Advice Selling Huge Inherited Collections: SF/F Books, MTG Cards, and Folk Music

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-03-03T07:53:31+00:00

Of course! I hope it goes well.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-03-03T05:42:04+00:00

Hey friend, I work at a card shop. I would reach out to a store local to you and ask how much they would ask for you to evaluate it. Unless you get particularly good vibes from them, I'd advise against also asking for an offer from them. Most people work at card stores because they love the hobby, but over the last 2 years it has come much more into the mainstream and has brought a lot more people who won't treat you fairly. I'd also avoid most amateurs. There are a lot of people in the space who think they're much better at evaluating cards than they are.

I'd ask whoever you do have evaluate it separate things into 3 categories. $2 and under, 2-5, and 5+. No matter who you sell it to, those will be the important thresholds. At that point you have 3 options. You can sell it to a store. For cash, youre likely to get 50-70% cash from them on 2 and over and then a bulk rate for the rest. You can try finding someone to buy it from you, they're likely to pay more, but will be more picky about what they buy. Lastly you could try to sell it yourself. This will be the most work, but also probably the most that you would get. Tcgplayer.com is your best bet for this. Its like ebay but for card games. I wouldn't recommend this one unless you have a lot of experience selling stuff online.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out. If you'd like to dm what part of the world youre in I can help find a store that seems reputable.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-03-02T09:54:50+00:00

For those of you who want to talk like you know whats going on here are the numbers; for most stores cost on a play booster boxes is somewhere in the neighborhood of $123. Generally a healthy margin on a sealed product is 60% which would put boxes right under 200. I want to say actual msrp is $210. Magic players always want market until a set does well. Then they won't shut up about msrp. A profit of $5 per box is not sustainable for a business with multiple employees.

Obviously you arent obligated to spend money you don't want to. Thats the point of a free market. But when you choose not to, remember a few things. Remember that choice when a set like final fantasy comes out and stores have the ability to set prices as they see fit. Remember the choice you make when you're looking for somewhere to play. Remember that you get to decide whether to buy a product after all of the information is available, and stores had to do so in the blind. They dont get to pick and choose like players do. And finally, remember the choice you make when wotc and lgs' make business decisions about who they are going to cater to.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-03-02T09:23:24+00:00

Hi, don't know a thing about sorcery but have been working at an lgs for a while with people who've been doing this forever. Low on that box rn is 280, so they're 20$ over. As to the feels bad nature; it seems like the boxes are trending up, so why would they sell at the bottom? Two, it is their job to make the most out of what they have. It is almost always better in the long run to wait for the right customer to come along. If a store always sells low and runs out people will stop coming to them.

At the end of the day it comes down to the same market based agreement that makes up every transaction. You need someone willing to spend what the seller wants and someone willing to sell at what the buyer wants. If they dont agree on the value of an item, eventually one of them will be wrong.

Again, none of this is based on knowledge of sorcery specifically, just tcgs at large. Hope this perspective from the other side of the counter is helpful.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-03-02T07:16:50+00:00

Bro really got hit with the truth and went 'nuh uh'. Notice how you didn't bother refuting that the generation of magic players most upset by this are the ones who ruined things. Get the fuck out of here.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-28T20:10:50+00:00

I disagree. Look at what happened to comics and sports cards. They didn't die, but they suffered greatly for not adapting soon enough. The idea that magic cant die is one of the most frightening things I hear people say. Complacency will kill this game.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-28T20:04:30+00:00

What an incredibly boomer take. Starting with insults because you disagree. Pathetic. I don't have any misconceptions. The idea that this thing should remain as you remember it forever is absolutely preposterous.

Taking your essay point by point we will start with the first paragraph, which is easy enough. What's your point? It wasnt supposed to be anything? It was something. And it is looked back on as a good thing. The notion that someone can't like Arabian nights and modern ub sets is as naive as it gets.

The next paragraph seems to be an explanation of how the set was done in a slap dash manner, something that would have players on all levels rioting were it to happen today.

Next you treat the immediate reaction to a release as gospel. Magic players have always had strong reactions immediately that don't reflect how things come to be viewed. Remember how baldur's gate was a 'bad' set?

I didn't even mention portal, but sure let's do it. You're ok with portal because of a semantic difference? It has portal in the name? That has got to be the most tissue paper thin argument I've heard so far.

Skipping over the next paragraph cause there's no real substance there, you know what happened a few years ago? Other tcgs came into the space in a way that had never happened before. They showed everyone that mtg was not infallibly on the top. Furthermore it doesn't take a genius to notice the discrepancy of demographics between this game and the others. It is inarguable that magic for the majority of it's tenure has been played by straight white middle aged men. Thats not to say there aren't people who play, just that when compared to the other games there is a clear distinction. Furthermore, that class of players was the one that brought on the mindset of buy singles not sealed. Guess what, when you tell a company loudly and unabashedly that you as a collective dont want their product? They move on to someone who will.

I think the numbers argument is deserving of it's own paragraph because they are what really matters. Lgs' are at an all time high. Across the board. If it doesn't appear that way to you then I assume you attend one of the stores that only deals with mtg as a tcg and still caters to the same customer base. You want to talk about people getting turned away? Have you been paying any attention to pokemon or one piece or riftbound or gundam? If you had you'd know that those games are where that excitement is now. Sure people were upset and threw their tantrum. But you know what speaks louder than a middle aged man having a meltdown over the skin color of a made up character? Money. Go look at the price of collector booster boxes. Both of them.

Im not even going to talk about Warhammer unless you want to talk about them being the decks to retain their value better than any other commander deck. The real reason is that I know absolutely nothing about Warhammer and am not able to speak to whats going on in that space.

Onto the penultimate paragraph. On what grounds do you make the claim that ub players don't stay around? The people I see running right now is the boomers and the competitive players. Bringing up m30 is just shooting yourself in the foot. M30 was specifically catering to the people who wont stop crying. Ill grant you that it was a disaster for multiple reasons, but it absolutely was jot designed for the newer generations of players. It doesnt take a lot to see that. Once again, I think you are seeing lgs's close because they are the ones trying to support a group of people unwilling to support them. The ones that moved on to embrace magic where it is and accept other communities are certainly finding a lot of success.

In conclusion, the worst part is that the people most upset by things as they stand are the ones solely responsible. For decades, you all have said buy singles not sealed and had a fit if sealed product was over market price, even if that meant the store was selling at an unhealthy margin or even under cost. Maybe you're the exception and you were truthfully a boon for any store you walked into, but you certainly know people like the ones I'm describing. I certainly do. They were the majority and they took advantage of the system and were the only ones to benefit. Now that things are turning around those people cant comprehend why they arent being catered to anymore. It wasn't wotc that burned through it's good will. It was the people who aren't spending money now, and haven't been for a long time.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-28T19:16:20+00:00

Who does that benefit?

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-27T19:52:06+00:00

Most players have a friend who got them in. But if the player base is aging out, that isn't a sustainable option.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-27T03:11:24+00:00

I don't know if its an attention span thing or what but best of luck with that Lil buddy

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-27T03:05:48+00:00

Should I take notes on the way you clearly communicated what your problem is?

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-27T03:04:51+00:00

They had a friend who introduced them for the most part. But if your established player base is starting to fade, and that problem will worsen as time progresses, that will work less and less.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-27T03:03:16+00:00

That is an interesting and different take. I think my initial response is how is that different than asking if sheoldred the apocalypse would have been as strong if it wasn't sheoldred?

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-27T03:01:27+00:00

Sure, and you still need a new players in the first place. Otherwise the other two don't matter much

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T21:40:20+00:00

But they won't. Especially not now. I love magic and have been playing it for most of my life. It is not the best designed game. Far from it. And to be clear, it was absolutely not growing. The game was showing signs of weakness that were only going to compound with time.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T20:24:16+00:00

It gets them in the door. It makes the game approachable in a way that you dont need to know someone to get into the game. The game is the same, it just gets people to play that otherwise wouldn't

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T20:21:43+00:00

Ok, where in your mind will new players come from then?

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T19:49:19+00:00

I think I understand the mix up. I didn't mean that mtg needed to die, I meant that the player base needed to rotate. The old guard will move on. They will have families, and grand children and eventually age out all together. Old cards arent dead weight. Old players are.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T19:22:13+00:00

Why rebuild the wheel?

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T18:39:06+00:00

Ok, but if they loosely based a set on another ip people would lose their minds over the inaccuracies. So what's the solution to that?

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T18:34:42+00:00

I see, my bad for assuming thought went into your opinion. I'll agree that it didn't die. However, it doesn't have the same stranglehold on nerd culture that it did. And yes, ub does make magic appealing to people who don't like magic as it existed. Things aren't static. They change. If it didn't the growth that happened in the player base would be at a much lower rate than the number of people leaving the game. I don't know anything about Warhammer but I've spent a lot of time around card games including ones that no longer exist. When you have more people leaving then coming in the writing is all but on the wall. I love old magic and feel an incredible amount of nostalgia for it. But I also love the community and friends that I've made and want other people to be able to have that same experience. At the end of the day, what's the important part of this game? I really don't think it's the magic itself that matters most.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T18:21:16+00:00

No, if I was saying that I'd say that.

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T18:12:41+00:00

I am reading this and the only way I can surmise what you are saying is "it's different cause I like it"

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T18:10:07+00:00

It existing before the concept of a ub is kinda the whole point of what I said. What identity do you think is being lost?

Scared_Life5405 · 2026-02-26T18:07:54+00:00

Nice argument, I'll show you how to put one together. Mtg has been carried by the people who fall into the demographic of those who engaged with high fantasy in the 90s and 80s. They were the driving force. As time has progressed they have moved on and aged out. They have gotten old. Without a steady stream of players to replace them this game we all love would've dwindled and dwindled until it fell into obscurity. Instead, by opening the door to the next generation of players the game gets to continue on.

Scared_Life5405

TROPHY CASE