I’ve previously written several installments with points to consider when selling you collection. This was spurred by an article by a comic book collector who decided to sell his 10,000 comic book collection as a way to reduce his level of clutter after he lost the urge to collect. While you may not be at this stage with your collection there are a number of parallels to selling a patch collection.
The first three parts included, Lets Get Started, The Fast Nickel, and The Slow Dime. Links can be found below. In each post, I wrote about some thing you need to consider when thinking about selling your collection.
It pretty much boils down to; what is the cost for your time worth? How much time are you willing to spend preparing, scanning, describing, packaging and mailing small portions of your collection to buyers?
In the Fast Nickel, I described how you would let others do the work in exchange for a quicker return but with a lower price. The Slow Dime examined strategies for selling it yourself, significantly more time and hopefully a higher return.
One attempt at blending the nickel and dime approach is the use of a consignment seller.
Consignment Sellers do not buy your collection outright, but rather provide the labor in exchange for a percentage of the sales.
Typically you will be responsible for all fees related to selling your collection, plus a percentage of the sales priced obtained for each item sold.
Let’s look at some examples:
We will use a 1000 patch collection of individual items which you believe are valued at $ 5.00 each. Your mileage may vary, but here are three scenarios.
The Fast Nickel – A dealer offers you $ 1600 (about a third) for your hoard, you get the money (relatively) quick and aside from an initial inventory not much work (a few hours) on your side.
The Slow Dime – you list the 1000 patches individually on eBay for $ 5.00 each with $ 1.00 Shipping. 800 sell (Total Cash $ 4800) eBay and PayPal take their cut call it 20% ($ 960), and assume your mailing expense is the full $ 800 as well. You clear about $3000. If you have under estimated the cost of postage and shipping supplies there may be additional expenses to consider.
But you have spent a significant amount of time scanning 1000 items, writing 1000 auctions, preparing and mailing hundreds of packages. If you take 15 minutes with each auction lot from start to finish that is over 200 hours invested. You also have 200 patches left to relist or try to sell through another venue.
The Consignment Seller listed the same items individually on eBay, 800 sold at $ 5.00 each plus $ 1.00 each for postage. The Gross sales amount was $ 4800 (800 * $6.00), Total Fees amounted to $ 960, plus $ 800 in shipping expenses, plus the Sellers consignment fee of 20% of the Gross Sales ($ 4800 *.25) or $ 960. In this example* you clear about $ 2100, more than the Fast Nickel, but still less than the Slow Dime. Eventually the seller returns you the 200 unsold items.
* I’ve made this commission rate up; you may not be able to obtain this rate.
Things to consider from the consignment seller:
What is seller’s commission?
Is the commission percentage taken from Gross sales or after expenses?
Are the Shipping and Handling expenses included in any of the commission calculations?
If eBay is being used, how many items are listed each week?
What sales documentation does the seller provide?
How long after the auction close can you expect you payment?
If the sale proceeds are not received as a single amount, how frequently does the seller pay you?
What other questions would you ask the consignment seller?
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“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” – Voltaire
