Got some Shadowrun items to sell..., Broke as He** and need monies... Options

[SuperFly]

Hey guys, just trying to excise myself of all the clutter around my head and pay back some very sudden, and very deep debts in the process. I've put some of these Shadowrun and other RPG books up on E-Bay: this link.

I am updating this on Feb. 20th to let everyone know that the current stock the last of all my SR-related items for sale. There are about 10-12 Auctions going total over the next week, so check them out when you can!

Thanks for taking a look!

[Kagetenshi]

I never knew that Hell was particularly broke (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

~J

[Wounded Ronin]

Sadly I am t3h unemployed. However, if I had lots of cash, I'd buy loads of crap from you. Seriously.

[Critias]

Just as a heads up before you put any more stuff for sale, some trends I've picked up on my own eBay money making schemes (which have, thus far, all been successfull). I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm trying to help a brothah make a buck. You said you've got more stuff to sell, and maybe these tips can help with those new auctions.

1 - spread it out. You're always, always, better off posting that sort of OOP/collectible stuff one book at a time. Anything rare or hard to find, most folks aren't wanting to pay $45 for a lot of eight, they're willing to pay $15-$20-$25 for the one they need. It means that many more auctions to manage, but you'll get a lot more bites and make a lot more money if you auction that sort of thing off a book at a time, and just let the market set the price (instead of having something as steep as $45 for the base price). Lots of Shadowrun fans are looking for one or two books to wrap up their older edition collections. Not so many need (or have the spare cash) for eight at a time.

2 - lower the starting price. Every auction I've ever started has had an opening bid price of one penny. The lower the starting bid-plus-shipping is, the more people will pay attention to it. Lots of buyers rank stuff by "lowest price first" on there, and if you've got something a "Shadowrun" search hits, but is asking nearly fifty bucks right off the bat, lots of would-be buyers will never even see it. Ditto, the Wii stuff. People will pay what people are willing to pay -- just set up the auction knowing you'll get what it's worth (by definition), and let it go. No reserve, no high starting bid. Those things just make people go bid on someone else's stuff.

3 - stretch the auction. I always use the ten-day-auction option. Plenty of buyers only check eBay once a week, and the longer your stuff is up for sale, the higher the bidding goes. I even (as an experiment, early in my eBaying days) once offered up two identical wargaming miniatures, started them at the same time, and let one go for the standard seven day auction and set up the other for a ten. The longer auction made over half again as much (as the folks that didn't get the first one got into a bidding war for the second). If your auction, being longer, perpetually "the second," you'll just plain make more.

I recently sold a lot of Firefly comics (purchased for twenty five cents apiece, for a total of a buck seventy five investment on my part) for over a hundred and fifty bucks. Each one started at a penny, and I just let the bids roll in. If I'd put all seven of them up in one auction, I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much. From conversations with the buyers, each guy was a collector out to get the complete set of alternate covers (and stuff like that). No one of them would have wanted to pay me a hundred fifty bucks for the lot of them (repeats and all), but by spreading them out I was able to get every schmuck bidding on the one he wanted.

Again, I'm not trying to mention this stuff to be a dick. I've just learned a lot of lessons selling off my own spare RPG, comics, and wargaming stuff on eBay and hope that the advice can help you out. I don't make a living off it or anything, but I've done my share of housecleaning and made more than my fair share of extra spending money for it. When I see auctions that are more than half finished and don't have a single bid, I want to share some tips if I can.

[Dashifen]

Actually, that's pretty good advice for eBaying, Critias.

[SuperFly]

Critias: Many thanks for the pointers. You've got a lot of knowledge about the eBay market and lots of folks could benefit from your advice.

Frankly, I've had all this stuff under my nose for a long time, and present circumstances demand that it all go away. I realize I stand a far better chance at making more profit selling each book seperately, etc -- however, I gotta get these things gone from my life and I need as much money in as short an amount of time as possible.

I've added more RPG stuff and will be putting up additional items soon. Thanks to everyone for all your help (and interest)!

[Erebus]

Speaking as someone who literally just dropped a cash bomb on the Shadowrun ebay market. I can totally agree with the above.

For the older stuff, I'm looking to fill missing slots in my collection, and because they are missing slots, I'm willing to pay slightly more if need be to get them. What I refuse to do though, is buy a large lot of books to get the one I want because ultimately someone who wants more than 1 book out of the lot will outbid me overall, whereas I may have been more than willing to outbid them on the particular item I was looking for.
If you get a couple of collectors bidding over individual books, the seller can only win.

[SuperFly]

Sadly I am t3h unemployed. However, if I had lots of cash, I'd buy loads of crap from you. Seriously.

Your support is always appreciated, Ronin. =D

[SuperFly]

Speaking as someone who literally just dropped a cash bomb on the Shadowrun ebay market. I can totally agree with the above.

For the older stuff, I'm looking to fill missing slots in my collection, and because they are missing slots, I'm willing to pay slightly more if need be to get them. What I refuse to do though, is buy a large lot of books to get the one I want because ultimately someone who wants more than 1 book out of the lot will outbid me overall, whereas I may have been more than willing to outbid them on the particular item I was looking for.
If you get a couple of collectors bidding over individual books, the seller can only win.

Wish you'd have been in that habit a few months back when I was selling all this for profit instead of necessity! LOL!

In all seriousness, I'd be happy to arrange something if one of the lots containing an item your interested in doesn't sell. =)

...That goes for everyone who's of the same mind and has a taste for something that's listed currently.