Being in the business for about 4.5 years now, buying has always been one of my favourite part of the job because not only is it an integral part of the business (ie. lower the price I buy means lower the price i can sell), but it also allows me to meet people and witness different people’s collection over the years. Every collection is unique and different and I enjoy seeing the diversity when buying out collections. I am always buying if the price and product I’m looking for is right and suitable for my customers but with the limited capital and storage space, I have to be very selective in what i buy. I usually don’t document small buyouts because there isn’t much jazz to it, but when it comes large collection buy outs I always want to document and share my experience and thought process.
For this specific buyout, the collector contacted me a few weeks ago asking if we would be interested in buying out his collection. As per the usual, I said most definitely but it highly depends on the the stuff he’s selling and his price expectation. He got me a list and we priced the shoes and went back and forth briefly to come up with an amount that we were both comfortable with. To be honest, this collector had some pretty lit items, but obviously like any collection there are also items that aren’t so hype that would be hard to get a good price on the market. That’s the reality of the shoe game…PRICES ARE ALWAYS CHANGING! He had quite a few pairs of air force 1s and dunk SBs that would have fetched a better price a few years back, but the landscape has changed drastically over the years and price expectations have to change with it. When it comes to pricing a collection its very hard to accurately price each shoe, but the most important part is to start top down and move downwards. In this specific collection, individual prices ranged from as low as $50 to as high as $2,000 and sizes ranged from 10.5-11.5.
One of the most important things that i have learned in any buyouts is that you need to get the buyer’s expectation in line with what the market is willing to pay and NOT what they want to get paid. Obviously if their expectation is fair it makes my job a lot easier and more than often they can be quite different. As a buyer, I think its absolutely critical to back up your price offer with reasons and not just present an offer like you just pulled the number out of your ass. My process involves putting together the list into excel and pricing each shoe individually to the best of my knowledge and coupling a fixed cost to factor my time and cost in selling the shoes. Many people tend to forget and underestimate the time us sellers have to put into making sales. No doubt everyone want the highest price possible for their shit, but keep in mind you are taking cash now and you are risk free. We take the risk and put in the effort in selling, so everyone needs to get paid!
We met Sunday morning and sorted everything out and down goes another for the record books. Some of my favourite pairs from the buyout are documented above in the slideshow. Some of these will hit the site soon and some will be sold via gift card draws. Stay tuned for updates as to when they will be available for sale on the site. Last but not least, not only do I help people move unwanted stuff and move it to those that do want them…most importantly I actually enjoy doing it.
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