What is the best way to price out a collection for liquidation?

[vartemis]

Hey everybody,

I've been out of the hobby for quite a while, and I've finally decided to bite the bullet and sell my collection. My entire competitive vintage gaming group has been decimated due to wives/gfs, jobs, moving away, and just "growing up", and I have yet to find a group in London, Ontario who enjoys playing competitive Vintage. It's pretty much all standard here. The friends I have who still play only play EDH, and they just lend me decks when I come out to play because my entire collection is based in competitive vintage (other than my complete sets and junk commons from unlimited to saga and the mirrodin block). I stopped playing a couple of years ago due to lack of opponents, but still kept up to date with current sets and lurked on here. I used to build quite a lot of the decks you all post on here and goldfish them till I had them almost memorized, but it's obviously not the same as playing against an opponent. I haven't seen anything on here for SW Ontario in awhile, and MTGOntario still says the current set is Zendikar, so that shows you when that site was last updated, other than to put standard tournament info up. I moved to Toronto a couple of years ago to go back to college, and I've been storing my collection at my parents in London, and I haven't missed it to be honest. My mother keeps bugging me as to when I'm going to come get my cards and warhammer, and right now I don't have anywhere to put it or play with it. I debated getting back in a month or so ago, but after looking at the price of cards, I couldn't justify it. The price of the cards has really gone up across the board. I own most of the "classic" staples, but the new staples (jace, thoughtseize, zendikar fetches) and even some older stuff (show and tell, off color onslaught fetches) have skyrocketed over the last couple of years. Even weird cards I picked up for "fun" decks back in the day, like shallow grave, are going for more than I would have expected. I looked into legacy, but it would cost me more money to "downgrade" to that than to stay in vintage due to cards like Lions Eye Diamond, which I only have 1 of in my Mirage complete set. It's crappy that it has priced me out of owning the cardboard I need to make myself competitive again, but that also means my collection has increased a bunch as well. When I think about it, even if I wanted to fork out the money, I really don't have anywhere to play anyways, so what would be the point?

Anyways... to the point. I talked to a local store here, and they can't afford to buy my collection outright, but they are willing to sell it on consignment. I was thinking of giving them 10%. Does that seem fair? Where would be the best place to determine what to price my cards at? I've looked around, and this is what I've seen. MOTL keeps a database of scraped ebay prices, but they seem low due to them not being able to take into account 1)varying grades of cards and 2)shipping costs which purchasers take into account when buying online. SCG is a reputable seller and a cornerstone, but I think that gives them the ability to charge a bit more than the average store would get away with. Findmagiccards.com doesn't update enough, so the prices on there don't reflect what the stores are actually selling them for. How do you guys determine what value to put on your cards? I know Scrye and Inquest are long gone, but is Beckett still putting out a MTG magazine? I have a bunch of those and they didn't seem too bad.

I've also got some random stuff, like a bunch of still in box hobbyjapan tokens (zombie, wurm, centaur, dragon, etc), a couple of tshirts from wotc game center, old official binders, and other stuff I've accumulated over the years. I think I'll keep my art prints because I like them and can display them, but some of these things I have never seen actually sold, or they've been MIA on the web for awhile. SCG and Troll and Toad have a few of the things listed, but since they've been OOS for so long, the prices haven't been updated in years. Is there a forum you guys know of that deals in this kind of magic merch? Should I take photos of em and list em on the collectibles forum here and let people give me some numbers?

Is there still much of an online scene now that cockatrice was taken offline for the most part? I don't think I'll ever be able to get of the game totally as I'm always thinking of new ideas, and I'm still interested in the mental exercise I get theorizing. As it is, I could keep some of my junk cards that I won't be able to get rid of and just throw paper in front to goldfish if I'm jonesin for a fix.

I'm going home to visit this week, so I'd like to scan in my lotus in to get some feedback on what I should price it at if that's okay with the mods. I've had it for awhile and it's kind of beat, so I have no idea where to even begin with it.

I know there is no selling allowed on the boards, and I am not looking for any solicitations of purchase. I'm not even entertaining sales unless you can pick it up in person as I've been burned from online selling in the past and can't afford to risk it, especially with my power and pillars. I just need some help as I'm out of the loop on this stuff, and I kind of feel overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. I think it's kind of a waste to have my stuff sitting in boxes in my parents' basement when other people could be getting enjoyment out of it. That and I could use the money to pay a large chunk of my tuition and maybe upgrade my rig with a SSD, new video card and buy a cintiq.

I appreciate any help the collective can offer, and keep up the amazing dialogs. I haven't touched a card in a couple of years, but I still lurk on here every day because it's such a cool place to be.

Cheers,

Josh

[Smmenen]

eBay.  You'll get max dollar that way too.

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

If you want to compare recent market prices, go to https://www.magiccardmarket.eu.

They show graphs for the card prices, condition matters, etc. You can sell your cards there, too.

[kwis]

Ebay, MOTL or MagicCardMarket.eu.

I would most likely put them on MOTL and ebay first, as these two has the largest amount of visitors.

[BaronSengir]

Yeah I have to agree eBay and MOTL will get you the most $. If you go to a local shop they will give you 50% to 75% of its value since they have to resell it. MOTL is nice in that you don't have to worry about eBay fees, but you do have to worry about scammers, however, MOTL tends to go out of its way to limit that, and since you are selling Vintage cads you can and should demand that they pay first.

[Prospero]

It's a shame to see you go, Josh.  Good luck with everything.

As others have mentioned, eBay and MOTL are definitely the best routes.

So long as you're asking questions of the community regarding what they believe the best route to be, and not looking to sell your cards here, or advertise the auctions where you're selling your cards, you're fine by me.

[Wagner]

How difficult is it to sell things on MOTL if you don't have any feedback? I'm also considering selling a big part of my Vintage stuff but didn't really know where to start except the local stores, which obviously don't give that much.

[Nefarias]

He's not looking for a place to sell, he's looking for a price guide.

If you're willing to wade through all the listings, eBay is probably the most accurate source, but there are far simpler options that are generally pretty reliable.

The most used is tcgplayer.com. They even have a handy-dandy price charting (similar to findmagiccards, but actually updated). The chart was down when I looked for it today, but I imagine it's a temporary maintenance thing. This is often used in trading and frequently cited it financial articles.

Black Lotus Project is another that I've seen used a fair amount, though I haven't heard much from it lately, so I'm not sure how current it's remained.

SCG is a good resource, but you're right that they do skew slightly more expensively. ChannelFireBall is a strong competitor that is usually a bit cheaper.

As for the 10%, I think that that is fair, especially if you consider that eBay/PayPal fees total 12%, nevermind shipping expenses. A dealer/vendor will only give you ~50% value on your cards. So getting 90% value is really the best you can hope for, as long as you don't mind waiting for them to sell (the consignment will take a long time, I imagine).

[Diakonov]

After bouncing around to various price guides while selling my collection, I found that tcgplayer.com had the most accurate prices.  Basically, knock a dollar or two off their prices and that's what you can expect to pay on eBay to buy a card. 

The only thing it was not very useful for was older, more expensive cards, in which case your best bet really is just viewing old eBay transactions.  If you haven't done it before, go to eBay and narrow your search until it's primarily the card in question popping up, then click "Sold Listings."  From there you can usually identify a range of what prices to expect based on condition, etc.

[vartemis]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll check out these sites.  I went to the card shop today while I was picking up my comics, and they have been able to move some of the higher priced stuff. How difficult is it to get people to take you seriously on MOTL when you don't have any feedback?

[BaronSengir]

Well I think if you include scans of the more expensive cards people will take you serious enough. Also if you have anyone on the board that's able to vouch for you that can't hurt either.