When is it "right" to sell your collection (not books in this example)?

[TJCams]

When do you know it's the right time to sell a collection? I've been tossing this thought around a lot lately. I know we mostly focus on books on this forum, but hopefully some members might be able to lend a little insight.

I have 2 collections of "things" I am considering selling.

1) I have a collection of 1:18 scale F1 race car models (all but 1 are Jacques Villeneuve - have all but 1 of his F1 cars I believe) that are basically just sitting in a closet, in their original boxes. Not even on display.

2) This is my prized collection: I have hockey cards dating from 1977-78 season thru to around the mid 1990s (at this point the market was flooded). Most are complete sets (O Pee Chee, which are the most valuable from this era - American version is Topps (same pictures, etc.), some are incomplete, lots of singles, and some valuable ones at that! Again, this are in binders and/or boxes, sitting in a closet/pantry.

I ask myself why are they just sitting around, nobody looking at them, etc., and if I do sell, what price is "worth it" to me......?

I have seen the other thread on here about what else we collect, so I was hoping there might be some with experience going through what I have above.

[jhanic]

My best answer to this is to sell when you become bored with whatever you're collecting. If the interest isn't there, why not sell?

John

[slayn666]

That's exactly my feeling. I stopped collecting video games, and liquidated most of my existing collection, when I realized I was buying things out of habit rather than because I was really excited about them.

[Dave1442397]

I have a few watches to sell off. I bought quite a few that I ended up not wearing much, if at all. I realized that I typically wear the same watch for months at a time, and the others sit in boxes out of sight and forgotten.

I sold one that I paid $35 for at a liquidation sale. It happened to be the first Seiko digital chrono. I put it on ebay at $95, and two guys started a bidding war and it went for over $500. That was nice.

If you can get some decent money for things that no longer interest you, then why not sell them off?

[TJCams]

I actually stopped by a local pawn shop with my brother-in-law yesterday (he had a couple items to sell), and asked about the cards - the guy there said he is not interested really, nor could he give me any real value, and doesn't know of anyone in town - apparently...everyone is trying to sell their hockey card collections. Suggested I try an upcoming card show.

I'm at the situation where I haven't even looked through them, or have done anything with them in a very long time. Just basically sitting, and taking up space. Same as the F1 cars.

[Dan Hocker]

My younger brother and I used to be into baseball cards years ago. If there's one thing I learned from that experience is that unfortunately almost all collectible sports cards (or really any card) are worthless. Only the key important players will have value and even then most of the time they won't hold much value. The internet has made these sorts of things even less valuable, as before things like eBay, the stuff that was hard to find was even harder to find because there was no one place you could go to look for them.

I do wish I still had all my old Magic The Gathering cards though, sold them off maybe 10 years ago at this point, and ended up rebuilding a collection to use to play with again like 3 years ago. Though hindsight is 20/20 as if I had started playing like 3 years sooner I probably could have some cards worth thousands of dollars.

[bsaenz24]

My younger brother and I used to be into baseball cards years ago. If there's one thing I learned from that experience is that unfortunately almost all collectible sports cards (or really any card) are worthless. Only the key important players will have value and even then most of the time they won't hold much value. The internet has made these sorts of things even less valuable, as before things like eBay, the stuff that was hard to find was even harder to find because there was no one place you could go to look for them.

I do wish I still had all my old Magic The Gathering cards though, sold them off maybe 10 years ago at this point, and ended up rebuilding a collection to use to play with again like 3 years ago. Though hindsight is 20/20 as if I had started playing like 3 years sooner I probably could have some cards worth thousands of dollars.

I just dug out all of my old binders a few weeks ago. I think I have the sets from Fallen Empire through, had to go look it up online, maybe Homelands?? I figured the kids might have fun with it.

[Dan Hocker]

I just dug out all of my old binders a few weeks ago. I think I have the sets from Fallen Empire through, had to go look it up online, maybe Homelands?? I figured the kids might have fun with it.

I started around Ice Age or Mirrage (I can't remember). I wish I had started in Alpha or just invested in some of those rare Alpha cards back when they where only $500 a card. Most of the rares from Alpha are worth over a thousand dollars, then there's ones like Black Lotus which sold last year on eBay for almost $30,000. Oh to have a time machine.

[Martin]

You can always get a time machine on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Time-Mac...item1ea0494b85

I started around Ice Age or Mirrage (I can't remember). I wish I had started in Alpha or just invested in some of those rare Alpha cards back when they where only $500 a card. Most of the rares from Alpha are worth over a thousand dollars, then there's ones like Black Lotus which sold last year on eBay for almost $30,000. Oh to have a time machine.

[TJCams]

My younger brother and I used to be into baseball cards years ago. If there's one thing I learned from that experience is that unfortunately almost all collectible sports cards (or really any card) are worthless. Only the key important players will have value and even then most of the time they won't hold much value. The internet has made these sorts of things even less valuable, as before things like eBay, the stuff that was hard to find was even harder to find because there was no one place you could go to look for them.

I do wish I still had all my old Magic The Gathering cards though, sold them off maybe 10 years ago at this point, and ended up rebuilding a collection to use to play with again like 3 years ago. Though hindsight is 20/20 as if I had started playing like 3 years sooner I probably could have some cards worth thousands of dollars.

That's true - and I have 3 pretty valuable singles. Rookie cards of Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, and Mario Lemieux - A mint Gretkzy (one I have is pretty darn close to mint, if not mint) recently sold for over $50,000! But the chances of getting near that.........