We said no.
We changed our minds at the last second, though –primarily because we, for one of the few times ever, let our own sentimental value get in the way of assessing profit-loss considerations. The collection happened to include mostly older movies and vintage TV shows like the ones we grew up watching — M*A*S*H, Welcome Back Kotter, Charlie’s Angels, Cagney and Lacey, the original Magnum PI and so many more. It also included later shows we always intended to watch but never did — Hill Street Blues, etc.
Overwhelmed by nostalgia — a horrible condition to suffer from in dealer world — we said yes.
We’re thrilled we did.
Turns out buyers across the country shared our affliction (and that many people don’t use streaming services). We pulled out the best 25 percent of the collection and spent the next several months and counting selling them one at a time in our eBay store. We dumped the rest at an auction house to sell in box lots for whatever little they might fetch.
We were stunned to find that certain, older DVDs sold for $50 to $150 each! Keep in mind these were relatively obscure shows like Sea Hunt from long ago, and that part of what made this DVD and Blu-ray collection so special was that a great many of the discs were new in box. Still, we had no idea that people would pay those kinds of prices for DVDs and Blu-rays. We didn’t have time to research the collection before we bought it — only time to arrive at the home, pack, and haul everything away.
While we’ve only sold a small number of discs for those kinds of big numbers, we’ve sold a ton for $15 and up. Despite the massive amount of work and expense the project has involved — it cost us $4,000 just to move the estate’s contents from the home and storage unit to our home and an auction house, the deal has worked out for us and for the seller. (We also have to offer free shipping on eBay to be competitive.)
So what are the keys for you in answering the question of what are my DVDs and Blu-rays worth?
- Are the discs new in box, unopened? Big plus.
- Do they cover older TV shows from the 1950s to the 1980? Let’ hope so.
- Do the used discs still have their original cases? Must have.
It’s also important that you realize that you generally have to sell at a big bulk discount when you’re looking for antiques and collectibles dealers to buy out the contents of your home or estate. Shows like American Pickers don’t convey how much work and time goes into actually selling things, or the fact that a lot of things never end up selling.
We’ve still got hundreds of DVDs and Blu-rays that no one has purchased on eBay, and we had to take a lot of the items from the home to charity, which of course generates no revenue for us.
On the plus side, we have done well enough to make our investment pay off. And we’ve pulled out the discs we want to keep for ourselves. We deserve a nostalgia rush after this much work!
Time to stop writing now. Gotta go hang out with Hawkeye in The Swamp.
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Orion’s Attic is a full-service estate liquidation, downsizing and home cleanout company based in Silver Spring, Maryland. We also buy antiques and collectibles. We serve Montgomery County and the entire metro Washington D.C. area (D.C., Maryland, Virginia).