A Rabid Collector Finally Sells A Marble

[colinsu]

Hello all,

Some of you may remember me from past posts, others because you've sold me mibs; now I'm primarily a board "lurker". The time has come when I will finally sell a marble, most likely on Ebay since I don't know how else to do it. I must consolidate my collection, trimming most of my Pelt's, a few Akros, and (sob) duplicate CAC's to focus on my true passion: early machine-mades, particularly transitionals.

Here's my problem: honest to G-d, I've never sold a single marble. I began collecting shortly after I became disabled, and as soon as I felt that I could identify some of the more recognizeable mibs, mostly Pelt's, bid wildly to own as many Supermen, Rebels, etc, as I found. My knowledge grew, my bank account shrunk and my collection spread to every available space in my desk, then office, and now my house.

I believe this is no longer just a hobby, but now a disease, one that no one among my friends and family understand--A grown man spending thousands of dollars on marbles, or as I like to call them, cultural artifacts. These artifacts within my collection tend towards the "one-of-a-kind", or at least rarities. Even my early aquisitions, commodity type machine mades tend to the quirky; I am a fool for error marbles to the extent that I own a multiplicity of uniqueness. My problem is two-fold: anything I sell, I'll probably want to repurchase; second, I doubt that I'll get anywhere near my marble's value to me. I realize how whiny and stupid this sounds, but I've got quite a bit tied-up in my collection, enough so that if my wife knew half of what I've spent, she'd murder me in my sleep.

Well, my rant is done. Within a week I'm listing 3 Guineas, a Blue Galaxy and a transparent Clambroth (both bought from Alan B.), and some opaque and mist Lutzes...Hell, maybe I should sell all of my Pelt's in one huge lot. Any thoughts on that?

If you'll be so kind, please drop a note with any suggestions you have concerning Ebay, PayPal, MibAuctions, or any other means of selling. Oh, and if you have any special wish item, drop me a line, I'll bet I've got at least one.

Best wishes all, and thanks. Signed, A man and his marbles.

[Steph]

All the pelts at once? definitely not!

Say you sold the Blue Galaxy separately, and only gathered your semi-rare Pelts into one lot.

Say the best one in the lot would get $100 if you sold it on it's own.

I hope you'd get at least the $100 for the group, but you can't be sure. Some people would lay out. Possibly because they expect the competition to get too rich for their blood. Possibly because they wonder why you would sell such nice ones in a group.

Putting them together means the one who has the money for the best one might get a whole lot of bonuses. Splitting them up will let more people participate.

just my opinion!

p.s. good luck! I hope you do well.

[colinsu]

Thanks for the input. It seems to me that current market conditions are horrible for sellers of most machine-mades. Activity as seen on Ebay for example, is very slow with bidders sitting on the sidelines. I believe the days of $150.00 Superman have passed. Handmades though, seem to be weathering the economic storm a bit better. Even so, it appears that only the highest end of the market in handmades shows willing and aggressive bidding. I think that I will concentrate my initial selling there.

I've recieved several PM's concerning specific items, which is encouraging, and I am happy to offer what I have to those expressing interest.

Colin

[FISHSLAYERMARRBLEGRIFF]

There are some other options to ebay.If you have some things you want to sell outright,you could post some for sale in the buy/sell/trade section.

There is also a new,marble auction site.

http://www.mibbay.com/index.php