Transcript for How to Sell a Garfield Collection Video: How to sell Your Garfield Collection
Hi. I’m Robert Kothe. My wife, Cathy and I own the website LovesGarfield.com Loves Garfield.com features only a small part of Cathy’s extremely large Garfield Collection. We were also the hosts of the 13th annual Garfield Collectors Convention on Long Island New York in 2011.
Because of the high visibility of our website LovesGarfield.com, we often get many E-mails asking us what is the best way to sell a Garfield collection. That is the purpose of this video.
Some people who ask us are actually the collectors themselves. Some People inherited the collection, and other people are just helping out a friend or family member. Because of this large gap in Garfield knowledge, I will start with the basics.
First How do you know what is valuable or not?
Except for a few consistently high selling items, it is our experience that Garfield collectors will usually go after what makes them smile and what they are interested in. Because of this observation, items may sell for much more than expected because someone really wanted it . . . and other items might not sell for much even if it is an original 1978 Garfield Plush.
We find that Garfield collectors sometimes have themes. For example, my wife tends to purchase beach themed and boating themed items for some day that we own a second house in Florida.
One collector, likes Garfield cowboy themed items. Another person, gravitates towards Clocks and mugs. A fellow collector on Long Island has every Christmas ornament ever made as well as the full Christmas village and Christmas sculptures. Another collector will buy anything with Garfield and Golf. And some people might only buy Odie, Arlene, or Pookie collectables and not Garfield.
Because of this wide level of taste and interest it is almost impossible to pre-appraise Garfield Items.
I previously said that there are a few items that consistently sell pretty well. These Items Include:
Enesco Ceramics,
The Oreo Cookie Jar,
The Garfield Lava Lamp,
Large Di-cast cars including The Christmas Tree Truck
The Styfe Bear,
The Spirit of 76 Statue
Garfield Crystals
And The Christmas Village with all 10 pieces
How do you know the relative ages of Garfield items?
I laugh when I go to a flea market and the vendors try to tell me that something was made in 1978 because it says Copyright 1978. The reason that it is funny is that most Garfield items made actually say Copyright 1978 even if it is made yesterday. This fact is just a legal thing.
It is worth knowing that if a Piece says Copyright United Features Syndicates it was probably made between 1978 and 1993. The 1993 is according to Wikipedia. I was not 100% sure about the date that Paws Incorporated purchased back the full rights to the character.
These Days, Paws Incorporated, Owned by the creator of Garfield, Jim Davis, holds all of the rights and licenses to his creation. Therefore if it says Copyright 1978 Paws Inc. It was made between 1993 and present day.
Some Items say the actual creation year such as the Garfield Toilet Seats made in 1996.
So how do you estimate the age of a Garfield item? Well the answer is in Garfield’s Eyes. Early Garfield’s had 2 separate, smaller, eyes that did not touch. As the strip progressed in years, the eyes got larger and closer together. Story goes that this is because when newsprint got more expensive, news papers tried to save money by making the funnies smaller and on fewer pages. Jim Davis had to draw the more expressive facial features larger so that people would understand the comedy in the cartoon.
With the basics out of the way. . . What is the best way to sell a Garfield collection?
No matter what you have to take pictures of the items you wish to sell. Written descriptions alone are relatively worthless. If you said Garfield Pez Dispenser for sale, for example, the question is which one. There were dozens of Garfield Pez dispensers made and some were only different because of the color of the handle. A picture is truly worth 1000 words.
Do you have to take a picture of every item individually? The answer is no if you plan on selling them as a lot.
What is a lot? A lot is the name for a group of items being sold together. You might want to sell many smaller items together in order to combine shipping or to make it worth the buyers while to pay for shipping. Who wants to pay $2.00 in shipping for a fifty cent pencil eraser? So you might sell the pencil eraser, 5 pez dispensers, a Garfield ruler and 10 Garfield pencils, for example as a single listing.
This might fetch 10 to 20 dollars instead of 50 cents and justify paying shipping.
Finally . . . where is the best place to sell Garfield Items?
If you are looking to sell your entire collection all at once, your local Craigslist.com is probably your best bet. Potential buyers will want to see the collection first hand to decide if they want to purchase it. Cathy and I bought out someone’s entire collection of over 350 pieces. We looked at it first in person, and picked it up ourselves with a rental trailer.
CraigsList.com is also a good place to sell larger less Mobil or fragile items since they can be picked up in person or carefully transported.
To sell smaller lots of items or individual items your best bet is to sell it on ebay.com.
Ebay.com is the world’s most popular on-line auction website. If you are looking to get top dollar you want to use a popular website to get in front of the most potential buyers. Less known auction sites are not in your best interest.
If you are in close proximity to the Garfield Gathering, an annual Garfield collectors convention, you can get a table at the swap meet and sale. This is a less likely option since we only meet one time per year and so far it has spanned between Texas and the year Cathy and I hosted, Long Island New York. What are the odds of you selling a collection from Pennsylvania in June and the convention turns out to be near you in Pennsylvania? With that said, if you happen to coincidentally be close to an upcoming Garfield Gathering it is worth being in front of some of the countrie’s most aggressive collectors.
The worst place to sell a collection is at a garage sale. The likeliness to run into a high-end collector on the one weekend you decide to have a sale is ridiculous.
The most important point is you need to be realistic. It is possible that what you paid for an item is the most it will ever be worth. A $30 plate from Danbury Mint might only re-sell for $15 to $20. There is no guarantee that an item goes up in value.
You need to be realistic. Most Garfield collectors already have enough Garfield’s to last them a lifetime. I know we do. We are not about to pay $15,000 for a collection just because that is what you estimate you spent over the last 30 years. Don’t be surprised if you only get $1,000 if you sell it all at once. If you break it into individual on-line sales and “Lots” of multiple items you may get $7,000 to $18,000 if you have the time and patience to list it over time and ship all over the country.
Finally, Cathy and I are still happy to speak with you first about what you are selling. We may be interested in a few individual items if the price is fair but it is unlikely that we would pay top dollar for entire collections. Call me at (631) 427-3292 if you want to talk and need some advice. We are always happy to help. We are less likely to answer every Email since there is no guarantee that every message to us makes it past the spam filter. If we did not return your email it is possible we did not get it.
On behalf of Cathy and myself, we hope this helps you, and thanks for watching the video. Check out www.LovesGarfield.com and our YouTube page for more information.
Good luck Selling.