Chip ‘n’ Dale Lunar New Year Figure

Back to purchasing, and an online trawl for items that might have value. I spent a lot of time on the Disney store website looking for discounted collectible memorabilia that might attract a larger audience on ebay.

I opted for the Chip ‘n Dale lunar new year figure at £57.50. It already had some scarcity value, and I managed to get one of the final few on the Disney website. I also knew that there was a market in Lego for Lunar New Year items, with previous sets really appreciating in value post-retirement. There weren’t many examples of this selling on ebay, but it definitely seemed that £80 – £90 should be achievable.

I listed it towards the bottom end at £81.99 to try and push a faster sale. Unfortunately there weren’t any takers for a long time, and I end up promoting the item on ebay to try and get some interest. Finally the item sold to a guy in Japan, I’m not sure what happened with the transaction though as the sale didn’t go through the ebay’s Global Shipping Programme – where I just have to send to a depot in the UK and the buyer works out the international postage with ebay – instead I got an extra £19.95 on the order, but had to ship to Japan.

These fees are what ultimately ended up killing the trade. The buyer paid £101.90 to receive the item, which is £44.40 more than I paid. Though with the ebay fees (£15.79), advert/promo fee (£6.12) and shipping (£24.65) I ended up losing £2.16 overall. Gutting, but a good lesson to triple check my shipping settings at the point of listing – I must have made an error with the setup, or in the very least I need to list overseas shipping at a higher amount.

Interestingly, now the item is highly collectible and can be found online for anywhere between £150 and £220. It feels like I fell into the trap of buying a collectable that would have been good in the long term, but trying to flip it fast in the short term, and coming away with a loss. Despite the small loss I still have £59 to spend, and on to the next trade..