Some selling advice regarding full sets vs individual ponies

[wart]

So, I am considering what might be the best way and I’m leaning “full sets” but, there are some interesting considerations and I wanted to know what you all thought.

Some of you know I’m selling my collection, and I’m being slow about it. Today, I dug into one of several “to be cleaned” boxes and cleaned them all in preparation for sale, and it got me thinking about selling my ponies individually or in full sets.

I feel like I would get the best price, in the current market, all things considered, by selling in full sets but the different sets themselves bring some interesting considerations.

Three of the ponies I cleaned today are Dangles, Yo-yo, and Wiggles (if I remember their names correctly) and I have the other three newborns in this set. They’re in reasonable condition, not mint but pretty enough, except Wiggles has a cancer spot. Now I know that the rest don’t have any cancer flaws, and I’m aware that cancer isn’t “catching” and is actually a result of storage conditions, and I know that the storage conditions of the set, since, have been good, but potential buyers might not know it doesn’t catch and/or might be worried the rest of the set was affected. I still am leaning towards selling the full set, but what do you all think?

One of the ponies I washed today is a Merry Go Round pony, and it has a great deal of rubs as is typical for some of the ponies from this set. I have the rest of this set, including Diamond Dreams, and she is in STUNNING condition, and being that she is so much more sought after/valuable than the others, would selling as a set bring down her value? How do you think selling her separately and the rest of the set as a group might go?

As sellers, do you feel like you get better value for your pieces individually or as a full set? As buyers, if you have the opportunity to purchase a full set, is that worth more to you than tracking down each piece individually? Any other related thoughts?

 

[Tak]

Personally, if you have the htf pony of a set, like diamond dreams, I think you'll get more auctioning the entire set. Especially if some of the more common ones are flawed. Just be sure to list all flaws as thoroughly as possible and take pictures of the flaws if at all possible. If you look at @bluerose9978 in her signature, she has a link to her angelfire sales page and she gives a detailed description of what she considers good, very good, excellent, etc, and her descriptions are very thorough.

If you sell separately, it can be hard to unload the less desirable ponies for enough to be worthwhile. It all depends on how quickly and how much you want to make.

 

[Gingerbread]

Now see, I have the opposite line of thought. I feel like you get less for sets vs selling individually but I could be totally wrong. In my mind I'm thinking as a buyer I would not really be interested in sets cause I hate buying doubles if I already have some of the ponies from the set. If it's something I really want or is hard to find I will go for it thinking I can sell what I don't need but some times the hassle of that will keep me from buying and I will just wait for what I need to come along. Why pay 100.00 for a set of ponies if I only need 2 and then have to hope I can sell the others to make back what I'd have considered a fair price for just the two.
Now, if I were a newer collector and needed the whole set then yeah, getting them all in one go would be awesome but how many collectors need an entire set vs how many probably don't? I feel like there are more buyers of the latter group. I don't want to spend more money to get stuff I don't need so I would probably be less interested. Consider too, the larger amount up front when selling in sets, not a large group of people can shell out 200.00 for a set of ponies even if that is a good deal, it's a larger amount to spend at once vs the easier to budget 20-30 dollars here and there as they collect them.

 

[Tak]

@Gingerbread brings up a good point. However, take into account shipping and fees as well when listing.

 

[chii]

As a buyer, I tend to steer away from sets due to the duplicates issue. I prefer to buy them individually for pretty much the exact reasons @Gingerbread mentioned. It has to be an amazing deal or there are hardly any duplicates.

Since I focus on buying ponies listed individually, I like to check other the listings by the same seller. (This also saves on shipping!) Sometimes a seller will only have one pony I'm interested in, but other times they will have multiple awesome listings.

 

[bluerose9978]

I agree, that selling individually is the best option, especially for the harder to find sets. I would sell the whole merry go round set individually. But if you wanted to sell the more common ponies in lots or sets, I wouldn't blame you. They may sell faster that way. The problem is you'll probably not get as much for them.

 

[Maizie]

I myself have never bought a lot but I feel that I prefer that as a buyer because I’ll most likely save money. Though as a seller that might not be the best to achieve the largest profit. With higher value ponies I think selling them individually would be better. Alsooo do you know how much you’d want for Squirmy+Wiggles? They’re 2 of my grails haha

 

[Tak]

As a buyer I like to buy a bigger lot and save extras for swaps, trades, and occasionally selling.

 

[AzaleaArt]

As a buyer I like to buy a bigger lot and save extras for swaps, trades, and occasionally selling.

That’s a good idea, but I suppose if someone doesn’t have space to store the extras they might not buy the lot

 

[IceCrystal]

That’s a good idea, but I suppose if someone doesn’t have space to store the extras they might not buy the lot

Yep, that's me. I also have the problem of having to spend a lot on postage, so I always check what other listings a seller has, but I want to only buy ponies I actually want, not lots, as it's much harder for me to get rid of any duplicates because most buyers are put off by the high postage fees, plus I just don't have any space available for storing them.

But if you do and postage isn't an issue, I would probably do the same as Tak.

 

[Gingerbread]

I agree buying large lots is a great way to build your collection and get a good price. I've done it several times. Bought 150 lot of ponies, keep what I need, clean up and individually sell the rest, making back almost what I pay usually. That's great for the buyer but doesn't yield the seller as much profit as selling them individually themselves. Although it is more work.