The Re-seller sucktitude

[Ironclad Alibi]

Comics are hard to make any money collecting with.

I am reminded of this comic.

I collect lots of things for enjoyment of the things, not as an investment. Although some of the things I have supposedly have high value, finding someone willing to pay that high value is the tricky part.

[Estil]

The "local" game store near my house sells Magic cards individually as well as in decks.

One such card is going for around $50.

People are nuts.

On that note, I do collect Pokemon cards. Just because the artwork is awesome (and also because a number of kids at the services I work at do play Pokemon TCG and it makes a good starting point for new children)

In both cases though they were especially popular in the late 90s...glad to see them both standing the test of time. When I saw some playing that game when I was in HS though, I thought at first they were doing tarot card readings!!

But I knew even at that time those silly Beanie Babies were a joke. Collecting them as a hobby and because you think they're neat/interesting and whatnot is one thing (as I do for baseball cards and retro video games) but don't expect it to pay off your mortgage either.

[fireheart]

In both cases though they were especially popular in the late 90s...glad to see them both standing the test of time. When I saw some playing that game when I was in HS though, I thought at first they were doing tarot card readings!!

A friend of mine plays magic and a colleague from uni plays Yu-Gi-Oh. I don't play in-store (my social anxiety tends to stop that) so I instead play the online game...as you would've guessed then, I tend to buy the premade decks since they have online gaming access.

[celticgrl]

My dad collects anything and everything. He has so much "collectible" stuff he has turned my grandparents old house into what he is calling The A'muse'um. I asked him once why he keeps all this stuff he just said because he can.

[Gilhelmi]

I am reminded of this comic.

I collect lots of things for enjoyment of the things, not as an investment. Although some of the things I have supposedly have high value, finding someone willing to pay that high value is the tricky part.

God Bless you Sir and/or Mame.

I still collect comics, I still sell comics at shows (I do not do 'horribly' on 90's, I just sell them for less then the 00's). I love the art, the fell, the smell, the hunt through the auctions and the stores, and peoples attics. I love comics.

I still buy new comics, I read them. In 30 years I might (probably wont) get $10 on them, then only because the children will be fascinated by this weird stuff called "paper", but that's fine because I love collecting.

[Shalom]

Ironically, selling poorly tends to make something a collectors item, since by definition, few people have them.

Conversely, even very old stuff (e.g. Kodak cameras or Singer sewing machines from the 1910s) that sold well and was durably made, has little or no collectable value, because there are so many of them around. If you want to use it for its intended purpose, that's one thing; I sometimes go around taking pictures with 100+ year old cameras (Ilford does occasionally make special runs of film in oddball sizes), but if I tried to sell them, I'd get almost nothing. Hell, I bought most of them on eBay, and I paid almost nothing.

That doesn't stop people from listing them for insane prices, then everyone else sees the unrealistic starting bids and says Oh look, I too can get rich selling this junk. Doesn't mean anybody's actually paying those prices. Gotta check the completed sales listings instead, which will give you a more realistic idea of what something's actually worth.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Ironically, selling poorly tends to make something a collectors item, since by definition, few people have them.

Kinda like this car here. The cars were built to try and recoup money for the company, but very few sold. I've often said that if I won the lottery, I'd buy a regular DeLorean, but the gold one would be risky to have; if it wasn't stolen, you'd come out one day to find all the coating filed off. XD

[Kagato]

I know I'm very late to the topic, but I'm a very casual M:tG player myself, I help at the Wizards of the Coast stand each year at one of the big expos here in NZ, they always give a pile of nice M:tG swag at the end, including some rare cards, last year one card that they included was going for around USD$125ish at the time - ended up selling it because I had a couple of bills that needed paying and I had no interest in holding onto it

Still got a ton of the more worthless cards out of the 2 full booster boxes I got for helping at the expo. I think this year instead of opening the packets and selling the rares (I didn't do too bad last year) I may just sell the booster packs, sure it may potentially be less profitable, but I don't end up with thousands of cards sitting around.

[lordlundar]

Hey, it could be worse -- Anybody remember when the original XBOX came out, and someone successfully eBayed an XBOX box for fat cash? That's right, just the empty box it came in. They had to make a whole new policy because of him...

I saw it done for the PSP when it was new. No system, just the box. Thing is there was absolutely no false advertising for it. Everywhere on the ad it was plastered with "This is NOT the system, it is the cardboard box it is sold in" in various ways. Still went for over a hundred dollars.

The "local" game store near my house sells Magic cards individually as well as in decks.

One such card is going for around $50.

People are nuts.

On that note, I do collect Pokemon cards. Just because the artwork is awesome (and also because a number of kids at the services I work at do play Pokemon TCG and it makes a good starting point for new children)

Ever hear of the Black Lotus? Average price on it ranges from several hundred to several thousand dollars! It's a good card, but not several thousand dollars worth considering it's not even tourney legal.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I saw it done for the PSP when it was new. No system, just the box. Thing is there was absolutely no false advertising for it. Everywhere on the ad it was plastered with "This is NOT the system, it is the cardboard box it is sold in" in various ways. Still went for over a hundred dollars.

Unless something changed, my understanding of ebay policy is that selling empty boxes from game systems wasn't allowed, as it could be used by the eventual buyer to commit fraud.

Empty packages could only be sold if they had collector value to them (for example, an old cracker tin from the 40s or something similar).

[Argabarga]

And beyond that, it's just a dishonest thing to do, you're HOPING someone misinterprets what you're doing.... so you can cash in.


I'm not a fan of people being "selectively oblivious", you know what you're doing, don't pretend you haven't a clue.

[Strathclyde]

Ah, beanie babies. I had those when I was a kid (only recently sent them to a baby cousin who will get a lot more enjoyment out of them than I do now). I remember playing with one when this lady came up to me when I was 8 or 9 and lectured me about how I shouldn't have removed the tag because I'll never be able to sell it.

[Kagato]

I saw it done for the PSP when it was new. No system, just the box. Thing is there was absolutely no false advertising for it. Everywhere on the ad it was plastered with "This is NOT the system, it is the cardboard box it is sold in" in various ways. Still went for over a hundred dollars.



Ever hear of the Black Lotus? Average price on it ranges from several hundred to several thousand dollars! It's a good card, but not several thousand dollars worth considering it's not even tourney legal.

According to Star City Games, one of the main trading sites for MtG cards on the Internet, Black Lotus Alpha currently has a market value of USD$10,000, plus apparently verified BGS 9.5 ones go for up to $35,000 with BGS 10 ones going for a whopping $50,000

(general info for those not familiar with Magic Cards) The main reason for the obscene prices is that there was only ever 1,100 of the alpha version printed, most of them damaged or lost after so many years.

[EricKei]

What I just love is their habit of basically re-releasing old, non-tourney-legal cards under new names (I could swear they've done that with the Moxes, and probably the Lotus -- tho, I would imagine, not Channel) once they're old enough to fall out of rotation and be non-legal due to age. Been years, tho.

Ya know, I probably do still have a small number of cards from "Dark" lying around (real ones, not the reprints or re-releases under legends/chronicles/whatever) >_> Hmmm...

[purple]

I remember playing with one when this lady came up to me when I was 8 or 9 and lectured me about how I shouldn't have removed the tag because I'll never be able to sell it.

I collect (collected? I'm too broke to keep going) Monster High dolls, people are horrified that I take them out of there boxes because I can't resell them. They can't understand that I buy them because I like owning them.