Toy collectors: best way to get rid of old Transformers & action figures?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I have maybe a couple garbage bags full of my old toys from the eighties. A lot of action figures, some vehicles, and some toy cars and things. I was thinking with the Transformers movies being successful, maybe this is a good time to get rid of this stuff and maybe get a little money. Maybe the Transformers are worth something. However this stuff is disorganized, and there some parts missing and such. I was wondering what might be the best way to get a little money for this stuff without too much fuss.

I was thinking of taking pictures of everything and putting it up as one lot on eBay or Craigslist. Is it worth taking the time to do anything else? I don’t even know the names of most of this stuff except for Optimus Prime and whatnot. Prices on eBay seem to be highly variable, some pieces going for tens of dollars apiece and some not selling at all for a few bucks.

I also have some Desert Storm era Micro Machines, but they’re well-organized and I know what they are so I could put them on eBay easily.

#2

Did you catch Pawn Stars the other night? A guy had about $20,000 of Transformer toys. The deal fell through because of all of the work that would have to go into selling them.

#3

I sold my brother’s Transformers on eBay maybe 10 years ago (Don’t worry! He told me to!) and made about $800. It wasn’t a huge collection or anything.

I looked up every toy he had, and matched all of the various pieces to the right toys. There’s a lot of Web sites that have the info. I took very good pictures of each toy and the accessories, noted what was included and what was missing in my description, and noted anything that may have been broken or scratched (like stickers).

The sales went really well, and we ended up making at least what everything was listed for (on other Web sites) or more.

If you do the work and are very professional about your sales, you’ll do fine. I think I did well because of my parts matching and my excellent images.

#4

Per ZipperJJ unless you’re willing to put the work in you’re not going to be able to maximize your return. People on eBay are very selective about what they will pay for, and if you have the a very accurate description of each item people will be inclined to open thier wallets.

Trying to sell them all as a big grab bag is as big a headache for the buyer to parse out as it is for you as the seller. Put them away until you can devote the time to list them properly.

#5

Above reported.

#6

As a transformers expert, I’m willing to help. Or buy 'em off you, depending.

As far as my expert status is concerned, I’ve been collecting for the last twenty. five. freaking. years. God help me. I know what’s rare and what’s not and what’s been reissued.

#7

In case someone was going to question my above post, a spammer necroposted this thread.

#8

I’d recommend you go to some of the collector websites, they have shopping areas where you can offer what you have, and the collectors will sort it out for you, then let you know if what you have is valuable.

Each type of collectible has at least one or two good websites that have shopping centers. For example, I’d recommend www.tfw2005.com as a good Transformers resource.

Selling on Ebay is always a good way to ensure you make a good amount of money if you have something rare, but I’m soured on the process myself, especially since you can’t leave feedback as a seller.

You may want to look in your area to see if there are any comic shops that buy collections, or flea markets where you can get a table or sell your collection on consignment with someone who has a table.

Good luck!

Tim
“toy geek”

#9

Good eye, Racer. Yeah, I’m guessing the toys got dealt with.

I’ve got pretty good part ID skills if they weren’t.

#10

This reminds me, I need to sell the last of my 80’s toys at some point. I sold a big box of them at a yard sale and almost immediately regretted it - probably could have made at least an extra hundred on eBay, and I’d still have the support vehicles to sell with my GI Joe Aircraft carrier.

#11

Oh, yes, that would have made you considerably more money. On the Flagg alone. Tell me what you got, I’ll say if there’s anything interesting to a collector. Can’t hurt, right?

#12

Sure thing. Via PM? Might take me a few days to get around to it. I do have the Flagg minus the support vehicles and Keelhaul figure.

Of course, I have Jetfire … but his arm is broken. Complete, though.

#13

There have been a number of Valkyrie reissues, Jetfire isn’t so much in demand. The in-demand part of Jetfire is the little clip that holds his gun to his vehicle mode, if you don’t have that, it’s probably just kitbash bait.

Via PM, or just link pictures on the forum for us all to kibitz about.
I mean, why not? Could be entertaining.

#14

That sounds like a project.

What about the Flagg? Should I try to eBay the thing as a whole, or sell the parts individually?

#15

It really comes down to a function of time versus effort there. I suspect you could probably make more if you could sell every part individually, but the question is, can you sell every part individually? Especially considering Ebay fees.

If I were to guess, I’d say the time/effort metric resolves itself best in either getting lucky on e-bay, or finding a Joe reseller and selling it directly to them. Of course, the Flagg itself has its own issues, mostly involving finding a good way to ship it.

Not to mention that ebay has limited how much you can charge to ship things these days.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=uss+flagg&_sacat=See-All-Categories

The fantail deck itself seems to be worth a bit of money, but all the other parts are in the twenty dollar range, compared to the main unit.

If I were you… IF the Flagg is in close enough to one piece, I’d pick up the missing bits off E-bay and sell the whole thing complete. It’s a nice chunk of change. The missing vehicles and figure really aren’t that much compared to the all-together price.

#16

I’ll have to double-check. With that thing, it’d be easy to overlook some small bit of railing.

Speaking of resellers, though, maybe I should look into that angle. If I sent it to ebay, it’d be going through a friend of mine who has a seller account, so with the hassle and his cut, it may get me more money to go straight to a reseller.

#17

http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/85/ussflagg/
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/85/ussflagg/flagg_parts.shtml

Well, here’s a complete parts view and list.

#18

Thanks!

#19

If you’re serious about selling the Flagg, you can send me a PM. I’d be interested in it. Get E-Sabbath to give his impartial opinion on it then we can talk from there, if you’d like.

#20

I’ve wanted to sell it for a year now, but the projected effort of documenting it, posting it, and shipping it has proved daunting. I almost was able to sell to a local collector (the one who bought the other GI Joe box that had Keel Haul and the refueling vehicle) but he got into a car accident that taxed his finances before we were able to talk about price.

Edit to add: I will PM you and E-Sabbath soon, and hopefully we can share email addresses and figure this thing out.