Dragon Magazine Collection

Posts: 20 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 5:47 am

I am not sure if anyone will even have a clue about this question but what the heck I am going to ask it anyway. I have two collections of Dragon Magazines. One is complete (except for 3 issues) and the other is missing about 25 issues. I am looking to fill in the holes on them both and then auction them off as two complete sets. Have any of you ever seen a complete collecction auctioned off on eBay and if so do you recall what it went for? I know it was next to impossible to auction off a complete collection prior to August of 07 when they quit publishing but maybe someone did or saw one similar. Just looking to get ideas. It will probably be a few months before I get the holes filled in so I have some time.

Posts: 1200 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:37 am

Most of my early Dragon's have already been sold, but here is a link to a list of what I have left.

http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/jwillia/Dragons/DragonList.htm

Posts: 607 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:07 pm

darwinianlaw wrote:

I am not sure if anyone will even have a clue about this question but what the heck I am going to ask it anyway. I have two collections of Dragon Magazines. One is complete (except for 3 issues) and the other is missing about 25 issues. I am looking to fill in the holes on them both and then auction them off as two complete sets. Have any of you ever seen a complete collecction auctioned off on eBay and if so do you recall what it went for? I know it was next to impossible to auction off a complete collection prior to August of 07 when they quit publishing but maybe someone did or saw one similar. Just looking to get ideas. It will probably be a few months before I get the holes filled in so I have some time.

Frankly, you'll get WAY more money for your collections if you sell them individually from issue #1 to about issue #45 and then sell them in groups of five or ten issues after that. However, you do what you want.

If you doubt me, one way to verify this is to look at completed sales of large/huge collections of Dragon magazines and divide the price by the number of issues compared to individual sales. Of course, you have to take into account shipping costs and condition of the issues, but with enough analysis, what I am saying should be obvious.

Also, I suspect there are members of the Acaeum who'd love a shot at buying everything before you pay the eBay fees. Just a thought. Again, you do what you want. Just trying to be helpful. We do that around here.

Posts: 4544 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:17 pm

benjoshua wrote:

Frankly, you'll get WAY more money for your collections if you sell them individually from issue #1 to about issue #45 and then sell them in groups of five or ten issues after that. However, you do what you want.

If you doubt me, one way to verify this is to look at completed sales of large/huge collections of Dragon magazines and divide the price by the number of issues compared to individual sales. Of course, you have to take into account shipping costs and condition of the issues, but with enough analysis, what I am saying should be obvious.

Also, I suspect there are members of the Acaeum who'd love a shot at buying everything before you pay the eBay fees. Just a thought. Again, you do what you want. Just trying to be helpful. We do that around here.

Ben is right.

Practically no one needs issues #50 onwards, and no one is going to pay the shippping involved (or, if they figure that into the buying price, they are going to lowball the bid accordingly).

I'd go out on a limb and say you wouldn't just make less, you'd make SUBSTANTIALLY less if you tried to sell these as complete sets. Not to mention just making yourself a LOT of extra work shipping these off (packaging, etc). A complete collection would fill several boxes and would probably cost in excess of $100 to ship.

I'd auction the first 20 issues or so separately, then the rest as lots of ten or so. Issues #101-#273 or so are basically worthless to the collector and will go for a buck or less apiece in most cases.

Mike B.

Posts: 20 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:34 pm

Thanks to both of you for the info. I know that lots almost always go for less than what the singular items would garner but my hope was that beecause it was a complete collection I could avoid that normal drop in price but I am not married to the idea. Also when I am finally ready to do the selling I will make a post here first and see if anybody is interested in any of them Smile

Posts: 1346 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:38 pm

If the price is right, I would be interested in a complete collection. I only have two actual issues of Dragon, both given to me, so getting them all at once would be much more cost effective and easier, though I would be cautious about the shipping. The door swings both ways, but you would, like stated before, get more selling it piecemeal.

Posts: 2616 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 5:04 pm

darwinianlaw wrote:

Have any of you ever seen a complete collecction auctioned off on eBay and if so do you recall what it went for?

I've only seen it twice ... but, to be fair, it's been quite a while since I've had Dragons as an active eBay search.

Sadly, I do not recall the final total for either listing. One was quite a while ago (long before I'd joined the Acaeum), but the second one was more recent. It might even be mentioned in one of the old "Interesting Items" threads ... although that would involve a lot of searching. Shocked

I'm pretty sure that second one ended north of $500, though. I seem to remember that as my "jump off" point at the time ... but I just don't remember what the final price was.

Posts: 2616 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 6:26 pm

benjoshua wrote:

Frankly, you'll get WAY more money for your collections if you sell them individually from issue #1 to about issue #45 and then sell them in groups of five or ten issues after that.

I would debate this. Pretty strongly, in fact ... "especially the "WAY" part. And especially considering that those hypothetical "groups of five to 10" are some of the biggest no-sale leaders in eBay history.

There would definitely be some appeal for buyers looking for a "one and done" approach to having a complete Dragon collection, rather than "I've been bidding on these things for a year and I'm still 23 issues short" approach. I would be one of those buyers (gaming magazines being one of my specialties) ... and there's at least one other person here with the same thought:

serleran wrote:

If the price is right, I would be interested in a complete collection. I only have two actual issues of Dragon, both given to me, so getting them all at once would be much more cost effective and easier ...

And who knows how many non-Acaeum members might be interested in getting them all in one shot? I've said this about 500 times here, but one more time won't hurt: not every serious D&D collector in the world is an Acaeum member.

+++++

I really think a complete set of Dragons (or, by extension, even Dungeons) would be a successful listing, provided a few very key details were covered before the listing was even posted:

1. It would have to be complete. I wouldn't want to see "well, it's complete, except for these missing 18 issues, including #1, #3, #8 and #14." That's not "complete." That's asking the buyer to do a lot of additional — and expensive — work.

2. There would have to be some compromises on shipping. As always with Dragons, shipping is the key issue (bwah! "issue." Get it?) Yes, it would be horribly expensive to ship 359 issues of a thick magazine, but I think the seller, in this particular case, might want to be flexible here ... even to the point of eating a few dollars to attract more bids.

3. The listing should be as attractive as possible. The seller really needs to take some time here to promote the unique nature of the listing, the 30-plus years of gaming history available, and the opportunity for interested buyers to get all of it with just a couple mouse-clicks. Many clear, detailed photos would need to be included ... I'm thinking six, at the minimum, with maybe as many as 12 or 14.

I've seen a lot of bulk-lot listings (mostly for large lots of comics) with terrible typos, one blurry image, and no effort to really promote the history of what is being sold. To me, this always screams, "I'm unprofessional! And I'm too lazy to really put any effort into this!" As a buyer, that's not a seller I want to do business with.

+++++

Here's another thing to consider: convenience. Let's say I'm wrong about everything above (although, again, the "WAY" part is inaccurate), and that breaking up a complete collection would result in a larger final total than a bulk-lot sale. A seller looking to just get these magazines out of his life is going to say "so what?"

That seller is also going to be looking at a lot less work, and all the work can be completed in no more than one weekend. Think about it: one sale, to one customer, one payment to receive, one tracking number, and the collection is out of the house forever in one weekend.

Now compare that to potentially hundreds of sales to hundreds of customers, all paying at different times, and all of them needing one or more issues shipped off to all of these different locations. That's multiple trips to the post office, and multiple email reminders sent out to the slow payers, and multiple headaches from the idiots who don't decide to pay at all. I could go on and on here ... anyone who's ever sold on eBay knows what I'm talking about.

And that doesn't even include the no-sales ... and there will be no-sales when it comes to Dragons. So now our seller has to re-list and go through the whole process again. And if more no-sales come up (and that will happen), he's now eating his listing fees and cutting into his profit.

+++++

Okay, sorry for the novel, but I can type pretty quickly when I really get going. Smile

To be as fair as possible, I don't think there's a right answer here; we simply do not have enough data. Listings for complete runs of Dragon are incredibly rare and, even for those that have sold in the past, we don't seem to have any final figures. And, even if we did, eBay can still be a surprising place ... that's one of the reasons our "Silliest Auction Price" threads are so busy. If D&D collecting was so predictable, those threads would not even exist.

What I'm arguing against is something I'll call "Acaeum conventional wisdom." Now, I'll be the first to say that Acaeum CW is almost always right, but I'm just not so sure in this case.

The CW here regarding magazines is: "sell the early numbers individually; sell the later numbers in a bulk lot or lots." But, again, the problem is that the data to back up this claim is practically non-existent when it comes to complete lots. How many complete lots of Dragon, Dungeon, Space Gamer, Different Worlds, Ares, or whatever, have ever been sold on eBay? What were the final prices? How did the seller handle shipping? What was the average condition? This data is just not there ... which means we're falling back onto conventional wisdom. And CW is not always right ... sorry, but it's not.

+++++

A final thought: what's the worst that could happen by attempting to sell a complete lot? Eating a listing fee. Big deal.

Personally, I'd give it a shot, setting up a beautiful listing that was protected by a reserve and/or a fat BIN. Best case: I get a juicy PayPal payment, spend a weekend packing up, and those issues are out of my life forever. Worst case: no bids ... and either re-list or go to Plan B and break it down into smaller lots.

Posts: 343 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:23 pm

I recently sold several Dragon mags and Dungeon mags by the each and was pleasantly surprised at the bidding for them. They were in super condition, which is I think the most important criteria for predicting sales of these mags, as they are not all that rare. Plus they were fairly low numbers. Badmike is right about the higher numbers not going for much. And Xaxaxe is right about the much higher hassle factor of shipping to several people rather than just one. If you advertise combined shipping, you will probably find, as I did, that folks will buy the few magazines they need by the each, and you can still ship the mags as a buyer-selected lot. And many of my sales were international. The weak dollar helps offset the sticker shock of overseas postal costs.

Posts: 4544 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:50 pm

Xaxaxe wrote:

I've only seen it twice ... but, to be fair, it's been quite a while since I've had Dragons as an active eBay search.

Sadly, I do not recall the final total for either listing. One was quite a while ago (long before I'd joined the Acaeum), but the second one was more recent. It might even be mentioned in one of the old "Interesting Items" threads ... although that would involve a lot of searching. Shocked

I'm pretty sure that second one ended north of $500, though. I seem to remember that as my "jump off" point at the time ... but I just don't remember what the final price was.

X----you could get $500 for just the first 4 issues if you played your cards right. For the first 50 issues, more than a grand at least. For that much, I'd just go dump the rest of them at a used bookstore and pat myself on the back as a good job done!

Mike B.

Posts: 4544 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:58 pm

Xaxaxe wrote:

+++++

A final thought: what's the worst that could happen by attempting to sell a complete lot? Eating a listing fee. Big deal.

Personally, I'd give it a shot, setting up a beautiful listing that was protected by a reserve and/or a fat BIN. Best case: I get a juicy PayPal payment, spend a weekend packing up, and those issues are out of my life forever. Worst case: no bids ... and either re-list or go to Plan B and break it down into smaller lots.

It would be interesting to see what would happen. But the shipping itself would be a nightmare. Your talking at least six (8?) very, very heavy boxes, and you'd have to actually pack them instead of just dropping the mags inside (to prevent damage). I can see a lot of people being intrigued, but the shipping quote ($100+) would freak out a lot of people enough to prevent them from bidding.

What you might do is what you are doing now..solicit buyers off Ebay, and see what happens. First, someone on a forum like this would be much more understanding about the cost of shipping involved. Hell, if I lived within a few hundred miles, and wanted to buy the set, I'd just go ahead and plan to drive over and pick them up rather than take the chance the first 20 issues get lost in he mail or beat up during shipping.

I'm starting to lean more and more to my sell the first 50 issues on ebay and then dump the rest some used bookstore for whatever you can get....you'd save the time of dealing with several hundred unsellable issues, and get a few bucks, when you've made the real money off the early issues If you wanted to be patient you can get $1-$5 an issue selling them individually, but if you don't have a store it wouldnt be worth it.

Mike B.

Posts: 1007 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:29 pm

I wouldn't mind the whole thing.. just make sure all the mags have the inserts!

Brette:)

Posts: 2616 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:36 pm

Badmike wrote:

What you might do is what you are doing now..solicit buyers off Ebay, and see what happens.

No doubt about this part.

I wouldn't start with eBay; I'd start here. Hell, it sounds like you've got at least four users here who will at least give you a quote. And, if a deal is successfully concluded, you'll have saved on listing fee, final-value fee, and PayPal fee (although maybe PayPal would be used, anyway ... I'm just saying that, on eBay, it's almost going to be a guarantee).

There's other non-eBay sources, too: Dragonsfoot (if you can find your way past the all of the threads on pizza toppings and favorite actresses), other D&D forums, maybe even Craigslist.

Posts: 63 · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:35 am

I'd be interested in buying a whole collection at once myself..

Posts: 478 · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:01 pm

Sounds like there may be some interest in a complete collection.

In my opinion, you'd get more for the collection breaking it up. But as Xax says, selling piecemeal is going to be a LOT of extra work; instead of one listing that's done in a weekend - maybe a couple of hours work to set up the auction and ship to the winner - you're looking at probably 100 hours work over a number of weeks - 4-6 easy at least.

So you just need to work out how much all that extra work is worth to you, and decide which way to go. If it was me, I'd want to be sure I'd get at least $300-400 more going piecemeal - any less and I'd sell in one lot.

Check out ebay for average prices for the first 50 issues; be optimistic and add $1 an issue for the rest; and see what the total is. Take off the minimum acceptable loss to avoid that 100 hours work and put an ad in the classifieds, and see what offers you get.

Regards

Mike

Posts: 20 · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:03 pm

Thank you very much for all the thoughts, suggestions, and ideas. I will definately take them to heart. The first collection is the one that currently has the most potential. As I said in my original post I am only missing 3 copies in that one (8, 54, & 359). The second one is missling all three of those plus about 22 more including #2 which is going to be kind of hard to find these days. I am going to be listing some triplicates and even quadruplets here in the next week but I seriously doubt there are in those that anyone here would want as they are all post #75 with a couple of exceptions. When I have the first full collection filled I will be sure to list it here first. I do not do this as business so it will probably take me a couple of months to get the first one filled. My friend and I started playing in the late 70's and almost immediately got subscriptions to Dragon. Since that time we both filled in holes as we could. He passed away a few years ago and his family gave me his stuff to sell. His collection was utterly huge by the time he passed on. I quit collecting myself in the mid 90's and up until I started listing this stuff I knew absolutely nothing about the third edition. It has been kind of fun looking through all the stuff as I have been listing it and I have even bought a few things that seem to sell very well. If I had more time I might even enjoy doing this as a serious hobby. Alas, I am not sure why I said all that but anyway I will let you all know when I have the first collection ready to go.

Posts: 2339 · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:23 pm

beasterbrook wrote:

I wouldn't mind the whole thing.. just make sure all the mags have the inserts!

Is there a list somewhere that describes the inserts and extras that came with each magazine? There are a bunch in the 200s that came with CDs and catalogs, etc.

Posts: 2616 · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:38 pm

Mars wrote:

Is there a list somewhere that describes the inserts and extras that came with each magazine? There are a bunch in the 200s that came with CDs and catalogs, etc.

I've never found one. The best I've been able to do is to carefully check the table of contents for every issue, which can get pretty tedious. Most inserts or special items are listed on their respective covers, too ... but not always.

If anyone does have a reliable source for Dragon inserts, I'd love to hear about it.

Posts: 2616 · Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:28 am

**bump**

First 157 issues ... over $500 already and looking strong with more than four days to go:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200217058002&s sPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=010

Posts: 4544 · Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:40 am

Xaxaxe wrote:

**bump**

First 157 issues ... over $500 already and looking strong with more than four days to go:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200217058002&s sPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=010

If I won that, I'd ask to have the first 50 issues shipped, and tell the seller to dump the rest in the trash or donate them. That's all the auction is really for, anyway.

I think he would have gotten more splitting it up.....$500, for example, only gets you the first 3 issues in most cases. Although for all I know the auction could get pretty crazy at the end.

Mike B.