We all reach that point at some stage ..
How to disperse a collection ?

Bung it all in a big auction ( with 17.5% of hammer price plus extras going to the auction house ) and hope for the best .

Stall out for the next 10 years at fairs etc ..

Car boots ,  Swap meets and Garage sales for the lesser stuff

List online with a buy it now and see how you go . For a number of quality items the fees are quite high .

Advertise on this site with access to many forum members who have great collections and are looking to add quality pieces 

Create a web site and/or online store 

Or my favourite ... Get your little black book out and contact all those collectors you have dealt with over the years . Get the word out  and let some of the best stuff go first . Generate a bit of interest with pictures ( including this site ) .. 

Probably a bit of each of the above with say 10 or 15 quality pieces at a time in several auctions over time would work .

All up it sounds like hard work for a while with no quick and easy solution .
There must be a time when you have to commit to selling .

I'm not to that point yet , but you have to start somewhere . 

Well... Maybe leave it to the kids and make it their headache

Relics

I figure on making it a retirement project. I assumed I would use ebay. Sell a few each week. It'll give me something to do and provide a little income for a year or two. 

Mind you ebay will likely be taking an even bigger percentage by then. So perhaps Fairs are the way to go.

I'd prefer to sell from the bottom up, but probably makes commercial sense to mix them up a bit.

I like your idea of setting up your own on-line store. I build websites for a living so that would suit me. But you'd need to do some nifty marketing to get enough attention.

Barring surprises, I definitely won't leave it to the kids, I hope to enjoy selling my collections as much as I've enjoyed aquiring them.

A tin collecting friend died almost 30 years ago and his wife needed the money. I got a well established dealer from the Portobello Road (John from Yorkshire) to buy the lot. He itemised them and gave a very decent price.

hilbert

Hi Hilbert,

This site already has the customer base so the hard work is already done for most sellers. All I need are photographs.

Having said that, I am photographing and cataloguing some big collections this year as most people are not set up to do it as quickly. I have uploaded 1000 items onto the website already this week  .

Regards

Al.

Sorry Al, didn't mean to dis your shop.

What sort of percentages do you charge when others sell through your shop?

hilbert