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Advice on either Selling or Tossing my Crap.
Athenor
Battle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
Battle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
I want to make it extremely clear that I'm not looking to sell any of my crap here. I wouldn't intentionally do anything to jeopardize my place in this community.
Last March, I moved out of my folks' place (for the second time) and into a "Luxury Studio" -- That is, a studio with a bit more room than the average studio around here. Decent enough place, suits my needs, I definitely feel at home.
The problem is my crap. See, since hitting employed life (in 2000), I've been dragging around an ever-increasing collection of stuff - notably toys. For the last few years that stuff was stored in a storage unit while I went back to University, but the new rent costs required me to drop the rental space. And honestly, I don't have enough stuff on my own to warrant a storage unit here at the apartment complex, especially considering that they are essentially garages with no weather-proofing.
I've mentally reached the point where I am comfortable purging some of my crap. When I was younger, I was excited by the idea of buying entire lines of toys, but nowadays I really just want to surround myself with the best of the best, or things that hold sentimental value. The problem I'm running into is this weird mindset that everything I own has value, and I'd like to see it end up in someone's hands instead of in a landfill.
Here's where my pragmatic mind comes into play: The fast solution is to pitch it. Throw it in a garbage bag, toss it out, don't look back. I'll never be able to live with myself if I do that. The generous solution is to donate it. Give it a second life in someone else's hands. I'm out nothing at this point, except for the cost of the initial product. The fiscally responsible solution is to sell it. As long as my costs involved in getting this stuff indexed, priced, and out the door are covered, then I will come ahead and recoop some of the hundreds (thousands?) of dollars I've spent over the years. But the individual items are likely extremely cheap on the aftermarket, especially considering that I've opened them and have them on display, and I recycled the boxes back when I got rid of my storage unit because I was in no way capable of keeping that stuff in my apartment.
So. General question, and specific questions:
General: How do I even begin on this process? I am worried that just the act of pulling out an item and evaluating it is going to be painful, as invariably something will show up with value that will stop the process dead. Where should I sell the items? How? Which route should I pursue?
Specific: there's definitely things here that I won't lose sleep over getting rid of. These mostly consist of the crapper toys, as well as games I will never play. So I'm looking for Trash/Donate/Sell recommendations on the following items:
1) Mage Knight figures from when the game first launched in 2001.
2) Similar vein: Mechwarrior figures from when Wizkids re-launched in 2002/2003. I also have an AWESOME Plano case that is effin' huge, but I think I can find uses for that still.
3) World of Warcraft cards and minis. Damn my loot-whore ness! While the minis game could hold its own as an actual game, I don't see myself ever playing it. On the other hand, the WoW CCG things might actually have value. Maybe. Again, I have no clue, and I don't know if it is worth the time/effort to go through them.
4) Wizkids Star Wars game: This one is actually an interesting conundrum for me. I bought a shit-ton of these for $1-2 when the game went on clearance, and they make good fodder. And they don't take up a ton of room due to their card nature. But on the other hand, I have -so many- that I could likely purge a good chunk of it and still be safe.
5) Really old Marvel trading cards. We're talking from my childhood, when I was 10-12 - right in the heart of the "Extreme 90s." In fact, these cards are why I know many of the comic book characters I do... But I think they have absolutely no value out of sentimentality.
6) Clothing: This should always be donated, right? I can't picture many places buying 4XLT fatass clothing...
7) The toy collections themselves. Most of my collection is Transformers. I figure this one's a definite sell, I just have no clue what kind of prices I can expect.
Funnily enough, some of the biggest space-takers are my media collections, such as games. But I can't part with games. Not anymore. Not after some of my bad choices half a decade ago. *sigh* I miss my GBA games.
Edit 2: Yup! Good thing I double-checked the rules - selling stuff is a violation. Thread title edited to make intent clearer.
Last March, I moved out of my folks' place (for the second time) and into a "Luxury Studio" -- That is, a studio with a bit more room than the average studio around here. Decent enough place, suits my needs, I definitely feel at home.
The problem is my crap. See, since hitting employed life (in 2000), I've been dragging around an ever-increasing collection of stuff - notably toys. For the last few years that stuff was stored in a storage unit while I went back to University, but the new rent costs required me to drop the rental space. And honestly, I don't have enough stuff on my own to warrant a storage unit here at the apartment complex, especially considering that they are essentially garages with no weather-proofing.
I've mentally reached the point where I am comfortable purging some of my crap. When I was younger, I was excited by the idea of buying entire lines of toys, but nowadays I really just want to surround myself with the best of the best, or things that hold sentimental value. The problem I'm running into is this weird mindset that everything I own has value, and I'd like to see it end up in someone's hands instead of in a landfill.
Here's where my pragmatic mind comes into play: The fast solution is to pitch it. Throw it in a garbage bag, toss it out, don't look back. I'll never be able to live with myself if I do that. The generous solution is to donate it. Give it a second life in someone else's hands. I'm out nothing at this point, except for the cost of the initial product. The fiscally responsible solution is to sell it. As long as my costs involved in getting this stuff indexed, priced, and out the door are covered, then I will come ahead and recoop some of the hundreds (thousands?) of dollars I've spent over the years. But the individual items are likely extremely cheap on the aftermarket, especially considering that I've opened them and have them on display, and I recycled the boxes back when I got rid of my storage unit because I was in no way capable of keeping that stuff in my apartment.
So. General question, and specific questions:
General: How do I even begin on this process? I am worried that just the act of pulling out an item and evaluating it is going to be painful, as invariably something will show up with value that will stop the process dead. Where should I sell the items? How? Which route should I pursue?
Specific: there's definitely things here that I won't lose sleep over getting rid of. These mostly consist of the crapper toys, as well as games I will never play. So I'm looking for Trash/Donate/Sell recommendations on the following items:
1) Mage Knight figures from when the game first launched in 2001.
2) Similar vein: Mechwarrior figures from when Wizkids re-launched in 2002/2003. I also have an AWESOME Plano case that is effin' huge, but I think I can find uses for that still.
3) World of Warcraft cards and minis. Damn my loot-whore ness! While the minis game could hold its own as an actual game, I don't see myself ever playing it. On the other hand, the WoW CCG things might actually have value. Maybe. Again, I have no clue, and I don't know if it is worth the time/effort to go through them.
4) Wizkids Star Wars game: This one is actually an interesting conundrum for me. I bought a shit-ton of these for $1-2 when the game went on clearance, and they make good fodder. And they don't take up a ton of room due to their card nature. But on the other hand, I have -so many- that I could likely purge a good chunk of it and still be safe.
5) Really old Marvel trading cards. We're talking from my childhood, when I was 10-12 - right in the heart of the "Extreme 90s." In fact, these cards are why I know many of the comic book characters I do... But I think they have absolutely no value out of sentimentality.
6) Clothing: This should always be donated, right? I can't picture many places buying 4XLT fatass clothing...
7) The toy collections themselves. Most of my collection is Transformers. I figure this one's a definite sell, I just have no clue what kind of prices I can expect.
Funnily enough, some of the biggest space-takers are my media collections, such as games. But I can't part with games. Not anymore. Not after some of my bad choices half a decade ago. *sigh* I miss my GBA games.
Edit 2: Yup! Good thing I double-checked the rules - selling stuff is a violation. Thread title edited to make intent clearer.
He/Him | "A boat is always safest in the harbor, but that’s not why we build boats." | "If you run, you gain one. If you move forward, you gain two." - Suletta Mercury, G-Witch
Athenor on
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The clothes can be donated, and the good news is that the donation can be deducted from your income taxes! Just make sure you give them to a place that will give you a receipt for the donation, and you'll be good.
The rest I'd probably try a local Craigslist ad first, cash only type of deal. I wouldn't expect a lot of money, but it would remove all of the hassle of shipping and costs, and you know it'll go to a good home.
For the transformers, you can check ebay. If I remember right, there are actual transformers toy price guides out there that will give you guidelines on what a collector will pay for them boxed/unboxed and in various conditions. Whether tracking one of those down would be worth the cost is really hard to say.
Good luck with it all!
Edit: On the charitable donations thing, at current I don't itemize my deductions (Single + 25k income = pretty much always getting a complete refund). Does donating affect that much?
http://www.ebay.com/csc/i.html?LH_Complete=1&_trkparms=65%3A13%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1&rt=nc&_nkw=mage+knight+figure&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=3&_sc=1
http://www.ebay.com/csc/i.html?_nkw=transformer+toy&_sacat=0&_sop=3&LH_Complete=1&_odkw=mage+knight+figure&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
note: Green means it actually sold
It's not really a matter of time. In all honesty, there's room for about 90% of what I own. I just can't get more stuff, and I can't display what I own now, and that last 10% is still floating out there.
I'm thinking the "value it on ebay, then proceed to friends->Craigslist->eBay->Donate" would probably be the best course of action.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I like taking stuff to eBay stores. It is somewhere on between taking the time sell everything and just tossing everything and getting rid of it. With the eBay store, you can just dump everything on them and let them sort through it. At most you'll get 50% return for your stuff, but you'll be getting money back while someone else does the work so you can focus your time and energy on more important things.
It all got sent to the salvation army/red cross store in town. All of it. Somebody other than me was going to be needing/using those toys/clothes/items, somebody was going to enjoy playing with them and reading the books. Well, all my books went to the book drive that was set up by Office of Letters & light during Nano in 2010. But the same basic stuff.
If somebody can use it, then I say donate it. But, I can't blame you for wanting money from it. Sadly, I have no experience on selling my stuff, and I never took a tax receipt from the Sally either. Just dropped it off and then left.
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