Selling boatloads of stuff

[Number45]

Ugh, I don't know where to start with this.

Despite me knowing for some considerable amount of time that my habit of hoarding things was utterly pointless I've nevertheless been unable to stop myself from doing it... until now!

I'm going to start getting rid of all of the PS3/PS2/PSP/GCN/GBA games that I'm never going to play/play again (Which, if I'm honest with myself, is almost all of them). I won't get a great deal for a lot of them, but something is better than nothing particularly as I will be reclaiming space in the process.

My main question for those of you that have gone through this kind of thing before, is how do you organise it all? How do you come up with prices without it taking days of painstaking research etc.?

I'm also going to trim down most, if not all BRs and DVDs that I own. And on that note, is there much of a market anywhere for VHS products any more? Wondering whether I should just take all of those down the dump to be honest.

And finally, where do you recommend using to sell? I've been turned off of selling on eBay recently because of the horrible feedback setup and the high commission that they ask for - are there better alternatives? Some things I know I'll be better off listing on here (I might list everything here first, we'll see), but for the rest I'd like to try and keep them to a single selling service if I possibly can!

Argh! Just thinking about all of this is depressing me hugely. But I want to try and get into a system of getting a game in, playing it and then selling/trading it as appropriate.

[Colin]

I've sacked ebay off and only really use here for selling games now, mostly retro stuff in my case. The sales are a bit slower as obviously there's a narrower amount of people, but it's a friendlier trading experience and obviously doesn't cost anything to do it. You shouldn't have any problem selling for the systems you've mentioned here though from what i've seen in the sales threads, i know i'll be watching to see what PS3 and blu ray stuff goes up!

[pentarou]

I'm selling off a lot of stuff before I move away this summer, fortunately I have a spare room where it all is at the moment and I just organise it into piles and start listing on here!

I can't be bothered with selling on eBay anymore either, especially the more expensive items. I may get a little less on here but the transactions are almost always hassle free and there's no fees to worry about either. There have been a few items I've been sad to see go but my paypal account is looking healthy which is a lot more satisfying than having room full of games I never play!

[Darwock]

I concur about forums being far preferable to eBay.

Not games, but I sold dozens of plastic model kits all over the world via fan forums - Slovakia, Phillipines, USA, Singapore, USA, Ireland, you name it - by all manner of shipping methods too, and didn't have one single delay or problem.

I only sold three kits by eBay - two appear to have been lost in the mail (going to Italy and Ecuador) and the third never left me any kind of feedback at all. Plus with the huge slice off the top that eBay/Paypal like to take, I would avoid selling there if you can help it.

[abigsmurf]

This forum can be pretty good, especially for <&#163;10 games where selling on a store/auction place means you lose a big chunk of it.

I would personally recommend Amazon Marketplace. Takes about 20 seconds to list an item and if you price the item right you usually sell most things in a day. Amazon do take a big chunk though.

[QualityChimp]

I sold dozens of plastic model kits all over the world via fan forums

Hmmm... do you still do this? I love knocking together a Gundam kit, but they're so expensive!

[elaniel]

If you have tons of random DVD's that you see as essentially worthless, Music Magpie will give you some money for them. You enter barcodes, then print labels and send them off to them (at their cost). Then they send you a check. Also, if you go through QuidCo you get an additional 10 percent.

Worked well for me when I got rid of tons of random DVD's that I've replaced with Blu-Rays, or old really random films. They'll take all region DVD's. Same for games.

[Brats]

I still find Ebay useful when I don't have a clue what something is worth or have a lot of items to sell. I just list them for 99p and let market forces do the work. If you list low and charge honest postage costs (rather than trying to scam some money back on postage) then you get loads of people watching and often you get a good price war going.

I recently listed an oven for 99p and it sold for ?215. I was going to put it in the local paper for ?100 .

I have another batch of rare records to sell and they will all go on there for 99p. Last time I did that, some of the records sold for mental amounts (?100 for Fools Gold 12" - yes please ).

So yes, Ebay charge more than before and the feedback system isn't as good as it used to be, but I still find it the best place to sell a lot of my stuff.

[J0e Musashi]

I sold masses of PS2 games last year. At first I priced them accordingly, but after they failed to go at the speed I wanted I reduced them all to uniform prices with the expection of a handful of them. I figured I wanted shot of them so I should forget about what I paid, and cut any sentimental ties and just sell them. I still have some left, but the vast majority sold and people got some amazing bargains. Everyone is happy

[dotoko]

My advice is don't sell everything, we've all done this at some point and just ended up buying portions of it back. Maybe you could keep just your most treasured games for one console?

Selling-wise, I'd say the best strategy is to try sell things here individually first since that's fee free and the only cost to you is postage. Then take what's left, make one or two bundles for each console and list on eBay (with a clear description, itemised list and good photographs).

I went the eBay bundle route with a Dreamcast Collection a few years ago and got &#163;390, which worked out at an average of &#163;10 a game and &#163;30 for the console. A profit since I paid &#163;13 for the console and an average spend of under &#163;8 a game. It's also much better than selling individually on ebay since fees (collectively) work out to be a lot less, postage and packaging is less for one big shipment and the chances are a lot of your more common/undesirable games won't sell on their own anyway.

[Malc]

You could do what me and my brother do in regards to what to get rid of. Originally we had hundreds of games, most of them barely touched.

Nowadays, I have 1 smallish box. In there is 12 games that mean the most to me mainly for nostalgia reasons (games like Shenmue, MGS1, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Residen Evil 2, Tomb Raider 2, ICO, Colossus etc.) That is all their is to my collection now. Then I have about 6 games for my 360 and PS3 that I actually want to play, and these games will come and go with the latest releases.

I find my system works, so that I can still keep my favourite games that I love, but be limited by the size of the box (even though I don't actually own the consoles to play any of them on anymore). And my modern games on my shelf will come and go, but having so few, means I actually play each one to completion.

So after few years of collecting tons of games for no reason, now I have gone the complete opposite with only about 20 games on average.

As for selling my collection years back, it mainly consisted of selling all the games on here or Ebay.

[112]

Ive heard peeps on here mention Play Trade, which sounds intreresting, and simple to do.

112

[Number45]

If you have tons of random DVD's that you see as essentially worthless, Music Magpie will give you some money for them. You enter barcodes, then print labels and send them off to them (at their cost). Then they send you a check. Also, if you go through QuidCo you get an additional 10 percent.

Worked well for me when I got rid of tons of random DVD's that I've replaced with Blu-Rays, or old really random films. They'll take all region DVD's. Same for games.

I had no idea about this service. I might very well look at it when I'm down to the last few bits and pieces that I can't shift. Thanks for the suggestion!

I still find Ebay useful when I don't have a clue what something is worth or have a lot of items to sell. I just list them for 99p and let market forces do the work. If you list low and charge honest postage costs (rather than trying to scam some money back on postage) then you get loads of people watching and often you get a good price war going.

This is the main thing I like about eBay as well. The problem I've found recently is that it gets to the point where the cut they take for the listing and again for Paypal really eats into anything you might get back. This isn't really a moneymaking exercise, but that's not to say I want to give it all away.

My advice is don't sell everything, we've all done this at some point and just ended up buying portions of it back. Maybe you could keep just your most treasured games for one console?

This is a trap I have a habit of falling into. I have tens of games in my collection that I treasure, but the fact of the matter is I almost never revisit games after completing them (I may complete them twice for trophies, or if the game changes significantly a second time through) - so what do I gain by owning them?

I hated myself for selling my SNES, so I bought another one. Aside from an hour or two with Super Tennis and SF2T I haven't touched the damn thing.

Thanks for the suggestions so far anyway. I have pretty much everything catalogued in my Backloggery profile anyway, so that's one thing I don't have to worry about.

This exercise should cure me of my LE lust in one fell (foul?) swoop as well, if I don't plan on keeping the game what's the point in getting a shiny version of it?

[The Glider]

My main question for those of you that have gone through this kind of thing before, is how do you organise it all? How do you come up with prices without it taking days of painstaking research etc.?

Nowhere near in the same league, but I got rid of a dozen or so Wii & PS3 games in Gamestation & got them to price match with CEX. No idea how the prices matched with other places, but I got nearly enough money to pay for a 360 Elite.

But I want to try and get into a system of getting a game in, playing it and then selling/trading it as appropriate.

Ditto. This is my main aim for 2010.

This exercise should cure me of my LE lust in one fell (foul?) swoop as well, if I don't plan on keeping the game what's the point in getting a shiny version of it?

I can't beat THE LUST. I have the Bioshock 2 SE pre-ordered along with the GOW one.

[kernow]

Never saw the point of 'limited' editions personally. Its refreshing and gratifying to sell everything you'll never play again, why keep games you're never gonna play, even if you fire sale them to get rid you'll have some spangly money to buy something else, just try not to fall into the trap again, hehe.

If you miss something badly, it can always be bought again.