When you see an amazing collection online, you rarely see the shame that invariably accompanies it — the shame of every toy collector — the storage room. After collecting toys for so many years, I have managed to accumulate a massive amount of items that I no longer want, or never wanted in the first place. While I’m really good at acquiring, I have not been nearly diligent enough in the purging. I have sold off plenty of items, but the small, lower-value items tend to linger–and then pile up–until you can no longer reach the back of the room without performing some amazing acrobatic feats.
Honestly, by the looks of it, you might call me a hoarder, but that wouldn’t be accurate because I truly do want to get rid of all of this. I would be much happier with an empty basement than what I have now, but I’m not going to just donate vintage Star Wars toys to Goodwill. I spent the last couple of days organizing the basement storage area with the idea being that if the toys were organized, I would be able to find them, group them, and sell them easier. That’s the idea at least, now how to go about unloading it all. And yes, I want to unload ALL OF IT.
I have so many bins filled with countless randomness. Why???
Over the years, I have received many emails from people asking me “How do I sell this stuff? Would you like to buy it?” To which I would reply, “Well, no, I don’t really want to buy your mom’s Barbie collection, but here are some ideas…”
The easiest solution would be to call a local toy shop and have them come by and haul it all away for pennies on the dollar, but I don’t think I’m there yet. In the past, I have sold to resellers, and had good experiences, as they were pretty fair, but they always cherrypicked the best stuff — the items that would be easiest for me to sell on eBay.
I might go with Craigslist for some of the larger, or more expensive items. I’ve had good luck selling large lots on Craigslist, but I’m not sure how many people even use Craigslist anymore.
It used to be that I could sell things right here on the site, but that was when a lot of people hung around for the spirited discussion–back before they all filtered away to their social media outlets, leaving me here sweeping up their party cups and cigarette butts. Despite the smaller audience, I’m still considering this route, because I’d rather give a good deal to someone I know than someone I don’t.
If Facebook was more anonymous, I’d love to go that route, but I don’t want all my friends and family to see when I am selling a Fonzie doll without its clothes. I’ve been loving live auctions on Facebook lately, and might give that a shot if I find there is interest on the Cool & Collected Facebook page — at least that would keep my F&F from being subjected to seeing it.
Instagram seems to be a hot place to sell toys, but I don’t even know how to send someone a message on there, so that’s probably not going to work for me.
eBay is always a good solution, but they sure do like to eat into your profit. The listing, packing, and shipping might be a chore, but the items always sell.
It could be a full-time job selling off all the laserdiscs, magazines, and books that have managed to accumulate around here. Ain’t nobody got time for that!
Lastly, I could rent a table at a local toy show, but honestly, there is only one annual show anywhere nearby that would be a good fit, and I’m not too comfortable yet with the idea of running my own table. Heck, I could stock five tables, but my mind isn’t there yet.
Have you ever successfully purged your collection in a way that actually felt good and left you happy with the amount of money it left in your wallet? How’d you do it? Sigh, there’s no way around the fact that I have some work to do. If you are local to the Northern Virginia/DC area and are looking for something to add to your collection, drop me an email and come on by. I’ve got a few things to sell.
Oh my. I do arrive at this junction every once in a while. But at every junction it gives me time to re think if I truly want to still keep any particular items anymore. The good thing is I seem to have little randomness in my collection . I’m OCD like that! So what I have will usually belong to one group of collection or another….and I usually dispose things off by batches. There seem to be ample number of collectors who’re willing to take your collection away by sets/the pile here in Malaysia with the right price points of course.
For the record, I think your stuff are well organized…you don’t qualify to be a hoarder! ?
Anyway, may I know what Star Wars stuff you’re looking to get rid of? Do you have a link with pics perhaps Brian?
Most of the items in the storage room are things that I ended up with by buying large lots. I typically want one item and end up going home with an additional box of items i don’t want. And when you’re slow to sell that stuff, it just piles up. I try to be fairly laser-focused with my collecting, but sometimes items just filter in through the cracks.
Unfortunately, Star Wars is one area that I have never pursued, and other than a random case of figures, I doubt I would have anything that would be of interest.
I’m kinda at this point right now. Thankfully, my collection is isolated to a small display cabinet in my office, so it’s not as much to deal with.
Interestingly enough, it’s not my feelings I have to worry about, but my wife’s. She got me a bunch of the stuff that’s in there, and she’s been a little hurt in the past when I’ve sold stuff off. I think I’ve found a way to spare her feelings, though. I’m planning on gifting this stuff to my nephew when he’s finally of age. The only problem with that is I’ll have to wait at least another 5 years before he’s old enough to play with some of this stuff.
Yeah, that’s a tough one. My wife has never even attempted to buy something for my collection because she knows enough to know what she doesn’t know. Other family members have gifted me books that they think I will enjoy, but rarely hit the mark. Of course, if my kids give me something, it is instantly a treasure worth it’s weight in gold.
This is the age old collecting question isn’t it? I recently moved and purged a chunk of things, but nothing of much value. It usually ends up in the Goodwill pile but I admit I still have far too much.
One thing I found for me a few years back was with my carded toys that really weren’t worth keeping carded (2K3 TMNT for example). I piled a bunch of them up in stacks and let my overly eager son open them up one by one and he had so much fun. Seeing how much fun he was having was well worth the loss of whatever value they had, and he still plays with the opened toys to this day. It was satisfying knowing he had so much fun, and it also saved me about 3 bins worth of space in the end.
Have you ever thought about offering some mystery boxes of your randoms? I feel like you did this once but I could be mistaken. Throw together some flat rate shipping boxes full of stuff and stick them on Twitter/Instagram, they will sell and get you some cleared out space and money in your pocket. Personally I love buying those sorts of boxes from reputable people because I know they take the time to pack them with interesting items. Just a thought.
Wait, you let your kids actually play with toys? And I thought you called yourself a collector. 😉
You’re right, I have actually sold some mystery boxes in the past. They were packed with good stuff and the buyers were thrilled, but buyers are not always ready to take the chance, mainly due to the shipping costs. The flat rate priority boxes don’t hold much, and larger boxes can get expensive in a hurry, especially when you don’t know what you’re buying.
I might give that another shot, since I always like knowing that my stuff is going into someone else’s collection rather than just the Goodwill dump bin.
Very few things are off limits to my kids (my carded original series TMNT and that’s about it). My son regularly swipes stuff from my office but it’s fun knowing he is giving it another few years of play (he is 6 after all).
I hear you on shipping, USPS has been ratcheting up the charges on those annually. You could also theme the boxes, which would make them a little more curated and appealing. I would be okay with spending $50 on a TMNT themed box in a heartbeat.
That’s a great idea. I could probably pull together a few good themed boxes. 🙂
Hit me up when you do, would love to see what you put together.
Will do.
I’m interested in any Turtles, Ghostbusters or He-Man stuff you might want to unload? I’ve been collecting Turtles for a long time and just recently started re-collecting my Masters of The Universe figures from the 80s. These things were AMAZING! Not sure what took me so long to get back into collecting them.
Most of those items have left the building but I still have a few carded turtles and maybe a small amount of He-Man figures. I’ll see what I can find.
That would be AWESOME! Loose figures are cool too. I’m looking to finish my vintage Playmates TMNT collection. Thank you!
I just sent you an email with some pics.
I’m late to this discussion and I have a lot to say. All my toys are carded and well packed but I’ve got tons of stuff (Thanks KB Toys!). I’ve spoken to 3 different comic stores and yes they just want the good stuff cheap. And some toys are not of interest anymore (The Simpsons???). My husband has been on me for years now to cut down the stored collection but this year I had to make space in the garage so I pulled out 1/3 of my 70 bins and either donated, gave to schools/library, and quick sold XMen, Simpsons, Barbie toys. It was painful and I made $20 but He’s off my case now. It’s Nov and time to pull together toys4tots boxes and toys Santa to give away. I like the theme box idea a lot. FYI- some craft shows, especially at churches, will give you a table for cheap if will advertise the show on Facebook or bring in a crowd. That’s how I dumped a lot of Barbies & X-men and didn’t have to pay for the table. It’s a lot of busy work but I had some friends helps with the selling. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the advice Althea! Tis the season, and I think Toys 4 Tots would be a great recipient for some of my stash.