How to start a cull...?

[millhouse]

I'm looking at (over the next few months or so) starting to cull my collection down. I've there's too many duplicates of characters, figures I don't love, lines I don't collect, that I need to do something.

Maybe the birth of my first child has had something to do with it!

It's not financial and it won't be a fire sale, but my intent is to offer up here (in due course) a sales post to thin things down.

That said, has anyone here actually done a big cull, and how did they approach it?

Welcoming suggestions, thoughts, concerns, etc.

Effectively I'll be culling mainline Hasbro stuff, non-combiners, outlying characters, possibly some third party, and maybe a couple of extra Masterpiece figures.

Then there's the non TF stuff!

Ugh!

[UltraMarginal]

The most successful I've seen of anyone downsizing a collection is probably Paulbot. I think 'the damned' is doing pretty well also. At least, I see a tonne of his stuff at the Penrith fair, it's well priced and I'd buy some if I didn't already have it.

I may end up doing the same thing myself, but I hate selling toys.
We're packing for a move, and the amount of boxes of still boxed transformers I have is quietly blowing my mind. I'm not a MISB collector but boy oh boy do I have a lot of boxed toys.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I’ve done a cull this year, due to wanting to clear up some space as I’m moving house sometime next year.

It sounds like you already have a starting point of what to cull. For me, it was a case of getting rid of what I didn’t have on display, couldn’t easily fit into a large storage crate, was basically junk, no sentimental value, duplicates or didn’t fit into my future plans for collecting.

My cull was mostly done through this website, and through the Nexus Collectors Fair. I’d highly recommend Nexus to a fellow sandgroper.

[millhouse]

My cull was mostly done through this website, and through the Nexus Collectors Fair. I’d highly recommend Nexus to a fellow sandgroper.

Usually I'm there with a table, but didn't make it to the last one due to the impending birth!

[i_amtrunks]

I’ve done the culling, pricing and photography but been too busy to do the last(and possibly biggest step) of selling. Partly because it’s such a hassle and shipping is stupid expensive and partly because I know a lot of stuff I’m getting rid of is movie and other more modern stuff that most people already have.

You’ve hit the nail on the head on what to cull, the stuff you don’t like, duplicates, the toys that are not fun to transform, things you’ve not touched in ages and possibly even toys you don’t mind but think others would enjoy more than you.

My advice? Get some tubs from Kmart/Bunnings etc, 50litres or whatever and various sized ziplock bags. Place the figure, weapons, small cards or tech specs and instructions in the bag, zip up and label the price. I’ve placed mine in tubs according to series (movie, Amarda trilogy, Chug, other) but I’ve also seen others do it as a size class or price tub that worked really well.

My last advice? Be brutal. Cull everything. If you can’t find immediate desire to keep it, cull it. You’ll fill up that empty shelf space quick smart. Also buying and selling here has always been a positive experience. People are reasonable with prices, deals and group buying, we are very lucky that Griffin has kept this place as one of the few amazingly positive fan based boards around.

Goodluck with the cull!

[dirge]

I've reduced a lot this year.

I started out by looking at which toy series I have no personal investment in. So... most of my Movie, Animated, Power Core Combiners (all of that, actually!) & Unicron Trilogy stuff went, along with much of the Prime stuff I had. I did keep a smattering of figures I *do* have an attachment to.

There were some pieces in series I have attachment to that went, also. For example, within the Classicsverse, most of the "War For Cybertron" stuff went.

I'm still picking off stuff here and there, and I can see my collection is far more orderly.

As Ralph Wiggum has alluded to, if it's not on display & is unlikely to ever be displayed, it's in the firing line. Some of my stored stuff has found its way onto display, while much of the rest in storage has been sold or is for sale.

I hope this helps.

[Paulbot]

My advice is pretty inline with what the others have said. I took guidance from a book about hoarding - there's a fine line between collecting and hoarding!

I looked at figures and asked a few questions: Would I replace it if it broke? Is it fun to transform? Is there a certain something about it that makes it special? And if the answer was yes to any/all of those question it was kept.

If I was unsure I'd transform the figure back and forth and I'd know if I ever wanted to do that again I should keep it. If I didn't it went to the discard pile.

It took a while for the mental shift to set it, that I didn't need to keep everything I had because I'd spent money on it, it completed a set, it was something I "had to have". And I still end up buying new things and second guessing myself.

The thing is you can always take your time. Go through a series once and cull a few. Go through again a few weeks later and you'll probably cull some more. It gets easier the more you do it.

[DELTAprime]

My cull didn't go too well personally as I only was able to sell two items in my sales thread so I think it requires a bit of luck to get rid of them.

Cough: if anyone wants some old Transformers mine are still available in the for sale section.

[SharkyMcShark]

I did a big cull in 2014 when I realised that funding an alternate hobby was more important that having probably literally hundreds of kilograms of plastic I never touch, and don't display.

A few tips

• My philosophy was that it was better to sell for a low price and have stuff actually purchased from me, than to have a higher price and have a full sales thread months down the line.
  
• That said, expect people to low ball you by PM, frequently.
  
• Accept that some things might not sell unless your price is <$5, or you offer to throw them in as freebies. Stuff like the Universe 2.0 versions of Springer and Silverbolt, or the Energon Combiner teams have flat out been entirely superseded and no one will go out of their way to buy them. People do have kids though and might want older toys for the kiddie pile, so it's worth listing stuff like that super cheap. Better to have it out the door now for $2 because someone was buying something else from you and it took their interest, than still taking up your space in six months time because no one will pay $15 for it.
  
• Keep a frequently updated sales thread with a clear heading. It doesn't mean that you have to run down the post office every single day to send peoples items out, but given that you're going to be accepting and handling people's money for things you should be logging on to reply to PMs and update your sales thread every other day, at least. The clarity that that provides will help you keep track of things too.
  
• You'll need a large amount of variously sized cardboard boxes, strong packing tape, ziplock bags and old newspaper. Your best packing friends are ziplock bags and old newspaper. Much cheaper than rolls of bubble wrap. In a pinch I used scrunched up drafts of final year law school assignments to pad my parcels.
  
• Finally, accept that at some point you'll sell a figure with a broken or missing part that you didn't pick up on prior to the sale entirely through your own ignorance. Be gracious when this happens and work with the buyer to make it right. If you're ever on the receiving end of this, pay it forward.

My sales thread for reference. I packed it in in early 2015 as I had started working full time.

[millhouse]

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. It's been a great range from the philosophical to the practical and I'm very appreciative!