Are people still buying full collections?

[Fleck586 | 299]

My wife and I have an opportunity to buy our dream home and I am seriously considering selling off my collection. I never thought I'd get to this point, but here I am. My collection is easily in the 6 figures with over 3500 games and a ton of rarities. It ranges from Bally Astrocade to Xbox 360. I think I would hold on to Switch but maybe not. The games I would want to keep are easily attainable. I don't know. Just thinking.  Are there even people out there buying right now? How would one find such people? 

[B.A. | 1,139]

Of course there are, but they will want to buy it at a substantial discount. 

[Fleck586 | 299]

Yeah. Slight I understand. Substantial can't happen or its not worth it. Of course it depends on the definition of the word substantial. But I know what you're saying. I wonder what the best course of action would be? Maybe compile a list and post an Ebay listing with a high BIN and see what offers come in?

[jonebone | 1,307]

Breaking it up by system may be the easiest. Selling all at once maybe gets a game store to bite at 60 to 70% of value if you're lucky.

[a3quit4s | 4,090]

Sell off your rare games in groups or one at a time and find a game store to buy your commons at a discount. You can try to sell everything as one lot but people with that kind of money are going to be in the resale market and looking for a steep discount as  @B.A. said. @jonebone idea about breaking up by system is good as well. 
 

There is what something is worth and what someone will pay. 
 

Post some stuff up in the for sale section yo!

Edited July 1, 2020 by a3quit4s

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,011]

With how fast I am selling straight trash games, I can imagine you would sell any game that is competitive price as fast as you can list it. 

Maybe hire someone to list them for you? I'm confident you could list 150-250 games a day and sell 30-100 games a day, given the prices were good. It would go by before you know it.

You would have to pay income tax, eBay fee and PayPal fee. Income tax is anywhere between 10-25%, stack eBay fees on top and you might be in the same spot at selling bulk to a game store at a notable discount. 

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

2 minutes ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

With how fast I am selling straight trash games, I can imagine you would sell any game that is competitive price as fast as you can list it. 

Maybe hire someone to list them for you? I'm confident you could list 150-250 games a day and sell 30-100 games a day, given the prices were good. It would go by before you know it.

You would have to pay income tax, eBay fee and PayPal fee. Income tax is anywhere between 10-25%, stack eBay fees on top and you might be in the same spot at selling bulk to a game store at a notable discount. 

Would you really have to pay income tax? Couldn’t you offset gains against losses? I have so many games that I paid full price for when they first came off that gains would likely be negated. How would the government expect you to keep receipts from twenty years ago for games? I’m just asking.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,011]

8 minutes ago, ICrappedMyPants said:

Would you really have to pay income tax? Couldn’t you offset gains against losses? I have so many games that I paid full price for when they first came off that gains would likely be negated. How would the government expect you to keep receipts from twenty years ago for games? I’m just asking.

I honestly don't know. My best friend pays income tax every year on his eBay. He averages $50k and it's mostly from cash sales from yard sales / marketplace. His costs are usually 3:1 so if be spends $10k he makes $30. His income tax paid yearly is between 10-15% on the profits. 

I'm sure theres standard deductions but any considerable sale is going to be counted as income or capital gains. 

Perhaps no records = all profits? I really don't know. That's why people pay to get their taxes done lol

Edited July 2, 2020 by RegularGuyGamer

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

It looks like for large amounts, the entire amount would be capital gains unless you have documentation of cost basis.

[Fleck586 | 299]

This thread took a turn I didnt anticipate. Lol! If you reinvest in real estate, though, would you have to pay tax?

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

I don’t see why you wouldn’t pay tax. It would be like cashing out of one stock to invest in another one. You pay capital gains on the one you sold. You’d need to have some kind of loss to offset it. Let’s say you sell an old house at a loss.

[doner24 | 1,195]

With all the influx of money into the hobby, I think there is a small chance someone could offer on the entire lot, and not at a substantial discount. Especially if you have complete sets, or close to and have lots of the big hitters, I could see someone going close to market value as a long term investment. It’s happened plenty of times in other hobby’s. 

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

lets see them nes heavies. 

[a3quit4s | 4,090]

43 minutes ago, doner24 said:

With all the influx of money into the hobby, I think there is a small chance someone could offer on the entire lot, and not at a substantial discount. Especially if you have complete sets, or close to and have lots of the big hitters, I could see someone going close to market value as a long term investment. It’s happened plenty of times in other hobby’s. 

I was just rethinking how nuts everything is right now that posting it with a high BIN might not be a bad idea on a 30 day listing. Local pickup only though. 

[doner24 | 1,195]

2 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

I was just rethinking how nuts everything is right now that posting it with a high BIN might not be a bad idea on a 30 day listing. Local pickup only though. 

Yeah, I mean if I sold mine I would have no problem packing up a Uhaul and driving it anywhere in the US. Or just have them fly here and help them pack up their own Uhaul. 

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

44 minutes ago, doner24 said:

With all the influx of money into the hobby, I think there is a small chance someone could offer on the entire lot, and not at a substantial discount. Especially if you have complete sets, or close to and have lots of the big hitters, I could see someone going close to market value as a long term investment. It’s happened plenty of times in other hobby’s. 

Didn't someone buy @NintendoTwizer's collection for like...$200k?

[doner24 | 1,195]

Just now, ThePhleo said:

Didn't someone buy @NintendoTwizer's collection for like...$200k?

I think it was closer to $150-160K if I remember right and that collection was missing tons of the big hitters across every system. That was a master class in marketing. Beautiful pictures and set up made someone overpay by quite a lot. 

[Fleck586 | 299]

I remember that sale. I have a bunch of heavy hitters but no cool custom shelves. Lol! I need to have a conversation with my CPA about this before I go too far down the rabbit hole. Most of this collection was assembled through yard sales and flea markets in the early 2000s and buying from all of you back in the NA days. I have no proof of purchase other than physical ownership. 

Edited July 2, 2020 by Fleck586

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

18 minutes ago, doner24 said:

I think it was closer to $150-160K if I remember right and that collection was missing tons of the big hitters across every system. That was a master class in marketing. Beautiful pictures and set up made someone overpay by quite a lot. 

Credit where its due though.

@NintendoTwizer's collection was used by pretty much every blogger and news outlet like it was royalty free stock art. That collection had advertisement for years, for free.

[Jeevan | 8,908]

Good luck with your choice @Fleck586 hope u get everything squared away.  I would say taxes will come into effect unless you do a private deal so don't shoot yourself in the foot without doing your due diligence.  

[O.G. CIB | 415]

15 minutes ago, Fleck586 said:

I remember that sale. I have a bunch of heavy hitters but no cool custom shelves. Lol! I need to have a conversation with my CPA about this before I go too far down the rabbit hole. Most of this collection was assembled through yard sales and flea markets in the early 2000s and buying from all of you back in the NA days. I have no proof of purchase other than physical ownership. 

on eBay/Paypal if you have 200 transactions and over 20k in sales you would trigger a 1099. With no cost basis you would be stuck with long term capital gains since it's not your primary income and depending on your tax bracket it would be 0, 15 or 20%. Your CPA can fill you in but no you can't roll it over into real estate without paying tax. It would be best to sell the stuff at least 90 days before you go and purchase a home so you don't have to explain to the bank where you got a large sum of money being deposited in your account. Best bet is to sell directly or thru other means if you are trying to avoid it. I doubt a large portion of sellers on here pay taxes on selling but when you get into the high 5 figures it could present a problem.

Either way purchasing your dream home is a great option to sell the collection for.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,011]

2 hours ago, doner24 said:

Yeah, I mean if I sold mine I would have no problem packing up a Uhaul and driving it anywhere in the US. Or just have them fly here and help them pack up their own Uhaul. 

This sounds like the beginning of a heist movie

[doner24 | 1,195]

5 minutes ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

This sounds like the beginning of a heist movie

If someone wants to throw down about $250K for my collection, we can start filming this weekend!

[Fleck586 | 299]

8 minutes ago, doner24 said:

If someone wants to throw down about $250K for my collection, we can start filming this weekend!

Hey! Me first! Lol

[Armageddon Potato | 124]

8 hours ago, ICrappedMyPants said:

Would you really have to pay income tax? Couldn’t you offset gains against losses? I have so many games that I paid full price for when they first came off that gains would likely be negated. How would the government expect you to keep receipts from twenty years ago for games? I’m just asking.

It works kind of like doing taxes for say a professional poker player. If you can show that you consistently kept good records of everything you bought over the course of your many years of collecting video games then you can write off what you paid for them. Lets say you paid $5 for Chavez II on SNES in 2002, then sold it on Ebay for $20 in 2018. As long as you had a record of both ends of that you would subtract your initial cost and fees which gets you your profit. The profit is what you will land up paying taxes on in the end.

Now let's say instead you make a huge list of what you think you paid for them all in a single day or week, and you didn't consistently keep good records of everything you bought over the course of your many years of collecting video games. The IRS could(has the right to) decide your tax record keeping method in this way was fraudulent, and you could be in serious tax trouble. The reason I mention professional poker players is this is how they get nailed by the IRS if they get lazy with record keeping.

Make sure in any endeavor where you could land up cashing out down the road or making a profit you show due diligence to keep good tax records over long periods of time. (Same thing for a job, business, hobby, etc.) If you can prove you did your due diligence to keep good records of what you bought you should be fine! I know I do!

Edited July 2, 2020 by Armageddon Potato