Tara's answer is right on the money. Here's some
more thoughts.
The forum crowd is a more educated and (generally)
less flaky crowd than Ebay. So you can count on
speedy responses and quick payment, relatively
speaking. By the same token, people on her know
what cels are worth and are accustomed to bargain
hunting. You will NOT get top dollar here.
EXCEPTION: Really expensive cels will do well
here, since you are most likely to find the type
of collectors that specialize in that particular
character or series. It's like offering a Rolls
Royce at Wal-Mart (Ebay) or here (import car
showroom).
If you don't mind waiting longer for transactions
to end, and taking a chance on flaky buyers, you
will get the best prices if you sell mid to low
range cels on Ebay. And as long as you advertise
on here, you will still get forum bidders bidding
on Ebay as well. (Beware of placing hidden
reserves on your auctions as many people, myself
included, avoid auctions with reserves.)
Taking offers on cels rarely works, unless you
KNOW the cel or cels are in high demand. However,
if you are like me and have a hard time putting
prices on cels, you can always set up a limited
time frame for offers, with a clearly stated
minimum. For example, "I'll take offers until
Friday night, minimum is $20."
One final thing to consider. Although I have sold
cels all three ways---Ebay auctions, sale page
advertised here, and private sale---there are
peripheral benefits to offering reasonable prices
on a sale page open to the forum, mainly in the
forms of karma and good will. If you offer good
deals to other collectors, it may not pay off in
immediate profits, but it may open the door for a
great deal on a cel that you want in the future.
;-)
JP
PS--Sneaky Ebay observation. I've experimented
with this, so I know it's true. If anyone wants
to complain, don't bother. I'm just stating a
fact from my personal experience. If you want to
put some cels on Ebay with somewhat reasonable Buy
It Now prices, don't always advertise here first.
If other collectors have first crack at cels, you
will see a lot more of them go for the minimum
bid. Pure Ebay shoppers will be more likely to
use the Buy It Now feature. (The exception would
be if you put cheap BIN prices on them, in which
case I DO advertise here first to give folks first
crack at the good deals.) ;-) |