H: 2,589 cards for sale
The Trading Post forum
Posted on April 27, 2016, 4:48 p.m. by Ogrecorps
I'm liquidating a collection I haven't used or added to in 10+ years. I'm not interested in any trades. My full collection is in my binder and my "Complete Inventory" deck. I will update both as sales are made. Of particular note are Oubliette(x1) and Sinkhole(x2) if their prices are any indication.
The trading helpdesk topic advises to beware of new accounts so with that in mind I'm happy to provide whatever proof (within reason, y'all are strangers to me too) is needed to show that this/I am legitimate.
Additionally, I'd certainly appreciate any advice you all have regarding the best way to go about this process. I'm as disinterested in sending cards and not getting paid as you all are in paying and getting nothing. Obviously I'm also looking for top dollar for the cards and have time to wait.
Edit: My binder is showing a total value of $812.82. I will be defaulting to the prices showing up there for individual cards. If you are interested but don't want to meet that price then let me know and if I can't find anyone who will then I'll know what the next best offer is.
My binder is showing that the whole collection is worth $812.82.
April 27, 2016 5:31 p.m.
unfortunately you will get nowhere near what your binder says its worth. People buy whole binders at quite a chunk under value as they are usually mostly made up of trash or low value stuff. The high end stuff is what they want to buy and rest is just there usually.
April 27, 2016 5:33 p.m.
PhotogenicParasympathetic says... #5
Are you asking that the whole collection be bought as a whole? Or are you okay piecing it out?
April 27, 2016 5:40 p.m.
If whole collection i would like to place a bid at $150.
April 27, 2016 6:20 p.m.
I don't expect to get the full value of the binder, especially not if sold all at once which is why that will be the last resort. My plan at this point is to piece it out until the pieces stop selling and then bulk sell the rest.
April 27, 2016 6:40 p.m.
If you sort your binder after TCG price, i think its gonna be hard to sell anything thats not on the top half of page 1. I think it would be better to sell all as bulk, that way you can get what the sellable cards are worth because someone might think they are getting $800 worth of cards when they only get $100 of usable stuff.. Sell it for $200, with room to negotiate.
April 27, 2016 6:51 p.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #9
How about this... What do you want for the Counterspells and Pyroblasts? XD
April 27, 2016 10:08 p.m.
At this point I'm defaulting to the TCG price showing in my binder for all cards.
Counterspell (x7) $5.72Pyroblast (x4) $1.96
April 27, 2016 11:05 p.m.
renegadejibjib says... #11
The collection averages about $3 a card, though the median is around $.4
Anyone looking to buy singles from you is highly unlikely to buy any of the cheap cards you have listed. Honestly, you're better off dealing with an LGS, selling it as bulk. Otherwise, you end up with all the good cards picked out, around $95 in hand and a pile of chaff.
April 28, 2016 2:53 a.m.
If you're looking to get absolute top dollar for your cards, then use Pucatrade. They give you TCG price. I honestly wouldnt pay 100 dollars for that binder. Maybe 85 with a little wiggle room because its mostly just bulk trash.
April 28, 2016 3:08 a.m.
PhotogenicParasympathetic says... #13
icehit6: Yeah, but you can't convert PucaPoints back to cash. He's not looking to trade, just to offload the collection.
April 28, 2016 3:14 a.m.
I guess I'm confused regarding the TCG price then. Is it not fair market value for the cards? This thread (http://tappedout.net/mtg-forum/the-trading-post/h-pack-fresh-karn-liberated-f-w-2x-inkmoth-nexus/) on the front page as I write this features a few users here generally agreeing that TCG has something at least close to fair market prices.
April 28, 2016 7:25 a.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #15
People will often buy cards for the cheapest they can get them. This means TCG low, as that is the lowest price you can pay to get said card. You have to give people an incentive to buy from you, or else it's more convenient to buy from an established retailer.
Most people use TCG mid to trade because it's card for card.
For bulk (less than a dollar or two), you can often find stores that have a "bulk bin" where any bulk card is a quarter. Most players do not want bulk, so trying to sell it at TCG low, let alone mid, is very rare. Most places give $0.10-25 for each bulk rare because it's hard for them to move.
April 28, 2016 9:12 a.m. Edited.
ducttapedeckbox says... #16
It's also worth noting that the edition of cards can, in some cases, significantly affect their price. Be sure to use the correct price from TCG player. You can change the edition in TO as well, but it might be more convenient for you to check TCG as you go.
April 28, 2016 9:25 a.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #17
When it comes to buying cards, there are often many places you can buy lower than TCGMed -- including on TCG's own site. In addition, if the seller is asking for TCGMed, why shouldn't I buy from TCG at that point, since they have some buyer protection and a good rating system to advise against bad sellers?
I've mostly seen indepenent sellers here on tappedout selling at TCGLow - 15%.
April 28, 2016 10:22 a.m.
Currently my binder is showing $810.58, ostensibly priced at TCG Mid (assuming I understood the lingo). I looked at my top 10 priciest cards and on average their TCG Low is 67.8% of the mid price. Applying that to the current value of the binder gets us to $549.57. Subtracting 15% from that gets us to $467.14 for the whole collection.
April 28, 2016 9:48 p.m.
I'll offer $2 for a Lightning Bolts! in your binder, if those are for sale?
April 28, 2016 10:06 p.m.
renegadejibjib says... #20
Ogrecorps: You've got to understand the ideology of a person trying to buy a lot of cards like this. If someone is going to buy it as a lot, they're going to try to resell it. They've got to look at it for what it is; a handful of playable, sellable cards with a whole lot of garbage thrown in. If you're selling it as a collection you've some bargaining power, but what you're essentially saying is "I'll sell you the good stuff if you give me something for all the garbage." They're not going to buy at a loss, and all the commons are most likely going to go for $15 as a 2k card bulk lot. They're trying to turn a profit, so they're not going to offer you low or mid, they're going to offer you a percentage of what they feel they can sell it for.
Again, the alternative is try to sell it yourself and learn first hand why they're not going to offer tcg mid or even low on the bulk commons and uncommons. You'll get your chunk of cash for the $1+ cards over the duration of trying to sell them and then be stuck with 2k+ cards that nobody wants. You might get more this way than from selling it as a collection, you might not.
Either way you go, you can't just look at the raw value of it, you have to look at the perspective of who's buying it. If someone's buying a collection they're looking to profit and if someone's buying singles they're looking to save money, and they're generally only going to want what's playable in a major format. Neither group wants to part with any more of their hard earned money than they have to.
April 29, 2016 1:48 a.m.
First off, thank you all very much for your advice and help so far. I sincerely appreciate the assistance.
smackjack and Atony1400: I haven't sold anything to anyone yet but I will definitely be keeping your offers in mind.
renegadejibjib: I understand not pricing at TCG Mid for the reasons TheAnnihilator laid out above and I understand taking a bit extra off to incentivize buyers to use an unknown seller. What I'm not understanding is why the commons would go for $15 for a 2k card bulk lot. That's $0.0075 per card. All of my cards valued at less than $1 (TCG Mid) average out to $0.2196 per card. TCG Low seems to be about 67.8% of Mid so then $0.1491 even at low. Even taking another 15% off ($0.1268) comes nowhere near that bulk box price.
I don't want to seem like I'm arguing, I really do appreciate the advice and I readily admit the possibility of being completely convinced that $150 is all I'm going to get. I'm just not understanding why the apparent market value I'm finding here differs so very much from the market value shown on TCG. Is TCG out of touch? Do some of these cards just never get traded on there but for the one time wherein they went for inflated prices?
Also, why is there so very much deviation in prices for Lightning Bolts (randomly chosen test case) on TCG (http://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/product/show?Product%20Name=Lightning+Bolt&newSearch=false&IsProductNameExact=true&lu=true)? Why is a damaged Alpha Edition Common (http://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/alpha-edition/lightning-bolt) going for $60?
Please don't tell me I need to go back through 2,500 cards and adjust my inventory on here to show their correct edition on the chance that I have a $60 old weird thing or three... I knew edition could make a difference but didn't realize how much! I was given the last of the cards around 1997, I think, so that would mean I shouldn't have anything newer than 5th edition. What is the likelihood of having more valuable older editions? Are there some cards that were never repeated so I can at least eliminate those?
April 29, 2016 5:26 p.m.
I think the only ones you need to ajust are the rares and Bolts. Bolts are probably one of the most expensive commons, and it would make sense to do it, so i'm not paying $2 for a $50 (alpha) card, and so you don't get burned. Also, as comments posted above have previously mentioned, commons go for bulk price, not for the .15 price TCG gives you. Thruthfully, i'd agree with the above, and I would sell the commons in a bulk rate (1,000 for $10) and sell the more expensive things as singles.
For example, I wouldn't sell by Piles of Pauper Legal Paper for $300 (the TCG list price), I would do about $50 at the most.
I'm not trying to be mean, but that is what I'be seen as the most common (ha, ha, pun) way to sell lots of commons.
Now, back to our deal. I only need one, so $2 (even to TCG low for MM2 printing) is the best I can do. I understand if you would like to look for a better offer.
April 29, 2016 6:11 p.m.
renegadejibjib says... #23
Ogrecorps Common prices on TCGplayer are a fickle thing. You have a ton of variables to consider. One of the most important things is the balance between what people will pay for a card versus what it costs to ship. This most often determines the price of bulk commons.
Also, there is no way to see the age of the listings so you can't know how long the cards have been sitting in 'for sale' limbo, and they don't show sales volume.
TheAnnihilator says... #2
What price are you asking? I might be interested (I'd actually be more interested to buy the collection w/o the Sinkholes and Oubliette).
April 27, 2016 5:04 p.m.