Best way to sell my collection

[dxjason]

Hi guys,

Its been quite some time since I been to this forum (or any message board), and its been some time since I dabbled in the world of pin trading. I actually decided that it was time to sell off my collection (over 1500+). I had a great time collecting and trading pins, but I think it's time to dust off some of the pins and find them a new home. Being out of the loop for many years, I have some questions I'm hoping you experts can help me out with.

1. How is pin trading/selling now a days? Are Disney pins still popular to collect and trade?
2. Is there a demand/market for older pins? Most of my collection is 10+ years old.
3. What is the best way to find prices for pins? Should I just compare similar sales like on here or eBay? I'm afraid that I'm quite out of the loop when it comes to current pricing. I am cautious when it comes to "offer me a fair trade/price" because I was burned by veteran traders early on when I first started collecting.
4. When selling seasonal or themed pins, is it better to wait until that time of year? For example, is it a good time to try and sell my Mickey's All American Pin Trading pins because 4th of July is around the corner or should I dump them during an off theme time, like say Christmas?
5. What are some good places that I can list my pins? The only places I can think of are eBay and this forum.
6. I know its easier, but is selling pins in a group a better idea? For example, should I try to sell a bunch of Haunted Mansion pins together or should I list them separately?

Any help would be appreciated as I get back in this great hobby.

Thanks!

 

[Allie.Pin]

Are you leaving the hobby ? Or just getting rid of old pins. If you want to sell everything I think its best to sell the pins in groups otherwise you will probably have leftovers.

 

[dxjason]

Great question! To be honest, I'm still not 100% sure. Whether it was standing in line for hours or having a fellow trader finding a highly sought after pin I was looking for, there is a lot of great memories. Ideally, I would like to consolidate all my pins to a single bag and keep it to that. I'm sure there will be pins that I will have a difficult time deciding whether to let go or not. However, I would say that I am open to cleaning out my entire collection and only keeping my top favorites.

 

[Princessdorothy]

Old pins are always great and many people enjoy them, my idea for you, and of course its just an idea is if you have many sell them in groups or lots of a category, ex. 10 pixar pins for 25$ etc.


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[jazzytrumpet]

1. It depends on the genre. In general, Disney pins are still popular, but certain characters are hotter than others (Frozen, Tangled, Up versus Fab Five).

2. Again, it depends on which older pins. Are they from Disney Shopping, Disney Auctions (when Disney had a category/forum on eBay), Disneystore.com, Disneyland Paris (Euro Disney), etc? What characters / movies do they feature?

3. eBay has become the general source for prices. Sold listings (not current listings) give an idea of the maximum people will pay, but you have to subtract about 13-15% from the cost because that's how much the seller ends up with after paying all eBay and PayPal fees. Because eBay/PP have fees, most buyers would like at least 10% off those prices if you sell them off eBay (whether it be selling them on the forum, Facebook, etc.). You can always mark a pin or a group of pins as "$XXX or best offer", and allow people to make offers on the pins. Usually when they see "$XXX or best offer", they won't try to offer you pennies because they see you know the maximum going rate.

4. It would depend. Usually during specific holidays, people are more inclined to buy holiday pins, but most holiday pins have YEARs on them (like Christmas 2013) so waiting for the holiday may not work. If they are pins without a year (which I'm not sure if those exist, because most holiday pins HAVE a year on them - "Spring 2012", "Graduation Day 2014", "Teachers Day 2009" - and not everyone is keen on dates (unless it was a special time/year for them - like the time they got married or moved or had a baby)), then you could wait for the time period to sell them. But if they have a YEAR, you may want to group them according to character featured (e.g. Fab Five, Chip and Dale, Stitch) rather than holiday.

5. Besides eBay and this forum, there are Facebook and Instagram. But with all places, it's buyer beware. There have been bad trades/sells that have happened in all those places, but Facebook and Instagram have seemed to pop up more frequently in posts recently.

6. It depends on your goal. Do you want to MAXIMIZE PROFITS and you don't mind spending the time necessary to do so (which can be months to years)? Or do you want to unload your pins and be done with them as soon as possible? If your goal is to maximize profits, then selling pins one at a time is the best. However, you will end up with miscellaneous pins of all genres that no one wants (unless they're severely discounted and people use them as traders and not for their own collection). If your goal is to unload them as soon as possible, and you want to sell them fast, then selling them in groups is a better idea. But if you sell them in groups, you may have to lower the prices to give people an incentive to buy the group.

For example, pretend you have 15 Stitch pins to sell. Individually, 11 go for $10 and 3 go for $50 and 1 goes for $100. If you sell them individually, you may get $360 for 15 pins. However, it may take you several months to a year to sell. You may sell a few of the $10 pins and 2 of the $50 pins right away, but it will take time to sell them all individually.

But if you want the money faster (aka you want the money now), you might not be able to sell the group of 15 pins for $360. You can try, but if someone only wants 1 or 2 of the more expensive pins ($150), they might not want to pay an extra $210 for pins they don't need. If you sold the group for $250 though, they might consider it.

So, it's $360 that you make over the course of several months to a year - mailing 15 pins to potentially 15 people. OR it's $250 in one-shot within a week and you mail 15 pins to 1 person.

It all depends on you, how much time you have to research/sell/package/ship pins and how much money you want to make (break even or make a profit).

 

[Jabberwocky]

As someone who's also been around for many years, unfortunately what was popular back in the day isn't anymore. People really want the new hot stuff (Frozen, Tangled) rather than some of the pins that were grails many years ago.

Taking a quick look at your collection it looks like you have a few pins which still hold high value (such as: your Gomes LE100 pins are still worth several hundred dollars each, some of your other DA LE100s may go $50-$75 each), you have a few middling pins (such as: your DA PINS pins are probably in the $20-$40 range), but most of the rest will got for very few dollars each sadly because people just aren't collecting them much anymore.

As other folks have said, closed ebay auctions to see actual sold prices are your best guide - whether you sell them there or here.

 

[dxjason]

Thanks everybody for the response! I feel more confident to start selling my pins. I just took some picture and will be uploading them shortly in the for sale forum. I appreciate everybody's input and feedback.

 

[tinkerbelle1956]

Looking forward to seeing what you have!

 

[imaevilfairytoo]

Good luck with your sale.

 

[LuvSimba]

Hi Jason...good to see you here in the pin world again :wavey:

 

[Melonballer]

Be sure to post a link to your sale here when you are done. I would love to take a look at what you have for sale.

 

[PersinettePins]

Mine is a newbie perspective as I just started collecting this year mind you, but perhaps I can offer a perspective of how the new people are conducting trades

1. How is pin trading/selling now a days? Are Disney pins still popular to collect and trade?
I think they are still popular. Less widespread than in their hay day, but more expensive as collectibility has gone up if that makes sense? Fewer collectors/events but higher prices for things.

2. Is there a demand/market for older pins? Most of my collection is 10+ years old.
I think so! A lot of new people seem to only care about the PTDs or other hot ticket new release items, but I for one really appreciate the older pins! I'm starting a vintage Ariel collection as we speak. Like anything it just depends on the pin. Is it a grail pin or a fairly unknown pin without a following? Tons of grails are grails not only because of their edition size, but they are old and hard to find! Heck, The Kiss was OEI believe and those prices get quite high on the coveted couples.

3. What is the best way to find prices for pins? Should I just compare similar sales like on here or eBay? I'm afraid that I'm quite out of the loop when it comes to current pricing. I am cautious when it comes to "offer me a fair trade/price" because I was burned by veteran traders early on when I first started collecting.
Ebay sold auctions. (Not completed but sold).

4. When selling seasonal or themed pins, is it better to wait until that time of year? For example, is it a good time to try and sell my Mickey's All American Pin Trading pins because 4th of July is around the corner or should I dump them during an off theme time, like say Christmas?
To some extent I think so. The holiday comes up and people are like, oh I want that themed lanyard! or what have you. Others, like myself, buy them year round (only because I realized come Christmas I'll want a Christmas lanyard XD ). I think you'll meet success any time of year. Ultimately I think if people have an interest in holiday pins then they'll buy them when they come up, if they don't like holiday pins then the holiday itself probably won't inspire them to buy one.

5. What are some good places that I can list my pins? The only places I can think of are eBay and this forum.
Instagram is where most of the new traders go. Facebook groups to some extend but lots of flippers/sharks there. Tumblr I've not heard used much at all. Also, honestly, many new traders/social media traders seem to not recognize the value of many pins or do the research on PinPics or ebay for the history of the pin. I mean sure I'm new, but I wouldn't offer an OE rack or CM pin for a LE 100!! Unless of course it was vintage/old/HTF etc. and valued the same or part of a larger offer with valuable pins. I have gotten some ridiculous offers from the "oh pretty" crowd who offer Hidden Mickey traders for my Disney Auction pins and such. (Oh dear I sound like SUCH a pin snob!! :| Really I'm not :anxious: I love fun park trading too!:wavey:) But you know what I mean! Some offers would be borderline rude if you thought they knew better. Nothing against being new or ignorance! Everyone starts somewhere. But for you trying to sell pins at value, it might get frustrating unless you post prices versus taking offers. There are of course amazing traders there too!! Some have superb collections and offer great trades all the time! But because FB and Instagram are less specialized than say a forum dedicated to pin trading, you get more casual people.

I think here you will get offers that reflect the value of your pins more consistently. Honestly eBay, as much as they fees bite your butt every month (at least they do mine! One sore butt right here. Why don't they deduct the fees out of your sale when you make it instead of that drat giant conglomerate fee at the end of the month? grrrrr) is the next best place outside of pin events and here to unload special pins.

6. I know its easier, but is selling pins in a group a better idea? For example, should I try to sell a bunch of Haunted Mansion pins together or should I list them separately?
I'd sell expensive pins separately. At the very least they will sell faster though it might be more effort shipping wise. Many people can blow $20-50-100 on a pin, fewer can blow $800+ on fancy lots. You can always try though! Some definitely can afford such luxuries (you lucky ducks you ) This hobby does attract people with money so you'll get some hits. For OE, Hidden Mickey, and other basics I'd do lots and offer the ability for people to make offers on specific ones if they want. Like a lot of HM, a lot of OE, etc. Or by theme as you mentioned: NBC, Princess, etc.

Anyway, these are just my newbie opinions ) Hope they helped in some manner