Josh,

Only you can answer some of your questions.  You seem to know the basic venues and the relative risks.  Further, you understand that the items you sell have to be valuable enough to justify the time and effort.  That equation includes the selling costs, which each venue posts for you to accept or not and the transaction risks.  You have to account for all costs (including risks) in your sales.  You may elect to minimize transaction risk by paying for tracking and/or insurance, or you may elect to run the risk of total loss of your product, time and shipping costs.  

Although selling your collection may be a hobby to you, it is a business to ebay, Amazon, Craigslist, your competitors and likely to some of your buyers.  I don't understand not liking posted fees.  The beauty of internet sales is that most costs are variable costs.  Meaning, you don't have many fixed costs in rent and utilities.  Unfortunately, Amazon and Ebay know exactly what the average operating costs are for a retail bricks and mortar business.  It appears that they have each decided that online sellers can be compelled to pay a similar % of overhead in variable costs.  You can't avoid their fees and accomplish similar market reach.  

I completely understand the desire to sell things without transaction fees or risks.  But, even the small booksellers who used to set up on the sidewalks in Manhatten rent-free... had to worry about rain, transportation... and turf wars.  I frequently experience people who think they are selling without costs on Craigslist, but failing to account for driving to meet people and assuming the risk of getting mugged or shot.  

My advice is get over your reservations about ebay, group your materials into lots that should sell for over $25 and let them fly.  It gets the matter over and done with quickly and reasonably.  Unless you are intending to create listings and restock them...  I would not even consider selling very inexpensive items on Ebay because I would not want to end up shipping dozens of dollar packages and dealing with all of the potential hassle.  If you can get your average sale price above the budget of a high school or college kid... you can probably save yourself a whole lot of headache in the long run.  JMHO

Pipswich wrote:My advice is get over your reservations about ebay, group your materials into lots that should sell for over $25 and let them fly.  It gets the matter over and done with quickly and reasonably.  Unless you are intending to create listings and restock them...  I would not even consider selling very inexpensive items on Ebay because I would not want to end up shipping dozens of dollar packages and dealing with all of the potential hassle.  If you can get your average sale price above the budget of a high school or college kid... you can probably save yourself a whole lot of headache in the long run.  JMHO

I think you edited since I hit the reply button.

My last two big eBay auction attempts were large lots to pare down my collection (before a move, after the kid, etc.) and had many minor-dollar sales off eBay.  Sent a complete New Warriors collection to Germany (TWICE because he sent me the wrong address!).  Cost $70 to ship both times; cost $50 for the books.  He still "won", and I felt like I "lost".  I don't plan to do individual issues of comics this time around (no cuttin' 2 pieces of cardboard to tape together into a makeshift package for me!); lots are where it's at.  

I have shown it to the only local comic dealer who (1) I trust and (2) who actually deals in older books, and he's getting together his wishlist, which I hope he gets to me sooner than later.
I have considered sending "To the troops" a while ago, but it's only now that I've cataloged what I actually HAVE.
I used to give books away for Halloween, but I haven't done so the last 2 years and I'm over a month late now.
I do have some material that might just go to the local foster home system (there's a "village" of foster homes nearby); I know that $1 Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG book in the lot is definitely going in that direction; the Feng Shui and ShadowFist books?  eBay lot.

Interesting hurricane sales btw

ashmire13 wrote:eBay sucks now

But adding up all the pros and cons, it still sucks the least.  *shrug*

TheHistorian wrote:

ashmire13 wrote:eBay sucks now

But adding up all the pros and cons, it still sucks the least.  *shrug*

Is Amazon that bad to sell via? Was considering starting there..

Are there many charges though Mike

ashmire13 wrote:

TheHistorian wrote:
But adding up all the pros and cons, it still sucks the least.  *shrug*

Is Amazon that bad to sell via? Was considering starting there..

Avoid Amazon like the plague. They held up my money for 4 months because I hit some threshold for sales....just because I actually sold stuff they put it "under review". My seller rating was perfect. What was worse is you could not get a human to talk to you. I had to have the Attorney General threaten them before I got my money from them. Apparently they do this all the time and take the sellers money and make interest on it.

You have no way to talk to a human...and if you email them more than 3 times you get an email that states they will be ignoring you. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. They held thousands of dollars that belonged to me in their account for 4 months and not as much as an apology or explanation. One day I just got the funds. They are despicable.