but it is extremely time consuming, and the fees add up. With only 100 feedback, and only a few of those as a seller, you aren't going to have many bites - very few indeed on the power. You need thousands of refs to auction power off, if you expect any sort of real return since any realistic buyer shops around first, and there are hundreds of each card listed at any given time.

A faster way, and perhaps safer, is to frequent some large event such as a Regionals or PTQ tourney (stay out of the Prereleases - everyone wants to buy the new set, not old ones) and spread the word around that you are looking to unload a collection, find a spot, and park it there most of the day.

Stay away from card shops - you will net less than 40% of the worth of your set (if even that much) and most shops steer clear of big collections anyway.

MOTL has some higher success rates with sets (I used MOTL when I unloaded my Vintage a few years back, decent return) but you need to befriend some mods and find one of them to act as an Escrow, and build that feedback pretty high with real transactions first.