Posted on 03/24/2008 5:01:55 AM PDT by MississippiMasterpiece
Hello All,
As some of you know, I've recently moved to a tiny cabin in the middle of the boonies and have a tremendous amount of books, DVDs and music CDs to unload.
I have perhaps 3-4,000 books (many of them signed first editions in pristine condition), 1000 or so movie DVDs and about 2000 music CDs.
I welcome advice on how to sell a collection like this. I don't know if eBay is an option. The only ISP available to me is dial-up, and a good day it chugs along at 38Kbps. It would literally take months to list all of these items individually at that speed.
Any recommendations on how best to sell these items?
Bump
Also, you might want to investigate Craigs List. I don't know much about it but I think it represents a lower cost option of selling stuff.
You could catalogue all of the titles and simply sell the collection as a lot on eBay.
Each item might bring less but if you can’t run individual listings on eBay or Amazon I’m not sure there’s a feasible alternative.
Yard sale? I unloaded three feet of albums on a guy for $5. He was as happy to get them as I was to get rid of them.
Giving them away as charitable donations to a cause to help raise money is good, too.
That way,you don't spend as much time loading each item and the buyer doesn't have to "wade" through a huge list.
Many people who have second homes or run their own private rental business for vacation destinations are always looking to stock their homes, villas, cottages and retreats with good music, great books and DVD’s ....maybe you can try that avenue too.....
If you are going to sell these items on E-bay you will need high speed access and a decent digital camera to document these items.
Since you are in the middle of nowhere, try Hughesnet or one of the several satellite high speed providers out there.
Alternatively, go into town and use a internet cafe....
If these are not viable for you there are several companies that will sell your items on E-bay for a fee.....
A yard/garage sale might not be a good option if you are as remote as you say you are. I inherited a couple of hundred music CDs and movie DVDs and books when my Father passed away, 95% of the CD-DVD had never been opened. Don’t expect to get much for them. We ended up selling a good portion of them in one big lot for about $35. The books were mostly large coffee table types, a couple of atlases, and glossy paged history books. We got rid of them at $2 each. What we didn’t sell we donated to our church for their yearly parking lot sale.
For the most part, you’ll be “giving” most of your stuff away - you might come out better donating the lesser stuff so that you can take a tax write-off. It’s just not worth the time to try to sell them on ebay & then have to pack and ship them.
The better items - you will have to do research to determine what those are - you can then list on ebay. Concentrate on the big money items & get rid of the lesser stuff in lots - donate.....set up at a flea market on a pretty weekend, etc.
Unless you have a tremendous amount of time on your hands, donate it and take the tax write-off. It’ll be cheaper in the long run. ;)
Did you move in preparation, or just to get away from it all?
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