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buying lots and or large quanities.
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jhstissot
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Post Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 4:53 pm 
 

generally, from my expierence, buying lots or just buying large quanities has never really paid off for me.  I was just wondering what other people think on this idea  :roll:
  

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Post Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 5:30 pm 
 

jhstissot wrote:generally, from my expierence, buying lots or just buying large quanities has never really paid off for me. I was just wondering what other people think on this idea :roll:


Hey Jeff, I think it depends on what you are planning on doing with the large lots you are buying. Obviously, if you are looking to just resell,  particuarly in the months anywhere from mid January to early to mid May, you are probably not going to get to buy good lots at low prices. Those months seem to be the most active bidding season (IMHO it seems like it is espescially bad this year   :twisted:  ).  Every once in a while you can sneak in a good deal, particualrly if you can catch a back-end BIN from a seller who is totally aware of the value of the items he/she is selling, or a items are completely mislisted (a total mispelling or the items are listed in the wrong category), but for the most part it is a lot rougher going in the winter months.

Now if you are bidding with the intention of keeping all or most of the items then it is a little different story.  Obviously, you are still going to be facing stiffer competion in the winter months, but because you are looking to keep the items it makes a little more sense to bid higher, as you are  not thinking "okay, the bid is now up to $8.50 per item plus shipping, if I win, can I split this up and get at least the amount that I paid for it back?"

Personally, I typically only bid on a large lots if I think it is such a great, great deal that I just can not pass it up, and that there is definitely money to be made on it by spliting it up. The other reason why I will bid on a large lot is because it has an item or two or three that I want, and I am just going to take the rest, and split them up in seperate auctions with the intention of helping them pay for the item(s) I want.


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Post Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 1:24 am 
 

I've got to say. . . I've been buying large lots for almost two years now - I have made a profit on every single lot I have purchased (usually 50%-300% the value I paid).

By this time, I have a really strong understanding of the value of all RPG items (AD&D/D&D, d20, Rifts, GURPS, BattleTech, Shadowrun, all White Wolf, Traveller and just about everything else) and what I can reasonably expect from eBay.

But that is from a reseller's point of view. . . as a collector? How many items can you really need to make a lot worthwhile? Maybe if you are just starting and need EVERYTHING; but after a short while duplicates start popping up, condition doesn't meet your personal standards, etc. If you don't resell the "extra" stuff you are going to wind up with stacks of "clutter".


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Post Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 6:15 am 
 

Having only in the last four or five months started collecting again I have a limited experience of buying, but the big problem I have found with lots, from a collectors point of view, is the condition is often quite poor. It is usually diffiult to see the items in the pictures and usually, IMHO, the larger the lot the less description given.

This is not always the case I recently bouight 52, 3rd edition rulebooks, supplements, accessories, etc for £110 ($200 appx.), on EBay. No pictures very poor description, but thought it was worth a shot. I stopped collecting in 1990 so 3rd edition was totally new.

When I collected these books they were MINT and I mean MINT, they had never been opened. The chap was a computer programmer and had been working on a D&D based game and his company had just sent him all these books as reference, he had not used them and when the project was over he wanted to get rid of them. Still in the box they were delivered in. On the other hand I have not been so lucky with other lots. But that's the chance you take.

I agree with bclarkie, unless you want to start reselling, which I will probably have to start doing, nearing 400 items of excess (How quickly it mounts up), I only bid on large lots that are a really great deal or contain items I just have to have. At present this is just about everything, LOL.
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Gnat the Beggar
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Post Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:13 am 
 

From a mostly pure collectors viewpoint. I find that more and more, I will bid on large lots if there are rare or hard to find items that I need to fill an otherwise empty spot in my collection. I almost never re-sell, although I must do so at various times if for no other reason than to empty a spot in my storage area (Home office) fore the next lot I obtain. Currently that storage area (Home office) is stacked high with stuff that I don't want and/or don't need. (Actually the wife says I don't need any of it! 8O )

The portions of the large lots that I do not want or need will inevitably sit in a corner for a long time, or I must find an out of the house place to store it so the wife does not get too angry with me.....  :? Until I get the gumption to re-sell (VERY rare occurrence),  or I find someone who wants one or more of those items that I do not need and we do some sort of trade. Also not a common occurrence.

Personally, I find it tough to get rid of those extra items anyway. I must admit that am truly no good at selling at all. I recently sold off 5 sets of books of core rules items all of them First Edition and all of the listings included DDG's with Cthulhu books in very nice condition and also another listing of a First Print Cthulhu. I got nearly nothing for them.... :oops: And this was right after I see a DDG's with Cthulhu alone go for silly money and it was not even a First Print either.... while most of mine were. One buyer bought all but one of the auctions. And paid less than 175 for five Cthulhu's and about 15 other books in all. :roll:

That sort of bad luck, or non-skill (Whatever it is) tends to put a kink on wanting to even bother with re-selling at all.... So the piles keep growing and the wife continues to have less patience.... :?


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jhstissot
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Post Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 1:25 pm 
 

Aneoth wrote:From a mostly pure collectors viewpoint. I find that more and more, I will bid on large lots if there are rare or hard to find items that I need to fill an otherwise empty spot in my collection. I almost never re-sell, although I must do so at various times if for no other reason than to empty a spot in my storage area (Home office) fore the next lot I obtain. Currently that storage area (Home office) is stacked high with stuff that I don't want and/or don't need. (Actually the wife says I don't need any of it! 8O )

The portions of the large lots that I do not want or need will inevitably sit in a corner for a long time, or I must find an out of the house place to store it so the wife does not get too angry with me..... :? Until I get the gumption to re-sell (VERY rare occurrence), or I find someone who wants one or more of those items that I do not need and we do some sort of trade. Also not a common occurrence.

Personally, I find it tough to get rid of those extra items anyway. I must admit that am truly no good at selling at all. I recently sold off 5 sets of books of core rules items all of them First Edition and all of the listings included DDG's with Cthulhu books in very nice condition and also another listing of a First Print Cthulhu. I got nearly nothing for them.... :oops: And this was right after I see a DDG's with Cthulhu alone go for silly money and it was not even a First Print either.... while most of mine were. One buyer bought all but one of the auctions. And paid less than 175 for five Cthulhu's and about 15 other books in all. :roll:

That sort of bad luck, or non-skill (Whatever it is) tends to put a kink on wanting to even bother with re-selling at all.... So the piles keep growing and the wife continues to have less patience.... :?


with ebay one does have to watch closely. Ebay is a clearing house like the nasdq or the nyse and prices move in tandem with the quanity and mood of the buyers and sellers.  i know that the vast many of you do not have the time to puor over ebay and make any kind of analycial judements and or time the market.  buyers and sellers need to time the market in order to maximise the value ie either revenue for the seller or value for a buyer (meaning cheap).   Even though ive been ebaying for only a short period of time i have seen several waves in the market.   especially when sellers flood the market with an item.
  

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Post Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 4:28 pm 
 

Epicrates_cenchria wrote:Having only in the last four or five months started collecting again I have a limited experience of buying, but the big problem I have found with lots, from a collectors point of view, is the condition is often quite poor. It is usually diffiult to see the items in the pictures and usually, IMHO, the larger the lot the less description given.


Believe me, crappy items poorly described in large lots happens A LOT :twisted: . Nothing like getting a large lot that looks nice in the picture that has little or no description, but then ends up substantially written in or even worse water damaged. Just happened to me today. Nice.... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:


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Epicrates_cenchria
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Post Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:00 pm 
 

The problem IMHO is with the whole EBay system, which does not really offer that much buyer protection. At the end of the day it is purely a moneymaking business and so long as seller pays  listing, paypal, end price costs, etc. They are not interested.

This is why I had started considering an auction site and intended monies to be held until after delivery so any such issues can be resolved, before money is released to seller, while not being held at the mercy of the buyer. I have so many issues with the EBay system, I am sure you all have, especially the feedback system. Definitely don't get me started on that, feedback extortion the bane of my buying!!!!

This is probably why many large lots go so cheaply, I often wonder why anybody lists them and this starts the suspision of what they are hiding.
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Post Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 8:28 pm 
 

bclarkie wrote:
Epicrates_cenchria wrote:Having only in the last four or five months started collecting again I have a limited experience of buying, but the big problem I have found with lots, from a collectors point of view, is the condition is often quite poor. It is usually diffiult to see the items in the pictures and usually, IMHO, the larger the lot the less description given.


Believe me, crappy items poorly described in large lots happens A LOT :twisted: . Nothing like getting a large lot that looks nice in the picture that has little or no description, but then ends up substantially written in or even worse water damaged. Just happened to me today. Nice.... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:


That is the truth; I got burned like that once. I bought a large lot with a really bad pic and little description - it was one of those auctions that was just placed on Ebay with a pretty good BIN (and they had good feedback), so I went and bought it outright.

When I got it, about half the books had mildew damage. How can you fail to mention something like this in an auciton listing?!

Now granted, even with all the mildewed books and modules, it was still a decent deal for what I payed (the other half of the books were fine), but that just got on my bad side.

That is why I went through the trouble of listing the condition of each individual book in my large lot auctions currently on Ebay. And yes I am including the moldy books in a couple of the auctions - although I have clearly pointed out this condition in capital letters so it won't be missed (and obviously I'll pack these in sealed plastic bags so they don't contaminate the other books).

It is really frustrating that so many people seem to lack this common courtesy.
  

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 12:57 am 
 

bclarkie wrote:
Epicrates_cenchria wrote:Having only in the last four or five months started collecting again I have a limited experience of buying, but the big problem I have found with lots, from a collectors point of view, is the condition is often quite poor. It is usually diffiult to see the items in the pictures and usually, IMHO, the larger the lot the less description given.


Believe me, crappy items poorly described in large lots happens A LOT :twisted: . Nothing like getting a large lot that looks nice in the picture that has little or no description, but then ends up substantially written in or even worse water damaged. Just happened to me today. Nice.... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:


I've become soured on buying large lots.  The last two I bought were large amounts of Dragon and Dungeon mags, both lots advertised as mint and near mint, and both being sold by reputable sellers (Feedback 100%, hundreds of sales, etc).  What I got in both cases was poor packaging, outright lies about condition (each lot had mags that were damaged, heavily read and in several cases loose covers), and generally a bad situation because I demanded and got refunds but not after having to repackage and reship the items, wasting my time and money.  Before the lastest few fiascos I had been running about 50-50 good deal vs badly described beat up crap.  Plus, I"ve about decided photos are worthless on Ebay when showing a big lot.....you could have feces smeared in that Dragon #300 and not see it by the picture anyway.  I'll stick to picking through old bookstores and convention stock, thank you very much.

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:19 am 
 

You really have to pick and choose the people you buy lots from - every once in a while I get some in poor condition, but for the majority of the time I am pleasantly surprised by how nice everything is.

In general. . . steer clear of large dealers, bookstores, isoldits, antique shops, store owners, etc. These people are either trying to clear out the stuff they can't sell, are selling it for someone else and/or know nothing about AD&D. They may prove difficult to communicate with (especially if they have 400 items listed!) and will have their "set" policies.

Seek out that "0" feedback seller who is trying to get rid of his lovingly used collection. By and large people are honest. Even if someone has no pics and no real descriptions other than:


"I used to play AD&D but haven't touched these books in years. I was always very careful with them and they are all in really nice condition, except the Players Handbook which is loose from the binding and the DMG which has some water damage."


That is the description of an honest person. . . I always trust that most people are not out to "screw" you. It works out much more than not. . .

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:22 am 
 

i've been in the position a fair few times now, where i have bought lots which look great, and turn out to be absolutely sh*te. the pic makes it look tons more than it actually is and then you get it and think WTF??!!

i tend to auction a lot from time to time of misc things, which i clearly state are simply for playing material and not for collecting or reselling as i dont feel its good enough to sell on its own.

so at least i try and make that clear enough, so a buyer knows what they are getting right from the outset.

mind you i made a pigs ear of that once too. i sold a crappy little booklet in one called "jade hare" and wondered why there were 40+ watchers and tons of bids on that one lot! ho hum :)


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Post Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 7:08 pm 
 

Here is a perfect example of a "good" lot deal - this just arrived today. The seller had "0" feedback.

He communicated great, safely packaged the items, added on delivery confirmation as I requested - most items are in FINE, VF or NM condition. They are all (or almost all) complete with the appropriate maps (some inserts detached).

The Deities & Demigods has Cthulhu. . . .

So that is 5 modules plus hardcovers and a few miscellaneous.

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& ... RK:MEWN:IT


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