Selling out...expectation vs reality.

[justapilgrim]

Hopefully newer (and older ) members have learned a few things from reading this thread.

If you haven't started selling anything, might be time to get the feet wet. I have been here less than a year, if I had to liquidate, I have made power seller status on ebay, have a customer base and learned a lot of the lessons I needed to already (shipping, fees, inventory, cash flow etc)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Brickpicker mobile app

[Lockblock]

Jeez...

 

Ok, I didn't post this as an object lesson for anyone. My "business model" isn't flawed. I didn't have a business model. Who cares? Continuing to pointing out, based on assumptions, isn't helpful. Also, saying that you shouldn't follow advice from this website seems counterintuitive. Make everyone's folios public, then let the people decide whose advice to follow.

 

This isn't a list of things I didn't want or that are left over from a sale. I dabbled here and there, within my budget. If I wanted the higher end sets, I would have bought them. I didn't want them, so I didn't buy them. I bought what I wanted. Somehow that's wrong, compared to something you bought? I didn't ask if my portfolio was good. I simply asked what I should reasonably expect for the sets presented.

 

Everyone's situation is different. My family isn't suffering, my credit cards are paid...blah, blah, blah. I thought I made it perfectly clear in my first post that I had no illusions as to what I was going to get. I knew that I wasn't going to break anyone's bank, no did I expect to break even. Hence the questions. I'm selling because whatever money I get is more useful somewhere else at the moment.

 

Some of this feedback has been insightful, some not so much. I have learned a lot about Lego from this one thread, including something's about the community here.

[waddamon]

This is the internet unfortunatly.  When you ask questions of random people for whom no one really knows the truth of who they are and what they do you are in essence holding up a big target.  Your motivations for buying and selling are not relevant.  Peoples opinions are not relevent. I expect there are not many on this or any other website that truly do what they talk.  I few on here have shown the man behind the curtain but not many.  It is just like stock investors who boast about their wins and dissapppear or never discuss their losses.  Good luck selling your sets, it will prove tough I expect but who cares.  That is the name of the game.  There are quite a few names from years past on here that are nowhere to be seen.

[makr]

Jeez...

 

Ok, I didn't post this as an object lesson for anyone. My "business model" isn't flawed. I didn't have a business model. Who cares? Continuing to pointing out, based on assumptions, isn't helpful. Also, saying that you shouldn't follow advice from this website seems counterintuitive. Make everyone's folios public, then let the people decide whose advice to follow.

 

This isn't a list of things I didn't want or that are left over from a sale. I dabbled here and there, within my budget. If I wanted the higher end sets, I would have bought them. I didn't want them, so I didn't buy them. I bought what I wanted. Somehow that's wrong, compared to something you bought? I didn't ask if my portfolio was good. I simply asked what I should reasonably expect for the sets presented.

 

Everyone's situation is different. My family isn't suffering, my credit cards are paid...blah, blah, blah. I thought I made it perfectly clear in my first post that I had no illusions as to what I was going to get. I knew that I wasn't going to break anyone's bank, no did I expect to break even. Hence the questions. I'm selling because whatever money I get is more useful somewhere else at the moment.

 

Some of this feedback has been insightful, some not so much. I have learned a lot about Lego from this one thread, including something's about the community here.

 

Ok I see how you actually asked a question and were hoping for an answer instead of discussing your investment strategy, fair enough. I don't think you should conclude too much about the community here from that though, from what I've read people weren't overly judgmental but simply went a bit off topic.

 

Now to answer your question: If you look at your brickfolio, the current prices are more meaningful than MSRP or what you paid for. When it comes to selling, it doesn't matter at all how much it once cost but just how much it is worth today. Obviously, if you intend to dump it quickly, you won't get what's listet as current value, but rather a percentage of that. How much depends on how exactly you are dumping it.

 

I don't know how fast exactly you want to get rid of it and how much time you are willing to spend. Here's what I would do if I would try to dump everything:

 

First, you should find some good threshold for how much a set should be selling for in order to be shipped individually, I would recommend $30-40. Anything lower than that needs to be sold in bulk somehow. Now for the sets above that threshold, look at the physical dimensions. Find out what box size would fit all or at least most of all sets and buy as many boxes as you have sets that fit them, along with filling material. These things can also be ordered online easily.

And then, start packing these sets, so that they are 90% ready to be shipped.

Now you could put everything up on eBay, if you want to make sure that it gets sold, auction it starting for $1, let all your actions end Sunday evening. Streamline your payment process. Paypal makes your life easier, I wouldn't hesitate to accept PP exclusively. Up next, streamline your shipment process. Have an easy way to label all those boxes with the corresponding recipients. Then bring all those sold items to the pick up place (e.***. post office), depending on how far that is, you definitely want to avoid individual trips but at the same time, you need to wait until everyone paid on PP for one shipment batch.

 

 

For sets below that threshold, make smart bundles, aimed at other investors. Put them up on a place that's more suitable for re-selling like BC. Price these bundles competitively and they will sell, but expect making losses for sets that don't have a promising future. You will need to find a buyer that is planning to brick them on BL or is willing to go through the micro management of selling them individually.

[Ciglione]

Jeez...

 

Ok, I didn't post this as an object lesson for anyone. My "business model" isn't flawed. I didn't have a business model. Who cares? Continuing to pointing out, based on assumptions, isn't helpful. Also, saying that you shouldn't follow advice from this website seems counterintuitive. Make everyone's folios public, then let the people decide whose advice to follow.

 

This isn't a list of things I didn't want or that are left over from a sale. I dabbled here and there, within my budget. If I wanted the higher end sets, I would have bought them. I didn't want them, so I didn't buy them. I bought what I wanted. Somehow that's wrong, compared to something you bought? I didn't ask if my portfolio was good. I simply asked what I should reasonably expect for the sets presented.

 

Everyone's situation is different. My family isn't suffering, my credit cards are paid...blah, blah, blah. I thought I made it perfectly clear in my first post that I had no illusions as to what I was going to get. I knew that I wasn't going to break anyone's bank, no did I expect to break even. Hence the questions. I'm selling because whatever money I get is more useful somewhere else at the moment.

 

Some of this feedback has been insightful, some not so much. I have learned a lot about Lego from this one thread, including something's about the community here.

 

I do not understand this post above. The OP asked a question and the OP got answers. The OP does not like some of the answers? Too bad.

 

The title even says: "expectation vs. reality".  

[Lockblock]

I do not understand this post above. The OP asked a question and the OP got answers. The OP does not like some of the answers? Too bad.

The title even says: "expectation vs. reality".

Read the thread Edited March 11, 2015 by jaisonline
Reworded.

[siddji]

I understand that you didn't like some of the responses and didn't want to be a model of a brickfolio to avoid. But at the same time, you have to be appreciative of the feedback provided by the community members and at the same time be able to accept responses (even though they might not be what you are looking for). After reading all the posts, I did notice almost all members gave you some insightful feedback and for you to judge community members is not fair.

Wish you the best luck in selling your collection.

[Crustybeaver]

Jeez...

 

Ok, I didn't post this as an object lesson for anyone. My "business model" isn't flawed. I didn't have a business model. Who cares? Continuing to pointing out, based on assumptions, isn't helpful. Also, saying that you shouldn't follow advice from this website seems counterintuitive. Make everyone's folios public, then let the people decide whose advice to follow.

 

This isn't a list of things I didn't want or that are left over from a sale. I dabbled here and there, within my budget. If I wanted the higher end sets, I would have bought them. I didn't want them, so I didn't buy them. I bought what I wanted. Somehow that's wrong, compared to something you bought? I didn't ask if my portfolio was good. I simply asked what I should reasonably expect for the sets presented.

 

Everyone's situation is different. My family isn't suffering, my credit cards are paid...blah, blah, blah. I thought I made it perfectly clear in my first post that I had no illusions as to what I was going to get. I knew that I wasn't going to break anyone's bank, no did I expect to break even. Hence the questions. I'm selling because whatever money I get is more useful somewhere else at the moment.

 

Some of this feedback has been insightful, some not so much. I have learned a lot about Lego from this one thread, including something's about the community here.

 

I sympathise with your predicament and I hope things work out for you. However you sound a little resentful towards peoples comments made. The reality is I don't think you're going to get much interest for your collection here because quite frankly the sets aren't very desirable from an investment perspective. You may be better off trying Craigslist or an eBay job lot. 

[makr]

We really should be focusing on the topic at hand, there's no way how this discussion will anyhow be fruitful the way it is going.

[Agsimpson13]

Down and Dirty Self Reliant Valuation.

 

1. Go to Ebay.

2. Navigate to Advanced Search.

3. Input set Number and Check Mark  "Sold Items"

4. Visually Scan and disregard any High Priced Outliers.

5. Mentally determine Realistic Sales Price. (RETAIL)

6. Subtract 20% from Realistic Sales Price.

7. Resulting Number is Your Net (Before Subtracting Original Purchase Price) Subtract Purchase Price To get Profit Number.

[jaisonline]

Guys and girls,

I cleaned up this thread. Some posts were edited and deleted. The original poster created a thread and even posted an offensive language acronym.. Some folks replied with suggestions while others didn't. Let's move on.

Also.. REMNDER.... Ed and Jeff DO NOT ALLOW BUYING / SELLING solicitation on the forums. Those posts were also removed.