A friend of mine passed away a few months ago. I am helping his widow sell his considerable collections, so that she doesn’t get ripped off. My gut told me these two rayguns were especially valuable. A quick Google confirmed this. But, I’m having trouble narrowing in on an exact value.
@Exapno_Mapcase It seems with your knowledge and love of retro-futurism you might know.
BTW I know I need better photos. A cousin had previously offered to take pictures for me. As he could be a professional photographer if he wanted, and these are big ticket items I will be contacting him.
As my father often told me, something is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it, no more, no less. It doesn’t matter what someone thinks they are worth unless that someone is willing to buy them from you today at that price.
I would gather auction data telling me what they have been selling for and what condition they were in. Based on that I would have a rough idea of what they should be worth on the open market. Keep in mind that if you decide to sell them at auction the auction house will take a healthy commission for themselves.
Thanks, but this isn’t my first rodeo. I bought a KISS trashcan for $1 and sold it for $125. A Magic The Gathering card that cost me about 25 cents, I sold for $500. If this were a toy from the 1970’s or 1980’s, I’d have a much better idea of the price.
I’m aware that these are just ‘old toy guns’ to most people. But, to the right crowd, I’m thinking $200-400 a piece.
Sorry that I can’t help about pricing. All I know is from looking at a book about antique ray guns.
They appear to be Buck Rogers models from 1935, the XZ-38 and the XZ-31. Checking on eBay, they do indeed appear to go for $200-400. But I wouldn’t trust my identification from a photo and condition as always makes a big difference.
Actually it is the 1920’s style “death ray” that has the most collector value.
But seriously I think that all you can do is an advanced search on eBay, checking the option that will show you only completed auctions where the item sold. This should allow you to form an approximate view on what you should expect.
The issue then is whether you set a reserve at about that level - some say no, and that The Market will sort it out. But IME the danger is that the two people who are really into this item and would have bid against each other up to a good price happen not to see the item because they are busy or whatever, and you end up giving it away for too little. I’ve seen it happen.
Do not worry about that. There is no “too little” . If it goes for less than some, that is still FMV. You are not a expert on the condition The other one may have gone for several times more as the condition is more collectable.
If I see a reserve- I do not bother to bid, and I am not alone. Too many sellers set a high reserve as they either think it is worth way more than it really is, or they just want a free estimate from bidders- they are not interested in selling.
I feel, having worked as a collectible and antique dealer, I am largely an expert on the condition. Having bought a multitude of things at yard sales over the years and resold them for far more than I paid, I absolutely do NOT trust in the market. If I did, I would have simply gone to E-bay and priced the guns at $10, sure that I would get a fair price.
Instead, I sell in other online venues. I set a price and drop it in increments until an item sells. As it is, a person tried to cheat me. He read ‘Millenium Falcon 1977 toy’ saw the price and wanted to buy right away. When he realized that I was not selling the big Falcon that you could put figures in, but the metal diecast one that is less than a foot long, he immediately lost interest.
If this were a toy from the 1970’s or so, I wouldn’t need help. A lot of my late friend’s collections I can price easily (“Yeah, you’d be lucky to get $5 for that.”). With the ray guns, I knew they were worth money just from seeing them dimly in a closed display case. I mentioned his widow because I feel it helps explain things. If I don’t get the best price, I haven’t merely failed- I’ve failed her too.
Yeah, I had the words “metal” and “diecast” in the description and I included plenty of photographs of the Faclon I had. After the stranger tried to cheat me, I went back and added “7 Inches Long”. After that, one person said I was trying to cheat them by asking $6 shipping. Again, this toy is metal. To break even on shipping, I need to charge about $5.50. I just rounded to account for error and to make an even dollar amount.
Huh. I was misrembering it even smaller than that. One of my favorite toys ever as a child (even more than the big Falcon I got the same Christmas.) I have three of them packed away here somewhere.
