Well as the owner of a lot of crap I feel I have little or no expertise in this matter, but at hasn't stopped me before. So, are the items that Jason suggested earlier to be labeled worthless, the less than 5$, truly worthless. Not if you enjoy them and not if your willing to pay 5$. Are they worthwhile to sell individually? With all the fees unlikely. Sounds like with the best estimate of values in many lists of this web site perhaps there should be a tutorial of how to buy/sell items in different price ranges. And suggestions that items below a certain value are best if bought or sold in bulk.
I like the spell jammer stuff and can with patience get them for very good prices. I cannot get a orange B3 for a good price. Not possible. I will never spend a dime on dragon lance stuff because I feel it is all crap. It's a sound opinion that can only be supported by never looking at the items. We all have different ideas of what is valuable. Vividly seen on eBay pricing. A actual worth of something is only a vague estimate of a communities opinion on value.

So I suggest many those with more experience writing a section on how to handle generally low value items and what value range can be more worthwhile to buy and sell individually. What would that info be worth?

benjoshua wrote in Worthless items.:

Mars wrote in Worthless items.:I'm kinda wondering what the point of this thread really is.  It doesn't seem very friendly for someone new to show up asking for help with an appraisal because they don't really know about this stuff and then point them towards the "Your collection is worthless" thread.  It sounds more like a reseller phishing thread.......

....I think it might be more productive if you take something of a better tone such as an FAQ on how best to sell your collection with some useful information.

I think Mars is on the right track here, and I think with some additional input we could provide a valuable service to anyone who wants to sell their collection.  I think arguing about which items are worthless or not will get us no where because value is subjective and changes over time. Having a link or sticky thread where solid advice is consolidated and summarized could limit repeating and re-finding relevant answers from the past.

Personally, I would vote for a sticky thread over an article linked to the home page for two reasons.  First, I suspect sellers will have follow-up questions, as I don't recommend the initial entry be exhaustive in its explanations.  Second, I think one of the points in this summary should be that there are a variety of venues where items can be sold, eg. Craigslist, eBay, RPG Marketplace, and these forums accompanied by their respective advantages and disadvantages.  And while sellers will likely choose other venues most of the time, it does reveal an option we'd all like to see more often; ie. people offering to us their collections for sale.  Sure, most of those collections are crap to refined collectors like us, but not all the time.  And, if you think selling items here offers few advantages, think again.  Our biggest strength is that we have buyers who offer one price for everything, but there are also sellers who want buyers who genuinely appreciate and treasure what they've bought, and we're great at that!     So, a sticky thread like this could provide a valuable service AND occasionally steer sellers our way.  And, the more collections we buy, the less we have to roll our eyes at the inflated reselling prices of Noble Knight.  

I vote Mars be the chief editor of such a sticky thread and we give him input on what should be included and excluded.  Go Mars!  :)

I like a sticky thread on the subject. Especially educating people on the quality (condition) of items vis a vis value.  The same thing in comics, some guy thinks he has a gold mine until you point out all his 60s comics are dirty, dog-eared and colored in.  In general an item missing the poster map, with highlighting and massive spine wear is relatively valueless for resale purposes, it would be good to have a place to have that stated explicitly.

Mike B.

I think a good place to start is what questions should an FAQ have?

Some that come to mind are:

Do you want to sell your collection as a whole or are you willing to sell individual items?
* I use to think I'd buy a collection for half of what it was worth to resell.

What items should I look for that might have high value?
* There are the rares, but most collections will not have these.
* Maybe a list of modules that were more mass produced but valuable such as H-series, B10, X10, DA-series, etc.

Joe Franke wrote in Worthless items.:Worthless is a harsh term. Dragon Mags are a good example, cause they are all worth a couple bucks or so depending on the presentation, and ebay, as a portal for that does not always work so well. I've bought giant collections for less than a dollar apiece and resold them for 2-6 dollars apiece. Saying Dragon mags are worthless is like saying two-dollar bills are worthless.

It depends on your ability to sell them. In a three month period a large number of issues have No Sales and a large number do not sell for 2-6 dollars. If you can't sell them individually then they are monetarily worthless individually. Dragon mags are not 2 dollar bills, some aren't even worth a penny.

burntwire brothers wrote in Worthless items.:Like many no-sales on Ebay, shipping is what kills the deal. I have seen many items I thought were good prices until I saw the shipping costs(sometimes around $10 or more for a single module or magazine).

Shipping is a killer especially on low value items. Unfortunately magazines can be exceptionally heavy and even when trying to sell them in bulk shipping can make them very hard to sell.

burntwire brothers wrote in Worthless items.:That is why it is sometimes best to pick them up from re-sellers at conventions.

Selling at conventions works out great for both the buyer and seller. A brick and mortar store with a decent amount of customers can do fantastic with items that are worthless on ebay, but even so there will be items that first go in storage then to goodwill as unsellable. This varies from location to location, but it generally means that those items can't be sold online as well. The problem with low dollar items at conventions is that you really need to stick to high dollar items for the most part to pay for the space though it is wise to have several low dollar boxes to attract customers.

"Worthless" is just a terribly loaded word.  I changed my posts to replace "worthless" with "low value" to reflect this.

The sentiment however is the same.  There is a large segment of game items that, should you wish to sell your collection, do not need to take up a huge portion of time finding/setting prices and value.  They can essentially be given away or sold for whatever prices you can get for them.  Someone will probably find some value in such items for gaming purposes (they wouldn't be bidding on or buying them, otherwise), but as collectibles they are not going to enrich your pocketbook.

This situation comes up all the time when I estimate value on comics collections.  No matter the condition of the comic, there is a story (art and writing) in there that reflects effort on a person's part, and it's part of our childhood memories.  Is a Jack Kirby comic ever "worthless"?  Is an Amazing Spiderman comic ever "worthless"? In artistic terms or in stimulating the imagination, of course not.  In monetary terms, absolutely, if it's less than 30 years old, dog-eared, and has coupons cut out of it.   Typically the person whose collection I am estimating isn't interested in the artistic value or story value, he/she just wants to make a quick buck out of something that has been sitting in the back of their closet for a couple decades.  

In general, those who wish to sell a big box of Dragon magazines (which seems to  be one of the most common lot of items ex-gamers have left over in the recesses of their attic or closet) or old modules and hardbacks are not looking for people to wax nostalgic on the joys of gaming.  They are looking for a few bucks for something they have forgotten about the last 20 years, or whether or not they should waste their time ebaying it or just dumping it at the local used bookstore. A lot of these same individuals have never sold on ebay, or are first time sellers, and there is simply no upside in spending time to ebay that pile of Dragon magazines #180-242 because the little money they receive in comparsion to the cost (in time and money) of packaging the items up to ship them.  They are far better off cherry picking and then either dropping the books/magazines off at a used bookstore or donating them to a gamer or gamer's club.

As an example I kept around a large box (200+ cards?) of the MERP CCG for years.  Not a card in there worth more than a nickel apiece. After finally realizing they were not going to be worth enough for me to sell online I donated them to a local schoolteacher at a private school who ran a club where they played card games like Magic, etc after school.  It's probably easy enough to find a curious teenager somewhere getting into gaming that would love a set of 1E modules with the Otus illustrations colored in with markers.

This isn't a thread about telling someone your crap is worthless and I have better stuff...it's a thread about how to make it easier to tell a passer-by to the site that no matter what they have heard online about "hidden treasures" stuffed in their attic, unfortunately, their collection of beat-up orange spined AD&D rulebooks and the boxed sets missing all the maps are NOT going to put them on the Antiques Roadshow.  Unfairly to those who have to evaluate such collections over and over (as I have done many, many times in the last 20 years) shows like "American Pickers", "Storage Wars", "Antiques Roadshow", and "Pawn Stars" have conditioned anyone with a garage full of shit that there are "treasures" buried within....which is untrue in 95% of the cases I have dealt with.  Not everyone, but a lot of people coming to this site are in hopes of being pleasantly surprised.  Some have been, because we are an honest bunch of rogues, but just as often some have had their hopes dashed.   

The point is that no matter how much we love reading and collecting and using this stuff, there is a person out there who is only interested in seeing how much they can get for that stuff. And it's silly to give them the thread-equivalent of a participation ribbon and tell them that all gaming material is wonderful when they are only interested in cold hard cash.  Mars' idea of a "selling/appraisal" sticky is a good idea, as is the general advice given here by many of the posters (for example, selling at conventions is a great way to get rid of low-value items, you would be surprised at how quickly such sales add up when the bargain buyer loads up on affordable items).

Mike B.

It would be great if folks could be encouraged to donate their low-value game products.

But to whom? Most stores have folded, few clubs remain...

And I fear that if donations were promoted, the end result would be shelves of worn 2e and d20 products, all heavily overproduced.

F

ps: the very title of the thread sneers at the topic, whatever the words within. :/

ExTSR wrote in Worthless items.:It would be great if folks could be encouraged to donate their low-value game products.

But to whom? Most stores have folded, few clubs remain...

And I fear that if donations were promoted, the end result would be shelves of worn 2e and d20 products, all heavily overproduced.

F

ps: the very title of the thread sneers at the topic, whatever the words within. :/

I don't see gaming clubs like I used to....most often when I do, they are at private schools or religious schools (ironically).  

There are a few guys that attend NTRPG con that run or are involved in gaming clubs at their schools...but I think they are mostly in the market for board or card games.  I bet, however, they would like any sort of gaming donation including RPGs.  I have donated a lot of Judges Guild stuff (surprise, surprise) to them as well as the MERP CCG stuff mentioned above.  

Another thought:  smaller conventions are always looking for items they can use for raffle or auction sales. A pile of common Dragon mags, which are worth virtually nothing, might net the convention a nice little donation that helps with operating costs.  I know my buddy Dale Donahoo at MagCon in Houston is always looking for items, doing a little research and finding small local cons in the area could help spread the more common items around.

Nesbit, PM me, if you want I can send you a "care package" of some Judges guild goodies for your game club or education center...

Mike B.