Where is it best to sell high end pokemon collections?

Hi All!

I’ve been considering using services like ebay but the fees have always been a bit of a deterrent because i’m adamant about getting the full market value for my collection so i can put it towards a house deposit.

I’d like to try use some facebook groups but there doesn’t seem to be a “high end” pokemon group that i can find, at least not one in australia which is where i’m based. I’m also wondering if there’s a particular website such as E4 that I might be able to advertise my collection on and make potential deals there instead. If anyone has any experience or advice it would be greatly appreciated.

I think your best option would be to get the games graded (if they aren’t already) and then submit them to an auction house like PWCC, Goldin Auctions or Heritage Auctions - that would give you significantly more visibility and protection than you’d get by trying to sell them yourself over Facebook.

I don’t know much about graded video games other than to say I think WATA is probably the most popular choice.

1 Like

There is no selling on e4 forum and discord so I would suggest what pichu fan said and ebay. If your games are in really good condition and aren’t graded I would consider that before selling to get the biggest bang for your games.

Ebay is the answer. There is maximum exposure since it has the largest buyer pool. PWCC is also an option and it’s no coincide that they provide their services through Ebay.

Ebay is the market standard. That’s why people typically offer sold Ebay prices (minus fees of course). Worrying and trying to avoid fees is losing dollars to save cents.

11 Likes

Full market value always includes fulfillment fees. The consumer price settles to include those. So paying fees isn’t getting less than market value. It’s getting exactly market value.

12 Likes

This is a misunderstanding, but an understandable misunderstanding.

The “true” value of a card is not the final price it sold for on eBay. It’s the final price it sold for minus eBay fees. This is why the first instinct of buyers who cannot afford or don’t want to pay the list price is to ask the seller to take it off eBay and sell it to them directly - if the seller doesn’t have to pay eBay fees or any other associated costs, they can sell the card for less and make the same amount of money.

eBay is not taking money away from the full market value of the card. The full market value of the card is the sale price minus eBay fees and that lower price is the one people off of eBay would be expecting to pay. So you shouldn’t avoid eBay to try to make more money - you will only make the same or less.

No, you’ve got it backward. The true value of anything is what the buyer pays to obtain the item. The seller pays fees to whatever marketplace they choose for the ability to utilize their exposure, platform, and services. There’s a reason why all of our pricing threads don’t knock 10% off all eBay sales, and there’s a reason why auction house sale prices aren’t listed as the actual hammer price but the price including buyer’s premium (which is just a convoluted seller fee). The point of all the responses here is to say that there isn’t some unicorn marketplace where you’ll be able to consistently sell your items for eBay prices while not paying eBay fees.

While not totally related, the “take it off eBay” saying is kind of hilarious because you wouldn’t know the card was for sale without eBay to begin with. Also keep in mind sellers have zero incentive to sell outside of eBay because as you indicate they’ll still make the exact same amount of money.

2 Likes

I actually feel differently about this personally, although we come to the same conclusion.

I am not a business but I still sell cards often. I list all my items with the intention of receiving a certain amount of money after the deductions. So to me, I sold that card for the money in my pocket. And if someone asked me to sell it to them off site, I would accept an offer for that amount. OP is saying he wants to avoid these fees because he believes he should pocket the full amount - but the truth is sellers are only ever pocketing that amount sans fees. So he is trying to obtain a final value people do not actually see when using any of these platforms. I feel like the value of any card I sold is only the value I got to keep, so that’s why I presented my post the way I did.

You present it from the buyer perspective. This makes sense. Any card is worth what a buyer is willing to pay. It makes no difference to the buyer which percentage the buyer gets to keep. If a buyer is willing to pay $2,000 on eBay they’re probably willing to pay $2,000 privately too. I don’t argue with that. But since this thread was framed from the perspective of a seller trying to maximize how much they pocket, I thought it made most sense to present it from the other direction.

I don’t think our perspectives here are really incompatible - the only difference is context. We both come to the same conclusion: there’s no escaping the system. You either sell on eBay and accept that the money you pocket will never be the final sale price or you will probably have a harder time selling it and will have to sell it for less.

As for sellers having no incentive to take it off of eBay for the same amount of money, this is not completely true. The incentive is to make the sale. If they would make the same amount of money either way, but only one would result in the sale, that’s often incentive enough. When you’re an established business and in no hurry maybe the incentive is not as strong, but there are many collectors whose sales are not their livelihood and expedience is an attractive opportunity.