Answer: In general, eBay and Facebook are the best places to sell your action figures and collectables.

So, whether you’re a collector who has never opened any of their figures, or you have a tub full of old toys you played with when you were a kid, you’re likely going to want to sell some of those at some point or another. The best place to go to sell your old toys in most cases is eBay. I’ve heard that Facebook is also a good place to sell action figures/toys; however, I have never sold anything over Facebook, so I can’t speak from personal experience when it comes to Facebook.

Selling Action Figures on eBay

It goes without saying, that the place with the highest number of potential buyers for your older action figures and pre-owned items is eBay, and if you are looking get the figures off your hands and maybe make a little bit of a profit while you’re at it, eBay is a good option for you. The upfront investment is low, it is very easy to use, and has become extremely seller-friendly over the years.

Pros:

People Look For Action Figures There

Ebay is still the go-to place for buying action figures that are no longer in stores. While its true that some collectors have moved over to Facebook to buy and sell figures, the vast majority of non-collectors still think of eBay as the place to go to shop for older action figures.

Its Pretty Easy To Get Started

Buyers don’t discriminate that much based on the number of sales a seller has made in the past. As long as you have a good rating, making sales won’t be too hard. Speaking of ratings, if you already have made a number of purchases on eBay, you have probably received a few good ratings from the sellers you purchased items from. In other words, you can get a good rating without even selling anything. Another great way to get customer feedback is to leave positive feedback for the buyer after they have purchased or received their item. If you leave them some positive feedback, they’re more likely to return the favor, and leave it for you. What I’m trying to say here is, its not hard to build a good reputation on eBay.

You Can Easily See What Your Action Figure Has Sold For

Ebay’s “sold listings” feature is an extremely valuable tool. This will let you see how frequently the specific figure is selling and, more importantly how much the figure is selling for. This gives you a rough idea of how quickly your figure might sell as well as how much you could potentially make on that figure.

***Important Advice: Always check the sold listings before creating your own listing for an item. Looking at the current listings could cause you to list your action figures for too high a price or to take a loss and list the item for too low. Just because someone has a figure that usually sells for around $89.99 listed for $250.00 doesn’t mean anyone is actually willing to pay that much for it. Maybe around Christmas you can get away with absurdly high prices, but, in general, you won’t make sales by charging over 50% more than the average sold listing price.

Used Action Figures Will Sell

It really doesn’t matter what condition your action figures are in, someone out there will buy them. Mind you, it could take some time for certain figures to sell. A way to get rid of the ones that won’t sell is to sell a few of them in a lot.

Auctions

Auctions allow the customers to bid for the item(s) you’re selling. The highest bidder wins! Auctions are also a great way to get rid of multiple action figures that just won’t sell. Create a “lot”–a listing where you sell multiple figures at once–and let the potential buyers bid away!

You Can Build A Clientele

Depending on your customer service and the number of items you are listing, it is possible to build up some regular customers who appreciate the selection of items you offer, your in depth toy grading, images you provides, quick response time, speedy shipping, etc. Depending on the quality of customer service you provide, you have the opportunity to grow a customer base who may pay more to buy an item from you because they trust you.

Cons:

Fees

On of the biggest cons when using eBay are the fees. You will be charged 10% of the final selling price (this includes the cost of shipping). On top of this, PayPal will also charge you about 2.9% (this does vary) plus a 30 cent transaction fee. There is an additional fee for every item you list once you have surpassed the monthly limit of 60.

Ebay Is Time Consuming

Ebay is great if you’re selling a few figures here and there for a side income; however, if you want to make a business out of it and go full-time, its very time consuming. Taking the pictures, investigating the sold listings, creating the listing, answering customer’s questions, etc.–all of this takes a good deal of time if you are selling many items at once.

Best offer Option

You’ll notice that many of the items on eBay that are “Buy It Now” also have an “or best offer” option. This allows the customer to barter with you over the price. While this is good for the buyer, its an annoyance for the seller. If you don’t allow the customer to make offers, don’t worry, your item will still sell, but it will take a little longer. If you do allow them to makes offers, don’t allow them to make offers that are too low, because they will! By default, eBay has the lowest possible offer set at half the listed price. This is far too low for me, and I would not recommend changing this.

Selling Action Figures on The Facebook Marketplace

Facebook is a completely different animal than eBay or Amazon, and looks like it might be giving eBay some competition when it comes to collectables. There are Facebook pages and groups created with the sole purpose of buying and selling collectables like action figures. More than that, there are communities that are focused around the buying and selling of only certain types of action figures (Star Wars, Transformers, Marvel, etc.), and there are some key benefits to selling and buying your action figures on Facebook.

Benefits of Selling Action Figures And Collectables On Facebook Instead of eBay

No Shipping Costs

Lets start with the number one benefit first: no shipping charges! If you offer free shipping on eBay, that technically means free shipping for the buyer, you still pay for the shipping; however, that buyer was clearly willing to pay the full price for the figure. On Facebook, the buyer could pay the exact same price for a figure as they would on eBay, but you make more money because you won’t be paying shipping.

No Fees

This is pretty self-explanatory, but on eBay and Amazon, you’re going to be paying about 13-15% of the sale price (and the shipping on eBay) in fees. On top of paying for the shipping, you’re not making nearly as much as you could on those items. There are no fees when selling on Facebook.

No Need For Packaging Materials

If you’re selling on eBay, you’re going to be re-using materials from around your house for packaging and shipping the item, or you will need to purchase shipping materials. If you sell a figure on Facebook, you don’t need any shipping materials since you’re personally delivering the figure.

Cons:

Way More Negotiating Over Price

Unless you’re listing you action figures at low prices already, be prepared to receive requests for you to lower the price of the figure. Remember what I said earlier about the “or best offer” feature on eBay. Well, this is similar. On Facebook, people are more comfortable messaging you and will take the time to do so if they think they can get you to lower the price. If you have a popular item, be prepared to respond to some messages.

Meeting Buyers In Person To Complete Transaction

You’re usually not shipping the items you sell on Facebook, you’re meeting with the buyer and completing the transaction in person. This makes some people uncomfortable. In-person transactions should be done in a public location, unless of course you know the buyer personally.

Number Of Potential Buyers Is Limited By Location

With eBay, you have the option to ship your items to pretty much anywhere in the world. With Facebook, you’re likely only going to be selling locally.

Why Amazon Is Not A Good Option

Its not that you can’t sell action figures and collectables on Amazon. You can, and you will make money doing it; however, the number of people looking for older action figures on Amazon is smaller than it is on eBay. Amazon may be the largest online marketplace, but that doesn’t mean its the largest for every niche. People shop at Amazon much the same way they do at Wal-Mart or Target—you wouldn’t try to sell your pre-owned action figures at Target. Maybe you’ll come across someone who is interested, but that’s not the reason they came to Target.

Conclusion

Its up to you whether you decide to do your selling on eBay, Facebook, or Amazon. Its my opinion that eBay and Facebook are better options than Amazon, but if you feel you can sell your old toys and action figures on Amazon, then go for it! I should mention that there are alternatives to these sites, but these are “the big three”, and get substantially more traffic than some of the more obscure niche sites for selling figures. There also may be local small businesses in your area that will buy your old toys off of you. Be aware, though, I’ve heard many stories of these businesses low balling customers, so be aware of your item’s value before you close that deal! I will likely make a post about those other options in the future.

Happy selling!

If you’re interested in reading about how I recommend packaging your action figures for shipment, check out my post about it.

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