Collectors Consigning with Collectors- musings for my newest venture.
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I am so thankful my friends and past clients, Danny and John, chose me to help them downsize their collections as they embark on a new adventure in condo living. There are many times in life when you are faced with your bulging collection and space, time and storage issues. I am using this experience to set up spreadsheets, procedures and thoughts for an official contract for future consignments.
My thoughts so far, this is a lot of work. It is probably not worth consigning small, low value collections. This is for mass quantities of high end stuff or a combo of both. I also will be faced with what to do with the residual items as time goes on? I was thinking after an agreeable amount of time, slashing prices. Contacting local dealers to buy out the remaining items, etc. My goal is to realize the highest values for your stuff as the market will bear, pack and ship safely and deal with the customer service, make appropriate bulk deals with shoppers.
What can you expect? Well, it’s hard to say until we get rolling. The Barbie market has really surprised me. Collectors are ravenous and willing to buy multiples for combined shipping. These are all in mint condition and never removed from the box. I have competition on these listings and am pricing in line with recent sales and things are moving faster than my own inventory! That is great news! I try to keep my shipping costs low and I am begging friends to save me smaller to medium boxes, packing pillows and other materials. So far, so good.
Here are some additional thoughts. I make more money buying bulk at low prices and selling high myself than I do consigning. I do not always have the cash to purchase mass quantities of inventory and especially high end inventory so consigning works great as it is no upfront cost for me. Here’s probably the best thing so far. I picked up 2 carloads of inventory last week. I listed the furniture first then the Franciscan Starburst as that fits what I normally sell. My own fan base was excited and I sold some china out the gate. Next I started the Barbies on eBay. I have gotten though 3 boxes in 3 days with close to 15 boxes total. Since I started listing, I sold over $1000 worth of stuff and raised my consignors over $600! I know in the estate circles I buy in no dealer would pay this much for this massive lot. I have not even touched the surface! So much more to go! Keep watch on these fabulous items in my eBay shop at eBay.com/usr/MadModWorldVintage and the mcm items will be headed to my Etsy shop. If you think you have a large valuable collection and would be interested in consigning with me, you can reach out at anytime to get on my list!
XO MALISSA
