spdkils wrote in Over 900 item collection.:Unfortunately my brother died, and it has fallen to me to clean out his house.

So sorry to hear about your loss.  You have my condolences.

Other people have asked this questions many times, so a search on these forums should find you many opinions/feedback on this kind of question.  The bottom line is that you can go one of two extremes which is to sell everything at once to someone on these forums (or another D&D forum) and get quicker money and lower return, or sell things individually on eBay which takes more time and trouble but significantly increases your profit by maybe 20 to 50%.  There are compromises like selling the higher value stuff individually and the more common stuff all together in one lot.  You have multiple standout items in the pictures I saw which are worth $50.00 or more.

Condition is a huge factor in a bulk-lot value.  The pictures you show give some good hints that you have most items in above average condition.  What is not visible are any possible markings or highlights inside, or smoke smells, or possible some water damage.  And while you could give lots of assurances that everything is pristine, complete, or whatever, long-time collectors here are picky about particulars and have to assume the worst.

Shipping is a pain, is difficult to do correctly, and is fairly expensive, even if you go the Media Mail route.  You could save yourself a lot of trouble and probably get a better price overall if you were able to sell it to someone who lived close enough to pick it up.  We have several people on these forums who would consider a short drive (hour or two) to see the collection first hand and give you an offer (like me!).  You may not want to state the city you live in, but that may trigger some offers or inquiries who might not otherwise speak up.

I think you've realized that no one is going to offer maximum value for everything.  However, when it comes to advice, there are few places where you can find people who know their D&D better.  Speaking if which, here is advice from similar threads from people who are smarter than me.

   Mars wrote:

Generally, I think if you want to sell it as one big lot, expect to get 50% of the value.  Lately, I've been trying to move a bunch of stuff out the door and have gone the mini lot method on Ebay.  I've been happy with the results - not the highest prices but reasonable ones.

   TheHistorian wrote:

Big lots only bring big money if:

   1. There is at least one legitimately rare item that drives up the price
   2. The lot is so huge that anyone could make money reselling it
   3. Both of the above

   But even in those cases, the lots don't recoup as much as they should, because they will almost always be bought by dealers.  There was one a few months ago that I recall we were all watching.  It had a ton of material, including several big items, and might have had a fair retail price of $8-9k.  It sold for, I think, less than $3k.

   An individual collector probably won't have the interest in getting one or two items and reselling dozens, but a dealer can't pay a lot and still make a profit.

   If you want to maximize your profit, you have to invest time and effort in individual (or at least small groups) listings.  If you want to minimize your effort, then just contact a few dealers and see what they'd give you for the whole thing.  A couple you might try are Noble Knight Games and Wayne's Books.

   Badmike wrote:

The advice here is very good. I'd only add that I pay about $5 an item on average for above average condition items when I buy a collection like this, especially if collections don't have at least 2-3 special items. You are far better off cherry picking the nicer items (such as the supplements) and selling them separately, and putting the more common items in one big lot.  Also, condition is paramount for many buyers so more pictures (with close ups) would help you immensely.  And remember shipping costs that will knock a lot of buyers out, especially international buyers, which are some of my best customers.  Good Luck!  If you don't get any bites go to some of the forums like here or at Dragonsfoot to see if you can sell directly and not through ebay (save more money in fees that way!).

I know you want to sell everything at once, but my advice is to get people on these forums to identify, at least, the top ten items in this collection, sell those individually, and then sell the rest in one huge lot if you just want it over and done with.  Even a little extra work like that can go a long way to increasing your take home net.

Good luck!  

benjoshua wrote in Over 900 item collection.:I know you want to sell everything at once, but my advice is to get people on these forums to identify, at least, the top ten items in this collection, sell those individually, and then sell the rest in one huge lot if you just want it over and done with.

I couldn't get it down to ten, but just to start the arguing, I mean discussion, here are many of the top items I saw just from the HQ images.  This assumes these items are in above average condition and complete.  And few if any of these items would likely sell for over $100.00 unless it was shrink-wrapped.

H1 Bloodstone Pass (x2?)
Return to the Tomb of Horrors
Rod of Seven Parts
Night's Dark Terror
Desert of Desolation (x2?)
B1-9 In Search of Adventure
Scourge of the Slavelords
Realms of Horror
Queen of the Spiders
Iuz the Evil
Planes of Law
Hellbound The Blood War
Planes of Chaos
Planscape Campaign Setting

As far as the magazines go, many re-sellers won't likely even touch Dragon Mags over number 50.  The rest you list would sell on eBay for an average of $5.00 each roughly so a re-seller would buy all the mags for $2.50 each not including all the Dragon magazines over issue #50 or so.  If my math is correct, that's 155 magazines @ $2.50 = $387.50.  The valuable ones in all of that are Dragon #8, 15, 22 and Dungeon #1, and Dungeon #2, in my opinion.

And if you go by Badmike's guideline of $5.00 an item for everything else and you have 963 items then that works out to: $4815.00 plus shipping.  Shipping all of that by Media Mail in the US is going to cost about $200.00, plus or minus $50.00, not including shipping materials, although you can probably get your boxes for free from the liquor store.

Basically, I think you'll be lucky to get $5000.00 for everything, including the magazines and shipping.  The main problem is you don't have a lot of re-sellers who can make that large of an investment.  I wish I had better news for you, but that's still a chunk of change.  

Gnat the Beggar wrote in Over 900 item collection.:Queen of the Spiders   (Sorry I did not see this one at all)  

Image 458 of 1000 (HQ images).  It's in a plastic bag, so the image is dulled.  

EDIT: Post 2300!  Woot!

One final note, if I'm breaking some rule by this posting, I don't have a problem retracting it.

For any of you who have not dealt with the court system, and the death of a family member. In my state, all deaths without a will are court mediated, and as the representative, I can act for the estate. However I will not have the power to act without court intervention until all the proper paperwork is signed. My court date is the 24th of January. So I'm not stalling, or trying to jack with anyone. All proceeds are documented, and logged to the estate. His surviving daughter is the beneficiary of any and all monies I can get from the estate.

I've received 4 serious offers already, and I'm waiting to hear back from a few other e-mails I sent earlier in the week. I just came here to try and get a feel what the community thought would be fair, since I don't follow this stuff.

--Allen

nn wrote in Over 900 item collection.:A thought: how can spdkils vet potential buyers via this board, while keeping confidences?

Im sure we can think of some resellers not to sell to.

Although I am not one of the potential bidders on this lot (sorry just don't have the cash right now...), the goal here is for him to get as much money for this guy's family.

Keep the snippyness to a minimum, and hope for the best for him.

I doesn't have to be a secret.

I had already sent e-mails to a list of online resellers, and other shops that specialize in D&D materials. Rather than change course, and tell them, oh I'm doing a bid system now, I thought as long as they offered me a good value I wouldn't change it up on them.

To someone who would keep the majority of it, of course they would be willing to buy it at a higher price than a reseller. (So they don't have to pay reseller prices.)

I of course have several, some of them competing goals:

[list=]Get as much as possible.
Keep my work down as low as possible.
Get it into the hands of people who will appreciate the collection.

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