Whether they are baseball cards, stamps, figurines, books, furniture, toys, or flags, the list of things could smoothly go on and on about what people collect. You might even know someone who collects something so random that you’ve asked them ‘why?’.
Eventually, you might be thinking of selling your collection. It could be for downsizing, loss of interest, or simply because you’re tired of moving boxes all the time. Deciding to part with your collection can be tough. How can you sell Transformers after all those years of collecting them?
Below are some essential tips that will help you part with your collection and sell what you need to sell, no matter how hard the decision may be.
Offline, online, or both?
Depending on what you own, you may be better suited to sell items online or offline. If you’re selling toys or action figures, it might be better to head online and choose an online auction. Furniture might attract more of a crowd at a garage or estate sale.
Paintings, on the other hand, could quickly be sold online or offline. It’s up to you to research your market and know what the best place to start selling would be. If you’re not sure, try to find a local or online community to see what it does. Plus, you might be able to find some sellers there!
Get to Know the Market
Before we talk about prices, you must do some research if there is one on the market. For example, stamp collectors often have stamp fairs where you can bring your booklet and show it off to other like-minded collectors.
You want to know how big the market is before you dive into it. If you think you can create a market for a particular collectible, it is better to know that you probably can’t. Chances of stumbling upon ‘the next big thing’ are slim to none, so make sure that you take that into account before you start trying to sell off some old Happy Meal items from the 1980s.
Research Prices
If you’ve been out of the collection for quite some time, you may not know how much that Optimus Prime Transformer is worth, and there’s not precisely an appraiser in the immediate vicinity. That is all the more reason for you to sell Transformers.
To get the best responses, you should be researching your prices. If something like stamps is being sold in a booklet, take the time to check out how much you could charge for an entire collection instead of individual pieces.
When researching, you might find out that you have a super rare baseball card lying around in your collection.
Consider a Third Party
Sometimes, you may not have enough free time to look up prices, meet with buyers, or manage an online selling profile. That’s when you can turn to third parties to help you out.
Third parties can exist in many forms, such as specialist dealers, an auction house, or even the local antique shop. They can do everything for you, from appraisal to handling the buying and selling.
Of course, a commission will have to be taken off, but it might be a price worth paying to save you the trouble of going through all the steps yourself.