Selling one of my DOAD's soon - Interested?, Either Unopened or Opened - Trying to decide! Options

[draynoe]

Hi Everyone,

First, sorry for the wall of text below - but please read on.

So, first an introduction and quick explanation of the purpose of this post. I know not a lot of you know me here at Fans of Live, but I have been around and a Live fan since the early 90's. I have talked with Dan through private messages for quite some time and a few other members also. Like many Live collectors/fans, one of my main goals as a Live fan was always to obtain the Death of a Dictionary cassette tape. Well, I suppose the ultimate goal would be Divided Mind, Divided Planet, but how many of those are there again? ... More to the quick explanation of this post in case you do not feel like reading everything below: I am trying to find out what the real Live community thinks an Unopened DOAD cassette is worth, as well as an opened DOAD cassette, as I will be selling one of them to help pay for my wedding this year.

I had originally written the entire back story here about how I received the tapes, but I felt that I didn't want to go into that much detail except with whomever purchases the tape. There is however, a large back story to how I received the tape(s).

Ultimately, the reason for this post is to see if anyone in the real Live community is interested in purchasing either an unopened or open DOAD cassette. I am also unaware of how to remain safe throughout this type of sale as I have never sold anything online outside of eBay.

As for condition - The opened copy is in great condition although I haven't played it (Not sure I would want to ... I really want to but! ahh ... those are my thoughts). The unopened copy is in great condition although there are a couple of small scuffs and/or tiny scratches on the plastic itself. Nothing major though.

I may still go through eBay as I am a power seller there and receive some discounts, but the prices they charge are quite astronomical still and I need all the money I can get right now for my wedding. - If I do decide to go with eBay, I will link to it in the eBay thread here at Fans of Live.

So, if anyone here is interested, please take the poll above and send me a PM if you would like. Or post in this topic. I just want to hear from the community on your thoughts/opinions/criticisms. (I am in America also - hence the reasoning for making the poll USD - I would like to sell the tape (one of them) soon).

Oh, both of the cassette's are signed by Ed (recently) but not CCP yet - I haven't had time to get that done but it shouldn't be too hard. The opened copy is signed by Ed on the sleeve while the unopened copy is signed on the original plastic.

I am really leaning toward selling the unopened copy as I need the extra money, but again ... it is just such a prized possession! Let's see what you guys think!

Thanks everyone!

Images (I have a lot more, I pretty much freaked when I got the package and took a million photos ... and that is a Public Affection bumper sticker. :

[mfitz804]

I am not personally interested but I am assuming this will be an easy sell for you.

I see the following advantages to doing it through eBay:

1) You get the benefit of the extra millions of people that frequent eBay as opposed to this site or other fan sites. That includes international fans, which it seems there are probably more of anyway.

2) If you tried to sell it here, you'd have to either a) set a fixed price, in which case you could be selling yourself short, or b) try to figure out some way to run it as an auction on your own. In my opinion, you simply cannot underestimate the value of running it as an auction, because two (or more) bidders may get excited and the ensuing bidding war may drive the price up beyond what you thought you could get.

True, eBay will take 10% of your sale price (Paypal another 3%, but you'd still have that fee assuming you sold directly and accepted Paypal, unless you asked the buyer to make the payment as a "gift"). But in the end, I imagine the additional exposure you'll get, plus the possibility of bids increasing the price, is well worth that fee.

In terms of which copy to sell, I guess that'd be up to you. I have no frame of reference for how much a sealed copy would sell for vs. how much an opened copy would sell for. I don't know that it would make too much of a difference, as copies of the tape in any condition don't come up too often, it would only be the super-collectors or people who have an opened copy already who would pursue the unopened copy at a premium. I feel like people without any copy would be happy just to get one.

Plus, you could always open your unopened copy (not that you would). But if you sell the sealed one, you have to assume that's something you will never find again.