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I've been holding onto a huge amount of miniatures and accessories that I've built up over a long period of time. I just don't have the time for them anymore unfortunately and I'd much rather have the money they're worth. The problem is I'm not really that familiar with shipping packages, receiving money, etc.

Are there any quick guides to starting up that I could read? I've sent plenty of letters and I've been to the post office plenty of times but I wouldn't know where to begin with trying to box something up, weigh it, what kind of stamps I'd need/labels/etc. I'd also love some advice on how best to deal with the money aspect. Should I accept cash knowing that it might be stolen? What kind of other alternatives do I have? I have a paypal account but I sold some things online (digital goods so no need for shipping) and I remember them taking out a sizable percent of my funds to get a check cut to me. Western Union? What do most of you accept? Should I make the buyer pay shipping? Only on smaller items?

I also have some problems with the minis themselves. I have a loooot of loose bits that I feel are pretty valuable. Should I try to catalog them all individually? Or just sell them as complete sets (ie find all the bits to make a complete possessed chaos marine and sell them like that? Or just sell the individual bits?). It just seems like a crazy amount of cataloging and labeling I'd have to do to sell them individually but maybe also more money? Another issue is whether or not I should strip the poorly painted minis? I bought a lot over the years from ebay and I'm sure you all know how bad some of these paint jobs can be. Should I bother with stripping them myself or let the buyer decide whether or not to strip them? I can see newer people wanting pre-stripped minis so they can paint them themselves straight out of the box? Or maybe they'd want them painted so they could field a poorly painted model rather than an unpainted one?

Finally what about packaging? I have a lot of boxes of all shapes and sizes but what is considered fair packing? I have some nicer packaging material like bubble-wrap and soft-foam, but is all of that necessary for regular troops? I've received some minis packed simply in lots of newspaper and placed in sealable baggies.

As you can see I need a lot of advice here. I'd really appreciate any guides or advice (general or specific) about how to get this all going.

You can catalog the bits if you really want, but lots on eBay just called "bits lot" or what have you tend to sell pretty well. People are willing to take the gamble. Just stick em in Ziploc bags or whatever. For minis, wrap em in bubblewrap individually, and tape said bubblewrap shut. That works pretty well. Make sure it's safely packed in a box - packing peanuts, foam, what have you - and tape that sucker up before mailing it off.

The Dakka Swap Shop is a great place to offload stuff, and eBay is always an option.

You can weigh the stuff on a kitchen scales to get an idea of the postage cost. The Post Office web site shows the price bands.

Models should be individually wrapped and put in a box with stuffing (bubblewrap, crumpled newspaper or something).

PayPal is best for taking payment. If the transaction is not done through eBay, get payment before you send the parcel, as the buyer can claim for 40 days and you can't.

When you post off the parcel, get a proof of posting. This will let you claim a small amount (it's about £30 in the UK) if the parcel "goes astray".

If the parcel is particularly valuable, get "signed for" delivery. This gives you a tracking number you can send to the buyer. This is even more important for international parcels, although it is more expensive.

I've had several non-signed for parcels "go astray" and never has a signed for parcel gone missing, so these days I get "signed for" on everything I post in the UK worth over £10. It saves hassle on claiming for parcels that "go astray".

If your main objective is simply to clear away unused stuff in return for a little cash, then put it all in a box, take a picture and post it up as a single lot. You'll be guaranteed to get rid of everything.

If you want to maximize your profit, you'll need to put in the time to catalogue every last thing and sell them as individual lots.

R.

For packing up your minis and bits, the post office offers "flat rate" boxes that each cost a fixed amount to ship. The small one is $5 or so, the next biggest is $10, etc. I believe that's the cost to ship regardless of weight, so if you can pack a flat rate box to the brim with minis, it'll still go out for the listed price.
What I generally do with minis is to wrap them in bubblewrap, tape it, and then put that in the package, possibly with more bubble wrap if it needs it. Bits get put into the "snack" size ziploc baggies, and the sandwich ziplocs if there are too many for a snack size.

For payment of shipping, it all depends on the transaction.

For receiving funds I have a verified Paypal account - that way I can transfer the money into my bank account when I need to.

Oh! Another note on packaging - if you go to the USPS website, you can actually order flat rate boxes for shipping your stuff out. They're free, you just have to pay shipping and handling for them.

For bigger packages, find a local shipping store. They can help with both boxes and shipping. They also can check rates at USPS, UPS, FedEx and more. Lets you pick the best shipper all from one location. If you're not certain about the total shipping costs, post a flat rate with a prevision to refund the difference using PayPal if it is less than what you've charged. Paypal makes it easy to refund a few dollars on a recent transaction.

Watch out for international shipping, costs can skyrocket once you're over a few ounces.

Where's the best place to get bubblewrap, boxes, tape, etc?

eBay!

R.

In addition to Dakka Swap Shop-specific guidelines, there are a TON of useful tips about trading and sales protocol, shipping, payment, scam warning signs, etc, in this thread:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/247459.page

Ok if you sell within the United States the best way to ship is the US postal service. You can use flate rate boxes which come in three general sizes (small, medium, and large). Always get a tracking number when you ship no matter what.

You can either sell them on Ebay where you will get a good price or put them up for trade or sell here. You probably won't get as much for them here but it will be a lot less of a hassle.

When you sell them pick out the best bits and sell them individually and then put the rest in lots by theme. Try not to mix the themes up too much or you will make the lots less valuable.

As far as money goes you can accept anything. If he cash gets stolen (which it won't) that is the buyers problem not yours. They need to ensure the payment gets to you safely and you need to ensure the product gets to them safely (and as I stated above that means getting a tracking number no matter what). If you can't track it then don't send it. That is how you prove you sent it to the right person. Paypal is fine but they take a percentage and they also tend to side with the buyer over the seller almost all of the time (again why you need a tracking number).

The most important thing is for you to be honest and forthcoming with your buyers. If you are late shipping something you need to let them know before they contact you. Take good pictures and describe the item as best you can so the buyer knows what they are buying.

Wow, thank you all so much. Tons of great info here and exactly what I was looking for!

I'm mainly trying to sell here on the swap shop. Ebay is not very friendly to sellers these days with their feedback system and the way they handle disputes.

I definitely think usps will be the way to go with flat rate boxes for bigger purchases and for their lower rates and reliable service.

Hopefully I can quickly sell off my collection piecemeal. I need the most money possible for these miniatures and I just won't get that selling it in one go unless I really find someone desperate for what I have.

It is a huge collection of chaos space marines. Probably a good 6-8k in points and mostly unpainted. The majority of the painted marines are done quite well with a few ebay exceptions. I have bags upon bags of bits including at least one full box of possessed marine parts and multiple bags of identical spare bits. Also some dark angels with robes, a few apothecaries, the full chaos lord box, 3 complete new obliterators unassembled, 2 unassembled rhinos and 1 assembled and very nicely painted.

I really need to run through and sort everything, take pics of it all, and post it up. So much work but the money should be worth it to help pay bills while I'm waiting to find a new job and for my unemployment to be approved.

Thanks again everyone. If you have any more tips or suggestions for how to best sell off my collection let me know.

You'll also find a load of information on trading, safe trading, etc. on Bartertown. That's why the site exists, after all. : )


Eric

I'd try to sell it in medium-sized lots... too small, and it's wayyyy too much work for too little return, and the postage will kill your profit margin. Too large, and you can't get enough potential buyers interested.

Bartertown is indeed the premier place on the web to trade models (and possibly sell, although I would put that between Bartertown and Ebay). The only drawback is that you'll likely need to ship first if you're a brand new member, but as long as you aren't in dire need of the money, doing it now will mean you can get your trades resolved and get paid as soon as next week after your packages arrive (with that in mind it'd be a good idea to only trade in the US if you're shipping first).

Can't argue with ANY of that wisdom, RiT.

Eric

The one reason I liked buying here on dakka's swap shop was because I was buying from people I know(or at least have read a thing or two by) and because they have a nice rating system. I've bought more than a few things on here and should have a decent rating still racked up if they've kept it.

So hopefully people will trust me enough to know that I'll make sure they get their purchase if they are being straight with me as well.

I visited bartertown when I was amassing this collection and they definitely had a large amount of trades going on and friendly people. It is a downside (for me) that I'd be giving buyers the benefit of the doubt when selling but it has its advantages once I get set up. I just don't intend to keep selling that long. Once i get rid of this stuff I'm likely going to be out of the hobby for some time.

Bills, working a couple jobs, gf stress, and a million other things lead to me just keeping my minis in a box in the attic and we could use the money more than that atm. Maybe once the chaos codex comes out I can see about starting up again.