It's HOCKEY PLAYOFF TIME - Now with good pulls lately

I'll fully admit it, last week when the Kings lost to the Sharks in Overtime in Game 3 to go down 0-3 in the First round I wrote them off.  Oh I always expect the worst because well, when your expectations are so low you can only be surprised by a better outcome.  This was my father's world-view and I sort of adopted it as an adult.

Anyway, I still watched every other game in the series, except for Monday's when I was in a class, but I left early to catch the end of the third period.  These Kings, they might not be a team of destiny like the 2012 squad, but they certainly are exciting.  Bring on the Ducks!

Which, I might add, is a DREAM Playoff Matchup for this Kings fan.


I started collecting Hockey Cards again this season, mostly because of the dual Rookie Card class.  I've pulled some great RCs already this year, including these two beauts that I have gotten from my friendly LCS California Sports Cards - their Upper Deck Series 2 boxes have been very kind to me:

Nathan MacKinnon RED Parallel OPC Rookie

Mikael Granlund Young Guns Exclusives #41/100

I currently have 124 cards on eBay right now, ALL WITH FREE SHIPPING.

AND BEFORE YOU COMMENT CAPTAIN CANUCK - -I DO NOT SET THE PRICES FOR CANADIAN SHIPMENTS - It's supposed to be FREE SHIPPING, but International Shipments aren't covered.  If you're Canadian and you want some of my cards, let me know ahead of time and we'll work it out.

I've already received an offer on the MacKinnon of $50.  BOTH cards are great pulls, the MacKinnon is a case hit (1:336) and has sold twice in the last 90 days, once for $46 (including shipping) and one a best offer (the original price was $80).  So if you're interested, offer more than $50.

 Not sure on how hard the Young Guns Exclusive was to pull, but there's SIX standard exclusives in a case of 10, so it's gotta be pretty rare.  Other copies have sold between $30 and $60, so my $50 price seems reasonable to me.  I'm accepting offers on that one as well.

That's all for today, remember GO KINGS GO

Buy My Cards on eBay!!!

Looking at my seller dashboard, eBay tells me that my first ever sale was in 2002 and that I've sold over 1000 items for just about $5,400 since then.  Those numbers aren't all that spectacular, but they are decent in my humble opinion.  Up until the last couple of months I did what every other seller usually did, list items for a 5 or 7 day auction, but I've recently seen the light, and am now simply listing each item on a 30 day fixed price.  WITH FREE SHIPPING in the UNITED STATES.  Yes, that's right.  I start most of my items between $1.29 and $1.49, with only a select few priced higher than that.  Anything priced higher than $2.00 can be bought with a best-offer bid.

NOW, free shipping really only includes an envelope and a stamp.  If you buy more than one card then I'll throw them in a padded envelope.  I haven't had any complaints with my shipments.

So check out my current auctions, there's going to be a bit of everything up over the next few days, AND if you buy something and tell me that you read about it in my blog in a note with your payment I'll go ahead and throw something free in your shipment.

Click and Check out my auctions 

Blatant eBay Plug - Please Buy My Hockey Cards

Check it out, here's the link to My Ebay Page.

If you leave me a note when paying that you read my blog I'll throw in something free for ya...


Thanks.

Will

Pacific Rim Heroclix for Sale

Ahh Heroclix, my old friend, you license a property that I love and I have to go back and purchase you.  You suck me right back in.

A little history - I collected Heroclix from the initial set through to about the 10th set overall.  I was able to pull great pieces and played in tournaments and for fun up until about the release of the Galactus big figure at Wizard World Long Beach in 2004.  After that fiasco I had a very bad taste in my mouth, and promptly switched to WizKids newest game Pirates, which let's face it, was far more interesting.

Almost a decade later, I found myself purchasing Heroclix again, why?  Because of Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim.  This movie was what I'd been waiting to see for decades.  It contained virtually everything I wanted to see in a Giant Robot vs. Kaiju movie; believable giant robots, menacing kaiju who were even CALLED kaiju, bad acting, bad scripting, and fantastic special effects.  It was almost a perfect film for me.  No, it's not a great film, but it is a great MOVIE, and there's a big difference.

Of course I'd like to be writing this blog about the NECA Action Figure line, but unless you snapped up Series 1 at retail on the two days they were available at Toys R Us, you're paying close to $40 for each figure that originally retailed for about $16.   Instead I take the budget minded route and talk about the miniatures game from NECA, Heroclix.

NECA purchase the rights to Heroclix from Topps some years ago and revived the brand to where it's actually bigger than ever now.  Pacific Rim seemed like a no-brainer for a Clix product, but as of now it's just one set of 10 figures with a "mini-game" release.  The mini-game contains 2 clix, a nice but small game board, and a smattering of tokens, plus rudimentary rules that point you to the internet for the full rules.  Oh and some cheap dice.  This retails for about $12 - $15 if you can find it in  your local comic or game store.  I had to order mine off of HKToy.com, along with a 4 of the single piece gravity feed packs at $3.20 apiece.  The mini-game clix are exactly the same as the ones you get in the gravity feeds, so now after purchasing an additional 7 packs (at between $4 and $5 apiece) at a convention yesterday I have a total of THREE Gipsy Dangers, 2 Striker Eurekas, 2 Slatters, 2 Knifeheads and 2 Raijus.  I only need Leatherback and Crimson Typhoon to have a complete set of ten.

So I'm selling my duplicates on eBay.  here.  If you win one and tell me you saw this blog post in your notes I will refund 10% of your purchase price!

Extremely Rare Grendel (Matt Wagner) Trading Card on EBay

Here's the Link

This is NOT my auction, I have one of these, but this one isn't mine, and I didn't pay anywhere near that much.  However, I haven't SEEN one of these on EBay in quite awhile, and I regularly look for Grendel related trading cards.

So grab it if you care.

MORE Adventures in Ebay

I've just put up 100 lots on eBay - click here:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/wmnoe/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

VIRTUALLY Every single starts at 99 cents, with a BIN of TWO BUCKS and FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING.

And remember, if you send me the password "WildWill" when you pay for your item, I'll throw in an extra or two for being my reader.

Lots more Singles on eBay

I've got 60 Singles listed right now, virtually ALL of them start at 99 cents with free shipping.

Give me the password "DylanDog" in a note if you win one of my cards and I'll throw in FREE Allen & Ginter minis.

Here's the listing:

http://shop.ebay.com/wmnoe/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

One-of-a-Kind TMNT Collectible Up on eBay

Hey guys/gals whatevers, I put up one of my rarest collectible pieces on eBay, a one-of-a-kind T-Shirt/Iron On Prototype Design of Leonardo of the TMNT. It was given to me by Kevin Eastman himself for winning a trivia contest at the 1989 San Diego Comic Con. In any case here's the eBay link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110666839281#ht_739wt_1117

I'm also donating 10% of the final sale price to Japanese Earthquake Relief

Relics and Autographs and Short Prints - Oh My!

Howdy once again. In my ongoing effort to pare down the amount of extra cards in my collection (and mostly to get some money to pay for the rent) I listed a whole bunch of new stuff, this is pretty much the best of what I have to sell - sad isn't it?

Anyway, I'd really appreciate it if you all would take a look and see if there's something that PIQUES your interest. Once again, I'm willing to refund 10% of your total purchase if you send me a note saying you read my blog with the password "Shortest Month" in your note when you pay.

Oh and did I mention, I'm offering FREE SHIPPING on all my singles? Yes, that's right.







Some of the good stuff

Adventures in eBay Selling 2011 - February Edition

So as I probably blogged, last Wednesday I put up 50 items on eBay, hoping to score some cash before I go out of town this weekend to visit the in-laws and stay up at a cabin at Sundance. Yes, the Sundance, the actual hill, not Park City. Nice eh?

21 of the 50 items I listed were single trading cards, mostly Chrome stuff that I've been keeping for just this purpose. I put all of them on for a 99 cent start price, with only three exceptions (and they only started at $1.99), with free shipping. Just for giggles I figured out that if I sell an item for 99 cents, I end up making a whopping 8 cents. So that paradigm isn't really going to work for me, except that hopefully I'll get some nice feedbacks and every item I sell counts towards getting a discount on my fees. It also gets rid of a bunch of cards, and those who want them get a pretty good deal.

So I'll keep doing it, even though I'm not going to make a whole lot, I really need to get rid of most of the stuff that I don't need, and honestly I can't keep track of trades anymore.

What WAS nice is that a couple of lots of Comics sold for decent cash. Not that I didn't lose money on them, since you know I bought them at cover price or near cover price when they were new, read them and stashed them away. "Y The Last Man" #2 though #38 sold for $50, which isn't bad, except that I paid 37x$2.95 apiece for them. I also sold about 20 issues of "The Amazing Spider-Man" from a couple years ago for $25. Again, a little more than $1.00 per issue, which cost me somewhere between $2 and $3 per issue.

Still I'm not complaining, at least that stuff is selling. I have tons of stuff I can't off-load because I will only use Priority Mail Flat Rate (because frankly I'm not going to bother buying boxes or envelopes, and I like the fact that I KNOW how much shipping is going to cost). The thing is, when you're buying 5 or 6 comics at buck apiece, adding 6 bucks to ship doesn't work out very well.

In any case, I now have about $60 to play with this weekend. And that's the important part.

eBay Singles Blowout

Hey there cats and kitties - ye old Budget Collector finds himself in need of a budget again. I'm never going to be able to bust more 2011 Topps if I can't sell off the old stuff I don't want or need. So here's the deal:

I'm putting on a TON of singles on eBay over the next few days - virtually all of them will start a 99 cents plus FREE US Domestic Shipping. Overseas shipping will be actual cost plus a buck. Get this - I'm even doing free shipping on multiple purchases - so buy one card or buy multiples, your shipping is FREE.

PLUS if you let me know you're a read of my blog I'll even throw in bonus freebies - just put the secret password in your note to me when you pay - the secret password is "BLOWOUT".


Here's my eBay page:
http://shop.ebay.com/wmnoe/m.html

Thanks for looking!

Some of the odder things I've put on Ebay Recently

I think I've mentioned that I'm in the process of paring down my collections on eBay, if I haven't well, you haven't been reading. Yeah, that's it.

I love books, that's not a surprise. I love most everything about them, except the fact that they take up so much space. Alas, I do believe eventually I will do all my reading electronically, and honestly I don't think that's a bad thing. The ecology needs humans to stop producing paper, it really does.

I really love Taschen Books, and I have since they began some 25+ years ago. When the Taschen store opened in Beverly Hills, a SHORT walk from my wife's workplace, I was ecstatic. I pretty much buy ALL my Taschen books there since they have the best prices, believe it or not. One of the great things about the store is that they will often display copies of upcoming books as an enticement, and when I saw the preview of "Content" way back in 2003 I knew that I had to have that item. What is it? I'm glad you asked.

Content is a hybrid magazine/book by renowned architect/designer REM KOOLHAUS and it's basically a catalog of his work over the previous decade. It's a follow up to his previous book S, M, L, XL, which was the first 10 years of his work. It also contains timely interviews and reportage from around the globe. Honestly I wish it had been more of a one-off thing, because it was the kind of project that I really could have gotten into.

In any case, I read the entire thing on a Camping Trip way back when and put it on my bookshelf, taking it down every now and then for perusing. A few weeks ago I decided to check out how collectible it might be, and lo and behold I found people selling copies for OVER $100! Not bad for a little $15 book eh?

So it's now On Ebay along with a ton of other stuff I'm trying to sell. Listings are all free right now, so I can list a lot of things that I wouldn't normally bother with. That includes some Hockey Cards, so do me a favor and check out My Items and once again if you buy something, let me know via comment and I'll knock off 10% of the final bid price for ya just because you read my blog.

Buy my Stuff (PLEASE?)

It's that time of the year, when collectors are forced with the bleak paring down of their accumulations to help pay for Christmas time items. Or something like that. Me, I'm liquidating stuff all the time. I haven't been posting eBay auctions because I fell behind paying my fees, but I'm now caught up and ready to rock and roll.

So check out my items, and if you want something, lemme know here and you'll get a 10% discount on your final auction fee!



Thanks

My eBay Report

So it's been a little more than a month since I started my hardcore "let's get RID of this stuff" eBay selling, and I thought I'd catalog the results so far since it's actually been pretty interesting.

Last 60 Days # Items Sold - 26
# Items Unsold - 26
Total Amount of Sales - $515.18

Highest Sold Items:
Young Allies #20 - $107.49
Derek Jeter 2000 Topps Auto: $99.49
Wrapped In PLastic Magazine #1-29 $49.99
Y The Last Man #1 - $39.99

Current Items Listed: 19

So not too bad. Could be better, could be a lot worse.

Yet MORE eBay Items

Yes, it does appear that my blog is now just a whore to pimp myeBay items. But hey in the last 30 days I've sold almost $400 worth of stuff, and believe me, that money has come in HANDY.

In any case, today it's Comic Books, and I've listed a bunch of nifty series and trade paperbacks, including a VERY hard to find Batman: Sword of Azreal Gold Tradepaperback>, and some really nice copies of Transformers: The Original Marvel Mini-Series from 1984 that I totally forgot that I owned!

More stuff is coming, so make sure you check back with me!

Thanks for looking

More eBay Items

You know at some point I may actually blog about Baseball Cards again, in fact in storage I found a really nifty 9 card set from Upper Deck that was released in conjunction with the PBS Ken Burns Baseball Documentary that I will blog about at some point, and also even though I missed the All-Star Fan Fest in Anaheim, I could share my memories of the 1992 Edition in San Diego, which was one of the most fun times I've ever had!

But right now, I'm in the drive for funds hardcore, and I've listed a bunch of new items on eBay. These aren't your standard collectibles though, they're Movie Press Kits. What are those? Well, back in the day before the internet, movie studios used to either send Press-Kits out or give them to members of the press at screenings, and basically they're official stills and production information that print media used to write puff-pieces or review the films. My Uncle used to edit BOXOFFICE magazine, which is an industry trade publication for movie theaters that's been around since the 1920's and still exists today. As a wee lad I used to beg for any movie memorabilia I could get my hands on, and boy did I collect a BUNCH.

The cream of this crop is undoubtedly the Princess Bride kit, which I am extremely reluctant to sell, but my wife said to sell it, so I will. Here's a pic:



I also found official press-stills for a NUMBER of older films, including ALIEN and DUNE, but those aren't being sold (quite yet).

In any case, if this intrigues you, please bid and bid high. Thanks.

Oh and in case you were wondering, the Jeter Auto sold for the BIN price of $99.49, to a guy in New York. Go figure.

Jeter is in the HOUSE - But for HOW LONG?

Remember back in March I blogged about the Jeter card I pulled out of the Topps Million Code Transmogrifier? Well I had it delivered. Also did you know that in certain states you don't have to pay for the delivery? California is one of those states, so I didn't have to pay at ALL for UPS Ground with tracking and insurance!

In any case, the card JUST arrived a few minutes ago, I took a couple of moments to scan it before I threw it up on eBay. Here's the card in all it's glory:








I also had a 1958 Russ Kemmerer card delivered just because I don't really have anything that old in my collection and I thought it'd be cool to have. Here's those pics:




Now the site doesn't claim to give you MINT cards, you expect a 2000 year card to be mint, and it is, though they didn't send it in a Top Loader darn it. Fortunately there was no damage. They probably didn't protect it better because the card is pretty thick. The 1958 though is in PRETTY good shape, I see a minor crease and the corners are slightly fuzzy, but it's solid.

Anyway, if you're interested in the Jeter, it's on eBay.

"If it weren't for bad luck you'd have no luck at all mate"

As you know the Budget Collector is on a SERIOUS budget lately. Can't afford much collecting at all these days, I've bought exactly four packs of Topps Series 2 and one Jumbo. Now I did pull that NICE Silk, but nothing else to blog about these days. Don't even talk to me about Allen & Ginter, I can't afford even a Hobby pack of that stuff right now.

Why is that you say?

The dread CAR REPAIRS. I was doing a favor for a friend last night, picked him up from the Airport at 9:30 at night on the tail end of a holiday weekend. Traffic was NASTY at the airport, but not so bad that we weren't out of there within 10 minutes of Gabe getting into the car.

Anyway, few minutes later we're driving down Airport blvd on the way to La Cienega and I notice a rattling sound, just a bit odd. THEN I notice the temperature gauge is all the way on H and there's steam coming out of the front of the car. I've had this happen before on another car, and I drove on it too long and cracked the head gasket. Once you do that your car is never the same. So we pulled off the street to a closed McDonalds and called AAA to get towed home. Fortunately I live next door to a service station, so I took it over there this morning. The bill is just under $500 for a new radiator, radiator hoses and thermostat.

SO, the Budget Collector is selling some stuff to hopefull recoup SOME of the costs. Here's my current eBay listings, it's all DVDs at the moment, and I doubt I have any good cards to add on, but you never know, I'll be scouring the apartment for as much stuff as I can find to turn over.

http://shop.ebay.com/wmnoe/m.html?_nkw&_armrs=1&_from&_ipg&_trksid=p4340

Buy some stuff? If you do I'll mention you on the blog and give out whatever link you want!

Shamless Plug

I decided to go ahead and put the Griffey on eBay, the auction link is HERE.

I've followed the auctions that have ended thus far, and here's the results:

# of Items sold: 10
# of items unsold: 1 ($99.95)
Highest Price Paid: $79.00
Lowest Price Paid: $34.03
Average Price Paid: $53.51

I included shipping in all prices because, well frankly, I think it's part of the price to pay these days. None of the shipping prices for the single were over $3.00, and many were free. I've decided to give free shipping in the United States so that I can maximize my potential buying audience.

Did I mention that my Buy It Now price is more than $10 LOWER than the average price paid for this card thus far on eBay? Did I mention that my BIN is lower than ALL but one of the previously sold items?

Am I a good salesman or what?

Adventures in eBay - Part of an Ongoing Saga

Howdy all, I'd like to call your attention to some items I'm currently selling on eBay. I need to get rid of some older sets of cards that I no longer have a passion for, namely wrestling cards.

Yes, I know wrestling isn't real, it's scripted. I've known for years and years, but it doesn't bother me. The entire "sport" and what it's become bothers me, but for sheer entertainment value, you couldn't get more bang for your buck than wrestling in the 80's and 90's. I've collected a LOT of sets in my past, from all sorts of subjects besides sports, and wrestling cards were always a favorite. My wife is very glad that I haven't delved into the recent Topps Heritage WWE cards. ESPECIALLY since 95% of my favorite wrestlers are now retired.

So on the Bay you'll find an odd assortment of wrestling cards that I no longer want or need. Some are complete sets, others are just short. I hope you might find something you like and will buy it from me, and if you do, and as an added incentive, if you inform me that you read about my latest auctions on my blog, I'll give you a 10% discount on your final purchase price as a rebate (meaning I'll refund you 10% of your final purchase price when you pay).