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View Full Version : Advice on Selling a large 3.5 collection?



Thunder Hammer
2011-03-30, 12:08 AM
Hi Guys,

I'm looking at selling a large collection of D&D 3.5 books on ebay and am wanting some advice on how to best package them. I'm not interested in setting up one by one sales, but I do think that putting them altogether would put up the net price too high and put off potential buyers with too much stuff they don't want.

I'm thinking my options are:

1.) Sell everything in one big bulk package.

2.) Sell things in maybe 2 or 3 packages, each with a "theme", but I get lost here.

Any suggestions/advice would be fantastic. I should note that the quality of the books is by and large "good" or "excellent", with a few"acceptable".

magical item compendium
spell compendium
rules compendium
DMG
DMG 2
PHB
PHB 2
ELHB
HBGB
MM 3.0
MM 3.5
MM 2
Unearthed Arcana
Book of Iron Might
Complete Adventurer
Complete Arcane
Complete Champion
Complete Divine
Complete Mage
Complete Warrior
Fields of Blood
Heroes of Battle
Heroes of Horror
city works
Stronghold BGB
dungeonscape
frostburn
Manual of the planes
sandstorn
stormwrack
wildscape
draconomicon
dragon magic
drow of the underdark
Weapons of Legacy
d&D for dummies
dragonlance campaign setting
WoW D20 Revised
Red hand of doom
shattered gates of slaughterguarde
the banewarrens

Dsurion
2011-03-30, 01:30 AM
Well, I'm no expert on the prices, but I'd sell the popular ones separately, like the Magic Item Compendium, and the Spell Compendium, for example.

As for the rest, I'd probably go with packages of:
Core
DMG2+PHB2
MM3.0+MM2
Epic Level Handbook + Unearthed Arcana
Completes
Frostburn, Sandstorm, etc.
But I can't say much for the rest, I don't really know how much interest they generate.

Knaight
2011-03-30, 04:44 AM
Everything in normal text is the Basic Package.
Everything in itallics is the War Package
Everything in bold text is the Magic Package
Everything in bold and itallics is in the Setting Package
Everything in strikethrough is something I'm unfamiliar with.

magical item compendium
spell compendium
rules compendium
DMG
DMG 2
PHB
PHB 2
ELHB
HBGB
MM 3.0
MM 3.5
MM 2
Unearthed Arcana
Book of Iron Might
Complete Adventurer
Complete Arcane
Complete Champion
Complete Divine
Complete Mage
Complete Warrior
Fields of Blood
Heroes of Battle
Heroes of Horror
city works
Stronghold BGB
dungeonscape
frostburn
Manual of the planes
sandstorn
stormwrack
wildscape
draconomicon
dragon magic
drow of the underdark
Weapons of Legacy
d&D for dummies
dragonlance campaign setting
WoW D20 Revised
Red hand of doom
shattered gates of slaughterguarde
the banewarrens


Note that there is variation in the size of the packages.

Yora
2011-03-30, 04:49 AM
Depends. Where are you and what would shipping to germany be? :smallbiggrin:

I think those packages by knaight are too big. I'd be interested in 2 or three of the books, but wouldn't pay for two whole packages to get them.
I'd say never more than 3 or 4 in a bunch.

Jair Barik
2011-03-30, 05:06 AM
I'd sell the following books on their own
-magical item compendium
-spell compendium
-stormwrack
-drow of the underdark

as far as I remember these books (generally speaking) go for a fair bit (as do the fiendish codexes but you don't have them) due to rarity or something. the compendiums in particular are worth a lot.

Tyndmyr
2011-03-30, 07:50 AM
Depends. Where are you and what would shipping to germany be? :smallbiggrin:

I think those packages by knaight are too big. I'd be interested in 2 or three of the books, but wouldn't pay for two whole packages to get them.
I'd say never more than 3 or 4 in a bunch.

This. Selling solo books is almost always more useful.

For instance, I'd be interested in picking up another phb, drow of the underdark, and dragonlance campaign setting. Those don't make any real logical set, but I'm actually interested in them(send a pm if you decide to sell individually). However, if they were a part of a set with books I'm not interested in(mainly because I have them already), the price I'm willing to spend really isn't going to change.

ericgrau
2011-03-30, 09:38 AM
Agreed, you'll have to sell them 1 by 1. Make the text for one auction. Copy paste that text for the next auction, changing the name of the old book into the name of the new book.

If you do it in Microsoft Word you can even make one where the book is "Haley Starshine". Save it like that. Then you do Ctrl-F => replace "Haley Starshine" with "Tome of Battle" => replace all bam new auction text. Copy paste it where needed, then undo everything or reopen to the saved version to do it again. You may unfortunately have to leave pictures out as it could be too much trouble.

I think one of the options on ebay now is to select item condition (e.g., new, virtually new, lightly used, heavily used) so you could select the appropriate option for each book without needing to change the description.

Thunder Hammer
2011-03-30, 11:39 AM
Thanks for the suggestions!

I also have gone through both Amazon and Ebay and computed what if sold individually at the lowest price (at least as of March 29th 2011)Shipping NOT included and the totals are:
Ebay: $967, Amazon: $880, Min(Amazon,Ebay):$827
On April 19th Ebay is reducing their insertation fees AND their cut 9% on the first $100 instead of 9% on everything (if I'm reading it right).

See part of my problem/advantage is that I live a mile away from the US border in Canada. So, I can cross the border (obviously go through customs)(but I have to walk across, not drive, or I get charged $15) and walk to the post office in Sumas (not too far) but I don't want to have to go 38 times (heck, even about 10 would be really pushing it.)

manyslayer
2011-03-30, 11:41 AM
No, the MiC is not at all valuable. IN fact, I'll gladly take it off your hands. :smallwink:

Seriously, though. I understand not wanting to deal with all the separate auctions, but I think you will make out much better doing so. One thing you can do to make it a bit easier for you is offer good combined shipping. That makes it easier for you to package up and makes it more attractive for people to buy/bid for more than one or two items.

If you do group them, you may want to group the third party stuff separately.

Thunder Hammer
2011-03-30, 11:45 AM
Depends. Where are you and what would shipping to germany be? :smallbiggrin:

I think those packages by knaight are too big. I'd be interested in 2 or three of the books, but wouldn't pay for two whole packages to get them.
I'd say never more than 3 or 4 in a bunch.

Canada post says $140, USPS says $45 for shipping to Germany. This is why I like to ship through the USPS, it's not run by English Communists. (No joke, the Canadian Post, is in fact run by seriously old school communists. Just read their union website.) I guess maybe now it's Canadian communists, but i know they got taken over by the English commies back in the 60s or 70s.

Edited again, Yes I know this sounds too crazy to be true, but it is in fact true. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Yora
2011-03-30, 12:44 PM
I think I bought my OA from a US seller and it didn't cost nearly as much. Probably something very wrong with the fees shown to you. (But then, if you look up train tickets online around here, it also often is three or four times the price you actually pay if you pick the right traint.)

When I self stuf in bulk on ebay, I usually make a tour to the post office once per week. As a private seller, I don't think I have to get every single item on the way right the next morning when the money was transfered. And if the money isn't transfered after a whole week, then the buyer just has to wait a few more days.
The real problem is putting up every book seperately, especially at such numbers. :smallbiggrin:

Tyndmyr
2011-03-30, 12:49 PM
See part of my problem/advantage is that I live a mile away from the US border in Canada. So, I can cross the border (obviously go through customs)(but I have to walk across, not drive, or I get charged $15) and walk to the post office in Sumas (not too far) but I don't want to have to go 38 times (heck, even about 10 would be really pushing it.)

Oh, no worries. Just put in the description that it can take you a few days to ship. This is reasonable. Then, schedule all the auctions to end at the same time. Ship in batches, as payment trickles in.

And seriously, PM me with an offer for the ones I'm interested in. I'm pretty flexible on shipping time.

valadil
2011-03-30, 01:01 PM
When I self stuf in bulk on ebay, I usually make a tour to the post office once per week. As a private seller, I don't think I have to get every single item on the way right the next morning when the money was transfered.

I always post my intended shipping date. It's usually a saturday or sunday and if they don't pay up in time, it becomes the next saturday or sunday.

OP, the disadvantage of selling individual books is that they may not all sell. Then you're stuck with the least interesting 20% of 3.5 books. Unless you actually like spending time at the post office, I vote for selling them all in one lot and break it into groups only if it doesn't sell. Then again, I'm lazy.

Thunder Hammer
2011-03-30, 01:06 PM
I think I bought my OA from a US seller and it didn't cost nearly as much. Probably something very wrong with the fees shown to you. (But then, if you look up train tickets online around here, it also often is three or four times the price you actually pay if you pick the right traint.)

When I self stuf in bulk on ebay, I usually make a tour to the post office once per week. As a private seller, I don't think I have to get every single item on the way right the next morning when the money was transfered. And if the money isn't transfered after a whole week, then the buyer just has to wait a few more days.
The real problem is putting up every book seperately, especially at such numbers. :smallbiggrin:


Yora, for a quick reference (since I don't have any box dimension or weight) I looked at the priority flate rate medium box.

Tyndmyr
2011-03-30, 01:07 PM
Within the US, media rate is a bit slower, but quite inexpensive. That should cut your shipping prices substantially if you're hoping to maximize the cash.

dps
2011-03-30, 01:15 PM
My advice would be that instead of selling them, you should just send them to me for free. You pay the shipping. PM me and I'll give you my address. :smallbiggrin:

Thunder Hammer
2011-03-30, 01:17 PM
Oh, no worries. Just put in the description that it can take you a few days to ship. This is reasonable. Then, schedule all the auctions to end at the same time. Ship in batches, as payment trickles in.

And seriously, PM me with an offer for the ones I'm interested in. I'm pretty flexible on shipping time.

OOohh... Hmm... Tempting. See, now you're forcing me to make a decision.

Thunder Hammer
2011-03-30, 01:18 PM
Within the US, media rate is a bit slower, but quite inexpensive. That should cut your shipping prices substantially if you're hoping to maximize the cash.

I always ship media mail in the US.

Tyndmyr
2011-03-30, 01:21 PM
OOohh... Hmm... Tempting. See, now you're forcing me to make a decision.

Tell you what, roll in shattered gates of slaughterguarde & the banewarrens. I lack those in my collection as well. Boom, package deal.

Thunder Hammer
2011-03-30, 01:38 PM
Tell you what, roll in shattered gates of slaughterguarde & the banewarrens. I lack those in my collection as well. Boom, package deal.

Check your pms.

big teej
2011-03-31, 08:52 AM
I recommend donating them (or at least selling at reduced cost) to a fellow gamer who is in college and has a hard time getting his hand on 3.x material.

and would be like the happiest person ever were you to do so.

like me.

:smallbiggrin:



on a more realistic note, I kinda like the 'theme' idea, and I would certainly purchase books packaged in such a manner.

for instance, if I could have gotten all 3 monster manuals in one go instead of seperately, I probably would have saved quite a bit.

....still have to pay my buddy back for mm 3 :smallredface:

Corrik
2011-03-31, 08:56 AM
Make sure to post when you put them up, I'm always looking to expand my 3.5 collection.

herrhauptmann
2011-03-31, 09:23 AM
I'd say contact Big Teej.
He's trying to buy the entire collection of 3.0/3.5, and apparently a group rule is that you can't use the contents of a book unless you own a physical copy.

big teej
2011-03-31, 09:28 AM
I'd say contact Big Teej.
He's trying to buy the entire collection of 3.0/3.5, and apparently a group rule is that you can't use the contents of a book unless you own a physical copy.

:smallredface:

people remember! :smallredface::smallredface::smallredface::smallto ngue:


it is true though, I am trying to collect every 3.x book.

and yes our group does have a rule about hardcopy.

if I, the DM possess a source in hardcopy, I will read through it and make it known what may be used.

if a player possesses a source, things are approved on an item by item basis because I can't reference it whenever I want.

:smallredface:

things approved by me are typically approved wholesale in the other dnd game.

Shyftir
2011-03-31, 01:46 PM
Yeah speaking of interested parties, You might do as well just selling to people on the boards, for instance my group would likely be interested in the Frostburn, Stormwrack, Sandstorm books and would be a relatively cheap postage being in the northern Midwest and probably therefore not that far from you.

I mean how many people's response to this was ooh, ooh, I want a couple of those.

Now of course this board isn't for selling things, but if you don't link us to whatever auction site you choose to use then I suggest tar and feathering.

Basically groups of at least 3 and no more than 5 would be easiest to sell if you are stuck on not doing it one at a time.

ericgrau
2011-03-31, 06:09 PM
And even if he uses something like ebay, people on these boards will bid on multiple and if he waits for all of those auctions to close before shipping he can ship multiple to the same place all at once.

big teej
2011-03-31, 06:23 PM
naturally I am interested in all of these ( I don't have them yet)

magical item compendium
spell compendium
PHB 2
HBGB
Unearthed Arcana
Book of Iron Might
Complete Adventurer
Complete Arcane
Complete Champion
Complete Divine
Complete Mage
Complete Warrior
Fields of Blood
Heroes of Battle
Heroes of Horror
city works
Stronghold BGB
dungeonscape
frostburn
Manual of the planes
sandstorn
stormwrack
wildscape
draconomicon
dragon magic
drow of the underdark
Weapons of Legacy


but THESE are the ones that I want on the level of "gimme gimme gimme" and depending upon your asking price and my job, would be more than happy to take off of you


magical item compendium
spell compendium
PHB 2
HBGB
Unearthed Arcana
Heroes of Battle
Heroes of Horror
Stronghold BGB
dungeonscape
draconomicon
dragon magic
Weapons of Legacy


unfortunately, my budget is..... small, and I still owe a player money for the complete psionics handbook and monster manual three (which he's holding on to till I can pay him)