Best way to sell 10,000+ Magic Cards?

MSI Magus

MSI Magus

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Wondering if anyone has any experience at selling cards. Iv got about 10-15k magic cards that I want to get rid of but outside using ebay not sure where to start. I was thinking of splitting them up and selling them by color/type in several smaller lots...but id imagine shipping would be way more expensive that way then selling them as one huge lot.

Im also not exactly sure what I have since I'v never really played seriously.....I know from looking at the comic book store a few times and seeing cards I own that I have some expensive/sought after cards like a few Birds of Paradise and Ajani Vengeant...but I dont know just how many of these are good cards. I also know there are close to 300 rares from the golden symbols where it shows what set the card is from....but I dont know on older sets like Ice Age that dont have symbols how many rares there are. The cards are in general in good condition, I kept things I knew were rare in a sleeved binder, and I kept the rest in card boxes.

So am I better off trying to bundle this up as 1 huge lot on ebay? Or should I be trying to sell them separately or in some other way?

Any suggestions from people that have sold cards/sell cards is appreciated.
 
I don't know, someone who got back into the game told me a lot of the old cards can't be used or have limits on them (although that might just be the house rules where he plays). With that many cards you'll be there for years trying to sell them individually so maybe packs or one big lot is the best bet.

Ice Age was kinda new when I stopped. Lol. I won't dare ask for a complete list but I may have a little interest in this should I get back into the game too.
 
do a raffle/lottery. sell 10,000 tickets for $1 each. pull a number out of a hat. everyone has an equal chance to win. problem solved.
 
[quote name='Arakias']do a raffle/lottery. sell 10,000 tickets for $1 each. pull a number out of a hat. everyone has an equal chance to win. problem solved.[/QUOTE]

Heh wish I could do that ;)
 
Make bundles. I sold off my 5k+ cards in bundles(25 rares, 25 uncommon and 50 commons). Also sold off the whole Visions set as a single sale. Good luck sir, took me quite a while to sell my 5k off, can only imagine what 3x that would take. =]
 
[quote name='notwen']Make bundles. I sold off my 5k+ cards in bundles(25 rares, 25 uncommon and 50 commons). Also sold off the whole Visions set as a single sale. Good luck sir, took me quite a while to sell my 5k off, can only imagine what 3x that would take. =][/QUOTE]

Did you list the exact cards in the bundle or did you just put them up and make people bid blindly?
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']Did you list the exact cards in the bundle or did you just put them up and make people bid blindly?[/QUOTE]

Did some themed bundles, but majority of them ended up being sold as 25 random rares, 25 random uncommons etc. Eliminate all of your basic lands from the rest of the cards and don't include those w/ your commons. That seemed to concern a lot of bidders; not too many people apparently were in the market for some quality 4th edition & ice ages lands.
 
If you have any Badlands (red/black dual lands) sell them to me.

DPsx7 - It depends on what type you play. The standard and usually official tournament is type 2, and you can only use newer cards. There is also type 1.5 or legacy where you can use almost all cards (what I play), and type 1 where you can only use older cards. if you are playing casually it doesn't really matter.
 
[quote name='darkslime']If you have any Badlands (red/black dual lands) sell them to me.

DPsx7 - It depends on what type you play. The standard and usually official tournament is type 2, and you can only use newer cards. There is also type 1.5 or legacy where you can use almost all cards (what I play), and type 1 where you can only use older cards. if you are playing casually it doesn't really matter.[/QUOTE]

Like I said I have no clue what I have...so that is why I was looking here to find out if im better off selling as 1 huge lot or many/a few individuals.
 
I'd start by separating the cards by edition and expansion. Maybe pull out the commons and try to trade them or liquidate them locally in Craigslist or something because chances are shipping weight will eat you up on those.

The only other thing I can think of is maybe arrange them into sets (as many different cards as possible, no duplicates) or maybe ready-made playable decks? People are either looking to play with them, or collect full runs.

I dunno if it'll work for you, but I've seen with old people and baseball cards; they'll put up classified ads of ten different cards for one silver dime and one first class stamp--something like that at a small cost might get newbies who are curious about MTG.

I'm probably in a similar boat to you; I've got a drawer full of cards, and while I'd like to complete my rare and uncommon sets for Ice Age, 4th edition, etc. it's like where am I going to put them? Got to get rid of some commons, ugh.
 
[quote name='darkslime']If you have any Badlands (red/black dual lands) sell them to me.

DPsx7 - It depends on what type you play. The standard and usually official tournament is type 2, and you can only use newer cards. There is also type 1.5 or legacy where you can use almost all cards (what I play), and type 1 where you can only use older cards. if you are playing casually it doesn't really matter.[/QUOTE]

Lol, everyone likes the dual lands.

It's been a long time since I have. Our whole block used to play and we had our own rules. I've never been to a tourney and that requires proper tuning of a deck, my 'casual' one certainly wasn't made for anything like that. I mean we used to have 5 player games with 40 HP each...

From what I hear there's all sorts of new rules and abilities so it kinda makes sense to limit the confusion and ban any cards that may be incompatible with another. It's probably a completely different game now. The other hurdle is cards aren't that cheap. I played MTG before I really started collecting video games, doing both would certainly empty my wallet.
 
How long ago did you play? Now pretty much all the tourneys are one of those three types even if they're more casual and not sanctioned. I used to play a lot more than I do now a couple years ago and just got back into it a couple months ago, almost sold off all my cards but instead was too lazy to and stuffed them into my closet. Really glad about that.

Yeah, MTG cards are pretty expensive. Lands seem to be the most expensive part of a deck. I'm gonna have to throw down $100 for four fucking dual lands.
 
Definitely take the time to figure out what you have before you put it up for auction. Prices have gone ridiculously high on legacy stuff recently. Entomb is around $25-30, Mox Diamond is hitting $40-50, Wasteland is around $20, etc. It is definitely worth it to sell that stuff on its own. Rares aren't the only things of value, either. Uncommons like the afformentioned Wasteland, Force of Will, Sea Drake, Aether Vial, etc, all fetch a fair price. There aren't a whole lot of valuable commons, and usually are hardly worth selling online. The shipping will hardly make selling them worthwhile, so you're better off donating them to a local gaming store or gaming group. Who knows, you might even be able to get a few bucks for them.

Again, take a few hours and figure out what you have. It'll help you get more for them, and will hopefully prevent you from taking a loss because you missed something valuable.

Also, PMing you Darkslime, because I have your badlands (and tons of other goodness) for sale/trade.
 
Well its already sold! Posted on Craigslist last night just randomly asking $350 for it, had an email immediatly! Guy came and took a look today offered $300, and at the end agreed on $325.
 
3.25 pennies per card.

I'm thinking even digging through to find rares would have at least paid that much.

Though slogging through all of that, maybe not an awesome use of time.
 
Sounds like a good deal. I checked the price link above and unless you had a bunch of alpha/beta card they weren't worth more then a couple dollars a piece.
 
Bah, I would have paid that much to look through a pile of that size, surely there would be something useful.

I don't know the date but it was during the 3rd and 4th editions, the newest when I stopped maybe Ice Age or thereabouts? I forget, maybe Legends or Visions since I do recall seeing a 'V' icon for that edition/expansion.
 
I have a box about 1 1/2 feet long full of these from around 1994-1998. Do you guys think it would be worth going through and itemizing? How do you know the rarity of a card? Are creatures and attacks the only worthwhile cards? It's been a long time since I've looked at them, but if there is a potential profit, maybe it would be worth it. Thanks in advance. Nice deal Magus!
 
Well anything pre 1997 you would have to manually look up. After I quit (ice age was the last expansion I bought) my brothers sets like alliances and mirage had gold,silver, and black versions of the expansion logo. They correspond to Rare, Uncommon, and Common respsetively.

It also highly depends on when in 1994 you started playing. if it was like January-April you could have some extremely valuable beta/unlimited cards. If it was late 1994 then you prolly got in under the revised edition nothing is worth more than $10ish. In fact many cards from revised edition on up are worth less now cause you can't play with them in any tournaments.

Modern rules are something like Type 1 you can only play the absolute most recent core/expansion series. Type 2 you can play Type 1 cards and the previous expansion. Then they do have some sort of legacy/classic series where you can play with whatever. I think most friday night magic events are type 1 cause that is what stores are selling and that means more revenue for them.
 
The cards that might be worth selling on their own are the old dual lands(and that everybody loves). Those can go $50+. Other than that I am not sure it is worth itemizing, unless you have a black lotus or something =p.

I know mirage, tempest and weatherlight didn't have the gold/silver black symbols(that's about when I stopped playing). I think it started in the core set 6th edition. Anything before sixth you'll have to manually look like using...something. I think Scrye was discontinued and I am not sure what people do nowadays. A stroll into your local hobby shop would clear things up (or even net you a sale).

EDIT: A lot of the older awesome cards were re-released in 2010 edition (like birds of paradise). So I imagine that the only players that would buy the old ones would be hardcore collectors.
 
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