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Advice please for next steps in selling collection


Freditor

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I don't know if you ever stop being a 'collector', but I haven't been an active one for around twenty years yet I've carted half a dozen tea-chests of my robots and space toys from Melbourne to Sydney to Canberra and back to Melbourne. Now I have a small apartment with no room in the basement storage cage so they have to go. I've just finished photographing them (dust and all) so I can show 'someone' what's there and started the laborious task of identifying them all, (which is how I've ended up here at Alphadrome - thank you all).

To preserve and save space, I've removed box lids and stored them flat so when I look at an eBay listing and see what looks a ridiculous price with a tatty box, I smile and say well mine's better than that and with a box it has to be worth more. I know there are some gems (Orbie the blowup robot in my Profile picture was an Australian manufacturer for example). There would be about a hundred or more, some cheap and quirky, others stretching back to the first Star Wars movie when I said 'damn, those robots are so believable I'm going to miss the B movies robots with the men in a tin (or cardboard) suit I'd better collect them before they disappear. They didn't of course.

I'd love to contribute to some of the Alphadrome database entries where I have actual boxes or extra data but don't know how to do that politely.  

I'd love to get rid of them all in one batch, but know that some have value that would be hidden that way and better sold individually. I'm sure some that aren't working have not much value at all., and I don't want to open them up and fix the broken bits just to get a better price, and some I can see where I have multiples have value as spare parts.

I've looked at eBay and auction house sites and am torn between the time it would take to auction them off online, packaging and posting, and just taking them to a collectors meet and making sure the table is bare at the end of the day.

So you see my dilemma. Any advice welcomed. Thanks again.

Attached is an example where what I have differs from an entry here on the site, where my trade box looks to have held more than the six shown. I have eight and the box would have held ten. Regional difference maybe?  

jumprobotsidebox_lge.jpg

jumprobotboxall_lge.jpg

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Is that you, Russell? 

Great question, and one we've probably all considered. If you sell to a dealer you'll only get a fraction of the value. Ebay is a pain in the arse but the poor quality stuff goes for decent prices. Auction houses get high prices for the good items but the poorer ones go for peanuts. Toy shows are hard work but cash in hand is great. Private sales are popular but packing and posting is a drudge. 

Sorry, not much help, but it's a great problem to have, isn't it?  Please post whatever you like. There's a For Sale section that's free and the buyers are reliable. 

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Sorry Fred, I was thinking of Russell Tate, a Sydney collector with a big collection that he is currently selling.  

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Greetings, Freditor. Can't add much, Brian nailed it. I'm sure all of us would love to pick through your stuff.

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Sorry no great idea for you, just sharing some thoughts. With questions about my health I worry about leaving the burden to my family if something were to happen to me. I have committed myself to slowly selling anything that is not on display. It's a hassle but I know that if I act now and go slowly but surely perhaps in a year I'll have a decent chunk of the work done. I have this vague plan to catalog the main collection with notes on relative values and which box goes with which toy. I imagine once I'm gone the collection will go to an auction house. That way there will be a check to my family but I won't be around to feel the sting. Good luck.

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ebay would be the way to go will take some work to make it happen. Robots will need to be checked to see if they work after yrs of storage and those flat boxes may present a problem to some collectors since the staples have been removed and will need to be redone with newer ones unless on your vintage ones you removed and carefully stored those old staples within each box.

Just take your time and start with 1 or 2 older ones and see what happens.

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Welcome Freditor.

Seems I've known many collectors who've had a similar issue over the last few years. 

 

Just the way I'm wired...as far as I'm concerned and if luck is with me, the 'bots (and monster stuff) will be with me until the end.  Then daugher *Altaira has agreed to take it all over, she grew up around it (I'd been into it for 20 years already).

Best of luck with your selling, as Brian stated above the folks on Alphadrome are a reliable bunch to receive your goods, much of what myself and daughter have collected is FROM these same folks.

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Ahhh you guys are great. I opened outlook this morning and the responses flooded in (it's the timezone difference, I'm assuming most of the forum are American). I'll follow your advice, and I'm building an image and text PDF, it should be finished soon. I may need some identification help and I'll post those. 

What I do realise is how my narrow collecting criteria and the household budget I imposed, means that I've got a whole lot less valuable one then I thought. I'm looking at some of the conversations and 'finds' on the site and I'm in awe or lust for such great items, but the idea is to clear the storage cage not add to it. 

Yes I'll start with a few on eBay. Yes I'll show you all first, and no I didn't keep the rusty staples (bit naive there.) 

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I'm in Canada.

 

You'd be surprized which robots I hold dear, some of my faves are worth only $10 and they're on shelves beside more scarce high  $$$$ items.  Whatever you have available they will certainly have a good new home with an Alphadromer.

 

The Tobor of my avatar was had from another 'dromer for a great price and I'm thrilled to have gotten him back a few years ago!  (bought originally for shelf in '79 and gave him away soon after). 

Great folks to deal with!

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My Tobor is in the for sale list, I misplaced the 'Support Module' but found it in another box. I think he'll need a bit of cleaning to run.

He's certainly one of the weird ones.:biggrin:

Fred

tobor_fred.JPG

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10 hours ago, Fineas J. Whoopie said:

With questions about my health I worry about leaving the burden to my family if something were to happen to me. 

I worry about losing my mind before then! My daughter said a long time ago 'don't bother leaving all your stuff and expecting me to organise it', bless her.  The robots are just fun, it's my 50 years of film, video and stills that I'd like to leave. The local State Film Archive have been given some of it and are expecting someone to bring it all in to their open arms when I toddle off. I know that without cataloguing and giving them the context it'll just sit on the shelves. That's one of the reasons I've started https://www.whileiremember.it/

Fred

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Fred, so, you’re an Aussie are you? Interesting website ( The clown is terrifying, by the way. )

My wife recommends that I sell off all my stuff when I retire at 65...3 more years; we’ll see how that pans out.

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