Not that I necessarily am, at least not yet, but if I were looking to sell of my entire collection of roughly 500 DVDs, what's the best way to go about that while maximizing profits? I've thought about eBaying them one at a time, as I know that tends to get more money than all in one bunch, but I would think with so many that the fees they tack on would eat up profits pretty quickly. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Why not here on DVD Talk?

Half.com

It would seem to depend upon how much energy/effort you want to put into it and what you are looking to get out of it...

If you have time sell them to family/friends/co-workers, here, ebay or an Amazon type thing. You'll probably get the most money this way but it will take the most time.

If you are just looking to dump the collection for money take it to a pawn shop.

If you are just looking to dump the collection but don't care about money donate them to a library and take the tax write off (assuming you itemize your taxes).

If you go the ebay route, you might want to think about breaking the 500 DVDs into smaller groups. For example, you can put about 20 or 30 action films together and sell them as a bundle. This way, you might be able to increase your profit without packing and shipping 500 individual releases. Just a thought.

Those are some good ideas, thanks. The problem I may run into though is that a good number of the films I own are either cult type films or indie releases that may not have a wide audience. Because of that, if I were to sell them individually let's say, I'm wondering how much interest they'd garnish. Check my sig for a list of what I have, there are also a handful that aren't on that list.

In that case, i will second DVD talk.

Well I do like to support the locals. Also I just realized that perhaps I should've posted this thread in the DVD Exchange forum. Sorry about that.

split them down into types of packaging - ebay the typical jewel cases together (best way is to schedule the listings, so they all start and end in one go) and set boundaries on time limits for paying... this way you can buy packaging in bulk for these kinds of cases in advance, package them all up in roughly the same period of time. ebay fees might not kick in at the kind of money you're talking about for most - in th eUK they start at £13, USA DVD are clearly less than that new.

do a second auction for everything in odd packaging, deal with the awkward thigns separately. it's worth the time for potentially more money - its hard to say if you might have something worth a whole heap of cash in there.

I'm doing this right now, but not with my entire collection. I've got over 1200 DVDs and am getting rid of at least 400 of them, and doing it on Ebay. You'd be surprised how well some of them do. The best I've had are the smaller cult-type titles. If it was a Hollywood blockbuster, it's almost impossible to give it away for free. If you go this way, I'd suggest starting with a low opening bid price and reasonable shipping (not more than $3.50, less if you can do it) and offer discounts for multiple items. If it's OOP consider doing a gallery pic and subtitle for $0.65 extra, otherwise just do a standard $0.40 auction. If a DVD doesn't sell, I normally list it one more time, and if it still doesn't sell I give up on it for the time being.

Ebay makes it easy to list DVDs now, and if you have paypal, selling and shipping is really easy.

By genre, selling the box sets/expensive releases individually on amazon or here.

Agreed, but I may add that if you have the capability, do take digital pictures versus using their default image of a dvd cover. It lends credibility to your auction and the first photo is free anyways...

If you decide to sell them individually, start small with 20 or 30. Just to see how much work is actually involved (which may or may not be considerably more than you realize).

I am trying to prepare for this same thing, I am hoping to take my 1400 down to less than 500 maybe as low as 200-300. There is no real good way to do it, but most of my thoughts are posted already. If I can ever figure out what I am going to sell off, I am going to give DVDTalkers first shot through the exchange forum. I am also going to have afew private showings for certain friends that have expressed interest in buying - hopefully cutting down on shipping. Whatever is left I will weed through a combination of DVDPlanet trade, Secondspin sell, half.com, and ebay.

Thanks for the input guys. When I decide to start selling them, I'll be sure to list at least a couple on here as well.

Not sure how you plan to ship them but you can get bubble mailers in bulk fairly cheap at esupplystore.com. I always use the #1 since they can hold 1 or 2 DVDs securely or a multiple disc set.

Also, if you don't print postage online the next time you're at your local Post Office see if they have an automated shipping center off to the side you can do on your own. Every time I go to my local P.O., which is fairly large, it is relatively crowded but no one is using the automated machine. Once you get accustomed to the machine it only takes a minute to print a label out and then you can put it down the mail shoot for large envelopes or if they have one a pull shoot you turn. I don't normally bring more than 5 DVD's to ship at once though. I ship First Class for the bubble mailers but also give the buyer an option for Priority in which you can get free boxes for at the Post Office or just order them free online through USPS.com here.

I'm trying to get my 1400 down by about 500 as well (and then putting the money I get back into HD!). I've been using ebay and craig's list mostly...but selling individual titles on ebay can be a lot of work.

Not really, as long as you have some kind of a system anyways. I've been putting about 40 or so for sale each week. Takes about 2 hours to get them up for sale. The next week when they end, it takes about the same amount of time to list new ones, relist ones that didn't sell, send the invoice on Ebay, and package the winning ones. I bought a postage scale cheap on Ebay, and now print out shipping when I pack them after I get paid. Now that I'm in the rhythm of it, I don't spend more than 3 hours a weekend doing it, and maybe an hour sometime during the week for stragglers who pay later. For 40 auctions, that's not much time at all, considering how much you're getting "paid" to do it.

Getting the postage scale and printing out postage saves a lot of time. No waiting in lines at the post office or a shipping store, no special trips. I just drive them through the post office drop off when I'm out running errands, which takes like 3 minutes.