Some advice from the collectors

I was pointed here by another forum member, so I am going to paste if that is ok.

First let me say this is my first official post. I joined back in 2005, but have never posted.

Secondly, I don't know where else to turn.

About 6 months ago I helped my cousin fix his computer. He is an elderly gentleman who recently retired and moved back to the region. I have never met him, but my Mom and her brothers and sisters know him well.

At the end of my repairing his system, he asked me if I liked Star Wars. I looked at him and laugh. I'm 32, of course I like Star Wars. Great he said, I have a few things I want to get rid of, I will drop them off. Ok, sure, thanks. We shake hands and that?s the end of it, I don't hear anymore until about month ago.

I come home after a day?s work, and see the van outside my house. As I pull up I noticed it?s my cousin. He asks if he can back in, because he is going to drop some things off. Sure, no problem there. He proceeds to drop of over 200 items of various Star Wars toys, books, candy, etc. There sheer volume alone shocked me. We talked hockey for a few and then he was gone, and I was left with all this. None of it opened. His last words were, sell it, keep it, store it, whatever, he just wanted it out of his house.

[image=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/offishall/Star%20Wars/Starwars2/IMGP1119.jpg]

What I need to know is, what is this stuff worth? Should I hold it or sell it? I really don't have the room for it all, and there is more than what is in that picture, I just couldn't get it all out and visible.

Thanks in advance for any advice you all can offer.

http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/offishall/Star%20Wars/

http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/offishall/Star%20Wars/Starwars2/

 

Hey offishall - the other mod pointed me toward your first thread and I've replied there. I'll keep this open in case any other collectors have suggestions.

 

That's awesome man, I'd love for someone to just drop off a van full of toys at my house....


As for value? I haven't kept up with Star Wars items for the past few years, but last I knew Episode I stuff wasn't selling very well. Best bet for simply getting rid of the lot would be a Craigslisting or putting an ad in the classified section of your local paper.

I did see a Queen Amidala Royal Starship in your pics and those were pretty sought after for awhile there, so you might want to check the current eBay prices on that one.

 

Wow how old was this man.. I love the 3D falcon puzzle and you have some great EP1 items great score

 

Hello offishall

There are several unique items in the collection. Overall Ep1 items did not sell well and where marked down months later. I would do some research and price out the Naboo Royal Starship and the 12" figures. There are also several of the EP1 figures ( TC-14, R2B1, hologram Darth Sidious, and Sio Bibble,) that are worth some money. This will give your friend what the more expensive items are worth. You might have to sell the collection in chunks to get the most amount of money.

 

My advice would be to look at eBay and just type in the names of the characters and products and see what pops up for prices.

http://www.rebelscum.com/archives.asp
Rebel Scum has a great photo collection if you want to know what series your figures came out in.

You can look into resale or collectibles stores in your area if you want to sell part of it or all.
In our town there are some where you rent space and put in everything you want to sell. They have Star Wars stuff occasionally but most recent figures are like 5-8 bucks each.

You could also see if your newspaper does cheap Garage Sale ads and just put in that you are having a Star Wars sale.

 

My advice would be to hold on to it. TPM stuff may not be in demand now, but you never know how much people will pay for stuff in the future.

 

The price of your items may also go down if interest in Star Wars begins to fade in the coming years.

It's a big gamble. If the upcoming live action TV show turns out to be a great hit, the price of your collection will continue increasing. If it goes badly, then the price might decrease. It really depends on what you want here. If all the items in your collection are worth X and X isn't a lot of money for you, then don't sell. If the price of your items goes down later then whatever, it isn't a big loss for you. If the price of your items goes up to what you consider a lot of money, then you won.

However if X is a lot of money to you, your probably better off selling the items now then taking the risk of losing a lot of $ in the future with this investment.

 

It would be a couple of days work (maybe more?) to research all of the items you have - and there's a boatload going by that pic...

But I'd say just plough through it and you'll soon get a general idea of prices for figures, ship, promo items etc. Once you have you could maybe do a rough calculation and sell as a job-lot (although it would probably take a while to sell). Or as others have suggested, just garage sale em locally and give a v nice surprise to a local SW collector!

 

Wow. That's... An amazing gift!
So, first piece of advice is to catalog what you have. Put it into a word.doc or whatever.

I sold off my figures last year (almost all of them) and will tell you that it's a mixed bad. Some figures sold for $1 or not at all. Some sold for $15. Local comic book store has a couple boxes of figures still MOC for $4 that they're planning on tossing into the $1 box in hopes of clearing room.
The vehicles may do better. I actually got more for my loose Queen's Flagship than I paid for it originally.

My efforts on eBay have been more than mildly susccessful with other items (sold a bunch of old D&D books last 2 weeks and pulled in $1500). I'd be happy to show you my listings so you can copy the details and info I use. Actually, you can just look it up (Use advanced search: completed listings)--I use the same handle there as here. (Note: I am not soliciting--I have no items currently listed)

EDIT: Just got back from looking through your photos.
PotF2 figures don't sell for much, if at all. even worse than Ep1. The vehicles are another matter. The silly little Battle-Droid Scout Tank went for about $20 loose, when it originally sold for $12 or so. One thing I will suggest right away is when you list on eBay (if you go that route) you take lots and lots of pictures, from everny angle. And see what you can do not to have the flash glaring/reflecting, or otherwiase obscuring your view. The better people can see, the better your auction will do. I generally leave my images either full size, or within 14" wide or 10" tall. Mainly because that fits best on my monitor.

Good luck.

 

The market isn't the best forselling items. With a 3d release of the movies in a few years, that might be a better time.

 

Great catch offishall!

To echo some of the comments here, I would hold on to that stuff for awhile. It might not be worth much now, but in the future it will almost certainly go up.

As an example for you to draw from: When I was a kid in the early 90's there were no star wars toys and I (mainly my parents) were constantly paying ridiculous prices for loose, incomplete Star Wars action figures.

In time, the same thing will happen with all this new stuff. I hope Star Wars toys stay on shelves for a while but, when they are finally gone, give it a few years if you want to cash in.