What to do...ANY IDEAs

[scratch]

A month ago my uncle passed away...I have to do the probate thing for his estate....This man collected videos big time...how would one go about selling 1000+ VHS tapes...most were only viewed once put back in the box and stacked on the shelf...westerns,action movies,musicals,sci-fi.....

Also paper back books....westerns ,sci-fi mostly....I kid you not... my truck bed is full size and it will be level with the bed rails when they are all loaded....

How any-one can collect this much amazes me.....any thoughts

[Baymont]

auction service? flea market? could post them online as well. half.com allows you to post and sell items for free. Very neat site

[Hammer]

they aren't worth much at all since that format is about dead. If you can find somebody that will buy all of the vhs tapes at once, do it. U might try the pawn shops, or if there's a guy at the flea market that sells the tapes, see if he will buy them from you. Whole lot of trouble for not much gain I'm afraid.

The paperback books are worth about a quarter a piece if you want to have yard sales and people sifting through them.

unfortunately, I've had recent experience with an estate, and my advice would be this. You're better off trashing junk or nearly worthless stuff or selling it cheap in bulk than you are to try to keep messing with it. Remember what your time is worth... Do you want to sell the whole pickup truck bed load of books for 50 bucks, or do you want to have a bunch of yard sales, ruin your weekends having people say, "will you take a dime for it?" etc. Think what you make an hour at your job. Dealing with junk from an estate will get you about a nickel an hour and it's a bunch of headaches. It's not like the Antiques Road Show. Most everything people have is worthless, and the stuff that does have value, you already know what it is before you look and can take care of appropriately.

My M-i-l had about 1,000 logo coffee cups. We went through them all, cleaned them, then put them out at the estate sale for .25 a piece. When it was done, we still had well over half of those left, and we did lots of 2 for 1 deals later in the sale. A whole lot of wasted time, and we still had a ton of them left after the sale.

hope u get that stuff sold/trashed fast!

[headoftheholler]

If you were to go the ebay route you would nickel and dime yourself to death selling individual units, group them into a lot or collection and charge one price, shipping will be considerable though.

[bootybandit]

what about the public library? I'm sure they could use the tapes or the books, and probably even give you tax credit.

[ptbrauch]

Put them on Ebay and sell them all at once. While the technology is outdated to most, just like 45's and 78's, theres always going to be someone wanting them. But you'd be amazed at what people are willing to buy on there.

Or, I'll sell you a VCR to watch them with.:D

[scratch]

Well I guess the best thing to do is try to make a deal for someone to buy all the tapes then all the paperbacks....that leaves the cassetts, cds,old records,sheet music and 452 unopened barbie dolls still in their boxs.....kinda wish now he didnt think so much of me:D:D:D

Ever wonder how many John Wayne movies there are??.....a HUGH box full

[Snareman2]

You're sitting on a Gold Mine!

[Hammer]

Well I guess the best thing to do is try to make a deal for someone to buy all the tapes then all the paperbacks....that leaves the cassetts, cds,old records,sheet music and 452 unopened barbie dolls still in their boxs.....kinda wish now he didnt think so much of me:D:D:D

Ever wonder how many John Wayne movies there are??.....a HUGH box full


the barbie dolls have some value.

[Landguy]

It sounds like you have some work ahead of you anyway you look at it. I agree with the others about getting rid of the books as best as you can, probably a bulk sale. The same with the cassettes and records. The barbies are probably worth some pretty good cash if you have some of the more rare or older ones and since there are a whopping 452 of them, I'm betting you have a couple. The task for you is to figure out what is what. That will take some time and investigating. You might contact a music store about the sheet music. Maybe they can tell ya if it's worth anything. Good luck.

[raktrakr]

I'll give you $10 for "Sourdough" on VHS if you just happen to run across it:D

[killinmammals]

the barbie dolls have some value.
Ditto...some are a small fortune! My sister has 8 unopen barbies from when she was little that were valued at around $7000!!!

[reivertom]

Why are you worried? That's cash in pocket! My advise is to research the Barbie Dolls before you sell. Some of them could go for 100's or even a 1000, depending on the doll or the collector market.

[MikeKy]

Just a couple of thoughts on this. Obviously the Barbie dolls will be worth fooling with. They are probably worth quite a bit. On the tapes and books, if all else fails and you decide to dump them, some nursing home might like to have them for the old folks to watch/read.
Good luck.

[treerat]

since the barbies are unopened they go for big money on ebay