Advice on Selling my Magic: The Gathering card collection?

[HeavensThunderHammer]

Hey Guys,

I'm looking at ebaying my aging Magic Card collection. I live a mile away from the Canadian/American border (on the canadian side). I'm not sure on how to approach selling my cards and am seeking some advice. I'd like to maximize what I get for the cards, but really dislike the hassle of driving across the border every two days to sell something for $2, so we're looking at a minimax optimizing scenario. I'd like to sell one big lot of them all, but realize that could really cut into my revenue. So, what I'm not sure on is how common it is to sell things in bigs lots, and also, how much information is needed for a big lot.

I've done some basic sorting into my 5 colors and have divided them into the instants, sorceries, creatures etc etc But haven't counted them, though I'm guessing something on the order of a thousand to ten thousand cards (including lands, I think.)

In terms of commons/uncommons/rares I'm not so sure. The more valuable cards that I bought individually on ebay i have set aside, but my general pile... I figure it's mostly commons/uncommons. I have set aside the 20 foils or so I came across. I'm not exactly looking forward to catalogueing every single card, and so any advice at all on how to package things on ebay would be great. Thanks!

[Formless]

I've never bothered selling (I'm still into the game obviously), but I would sort the non-rares by their expansion. The older it is, the more valuable it probably is even if its a common. If you have any playsets of any cards they will probably sell better as a group. Other than that, I can't think of any way to maximize your profits without getting into cross-referencing individual cards to their monetary value on the collector's market (which may not be worth the effort if the card isn't rare).

[Dark Hellion]

Bulk commons/uncommons are basically worthless outside a few exceptions. The best way to sell a large collection is to try to find a private collector at a game store and make a deal. Otherwise you will be lucky to $1 per 1000 commons. Even bulk rares are rarely worth much more than a cent on ebay. The unfortunate thing about magic collections is that the majority of the worth will be in a very small minority of the cards and the rest are barely worth the paper they are printed on.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Even tournament players don't want the really old ones, because now they limit the editions of cards you can use. MAGIC cards peaked about 8 years ago.

[HeavensThunderHammer]

Cool. Thanks for the advice so far guys. I'll see what I can do for selling them, they're not doing anything for me at all anymore and if I can get say.. $100 for the whole lot (including the foils+ rares) I'll probably be pretty happy.

[Dark Hellion]

If you have anything worth anything just go into the nearest game shop, start at $150 and haggle down to $100. Most shop owners or collectors would be willing to shell out $100 if they can get good trade-stock out of it. The problem is if it all random one ofs and not extended legal then you may be SOL.

[Solauren]

Get an account on the Wizards of the Coast boards.

Go into the Magic the Gathering Card Trading/Sales area.

Post the list. Say you want $100 USD + shipping costs. Make sure it's via paypal (for both of their protection).

Watch the cards fly out the window if the list is even remotely worth it.

[lance]

Even tournament players don't want the really old ones, because now they limit the editions of cards you can use. MAGIC cards peaked about 8 years ago.

This isn't true, in over half of the formats editions aren't restricted. The problem comes with power creep, Savanna Lions were the bomb at 2/3, but now there are 1 mana 3/3 and 2/3s.

Make sure there are no Aether Vials(10), Goblin Lackeys(10), Isochron Scepters, Force of Wills(30+) or Sinkholes(30+) in the bulk pile your selling. They are uncommons and commons but they have value to them due to purely mechanical demand that they have.

[TheFeniX]

Sinkholes(30+)

Wow. Really? I've got 6 (2 each of A,B, and Unl.) A few friends and I got back into the game a bit, so I've considered mixing them into my 5 color artifact decks for grins, but I may look into selling them if people are actually paying that. I doubt I'll get much for the Alphas though. Still, $120 off a few cards isn't bad.

[lance]

Its gone up a bit, its 29.95-34 for revised, 43-60 for alpha, and 42-53 for the beta

http://magiccards.info/al/en/38.html

[Spoonist]

Cool. Thanks for the advice so far guys. I'll see what I can do for selling them, they're not doing anything for me at all anymore and if I can get say.. $100 for the whole lot (including the foils+ rares) I'll probably be pretty happy.

Get an account on the Wizards of the Coast boards.

Go into the Magic the Gathering Card Trading/Sales area.

Post the list. Say you want $100 USD + shipping costs. Make sure it's via paypal (for both of their protection).

Watch the cards fly out the window if the list is even remotely worth it.

Similar to what he said, but don't make a list, that is too tediuos. First just flip them upside down and fast sort them for the edition symbol, then when you have the editions sorted. Spread them out on a light background and take pictures. Repeat with all editions. Then if you have foils or such take a picture & make a list. But most foils are junk as well.

[KrauserKrauser]

Ok, I'm a pretty hardcore Magic the Gathering player/collector. I even own some of the original art, so I can give you a good amount of advice about selling the collection, maybe even buy it from you myself.

First off I need to get either a card list.

If that is not available a list of sets that they are from, the numbers of the rares, commons, uncommons.

If you can't get that then a total number of cards and the years you played/bought cards from.

I might be interested in picking up your collection but I would need details before I could give you a quote, that $100 might be way under what it is really worth, especially nowadays as some of the older cards have shot way up in value.

I'm pretty up to date on MtG, so if you need any more info, let me know.

[LadyTevar]

I am also interested in seeing what cards you have for sale.

[KrauserKrauser]

Bah! He's mine! Go look somewhere else for fresh meat!

Seriously, we can give you a pretty good price quote and chucking it off in one collection will get you less than selling individually but that is to be expected.

Alot of relatively obscure cards have 10x in value in teh last few months so you never know what an old collection might be worth in today's market.