Looking to get rid off a collection, thoughts?

[abe]

Hey folks, my my name is Abe and I was a regular on here back in ~2008, after that I went to college, started a career and my time for retro-gaming just started to diminish along with my interest in owning physical things.

I never thought I'd be saying this, but I've got a mid-sized collection that I'm looking to pass on to people who will love it properly. I don't have anything super-rare or great (perhaps best items are a copy of Earthbound, a Sega Nomad, a copy of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for DC, a copy of Skies of Arcadia for both GC and DC), but mostly I have a few hundred cartridges, a few hundred Xbox, Dreamcast, Gamecube games. Maybe 20 consoles, lots of weird memorabilia like a box of old Mario trading cards, and I especially loved weird, uncommon accessories like a Game Boy Advance Memory Card (a personal favorite) or different unusual adapters, cables, controllers, etc.

I don't watch prices like I used to and I'm just looking for advice on how best to pass on this stuff. I'd like to sell some of it, but a lot of the bulk I'd probably just give away to people who wanted it. Maybe be like "Here's Earthbound for $X, have 4 Sega Saturn games for free with it". Maybe I could sell the whole thing as a lot though? Or hire someone to dig through, look up prices, list items, and take a percentage of sales? I don't know. That hardly seems worth the effort.

Anyway, that's why I'm here, any thoughts on how best to do this?

[AppleQueso]

I did this last summer, basically I got someone with a lot of cash to buy the whole lot in bulk. Saved me a lot of the headache and hassle of having to sort through, price, and individually sell all the pieces. Was a pretty positive experience overall, even if actually packing everything up and shipping it off was bittersweet.

[Blu]

If you were a regular and people here could vouch for you, we'd likely be willing to buy it all at once for a lump sum. You'd be able to make a quick sale, less that you'd need to dole out in terms of time, shipping and packing materials, and shipping costs. You might not net as much as if you parted it all out, but you'd still get a very nice sum.

PM me if you have a list and I'd be happy to give you a decent offer.

[irixith]

Depends on what you want out of it, really. Money? Satisfaction? Both?

I recently cleared a whole ton of video game stuff by donating it. A children's hospital, women's shelters, community services, some individual kids with unfortunate ailments. All of it was anonymous, it felt good knowing that the stuff was going to get used/loved, and its out of my hair.

If you're serious about selling stuff, you're going to have to put together a list, even if its rough. No-one says you've got to go through and price everything because obviously that's not your goal, but get a rough list of systems/accessories/games/memorabilia and toss that out there. Some people will approach you for a bunch of stuff, others for one or two items...its obviously easiest to deal with bulk first, and then sort out what you want to do with whats left. Someone might approach you for it all, in which case, snazzy.

Don't put too much energy into figuring out the "right" way, just do what makes you feel satisfied. (...but a rough list with game titles goes a long way.)

[mjmjr25]

You might not net as much as if you parted it all out, but you'd still get a very nice sum.

You will definitely not net as much.

If you part out on the forums - most people expect to pay 10% under ebay as a compromise. You save the fees and get a hassle free transaction - buyer gets a lower than ebay price.

So, if you call that 90% or "normal" value, expect to get 60-70% on an entire collection. You will very rarely find someone who needs everything in your bundle.

[Gooseberrysoda]

Divide it up into chunks- console lots with games, etc. It'll sell a lot faster than everything at once and you'll make good money.

[CRTGAMER]

my time for retro-gaming just started to diminish along with my interest in owning physical things.

Maybe I could sell the whole thing as a lot though? Or hire someone to dig through, look up prices, list items, and take a percentage of sales? I don't know. That hardly seems worth the effort.

Keep everything unless storage space is a big issue, especially in light of you don't seem to want to organize the sales and dealing with all auctions and shipments.

You just might get back into gaming again at a later time. There are many members on here who have sold games only years later regretting and buying them again at a higher price!

Leave the games on the shelf to collect dust. Years later you can "Indiana Jones" discover the lost treasure again and blow off the layers of preservation soot without leaving your home!

[Exhuminator]

You just might get back into gaming again at a later time. There are many members on here who have sold games only years later regretting

Words of wisdom. Listen to this man.

[Tanooki]

The questions you need to ask yourself and not answer immediately.

Are you really done? Are you completely done or would you want to keep a few things for old time sake?

From there, I know it's a bitch, but at least for the pre-2000 stuff, it's sloppy but quicker, go to the video game price chart website, click on the system of choice, and then let the full list of every single game A-Z load up. Scroll down it, look at the average sold price on ebay for a stand alone game. If you find something is worth like $30 or more, it's in your best interest to sell it individually, or at the least bundle it with a like game from a franchise (Mega Man 1-6, Bubble Bobble 1 and 2, Castlevania 1-3, etc.) The stuff that's worth around $30 or less, throw them in with a lot of the $1-10 games in bundles if you don't just want to mass dump the entire sub $30~ valued stuff in one quick drop, but expect to get like 2/3 of the value if that depending how stingy and aggressive the buyer is for lot buying.


Personally I'm shifting gears at the moment. I don't much have time for it anymore, but I don't want out. I just looked at the NES games worth around $40 or more on my shelf, much of it I could let go of, and it would be a quick $1300+ if I let those go and damn I'm tempted. I don't use the stuff really but rarely and I've decided I'd like to get into another medium and that would pay for it. I'm thinking I may just like it or not, sell off the stuff I didn't have as original 1980s/90s buys and be done with it as that still would leave me around 50~ games.

[Sarge]

I'd definitely be interested if you had a Turbo Duo.

If you've got room for it, I agree with other sentiments that you should hang on to it. If you need money right now, sell, just be aware that it might cost you a lot to reobtain them. If there are a few with sentimental value, hang on to 'em. No need in unloading all of it.