So I’ve got some old comics (mostly from when my mom and aunt were young, dating from, IIRC, the '60’s and '70’s or so… Not much older, not much newer), old toys (my old Transformers, He-Man figures, etc. - obviously opened and played with), and old video games (NES/Game Boy games, and the consoles/light gun/etc. too!).
They’re taking up storage space at home that could be used for my nephew. It seems like a huge waste to throw them away, but is there anything else I can do with them? Would it actually be worth the time and trouble to sell on eBay or wherever?
I would definitely check into what some of the stuff is going for on eBay. I’ve heard too many stories about old-school parents who fill the house with jar lids and loose screws, then toss $25,000 worth of their son’s baseball cards because they’re “junk.”
I’d check things out at eBay or Amazon. You can sell a LOT of stuff on Amazon these days, and I hear that eBay is really screwing its sellers. I’m considering getting an old NES console and a few of the games that I missed the first time around, or that I wore out.
I am a sometime collectibles dealer. You would not believe the deals I’ve gotten buying from the ignorant and reselling to collectors. It is better by far to assume that everything you have is a valuable item than to throw it out as junk.
I once bought a KISS trashcan for a $1. I sold it for $125.
Search eBay to learn how much the items are going for. Ask a collector friend you can trust to help price the items. Do NOT throw them out or give them away.
Question: the comics run into the buttloads. And, of course, they, like the toys, were bought to be used - i.e. read - and they were kept at a time when comics weren’t considered valuable.
Will I really have to look up each and every issue?
Comics are worth a lot less than some people think. Ebay gives you a more realistic picture of what they’re worth - which is what people will actually pay for them vs what a price guide says.
He-man toys have never been worth anything to collectors - at least not out of the box ones. I don’t know about Transformers. They are actually popular right now, unlike Masters of the Universe, but I imagine they too aren’t worth that much because millions were made. The exception with Transformers seems to be the humongous ones and the Voltron-esque ones that make a larger Transformer.
I’d check the eBay prices on some of your comics that you might think are more in-demand or rarer than others. Same for the toys. You may well have some stuff worth selling. Otherwise, I’d give it to kids.
I’ve got a few large boxes of the very same toys in my parents’ basement still. They were all about saving my toys for me because they wanted me to be able to pass them onto my kids - and the off chance that they’d be valuable/collectible. I think I have almost all of the MotU guys up to the time of the movie, and I’ve got Skeletor’s castle (Snake Mountain?) and Greyskull. If I have boy someday, it seems weird to think of him playing with those old (and very 80s) toys in the year 2015 or thereabouts.
Aside from the Transformers toys, nothing you’ve listed is worth any significant amount. If you really want money for the video games, take them down to your local indie game shop (GameStop won’t touch NES stuff) and ask what they want for them. You’d get a similar price on eBay and with much less hassle.
As for the Transformers stuff, it’s going for big cash nowadays. My cousin is rebuying all the old Transformers he played with as a kid for his son and they’re actually really expensive. For example, this Optimus Prime (which was the biggest selling toy by far) is going for $35. And it’s been opened and played with:
The rule of thumb, as just about everyone has stated, is to check eBay. You might also try placing ads in your local ‘Trade and Sell’ paper, if you have one. I got a decent chunk of change for my ThunderCats and Masters of the Universe figures that way, without having to deal with the hassle of eBay.
The old video games probably aren’t worth diddly. I managed to sell some Atari stuff for a little, but all my NES items got traded in at a local vintage video game store for paltry cash or store credit.
I collect transformers, actually. If you can toss up some photos, I’ll see what I can tell you.
And do that for the video games. Line 'em up in a photo, toss it up, lemme see what I can tell you about their value.
Comics are probably worth jack, sadly. Especially if they’re not ‘just like they came off the newsstand in 1960’.
Summing up: So it sounds like the Transformers stuff is most likely to be worth selling. The game stuff can go to one of the local vintage game places. The question marks are the He-Man figures and comics. Further suggestions to gauge these would be appreciated.
If I do decide to donate, what sort of places are most likely to take and want them?
(Oh, and I just remembered that many of the comics were from when I was a kid in the 80’s. I think I’ve already plucked out the stuff that’s obviously worth something (like that one Incredible Hulk issue with the Rob Liefield cover where he and Wolverine throw down).