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Tagged: Gaming Live Auctions
- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 10 months ago by Gompers.
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06/10/2018 at 9:32 am #42069
This started as a comment on last week’s podcast. By the time I was done, I thought “man, there’s a lot in here, I should post it by itself”. So, here you go:
I called in today, but don’t know if it’ll make the podcast today. Also, felt like my thoughts were a little disjointed, so I thought I’d post as well:
Someone called in this past week about selling games/D&D at Origins and GenCon, which are gaming conventions. There was some incorrect information provided, so I thought I could clear it up a bit:
1) The conventions don’t run the auction themselves, they provide the space. Livegameauctions.com is the group that runs them.
2) There hasn’t been an auction at Origins for a couple years now, so everything below refers to GenCon.
3) They do not accept mail-in items. I’m sure they’d make an exception for really high end items (think $1k+), but otherwise you have to be there the day before the convention in order to turn your items into the auction house.
4) The GenCon auction is a good place to source… if you’re already going to be there, and have a way of getting everything home. The online gaming retailers that sell used have someone in there from the time it opens on Thursday morning, until the time it closes Saturday night (yes, it is a full 3 day auction, running from 8am until after midnight each day).
5) Related to 4, is that most things sell for under what you would expect. No one there is interested in your thrifted copy of Monopoly. Oh, you have Monopoly Doctor Who edition? Ok, they’ll put it on the pile of 10 of those they have to sell during the auction. And they may run through all of those at the same time, which would drive the price of each down.
6) They charge a high commission for selling. It’s $2 for putting something into the auction, and they take 15% of the final sale. They also have so many items there, that there’s a chance yours won’t even get into the auction by the end of it.
7) You can’t control when they sell it. I’ve had $60-$70 games there sell for $20, because it was one of the first items of the day. Or they sold it in “family games” instead of in “strategy games” where it would go for more.With all that said, I still recommend using this auction, if you are already attending GenCon. I have subsidized my trip in the past with bringing stuff from garage sales. You’re not going to make as much as on ebay, but if you are looking to clean out everything in one shot, and most of the time get close to what you’re looking for, it can be a good place. You can also check to see how everything is selling throughout the convention. Turning items in is time consuming (I recommend getting there an hour or two before it opens. You do NOT want to be behind one of the retailers that is just cleaning out the warehouse), and you have to pre-register items weeks before attending through the website.
One of the other notes, is similar to eBay, you have to do your research. I had a game called Pret-a-Porter. It’s a game about Fashion Design (fun if you can find it). It’s retail price was $50. It had been out of print for a couple years when I brought it to GenCon, which inflated the price. So I listed it for $85 in their auction. It sold for $85. There might have only been one person in the room looking for it. If I had listed it for $20, it probably would have sold for $20.
They also have an auction store. Think “buy it now”, instead of an auction. You put your items in this store with a price you set for each day. So Thursday it’s $50 (they cap store items at $50), Friday it’s $30, Saturday is $15, cause at that point you just don’t want to take it home with you. The line to get into the auction store on Saturday can easily be an hour long, as most people drop their prices considerably at that point.
Local conventions also may have auctions. Locally to me, the Council of Five Nations (a smaller gaming convention) has an auction. It lasts 1 hour, and they get about 100 games in it. However, there might only be 500 people attending the convention in total, so the odds of selling your items for a high price isn’t great.
While not a convention, BoardGameGeek.com also has a marketplace you can list on (Buy-It-Now style. I believe they only take 3% of the sale, which goes to site costs). You can also run a Geeklist Auction… There’s too much information regarding that to post here, but you’ll find that prices typically go near ebay prices there. But, that is something you have to manage the whole week. I haven’t run an auction on there, but I subscribe to a list that gets updated whenever someone starts running one, and I know a lot of people do that as well. Boardgamegeek is a site for more hardcore gamers though… Anything you can get at Wal-Mart probably will not sell there. There’s also Gaming Buy/Sell/Trade FB groups out there as well you can take a look at.
Hope this helps. I know I haven’t been on the forums much recently (life has been busy!), but I keep up with the podcast!
-Deric -
06/10/2018 at 7:56 pm #42091
Sounds like it’d be fun to sell if you were attending anyway, but all those convention goers + more probably buy on eBay anyway.
Glad to hear from you Deric. Glad you’re dong well!
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06/10/2018 at 11:02 pm #42096
Interesting read, but I would like to add. In my limited experience with “collector items” the “collectors/enthusiasts” are the worst buyers and will never never ever ever ever never pay anything close to market value for an item. The only exception to this rule is if the “collector” needs one or two items to finish his collection you just happen to be the person selling that item.
The best buyers for “collector” items are people new to the hobby who don’t necessarily know the value of items. That doesn’t mean I would over charge them, but they are certainly getting charged 100% of market value price if they want to buy from me.
My experience with collectibles is with video games, board games, and lego’s. I can not count how many messages I’ve received on ebay regarding these types of items from people telling me I’m charging too much, they are a broke college student, or they played the game with their grand mother who is now deceased and they want to relive some memories (at a rock bottom price of course.)
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