Collection Sale Update

Now with the sale of my collection, I am still knee deep in thought.  I have reached out to multiple stores to see what they could offer, and most of them have come back with the standard reaction.  Price is a big thing, and they all seem to be low balling me in general.  When I say low balling me it is under the $100k offers.

In general they are really interested in my collection, and always ask up front what I am looking for.  I will normally respond with 60% of the value they see it being worth, or a straight up number I am looking at.  My goal is to just be upfront with what I am expecting, and I think that is doing us both a service because it sets the conversation up to be quick and to the point.

They are either just straight up with me and say that I am asking for too much and that ends the conversation.  Or they are more willing to keep talking to me about what could be done.  The conversations with the folks that bring up things that could be done are a lot more constructive, and give me a ton more options.

Based off of one exchange, I just started to buylist some of my bulk to them.  I figure if I can send a couple thousand cards for around $17 and get over $300 in trade-in value, it is worth it to me.  That way I could try and finish up my collection while I wait to see what I am going to do, at the same time slimming down the collection to just the collection pieces, and I can get rid of all the other bulk.

Of course the request has gone out to Rudy from Alpha Investments, and I am waiting to see what he says.  But in dealing with him, I almost want to start to upload everything just for my collection to Deckbox with pictures.  That way, if someone wants to see what I have, it will all be up there and I can point them to that.  It would also help if I try and sell on eBay, a point of reference so folks can check out what they are bidding for.  I highly doubt I will put it up on eBay for auction, but it will be something I will look into as an option.

But yes, I keep getting the same responses that my price tag is too expensive, or they need all the cards at their location to give me a good price.  All of them worried about putting in the time to give me a quote only for me to turn around and say I don't want to sell.  I get it, but none of them ask for an inventory of my cards.  They just tell me I am asking for too much.  That is the part I do not get.

Almost like they just don't want to put that much capital into buying something like this because it will take to long for them to get a return, and they are just saying I am asking for too much.

I did reach out to a growing LGS that is local to MN, and they started out with the same responses, and required me to drop off the collection at their store to go through.  My response was that I did not think it was worth it for me to drive over a van full of MTG cards without knowing they are willing to buy it at a price I was comfortable with.  I even offered to show them the collection at my house first to see if they were interested in buying what they saw for around my price, and then we could move the cards over to their shop for pricing.

They came back with a response that said "they were not interested in buying the collection at the price I was asking, but if I ever wanted to sell to them at their pricing I can always reach back out to them."  I replied with an "I get it" e-mail, and explaining to them that if I do not get my asking price from the big national retailers with my 50% value, I would be taking the long game and selling everything through buylisting and CardSphere with closer to 80% returns, and thanked them for the responses.  I also added that I maintain a spreadsheet and compiled the dollar amount I was asking for from that spreadsheet, and it was not just a number I pulled out of thin air.  I mean, I really needed to try and ask a local store if they were interested or not, but I was not expecting that they could afford an offer on my collection.

This was another point that I gathered from a conversation with Card Kingdom.  From the fact that if I lived in Seattle, it would have been a lot easier to get something done.  The issue was that I was in Minnesota and I would have to get the cards to them to cost it out, so they could find their value for it.  That is the main reason I needed to try locally.

This morning I did find a new e-mail in the old inbox.  After the quick dismissal, looks like the buyer had a conversation with the owners, and they might be interested in my collection after all and requested my spreadsheets.  Let's just say that they do not think I know what I am doing, and I am just another person who collects MTG cards, and thinks their collection is worth more than it really is.

I am not saying it is going to be a deal or not, and I am pretty sure they are still going to try and haggle me down, but at least I know that I can get rid of everything with buylisting and CardSphere, it will just take a lot longer.

But yeah, looks like I am still searching out a buyer, but the good thing is I have all the time in the world.  I am taking a much needed break from collecting right now and just trying to finish up on a couple things that are lingering around.  I still have some hope with Rudy, and I think he will give me the best price from a single buyer, but I do not think he would be able to do it for a year or so.  It is a lot of cash to have sitting around to buy a collection like this.

And of course I am still sitting on the fence.  There is my wife's want for me to keep the collection around from the fact that it has been apart of my life for 24 years.  Then there is the fear that I will just get lost in my OCD and allow it to take over my life.  But the fact that I can write about it in this manner, with the clear thoughts of being able to even think about selling, gives me some clarity that it is not as bad as I thought it was.

I always have the backup plan to part everything out and sell it over time myself.  But I also have the ability to keep the collection around and try and finish it, but without doing the MTG Finance aspect of collecting,  and just be a collector.  I just need to spend less time in front of my computer, and more balanced time with my life.

I am still moving forward to see if there is anyone that would buy the collection, but unless my price is met, I do not think I will be making a move on selling just to sell.  For now, I am just staying away from my collection, and will start back up if I do not sell at a more scheduled rate to control my exposure to that Obsessive part of my mind.