Thinning things out

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9th January 2015, 06:22 PM
millhouse

Thinning things out

So, I'm looking at thinning out my collection and significantly reducing the amount of CHUG figures I own (along with some 3rd party stuff) and miscellaneous things.

Mainly I'll continue to focus on MP, 3P MP-style, and stuff relevant to either Galvatron or the 1986 movie.

Most of my stuff is bagged up individually and pretty much ready to sell once I get it from storage. This year the GF and I are moving to a new place and I'm planning to thin out a decent portion of the (TF and non-TF) collection as we look towards the future.

Besides looking at others' sales threads on the forum, has anyone done anything similar? Any suggestions to avoid "seller's regret"? Any suggestions overall to the idea of thinning things out/what to draw the line at? Obviously with a sales thread, preparation appears to be the key!

I'm selling some stuff (non-TF mostly) at Nexus this time around and will no doubt be trying to get stuff ready to sell during the April fair (or allow collections for Perth buyers).

By no means take this as a "DIBS PLEASE!" thread - I'm actively trying to avoid that - I'm just looking for general thoughts/feedback from people who've been through it.
9th January 2015, 06:34 PM
nexusnixx

there is never a good timing to "flog" off stuff you do not need... for me personally I will put a few on gumtree and wait for response... sometimes an ad can be there for 3 weeks then you get a bite... it is really a hit and miss with gumtree (of course if you price is way below cost price - the sms/ calls will flood in)

You are going in the right direction with thinking carefully what you want to mainly focus on... and hopefully stick to it... it will be challenging but when good will power i am sure you can do it...
9th January 2015, 06:36 PM
spiderken17

I sort my stuff out into selling stages. First stuff to go is the stuff that you are happy to sell, then kind of happy to sell etc. The last stuff I sell is the stuff I am unsure about. I usually end up selling it because if you think about selling it you are most likely to sell it, I often have a fixed price for this stuff and think "if I am selling it I want at least $x for it".
The stuff you really want to keep doesn't even come into consideration, that's how you know you really want to keep it.
I find this thins out things at a nice flow rather than the bulk selling which can get a bit overwhelming.
Hope this helps.
9th January 2015, 06:38 PM
millhouse

Quote:

Originally Posted by nexusnixx

there is never a good timing to "flog" off stuff you do not need... for me personally I will put a few on gumtree and wait for response... sometimes an ad can be there for 3 weeks then you get a bite... it is really a hit and miss with gumtree (of course if you price is way below cost price - the sms/ calls will flood in)

You are going in the right direction with thinking carefully what you want to mainly focus on... and hopefully stick to it... it will be challenging but when good will power i am sure you can do it...

Cheers mate. Don't worry - I'll be a) keeping on with my MPs (so my pre-orders with you are still locked in!) and b) giving people on OTCA first crack. I've seen enough sales threads fall to pieces on here in terms of communication/expectation/etc so I'm going to be nice and clear about what's up for sale/prices/etc.

TBH, I won't bother with Gumtree and I'll try and time it a month out from Nexus Fair (April) to allow for people to collect at Nexus as it's always pretty convenient.
9th January 2015, 06:39 PM
millhouse

Quote:

Originally Posted by spiderken17

I find this thins out things at a nice flow rather than the bulk selling which can get a bit overwhelming.
Hope this helps.

Definitely does. I'm thinking of breaking it up a bit but will see how it goes when I start to pull stuff for the clear-tub-o'-sales! Cheers!
9th January 2015, 07:54 PM
Paulbot

Quote:

Originally Posted by millhouse

So, I'm looking at thinning out my collection and significantly reducing the amount of CHUG figures I own (along with some 3rd party stuff) and miscellaneous things.

Mainly I'll continue to focus on MP, 3P MP-style, and stuff relevant to either Galvatron or the 1986 movie.

Most of my stuff is bagged up individually and pretty much ready to sell once I get it from storage. This year the GF and I are moving to a new place and I'm planning to thin out a decent portion of the (TF and non-TF) collection as we look towards the future.

Besides looking at others' sales threads on the forum, has anyone done anything similar? Any suggestions to avoid "seller's regret"? Any suggestions overall to the idea of thinning things out/what to draw the line at? Obviously with a sales thread, preparation appears to be the key!

I'm selling some stuff (non-TF mostly) at Nexus this time around and will no doubt be trying to get stuff ready to sell during the April fair (or allow collections for Perth buyers).

By no means take this as a "DIBS PLEASE!" thread - I'm actively trying to avoid that - I'm just looking for general thoughts/feedback from people who've been through it.

Over the last few months I've been going through my collection and thinning it out, I'm down to about 550 now - after a high of more than 1500 at one point. I've been working on a post about it that's still a work in progress.

I think if you're clearing because you want to, and not for financial necessity, I do think it's easier. And it sounds like you've got an idea of what you want to focus on which will also make it easier.

Lots of us are in similar situations. There are a lot of threads of people doing the exact same thing. The problem is that I think that has caused a bit of a glut. More sellers than buyers.

It will take time, more than you expect. If you can go to something like Nexus maybe look at jumping on a table that could be a good way to sell things without dealing with the postage side of things.
9th January 2015, 08:44 PM
GoktimusPrime

If you're clearing off your toys out of desire rather than financial necessity, then perhaps another option you might consider is Pay It Forward where you just give your toys away for free. It is presumed that anyone who accepts any free toys hereby agrees to participate in this scheme and similarly offer free toys to others when they are able to. :) It really helps just offload a lot of toys really quickly, and also helps to build a spirit of communal giving. I recently did this and it allowed me to rapidly offloaded almost all of my non-Transformers toy collections (90% of the figures I was offloading was gone within a week)! :eek: And I've been stoked to see others start their own Pay It Forward threads too; I really hope that this idea will continue to grow. :)

If you want to have some fun with some figures, and this is something I do on the rare occasion that I want to give away Transformers, is to run competitions. I've had competitions based on merit (e.g. quizzes), and other times just based on a random draw. :cool:
9th January 2015, 09:06 PM
millhouse

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paulbot

I think if you're clearing because you want to, and not for financial necessity, I do think it's easier. And it sounds like you've got an idea of what you want to focus on which will also make it easier.

If you can go to something like Nexus maybe look at jumping on a table that could be a good way to sell things without dealing with the postage side of things.

I've been selling odds and ends at Nexus for about a year now, so I'm pretty comfortable with all of that, and you're right, I'm not selling out of financial necessity which certainly makes it easier, along with having an idea of what I want to keep and what can go.
9th January 2015, 09:07 PM
millhouse

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

If you're clearing off your toys out of desire rather than financial necessity, then perhaps another option you might consider is Pay It Forward where you just give your toys away for free.

If you want to have some fun with some figures, and this is something I do on the rare occasion that I want to give away Transformers, is to run competitions. I've had competitions based on merit (e.g. quizzes), and other times just based on a random draw.

Both good ideas, but probably not what I'm looking to do for the bulk of my (planned) "to go" pile. That said, probably something I'll end up doing for appropriate items. :)
9th January 2015, 09:33 PM
UltraMarginal

Quote:

Originally Posted by millhouse

I've seen enough sales threads fall to pieces on here in terms of communication/expectation/etc so I'm going to be nice and clear about what's up for sale/prices/etc.

I think that's the key. preparation, the more work you do up front the easier the rest of the process is, either at a fair, on the board or on eVilBay.

as for what to sell, it's obviously personal preference and like I've heard from paulbot lately, it's worth spending a bit of time with items that you're looking at selling just to be sure you want to get rid of it. perhaps look at stuff in groups or sub groups.

I have very little I want to part with at the moment, so have no personal recommendations.
14th January 2015, 05:55 PM
Jilm101

There was a time when i bulked up on anything and every transformer i could find but over the last or two I've been thinning focusing on only a few lines.
14th January 2015, 06:58 PM
GoktimusPrime

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jilm101

There was a time when i bulked up on anything and every transformer i could find but over the last or two I've been thinning focusing on only a few lines.

Heh, I went through that phase in 2004. :rolleyes:
15th January 2015, 01:53 AM
Sinnertwin

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paulbot

Lots of us are in similar situations. There are a lot of threads of people doing the exact same thing. The problem is that I think that has caused a bit of a glut. More sellers than buyers.

So true. There are a variety of factors at work, but i think that one of the biggest ones is that the majority of our members already have most of the mainstream toys, which makes it increasingly difficult to sell. it's not like the prices are astronomical either, on the contrary, some are way below what you'd find elsewhere :)
16th January 2015, 01:25 AM
SuspectimusPrime

Quote:

Originally Posted by millhouse

Most of my stuff is bagged up individually and pretty much ready to sell once I get it from storage. This year the GF and I are moving to a new place and I'm planning to thin out a decent portion of the (TF and non-TF) collection as we look towards the future.

A very positive move for the new year. I'd really like to do some blood letting as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jilm101

There was a time when i bulked up on anything and every transformer i could find but over the last or two I've been thinning focusing on only a few lines.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Heh, I went through that phase in 2004. :rolleyes:

2009 or 2010 for me. My saddest acquisition was THS-02 Hybrid Convoy from eBay. I didn't open it until a year or two later only to find one of the hinges under his grill was slightly warped - just enough for it to keep falling off. Pretty sure the seller didn't mention it. My 2nd negative experience out of 300+ good purchases from eBay. Most likely pay this forward when I get around to digging it out again.