I have a good friend that has asked me to liquidate some of his HUGE collection. There are alot of vintage cars and some limited edition stuff. My problem is...i don't know where to get reliable prices on this stuff and where the best arena is to sell it. I'll be glad to put together a list if someone could help me get realistic ballpark prices. Or if someone is interested in looking through the list to see if there is something they are interested in. I have photos of all the cars he's currently interested in selling.

Thanks.
Brian :wave:

Barney, God bless you my son, you have taken on quite a task! I also am working on selling a large collection for a friends family, so I can tell you that price books are of no help!

I have a VERY large library of diecast value guides that I use for ID work only. Value is truly what someone will pay for a peice at any given time. I would do ebay and google searches to see what a certin peice is going for at the current time. Don't be suprised if you see cars that "book" for big dollars selling for 70 or 80% less in the real world market! Times are tough all over and with that it's a buyers market, not a sellers.

Can he sit on them for a year or two and see where the economy heads? He can maybe do a bit more if so. Good luck and keep us posted on how it's going!

I have tackled this task 3 times before and I hate to bust anyones bubble, but finding someone to pay even a fair price for a huge collection is next to impossible... I think you have a better chance of winning the lottory... I had more dealers than anything...
One man even had his collection appraised at over 10,000 dollars and carried an insurance policy on it... After almost 3 months of advertising, bullitens, flyers, and even running adds in a select few diecast magazines, the largest offer I got was 2,700 dollars...
I returned that collection to the owner, and I think he ended up letting it go for 3,500 dollars...
His consisted of alot vintage Hot Wheels, Matchboxes and Corgis mostly...
There were over 3,800 cars and trucks in all... Best of luck my friend !!!

I agree with stangfreak and 69stang, it's tough right now to get "book" value for anything, the best advice i can give you is start small, your friend probably has a good idea of his best pieces, ask him about them and then look at completed listings for similar items on Ebay. this should give you an idea of realistic values on these pieces. Unfortunately that is very time consuming as well. It took me nearly 5 hours to research completed sales on some CD's i sold recently. (yes CD's) but the completed listings values were dead on the money, so i highly recommend looking into doing that. Good luck, and i think we all might be interested in seeing a list!!!! ;)

You will never get full value for items by selling them in large collections. The only possible exception to this is if the stuff is exceptionally rare and you use the services of a large auction house that knows how to connect with the deep pockets. For the rest of us, the best way is to sell them individually or in small, closely related lots either at a show (hard to find nowadays) or on e-pay. Despite what collectors like to think, almost nothing you have in a collection is truely rare. (The term "limited edition" means nothing.) It's a matter of targeting the right buyers and hoping they have a good income stream at the moment.

Thanks everyone for your help. I luckily decided that small lots or singles was the way to go when I took the photos. So I'm right on the money there. I think we just want someone to enjoy these cars as he has over the last however many years. His collection has outgrown his space (and that;s a 30x40 building dedicated to his collections!). I'll try posting some on HobbyTalk for sale, maybe someone can find a car that they need. I'll also head over to FleaBay and start researching. I really appreciate your advice.

Thanks.
Brian

I'll try posting some on HobbyTalk for sale, maybe someone can find a car that they need.

It will serve you well to have detailed lists available that are sorted by manufacter, series, scale, and theme. Perhaps start by saying what scale and formats are involved (ie. 1/18, 1/24, 1/64 diecast; 1/24 and 1/43 built kits; 1/32 and 1/64 slot cars; etc.) Then list themes of cars (muscle cars, NASCAR, F1, sports cars, TV/movie, etc.). Then list manufacturers (HW, JL, MB, Corgi, Tomica, etc.) That just lets people make decisions up front about whether or not there is something of interest. Looking forward to seeing the lists.

I'm looking forward to some kind of list like that as well. All the advise is very sound stuff right now. Where there is a will, there's a way. I think you'll be fine.

I think the most realistic "guide" out there is Ebay - most current and always up to date..... on a piece by piece basis.

Selling as one lot never reap the expectations......