Topic: Cleaning out my closet

Hi everyone!

I have quite a few magic cards, mostly from mirrodin through shadowmore.  I sent my list of cards (in my deckbox link) and got an offer from a local-ish cardshop for 1,100.  He said he based his prices off of 50% of TCGPlayer’s prices.

I feel like that is a pretty low offer, and am looking to sell my whole collection as a single lot - I also have a small amount of unopened product from some sealed play that didn’t happen with my friends - 2x llorwyn, 3x morningtide, 2x shadowmore packs, and 4x shadowmore tournament packs.

Also of note - I primarily entered in rares and uncommons, and haven’t entered most of the commons in my collection, so they are mostly not included.

What should I look for as a minimum price?  Is anyone interested in buying the lot?  I live in Central PA.

Re: Cleaning out my closet

I think 1100 is in the ballpark,  you might be able to squeeze another 100-300$ dollars if you wait for the right collection buyer.
if you don't sell the whole thing to a collection buyer you could probably net 1800 - 2000 if you sold the singles over time.  but that is a ton of work and can take a lot of time. 

think about it this way:  a cards value is the price of supply over demand.  profit is the value over effort of sale.

so if a card is worth 10$ and it cost 5 to get from you, and it takes another 3 dollars worth of effort to sell.  Then that card is only worth 2$ in profit. 
Cards that are under 10$ profit mark cause for razor thin margins. 

if you sell the cards outright yourself you don't have the upfront capital expenditure so 2$ profit becomes 7$.  This can create a skewed personal value to you of what the cards are worth.  Remember you still need to put up 200-400$ worth of effort to sell the cards for a larger profit. which means you might get 1400-1800$ for a collection like this.

I do think you have a great collection, I think if you have time, trade the cards on this platform for cards you want.  you have a ton of cards people would be willing to trade or even likely purchase from you.

Re: Cleaning out my closet

yeah you have a *lot* of cards between 10 and 20, but nothing too exceptional above that. When you sell collections you usually exclude lower valued cards since they are harder to sell for a vendor and they consider is as a "nice plus" and not something they'd actively get otherwise.

Also everything you listed is LP, which does affect the value, and there is nothing that can't be reprinted in a future set, so, while it may sound disappointing, I believe the offer you got is in the right range. You might be able to earn a bit more if you wait a little or try other vendors but not much more.

Of course if you split your collection up and start selling singles, you'll get more money in the long run, but it will take much more time and effort (and risks, and fees and so on). If you sell everything in one bundle you get a lower offer because of the convenience of getting cash right away instead of spending time yourself. Ultimately you decide what is more worth for you.


BTW I am always looking for sealed product, if you want to sell that to me, send me a list of what you have and a price and we'll take it from there :-)

Re: Cleaning out my closet

Oh, as for the LP on most of them, thats not their true condition - the majority of Ravinica through Shadowmore were straight from pack to storage box - I just had a MASSIVE amount to get in, and I didn’t want to ‘oversell’ the condition of the cards.  I would hazard that most o the ones I mentioned would be considered mint or near mint - I was hoping ‘Lightly Played’ would have deckbox give me a closer estimate to what I would expect for them.

If something was worse than LP, I did try to note it - and any of the cards above LP were put in while I was getting used to the site.

Re: Cleaning out my closet

I am the same way.  I pretty much set expectations on trades as Light play because I don't want to deal with condition skeptical people. 

My suggestion still stands trade and sell over time.

I look at things like this, it cost me 2$ to sell a single card  which means a card under 2$ cost me money to sell.  and it costs me 20 cents to sell a card after the first 2$ so if I was buy a collection of cards that were worth 4$ each I would likely want to buy them for no more then 40% of the market price if I need to flip them.   if I wanted to sit on them 50-70% is possible.

Re: Cleaning out my closet

As others have mentioned above, the price you will get will raise with the amount of effort you put into selling out your collection. Dropping everything and getting one lump sum from your LGS will net you the least; however, it’s also the least amount of effort.

If you have time and enjoy the trading/selling aspect, I’d recommend that you join a few of the Facebook groups for buying/selling as that will likely net you around 15% off TCGPlayer prices; however, it will take a bit of time and very likely, not every card you have will be in demand (especially for lower priced cards).

Re: Cleaning out my closet

Interesting. Who gave you a 50% offer? Most I received when shopping my collection around was 40%...