On the pricing of a Collection of Jyhad cards
The Lasombra
Being an exposition of seven years of experience in the singles sales business.
1) Rarity and the truth about set design as it relates to resellers.
Ninety percent of any set (Jyhad / Dark Sovereigns / etc) will never
sell as singles. For a base set like Jyhad or Vampire: the Eternal
Struggle, this means that you have 360+ different cards that your
target audience will already have too many copies of, and you will not
move these cards regardless of price. Bloodlines is currently the
only exception to this hypothesis. Because Bloodlines was so
specialized and so spread out over so many different concepts, the
general card buying public found it easier to buy specific singles in
quantity than to continue buying cards from Potomac Distribution or
All Star Trading Cards. Do not expect that your rares / uncommons /
vampires will overcome the 90% sit around forever expectation of the
singles retailer.
2) Jyhad cards.
The Edgeman sold 684 Jyhad backed cards for $5. They did this for
almost a year. All of the cards worth having except Camille Devereaux
have been re-printed, either in the V:TES set, in the sets since, or
in the 10th Anniversary boxes coming out in December of 2004. This
means the cards that are worth less than US$0.01 each will have even
less value. These cards have different backs than all of the later
releases, so will always be the last cards purchased by anyone that
entered the game after the name change. There are nothing but strikes
against the Jyhad backed cards. This generally indicates that it is
not even worth paying the shipping charges when you are only going to
be receiving Jyhad cards.
3) The price of brand new cards.
Brand new cards, still in the shiny package, is US$0.15 each. Used
product will be purchased at a significantly lower price. A White
Wolf designed booster display will have 396 cards for an average price
of US$58-61 depending on how well you shop the online retailers. If
you buy new cards in any significant quantity, additional discounts
are available.
4) Reprints.
Cards that have been common in multiple sets will artificially inflate
the size of your collection and decrease its ability to sell. That
you have 300+ copies of Canine Horde makes it that much more likely
that no one will ever need to buy a copy.
5) Overstock and proliferation of people leaving the game.
A complete set of Sabbat sold for US$50 less than 2 weeks ago.
Sets of commons are given away for the cost of shipping every day on
E-bay. Beyond the top 10-20 commons in the game (or for a specific
deck), there is no reason to pay for the commons. Sets of uncommons
go for much the same price.
6) Singles retailers must make a profit, or they cannot continue to
buy sets or sell singles.
Taking all of the above into consideration, expecting more than 3-5¢
per card is wildly optimistic and liable to keep the cards in your
possession.
Your only real hope of making a return on your investment of
collectible cards is to market them yourself, selling the unique
singles for the highest amounts that you can, and dumping the commons
and uncommons to anyone that you can.
Carpe noctem.
Lasombra