# Amazing attic find, need help!



## bigdaddydaveh (Jul 20, 2007)

You read about these all the time in car magazines; the classic 'car in a barn' stories. Well they happen in real life. A friend of mine at work asked me to stop by his grandma's house last weekend. His grandfather passed away last year and they are moving her to a retirement/assisted living comunity. The upshot is, they are cleaning out the house and his grandfather was a car kit nut. I went over Saturday and was amazed at what was stashed in his attic den. Hundreds of kits, over 99% were opened but the parts inside were still sealed in the bags! Aurora, AMT, Life Like, Revell, COX slot car bodies, you name it, he had it. Open wheel car kits dating back to the 60's, a couple of Bionic Man kits sealed, Monster Scene kits, even the Aurora Garage Scene kits. They want me to help them sell the collection and I have no idea what a fair % of commission would be. I'll likely be listing them on Ebay in batches over the next few months. Any idea what % I should charge from the selling price? I don't want to take advantage of them and grandma needs the $$$.


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## robiwon (Oct 20, 2006)

First I would get the collection appraised. You could also do some research and find out the average selling price on the kits. By doing this first you should be able to make a better judgement on how much to charge for a commission. You dont want to just trhow a number out without knowing what the collection is worth first. If you do, you may wind up screwing your Grandma or yourself in the end. You also have to figure what if all the kits dont sell? If you are going to do all the work, catologing each kit, checking for completeness, listing each one, I would say a slightly higher percentage. If your just going to throw them on the Bay without inspection or research, then slightly lower.

Or you could just send them all to me.:thumbsup:


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## bigdaddydaveh (Jul 20, 2007)

I'm actually doing this for a friend and his grandmother. I'd be doing all of the inspection, catalog work, research for possible values, and listing them on Ebay. I'm just trying to come up with a realistic/fair % of each sale to accept in payment from them. They have someone willing to do it for 20% and I thought that sounded high.


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

How about pick of the litter?


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## wolfman66 (Feb 18, 2006)

The Aurora Monster scenes,Racing scenes go for some big bucks among collectors if they are sealed and complete.


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## JGG1701 (Nov 9, 2004)

Hey.
I may be interested in the Bionic Man kits............................
-Jim


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

Dave, if you do enough research to give a reasonable description on ebay, you can post them at a low starting price and let the market establish the price. My experience has been that a high starting price will tend to keep bidders away.
Use caution if you use books for pricing, especially in the current economy. Don't value them beyond what people are paying now.
If someone else is saying 20%, do it for 10%. He's a friend, and that's a nice round number.
My opinion only, your mileage may be different....


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## Zorro (Jun 22, 1999)

Also, be aware that this is a very bad time to sell _anything, anywhere - _eBay included. Appraisals pretty much don't mean a thing in the present economy. I would agree though - take the pick of the litter as payment.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

The trouble with "appraisals" is that the market is down right now. You can find a lot of those kits in various kit collector books and guides, but no one ever really pays book price anyway. There was an old ITC airplane the John Burns KCC guide listed at close to $300 but I never saw one sell for more than $35. 

What kits actually sell for today, on eBay is about as high as you are going to get anywhere else. You can search and see if similar kits sold recently. I just picked up an early 70s vintage Richard Petty Plymouth by MPC. A mint one sold recently for $135 and a built up for close to that. So I figure I can get approx $100 for the kit. 

If you sell kits on eBay, make sure your % is post-fee. Eabay and pay pal will suck up a good bit. So don't forget to take that into account. I charge 30-40% to sell items on eBay for people. It takes more time and effort than you might think with photos, questions, stupid stuff...


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## hedorah59 (Nov 24, 2008)

20% seems reasonable, I have a friend who charges 25-30% As djnick says, there is a lot of work involved in good ebay listings (not to mention all their fees)


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## bigdaddydaveh (Jul 20, 2007)

I may just pass on the whole thing and let his uncle's friend handle things for the 20%. I guess that way, if things go sour, I'm not on the hook. I'll post some photos. Maybe I can drum up some business for them on the swap/sell fourm here.


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## MAX WEDGE (Nov 20, 2005)

bigdaddydaveh said:


> I may just pass on the whole thing and let his uncle's friend handle things for the 20%. I guess that way, if things go sour, I'm not on the hook. I'll post some photos. Maybe I can drum up some business for them on the swap/sell fourm here.



Might have better luck here, looking forward to pic!


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

If you do decide to handle the sales, PLEASE post them where we can find them! I'm sure there'd be a few buyers here if the price is right....

Chris.


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## bigdaddydaveh (Jul 20, 2007)

Let me get his permission and I'll post links to the photos. He's trying to research prices on his own right now online. There is a car show/swap meet here at Notre Dame next month and he's getting a booth for the show. My friend is going to take this on himself and whatever doesn't sell at the show is going on Ebay. I told him there might be a few folks here interested in the Vampirella, The Victim, Cromagnum Woman, Bionic Bust Out, Evil Rider, and Jaws of Doom kits. If I can get pictures, I'll post them on the buy sell trade forum here first. All the boxes have been opened execpt for the Jaws of Doom kit which still has the cello and price tag on it from the 70's. Everything is intact in the boxes and bagged where it was originally bagged. He's just trying to figure out what a fair price would be for these.


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## beck (Oct 22, 2003)

Cromagnum woman " the cave girl with the big ......":woohoo:
hb


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## bigdaddydaveh (Jul 20, 2007)

uh.. club?


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

...personality.


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

...two-headed snake.


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

What a find. To be so lucky to stumble across a "collection in the attic or garage". Either that or hit the Lottery for Mega Millions.  rr


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## TAY666 (Jan 8, 2000)

I did something similar a few years back.
My mother took over a consignment store. While cleaning out the crap that was already there, she came across a bunch of model car kits.
She asked me what to do with them.
I had no idea of car kit values, especially for already built ones. But I thought they were intersting as they appeared to be some kind of dealer item with pullback motors and such.
Did a quick search of ebay and found that some did go for big bucks.
But since I didn't know the market, and had no time to really research that deapley, I told her I could list them, but gave no guarantee of what I could get.
She said go ahead, as there really was nothing to loose.

I took a lot of pictures of each one, and started each complete car at $1.
Parts lots, or incomplete kits I grouped together and also started at $1.
No real major description, other than to list any obvious defects that I saw.
I stated up front in each auction that I had no idea what I was selling, though I was an experienced ebay seller and was familiar with other types of model. Email if they had questions or needed more info.
I ran about 10-15 auctions a week just to keep it manageable.
Ended up making my mom about $1500 on about 50 auctions. 

It wasn't a huge amount of work other than the photos.
ANd since it was my mom, I asked for nothing.

If you do decide to do this. Just tell them up front, that you will do it, but can't guarantee any kind of prices. Instead of trying to figure a percentage (which BTW I think is about 30% for consigned sales) I'd just figure a flat price per auction. 
How much time will it take to photograph, write description, list, and ship?
How much is your time worth?

And since you aren't an expert, and probably don't want to become one. I thnk your best bet is to go with a bare-bones description with plenty of pics. Let the collectors look for what they want. I've seen those type of auctions do better almost every time. As the buyers think they might 'steal a deal' and get more invested in the auction from the get go.
The only time I think buyers really appreciate a knowledgable and known seller is when going for a really high priced item in pristine condition. They want to know that what they are buying is going to be correctly represented.


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## bigdaddydaveh (Jul 20, 2007)

Thanks for the input everyone. It looks more an more like my buddy is going to go this alone. I've been asking for photos so I can post something here. I'll update this with a link to the buy/sell forum if he comes through with pics and decides on prices.


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