Hi all - I used to read these forums a lot when I was collecting D&D books (although rarely commented).  In fact, I used to have a different screen name but I couldn't find it and I wasn't able to figure out how to retrieve my password/ID.  Oh well.  

I want to ask the good people here some basic advice on the best way to market, sell my D&D products.  I'm very familiar with EBay, of course - but mostly from buying.  I'm new to selling.  I recently posted about 15 items from my Micronauts collection, but now I want to post my RPG items.  This isn't a fire sale or anything, so it's OK if it takes a while to sell everything.  I just find that I'm interested in simplifying my life a bit mroe and I rarely ever use my RPG products any more.

I don't have a huge collection.  Maybe 150 books in total.  They range from a whole lot of 1977-1982 modules (most in really good shape), an OD&D OCE boxed set, all the supplements (in great shape), and all the AD&D, B/X books, etc.  I also have other RPG items like Gamma World and a lot of the "OSR" products that have come out recently (which I realize don't have any huge monetary value).

So my questions are:
1.  What are the best places to sell my books?  I'll be using Ebay, but where else?  I'm not sure about Amazon, it seems kind of weird how everything is so "generic" on Amazon.  Stock photos, little descriptive value, etc.  Are there other good places?  What about the Acaeum?  What about RPG Marketplace?  How about Dragonsfoot?  Are these effective?  Or am I better off just sticking with Ebay?

2.  Sellers, do you find that you have better luck with auctions or BIN?  With auctions, do you prefer to set a minimum starting price that is close to the item's value?  Or do you set it at $0.99 and let the market bear what it will?  (Also, do buyers prefer an auction or a BIN?)

3.  I usually like to offer free shipping, even if it means I have to charge a couple bucks more than I would otherwise.  Is this a good strategy?  It seems simple and fair to everyone.  But I'd like to hear your thoughts.

4.  Shipping, in general, is so damn confusing!!  I never know what to charge, which is why I get lazy and just offer free shipping and up the price a couple bucks on the product.  Any ways to make shipping options easy for a newby??

5.  Any other tips?

Thanks.  I just want to get a good sense of the best way to do this before I list the items.

George

lucyjoyce wrote:If you are truly in no hurry, and you know how much you want to charge, rpgmarketplace is pretty much free, so you can set your price 9% lower than you could on ebay, for the same return. If you are not sure how much an item might go for, an ebay auction near the minimum value you would accept works well.  Right now you pay no listing fees for 50 auctions per month on ebay.  They do charge for BINs, however.  Free shipping works well for books, for domestic shipping anyway.  If you are selling internationally, take the time to determine the weight you will be shipping.  I recently shipped a hard cover book to Europe, and was astounded at the cost of around $25.  Was equally astounded at the willingness of the buyer to pay it.  You can also posts lists of your items here, and on dragonsfoot and rpg.net.  Lots of folks frequent those classified forums.  Good luck!

P.S.  Make sure you are ready to part with these books.  Sell in haste, re-collect same items for more money at leisure.

Thanks for the tips!  Actually, you're one of the people that I purchased quite a few modules from.