How much to sell old cards for?
Economics forum
Posted on Sept. 29, 2013, 12:55 p.m. by keilahmartin
I've got a collection of about 6,000 older (as in, 2008 and older) cards that I want to sell in bulk locally. What kind of price tag should I attach?
I've also got an MTG 2014 core set booster box and fat pack with all the rares and mythics taken out that I want to sell. Suggested price tag?
Thanks!
Epochalyptik says... #4
We can't really give you an answer unless you give us more information. Price depends heavily on what the cards are. Condition also factors into the equation.
September 29, 2013 1:54 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #5
In general, your old bulk commons and uncommons aren't really worth anything. There are always the exceptions that end up being worth money, but those are the cross-format staples that get harder to find as time passes.
Your best bet for getting rid of your cards is to find a new casual player and sell them your pile of cards as a card base for them to get into the game. Either way, asking for more than a dollar per 100 cards is getting pretty shady.
You can get guaranteed money for bulk commons and uncommons from a site like Channelfireball.com or Starcitygames.com, but you'd be hard-pressed to get any profit out of that deal because shipping is expensive and they won't give you much for your stash.
September 29, 2013 1:56 p.m.
sell them on ebay, going to your local game store your not gonna get much, and any experienced magic player probably isn't in need of the bulk commons and uncommons that you don't want they're usually looking for specific things. So, unless you can find someone new to magic that just really wants a bunch of cards to get started with your not gonna get too much for them.
September 29, 2013 4:31 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #7
@abenz419: You make a good point about stores, but the potential problem with eBay is the shipping cost for large quantities of bulk. I would say a local sale to another player (possibly through craigslist or a large forum) would be the best option because it negates the large loss from shipping costs.
September 29, 2013 4:38 p.m.
When you set up your item for sale on ebay there's an area to include the shipping. So when people bid or use the buy it now feature they can see what the shipping is. So it'll come out of pocket at first but the buyer will have to pay the shipping along with the price for the item.
If you really wanna know how much it's gonna cost to ship, head to a UPS store or the post office and ask them what it would cost. if your gonna put the cards into a box to ship them, then you could even fill the box with cards and take it in so you have an accurate way to show them the size and weight of the package. That way you can judge from there if it's going to be too much for you to front the shipping till the ebay transaction processes. Also, I think ebay has discounts on shipping if you print the shipping label from ebay. I don't know if this is available to first time sellers or not though.
September 29, 2013 5:25 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #9
It's true that the buyer foots the bill for shipping, but if I were the buyer, I would not be willing to pay $10 in shipping to get $15 in bulk unknown cards. Those prices are obviously not final or correct, but the point remains valid.
Your best bet is to hope for a willing buyer at your local FNM. Just ask around to see if there's interest.
September 29, 2013 5:39 p.m.
@landgrafb that's why I suggested finding out what it would cost to ship it first. If he's planning on selling them as 100-250 card blocks then the shipping shouldn't be outrageous. Obviously it doesn't make sense to put them on ebay if shipping cost more than the price of the actual item, but it won't hurt to look into it. Paying a couple bucks up front to ship them will be worth it compared to the time and energy your gonna spend searching for someone willing to buy them from you. With ebay the buyers come to you.
September 29, 2013 5:46 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #11
True, but in order to find a buyer on eBay (or anywhere, if you want a quick sell), you're going to have to create interest in the product.
If you really want to sell your cards quickly, look through them (yes, all of them), and figure out which sets your cards are from. You want to be able to let your buyers know what they're getting so that they don't shy away from the unknown.
September 29, 2013 5:51 p.m.
In my opinion, the best way to do so is slap a price on it, this being about $300.00. Whoever is interested let them know say hey, there could be anything in here....it's 6000 cards, whatever you get....you get, I couldn't tell you whats in here. This intrigues people and lets them think something real valuable could be in here. That is what I would do. Maybe you can start out at 400 dollars and then agree to 300 making it seem your cutting a deal.
September 29, 2013 6:06 p.m.
keilahmartin says... #13
Aiight, I'll ask for $50 for the old ones and $20 for the MTG2014 ones. Cheap price (I think), but I want them gone and it's better than nothing.
September 29, 2013 6:07 p.m.
A lot of people are making this out to be a bigger deal. Do what I said, say you have commons, mythics and whatever else in the lot. Stress the point it is !6,000! cards. Don't go through ebay though they want a percentage of what you sell. Try amazon or Etsy or something else.
September 29, 2013 6:11 p.m.
Even though most stores offer bad prices for bulk, check their buylists anyway. A store in my area offers $5 for 1000 commons/uncommons, and also buy bulk rares for about 15 cents a card. Not too bad of a deal if you can't find anyone who would buy them.
September 29, 2013 10:23 p.m.
@jcris25: I'll sell you 6,000 random cards for $300.
September 30, 2013 5:07 a.m.
At my store they have a box of singles (usually commons and uncommons, but occasionally you'll find a rare in there), for sale for DKK 1 (around .2 dollars). If you buy more than 25 you'll get 50% off on each, and if you buy more than 300 you get 67% off on each card.
It makes for some fun nights to raid that box, make a weird deck and play it out with your friends. Plus you'll get a full deck for around 5 dollars.
October 1, 2013 3:14 a.m.
Felixlives says... #18
I just traded two big double row card boxes of commons and uncommons from innistrad all the way up to gatecrash for 4 theros boosters. I saved all the extra charms, Rancor , delver, etc and a playset of everything else. Depending on what sets youve got you might have some cards that are always going to be good, Dark Ritual , Lightning Bolt , Counterspell , so going through and knowing what you have is a good plan just in case you missed a card that you could easily trade off. Then id say go to a local card shop and either offer them for a trade for very little value or try to find a new player and offer the cards to them for a good deal. 20-30 bucks for a shit ton of commons and uncommons isnt a bad deal for a starter.
mckin says... #2
generally i look for about $5 for 250 bulk commons, or 100 uncommons, not including the $1 commons or things like young pyromancers which go $2/3 each.
a lot of cards arn't really playable imo out side of block, and i keep a playset of every card, and just sell my 5/6/7/15th copies of them
i would go through and see what cards you have as far as more expensive commons/uncommons and keep those set aside
September 29, 2013 1:03 p.m.