The Energon Pub

Hey Everybody!

I'm new around here but let me start out by saying that I love Transformers toys. I have ever since my mom bought me Optimus Prime from K-Mart when I was 5. When I was a teenager I got a bit obsessed with them, and with the launch of eBay I began to amass a huge collection of toys. I never intended on selling my collection, but now that I'm out of school my priorities have changed a lot and I need to move on.

In my TF collection I have every G1 toy (many duplicates, about 50% boxed), many rare Japanese releases, a bunch of Italian MIB, and many pre-transformers toys by Takara, Takatoku and the like. I loved Robotech as a kid too, so I also own practically every original Valkyrie, Alpha, and cyclone toy made. I also have a bunch of miscellaneous Gundam , Evangelion, and other model kits that I never got around to assembling.

I've been really out of touch with the TF universe for a while. A few years ago I sold some of my collection off to pay for school on eBay with pretty good results. But, since then there have been a metric buttload of re-releases, and the eBay market has really slumped, and it doesn't seem that there is a lot of demand for the toys anymore. How should I go about selling all of this stuff? I'll try and post some pics so you can get an idea of the task I have ahead of me... Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

EDIT:
Here are a few preliminary shots of the collection. As I go through it I'll take more pictures and add them to the stream.

Welcome to Seibertron Jon.

To answer your question, your best bet is actually eBay. I am sure you are probably aware of the big budget live action movie coming out next month, so you might want to see if it is a huge hit. It might make demand for the toys go up.

Other options is to look for a comic book store/antique store/vintage toystore to sell your collection to.

Or you can sell them here in our buy/sell/trade thread, Carbombya.

Pix would be good so we can see what you have and guide you as necessary. Hope this helps.

SnapTrap wrote:Other options is to look for a comic book store/antique store/vintage toystore to sell your collection to.

Just a friendly warning about this. While this is probably the simplest and fastest way to sell a collection, only consider taking this route if you're willing to accept 30%-50% of current secondary-market value at best.

Acutally, what I would do is pack that into a car and go down to Botcon if you live in the area or can make it down.

You should be able to sell a good amount, if not all down there as it will attract all the rabiod collectors with cash to burn.

Wait... there's another movie coming out?

Just kidding The previews make me a little apprehensive that it may turn off old fans by sucking really bad. I may take that chance and wait until the movie hits.

I used to work in a comic store so I know how much people get robbed by selling to the store... they've got to make their profit somewhere.

I wish Botcon was on this side of the country (I'm in CO), because I'd totally consider it. I kind of worry that all the hardcore collectors will be throwing their money at Botcon, rather than eBay.

I added a link to some photos in the original post.

ebay, if you want money...

Ebay is ok, but you'll pay through the nose in fees. I'd give Carbombya a shot, or http://www.wheeljackslab.com or http://www.transformerland.com, I think they buy collections too.

Well, after looking at the pics, nice lil collection. I think you may have enough to get your own store going.

Also, an add on craigslist never hurts. I've found and sold a decent ammount through there.

Cataloging and pricing everything wil take a while. But after that, just throw your list onto Carbomya and craiglist. Oh, take out an add in Master Collecter.