Hi all,

I am a long-time Amazon & ebay seller, who inherited a collection of 80-100 laserdisks & a player. I'm waiting to hear for approval on selling privileges, and adding my collection for now.

By day, I'm a computer consultant and old lady. By night, I get work done & fantasize that I'm still a young chick.

OK ... enough strangeness. I'm hoping that the seller-approval process won't take too long, since the holidays are upon us and perhaps people will want to buy something as that off-the-beaten-path gift. Have nothing against the LD format, just can't afford to keep these at this point in life.

Please feel free to offer hints & suggestions to someone who's not used to selling in this format.

Also, if anyone reads this who is based in Portland, can you tell me where in town I might get appropriate shipping boxes? I thought USPS had PM boxes for "record albums", but I don't see anything quite large enough at the moment. I've read suggestions to use pizza boxes, but haven't a clue where to get them (i.e. the restaurant supply places don't seem geared to selling less than 500 boxes at a time.)

Thanks and Hi again to all.

-- Debra
P.S. I have a merchant credit card account; anyone know if I can process credit cards my way, if I sell here??

julien will answer all, but he is busy etc.
he is the one that has to approve you to set up a shop.
you can take what payment you want, it's not like ebay, if you want money orders then you post
that in your seller policy.

discs sell here but they are not as fast as ebay, but you might get more here than ebay. so it's a toss up.
if you are looking for the fastest money then ebay is your best bet.

as for boxes? i reuse the boxes i get from LDs that i'm keeping.
just make sure you add extra cardboard as they can get cracked in shipping.

you can also just get flat sheets of cardboard that would wrap around the discs you sell.
good luck.

Thanks. I'm just hoping he will approve me before the holidays, though I realize that this doesn't work like Amazon. I did give him the links to my other on-line venues.

I am listing some on eBay, but ... ick, I hate ebay these days, and I refuse to take PayPal (don't ask, unless you want to hear a 9-item rant!) And a lot of ebay buyers won't pay any way other than PayPal, so brainwashed does ebay have them -- CC protections are WAYYYYYY better for a buyer than PayPal!

And it's near-impossible to list laserdiscs on Amazon, because they don't have it as a media category -- so you list in DVDs or films, and write in BIG BOLD letters that it's a laserdisc, and then hope that they notice it when they buy it.

I do need to raise some money fairly quickly, but I also don't mind holding inventory for a while; sometimes books will take more than a year to sell, with no rhyme or reason as to the timing.

I have just about every possible size of box in-hand except the ones needed and, as I don't buy laserdiscs, I don't have any of the right size to reuse. I could do the folded-up cardboard -- I do a cardboard wrap on books sometimes, if a full wrap will put me over a pound limit on the weight for shipping -- but I feel as if it would be better to have some depth so I could float the disc(s) in the box, in case the box gets crushed. Other than that, I can insure it and cross my fingers, I suppose ... that is, assuming anyone wants to buy anything I have. (So far, nothing on the Top 100 list.)

Thanks for your response.

-- Debra

A few tips for you:

Use LDDB.com to get approximate prices for what you are selling. Past sales are usually the best indicator of true value.
Failing that if multiple sellers have listed a title check their prices and either match or better them if you want to clinch that sale!

Most LD collectors are fussy about condition. It isn't just about getting the title to watch - the sleeve and physical condition of the disc are just as important.
So an item in near mint condition which was stored in a protective sleeve its entire life will fetch more than one which has been neglected. Make sure your gradings are accurate. The site has a grading tool to assist.

Disc rot is something you need to check for by test playing discs both sides of a disc. If you don't have time to check them all before you list them then
ensure you test play the disc before you ship them (just spot check a few chapters on both sides) looking for coloured speckles, snow or other degradation in the picture/sound. If it is rotted let the buyer decide if they still want it or not. Sometimes it will still sell but better to warn them than risk getting a bad reputation as a seller!

Some types of discs are worth more - music titles are consistently good sellers because many of the titles have never been re-issued on DVD or have better video/audio quality on the original LD. In fact if you've any music titles shoot me a list. I'm always interesting in buying titles I don't already own.

Horror films are also very popular because of uncut versions, extra footage, jacket artwork or lack of availability on other formats etc.

Sadly blockbuster type movies like Speed, Jurassic Park, Alien Terminator 2 are virtually worthless because everyone who bought LDs has multiple copies of those!
There are just so many copies in circulation you couldn't give them away.

Titles released in the last years of laserdisc production (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002) are often quite valuable so check for those from the date of release on the jacket.
There will also be info on the title on LDDB.com to help you out.

In general Japanese releases will fetch more than their US or European counterparts. This is because the jackets are usually better quality and they can come with extras or be less likely to suffer from laser rot because LD production standards in Japan were higher.

Hope that helps and good luck with the sales!

Thanks for all the good advice. My biggest problem is that I don't know if I can test these, because I haven't tested the player yet & don't know if it survived being moved 5 times. The disks themselves have been kept sleeved and vertical all along, but the boxes or covers have suffered some from bad packing & mis-handling during those moves. The original owner kept them shelved vertically & in sleeves all the time -- some don't even have the shrinkwrap removed, but most of the rest have some box damage. I'm taking pictures as I go, so that any buyers can see details of the flaws.

And all I can do, short of testing, is to provide a money-back "warranty" -- i.e. if someone buys something & it has issues, then I've always been good for a refund & shipping on return of the item; that's part of my "customer service" take that's kept me at 100% on the other venues.

So I guess I can worry about the disk rot, but I'm not sure if I'll even be able to verify the disks. Thankfully, Media Mail shipping is not a huge financial risk, if there is a problem, though I know that it's a bother to a buyer if they have to return something. I guess that's another reason why I'd rather have real boxes than just a cardboard over-wrap: it makes it easier to pop back into the box, even with the least sophisticated buyer, if it has to be returned.

I'm afraid there's a fair bit of dreck in this collection, too, though. And I'm not surprised that the most popular titles aren't worth much; works that way with books too (i.e hundreds of people are selling off their Steven King novels, so unless it's a signed copy, it's not worth even a penny on Amazon, no matter the condition.) And I guess I should be glad that box damage isn't as big an issue as book dustjackets are! (Nothing like having a copy of a Tolkein that would be worth $100, except for the dustjacket tear making it worth $10 instead. The condition of the book is just a part of the value, *sigh*.)

I appreciate you taking the time to provide the information on those aspects. Thanks!

-- Debra

If the manufacturer of the disc is listed as Sony DADC in LDDB.com and it is a disc made between 1995-1999 in USA then there is a high probability (at least 50%) it is rotted.
Sony went through a really bad period where they couldn't seem to produce decent discs during those years. It damaged their reputation severely and most
LD collectors are very nervous about buying discs made by that plant during that period as there are so many defective discs in circulation still.
Be warned that same manufacturing plant also did work for other companies so other non Sony titles can also be affected by the same problems because they were made there.

Bottom line is if you cannot test play discs expect to get some returns on anything that says manufactured by Sony DADC!

Thanks for that very specific information.
My POV is that if I can't test discs, then I'm responsible if there is any problem. While this isn't my primary vocation, it is a *business* even if what I'm intending to sell here is fundamentally personal property. My business name (of ~15 years) is on my Amazon & eBay presences, for good reason. I simply do not accept "tough luck, you bought it" as a response if there is a problem, even if it turns out that the problem is on the buyer's side of things. I aim to treat people better than I ever expect to be treated.

I'm at least as customer-centric as Amazon is, and frankly, if they had a category for laserdiscs, I'd stick to selling them on that venue; my return policies are more liberal than Amazon's itself.

I don't care if you're selling 1 thing or 1000; if you treat buyers decently, they'll be more than decent to you.

I'm sure you don't need my advice (ahem!) but if this sounds a bit intense, it's because good customer service is a passion with me. Ethics and honesty are at the core of my business and person.

So I will be telling buyers up-front if things are untested, and that's another reason why I like handling my own CC's -- buyers can know that if they worry about any issues, they always have all the protections that using a CC provides. From the results when I recently sold off some old films from the same source, I think that's enough for most people; they do tend to understand that it takes a lot of work to keep up those 100% ratings, at least the one on Amazon, and they can trust my history.

But I will probably avoid selling any Sony discs, and check into any issues (I could always post here to ask!) if I suspect a disc or set is from the era you mentioned.

Oddly enough, when I wanted to sell these on ebay a few years ago, there wasn't any real demand. But I've put the 4 Looney Tunes sets up there now (sorry, no Vol. 5) and the level of interest has really surprised me. Maybe they'll do OK on that site, though I still have lost all love for ebay overall.

Thanks again.

FYI to all, I got my selling privileges, but won't be selling here until I can do more research. Also it looks like 80%+ of what I have may be semi-dreck (i.e. titles that are common & go for under $10.) I mean, seriously, I guess there's not much hope for a sealed copy of Backdraft, when I myself never wanted to see the movie in any shape or form.

No matter, it's a learning experience!

I will probably also sell the player, if it turns out that it still works, but not immediately.

Thanks always for any guidance & enlightenment.