The Energon Pub

LMAO! That dude offered $5000... What an idiot! Maybe I should try and get my collection on there and see what they say LOL

Here's mine!
viewtopic.php?f=206&t=18265


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Pyrostrata wrote:My biggest question is why did Guy chose a pawn shop over eBay? I am sure he could get his asking price if he sold things individually.

Probably for the same reason I have never gotten into the selling on eBay game. Time and effort. Sure it is easy to say that anyone can sell anything on eBay, but to set up the number of auctions, pack up each piece, ship them out and everything can take a lot of time and energy to do, that this guy may just not have, and felt that selling it as a lot in this manner would net a reasonably similar level of profit.

Clearly this isn't what occured, so if he is going to sell the the collection on eBay (if it hasn't already been sold elsewhere for a better offer) then it is possible that a whole slew of "AS SEEN ON PAWN STARS!!!, G1 ____________" auctions showing up this week.

Absolutely ridiculous, both the "collection" and the offer.

This isn't a collection, it's visual proof of a hoarder with addiction problems. It went beyond awesome and cool and well into "He needs help, poor man" territory.

There is no need to have that many duplicates, unless you're a store. If you're truly only a collector and have that number of multiples, you truly have passed the sanity line.

I'm waiting for the posts that say "Oh? Do I detect a little envy here?", and I'll tell you now, no.

I feel a deep pity for the guy. Deep.

That's a clear sign he needs help. And that's no laughing matter.

Editor wrote:

Pyrostrata wrote:My biggest question is why did Guy chose a pawn shop over eBay? I am sure he could get his asking price if he sold things individually.

Probably for the same reason I have never gotten into the selling on eBay game. Time and effort. Sure it is easy to say that anyone can sell anything on eBay, but to set up the number of auctions, pack up each piece, ship them out and everything can take a lot of time and energy to do, that this guy may just not have, and felt that selling it as a lot in this manner would net a reasonably similar level of profit.

Clearly this isn't what occured, so if he is going to sell the the collection on eBay (if it hasn't already been sold elsewhere for a better offer) then it is possible that a whole slew of "AS SEEN ON PAWN STARS!!!, G1 ____________" auctions showing up this week.

Mistransformed wrote:

Draejinn wrote:I was so excited that the guy did not sell anything for so low a price I found my username and returned.

On a side note. How much is a mint Fort Max with box going for these days?

about a grand give or take.

Fender Bender wrote:That is an impressive collection and I'm glad he didn't take Rick's offer.

If I owned it and had a kid on the way, I'd sell all the extras and keep 1 of each. Really, who needs that many duplicates in a single collection? Some of the profits obtained from selling the extras could go towards buying some nice display cases to get them off the floor and make room for the kid.

Ok I think mostly everyone is pleased that this collector did NOT accept the pawn shop's offer. Even though I could appreciate the fact that someone or someone's would have to go and examine each item (condition/accessories/box or loose) and the time it would take yeah I get it. But that doesn't give Rick the right to try to screw this guy....c'mon Rick!!

Though I don't have a basis for comparison but "Editor" made a point I think. Anyone could go eBay if they wanted but the time it would take to process everything, especially if your this guy. Sure he could sell a portion at a time but he wanted convenience I think so he went through a pawn shop. And like "sabrigami" also pointed out why won't this guy consider selling off his multiples? He would get some great bank from those alone and just keep 2 of each he has multiples from.

I still dig the show for different reasons but I think the episode showed us all on not to ever consider a pawn shop. A collectible store...maybe but now a pawn shop.

And lastly regarding Fort Max. I think a decent boxed piece complete or 95% complete would still fetch well over a grand. Correct me if I'm wrong but that's my two cents with no sense....'nuff said

Man that guy had some cool stuff! I am glad he didn't accept the offer Rick gave him on his collection. That was a lot of figures worth a lot of money.

There seems to be an awful lot of hate towards the pawn shop guys on here. I don't think the shop guys are "screwing" anyone. They offer a price that they are willing to pay for something. The seller can take it or leave it. In the end, the seller has the option to sell. The guy selling made the choice to hold onto his collection and try to get more money elsewhere. I have seen things on the show that I felt were worth more money than what they sold for, but that is my opinion. The seller decided to sell. I don't blame the pawn guys for that.

Editor wrote:

Pyrostrata wrote:My biggest question is why did Guy chose a pawn shop over eBay? I am sure he could get his asking price if he sold things individually.

Probably for the same reason I have never gotten into the selling on eBay game. Time and effort. Sure it is easy to say that anyone can sell anything on eBay, but to set up the number of auctions, pack up each piece, ship them out and everything can take a lot of time and energy to do, that this guy may just not have, and felt that selling it as a lot in this manner would net a reasonably similar level of profit.

Clearly this isn't what occured, so if he is going to sell the the collection on eBay (if it hasn't already been sold elsewhere for a better offer) then it is possible that a whole slew of "AS SEEN ON PAWN STARS!!!, G1 ____________" auctions showing up this week.

Yep, and that's why Rick would only offer him five grand: he'd be putting a ton of time and labor into selling them off individually, and he doesn't like to sit on an investment like that.

That said, I think the seller was being a bit unrealistic, at least in this economy, to try and sell it as one collection. I know he has a kid coming, and needed the space as well as the cash, but that's a hell of a lot of money. I can't imagine there are many people who have had that kind of cash and an interest in that kind of collection.

Nemesis Destron wrote:
I still dig the show for different reasons but I think the episode showed us all on not to ever consider a pawn shop. A collectible store...maybe but now a pawn shop.

Honestly, he probably would have gotten a similar offer from a collectible store. Why? For the same reasons as Rick: If purchased from him for MORE than $10,000, the time and effort to go through and identify and class the condition of every single toy in the collection would negate the potential for a profit for the reseller.

It's the same in the collectible cards and comics market. Selling it to a game or comic store may net you a bit more than what a Pawn Shop would get you, but you won't get "market value" for them still because those places need to make a profit. I know two Comic store owners(and 6-7 game store owners) and they HATE the price guides that Wizard and other magazines print because that's what people expect to get off of them not realizing how reselling stores actually work(which seems to be a recurring thing in this thread, too).

Rick himself says it several times: "That may be what it's worth, but it's not worth that to me".

And really, something is only actually worth what someone is willing to pay.

If he wants more, he's stuck selling it himself.

It was cool to see a roomful of so many well taken care of toys.

The multiples of each did kind of make one wonder why?

Dude should just hire me to sell them on eBay. I'll take 10% of his profits, and first dibs on TFs, which I would be paid in for a larger percentage.

I'm glad someone put up some screen caps.. I wasn't able to watch this episode despite my best efforts. Is the guys asking price reasonable? I mean I'm no G1 expert but some of those look pretty damn rare, especially the box for Ft max..I've seen that box alone go for quite a bit..

I recently uploaded a clip of this episode:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gMYIwVicJ8[/youtube]
or click the link to watch it with better volume:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gMYIwVicJ8

Hmm. Really big collection. I'm sure he could fit the baby in there if he got some damn shelves to put the figures on.

Also trimming it down a bit would also work.

No need to have 4 or 5 Mirages, about 6 or 7 Sckorponoks there, and what was it 3 Fortress Maximii. Start Selling some of those duplicates off.

To get a feel for what a collection like that could fetch lets do some math:

He said there's around 1000 pieces there. Lets go Crazy here and say every piece goes for just 10 bucks. Doesn't matter what they are 10 bucks everything, that's $10,000 bucks just like that. No sorting, no identifying, just sell every piece off individually if you want to.

Judging by the video everything seems to be in pretty good condition. I bet there's nothing there that could sell for less than 25 or 30 bucks. You are already up to $25,000 to $30,000 bucks. If the Pawn shop guy wanted 5000 just for all the sorting work he still has 20000 or 25000 left over. Make an additional profit of $2000 or $3000 bucks And he should have been offering the guy at the very least the $18000 he went down to.

And I'm not even considering the over 100 bucks and over 500 bucks a pop some those would fetch. Just selling off The Fortress Maximii would get him his Profit.

All in all there's still some big money to be made there without having to get rid of everything.

Wheeljack35 wrote:Ok so I decided to camcord it for those who haven't seen it till somebody puts the episode up on youtube.Sorry about the lack of quality.Click on the pictures for the video

Part 1



Part 2

Or try these there louder

Skyfire77 wrote:

Editor wrote:

Pyrostrata wrote:My biggest question is why did Guy chose a pawn shop over eBay? I am sure he could get his asking price if he sold things individually.

Probably for the same reason I have never gotten into the selling on eBay game. Time and effort. Sure it is easy to say that anyone can sell anything on eBay, but to set up the number of auctions, pack up each piece, ship them out and everything can take a lot of time and energy to do, that this guy may just not have, and felt that selling it as a lot in this manner would net a reasonably similar level of profit.

Clearly this isn't what occured, so if he is going to sell the the collection on eBay (if it hasn't already been sold elsewhere for a better offer) then it is possible that a whole slew of "AS SEEN ON PAWN STARS!!!, G1 ____________" auctions showing up this week.

Yep, and that's why Rick would only offer him five grand: he'd be putting a ton of time and labor into selling them off individually, and he doesn't like to sit on an investment like that.

That said, I think the seller was being a bit unrealistic, at least in this economy, to try and sell it as one collection. I know he has a kid coming, and needed the space as well as the cash, but that's a hell of a lot of money. I can't imagine there are many people who have had that kind of cash and an interest in that kind of collection.

Isn't a part of collecting about the bragging rights? It's not that way for everybody but for some I know it is. Me thinks he wanted recognition for how big and rare his collection is. Ebay doesn't do that like getting on a tv show does. Doesn't sound like he wanted to do all the work of listing them either.

Like so many others have already posted, he needs to sell the multiples. Keep the best one, sell the rest. You gain space and money. Second, get some shelves. Just doing those two things would probably solve his problems and allow him to keep his collection.

In regards to the multiples, if he's been collecting for years it's pretty easy to get duplicates. I've got quite a few G1 duplicates in the short time I've been back in collecting. You come across a decent deal on a figure that's missing one or two parts and buy it. Then you come across the same figure with one of the parts you need for less than you can buy the actual individual part. Just happened to me with a G1 Dragstrip. All I needed was his hand gun, I looked for months and couldn't find an auction for just the gun. Then an auction popped up for a Dragstrip with gun for a decent price so I bought it. Now I have two Dragstrips. Also happens when buying lots, there may be only one figure in the lot you need, but it's a good deal so you buy it. Again, you now have multiples for all the rest of the figures in the lot. Hell, I need to ebay all of my duplicates, but I'm too lazy.

As for selling to a pawn shop or any retailer, you just have to go in knowing they aren't going to give you what your stuff is worth. They have to resell the stuff at a profit, that's just the way it works. It is however, fast money.

Overcracker wrote:Hmm. Really big collection. I'm sure he could fit the baby in there if he got some damn shelves to put the figures on.

Also trimming it down a bit would also work.

No need to have 4 or 5 Mirages, about 6 or 7 Sckorponoks there, and what was it 3 Fortress Maximii. Start Selling some of those duplicates off.

To get a feel for what a collection like that could fetch lets do some math:

He said there's around 1000 pieces there. Lets go Crazy here and say every piece goes for just 10 bucks. Doesn't matter what they are 10 bucks everything, that's $10,000 bucks just like that. No sorting, no identifying, just sell every piece off individually if you want to.

Judging by the video everything seems to be in pretty good condition. I bet there's nothing there that could sell for less than 25 or 30 bucks. You are already up to $25,000 to $30,000 bucks. If the Pawn shop guy wanted 5000 just for all the sorting work he still has 20000 or 25000 left over. Make an additional profit of $2000 or $3000 bucks And he should have been offering the guy at the very least the $18000 he went down to.

And I'm not even considering the over 100 bucks and over 500 bucks a pop some those would fetch. Just selling off The Fortress Maximii would get him his Profit.

All in all there's still some big money to be made there without having to get rid of everything.

That's the thing though, pawn shop owners don't buy collections like this to part out on eBay.
Guys like that want stuff for the shop that'll sell ASAP for the best profit margin, same reason the Old Man low-balled that guy a couple months ago that brought in the Pez dispensers: stuff sitting in the display case (or worse, sitting in boxes in the back) waiting for the right person to come along eventually isn't doing them any good.

Honestly, if the guy really wants the best coin for his stuff, he needs to put an ad on places like Craigslist, or better yet, dedicated TF sites like this. He'd be mobbed by Transfans in no time.

sabrigami wrote:Isn't a part of collecting about the bragging rights? It's not that way for everybody but for some I know it is. Me thinks he wanted recognition for how big and rare his collection is. Ebay doesn't do that like getting on a tv show does. Doesn't sound like he wanted to do all the work of listing them either.

Hmm, could be; sort of like the collectors (read: pack-rats) the guys on American Pickers run across: they're not actually selling their stuff, but they like to show off the collection once in a while.

Wheeljack35 wrote:

Wheeljack35 wrote:Ok so I decided to camcord it for those who haven't seen it till somebody puts the episode up on youtube.Sorry about the lack of quality.Click on the pictures for the video

Part 1



Part 2

Or try these there louder

Or you can watch both parts in one video, with better quality
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gMYIwVicJ8[/youtube]