I want to start off by saying I am in no way thinking of selling. I just talked to a friend who is rebuilding their Lego collection after selling during Covid.
Those who have sold their collection, did you regret it?
6 Likes
I haven’t sold mine either for the record. I sorta live by the rule of if I am not interested in something now, I may still be in the future. I went some 10ish years without buying a single pack of cards. I would have been quite upset had I got back in and all my old cards were gone. A lot of this question depends on the scale of someone’s collection and personal life situations, but I would always advise against selling off an entire collection, especially if the cards date back to one’s childhood.
6 Likes
I fire-sold nearly everything I had in 2017(?), hard to say if I regret it. I didn’t have too crazy of a collection, but it would have appreciated pretty nicely with the boom.
But at the same time, not having those “things” to get hyper-focused on was probably best for me and my mental health!
11 Likes
I sold my sports, digimon, and probably 80% of my Pokemon cards during the boom.
Do not regret it. Now consolidating to cards that I really want.
15 Likes
yeah when i was like 12, but it wasn’t really selling. it was more like trading for something not pokemon related and i don’t remember what it was. 
4 Likes
In 2014/2015 I sold a large chunk of my silver age MTG collection to my LGS. Some of the foils were worth $100+, which was a ton of TCG money back in the day. I used the proceeds to buy newer MTG sets so that I could build competitive decks for Thursday/Friday Night Magic.
I had a few friends who casually played Pokemon with BW and XY era cards, and I thought that the cards were hideous. If only I had bought vintage MTG or Pokemon rather than blasting through dozens of modern packs and buying flashy singles that held no value long term. 
3 Likes
If only we could go back in time and tell our 12 year old selves to hold onto those bad boys even if we were getting into a different fad at the time.
2 Likes
I’ve never sold a whole collection, but I have traded cards away and sold a lot of diecast cars out of my collection over the years. A few I will later wish I hadn’t sold, but most of them are not terribly uncommon or valuable so replacing them is straightforward.
3 Likes
it would be cool for sentimental value, but i lived in a small town and we just had unlimited. my collection was mostly non-holo base-fossil with maybe a handful of boring holos. not too fussed about it lol
1 Like
Amen to that. Probably my biggest regret giving my old collection to my younger siblings and cousins back in 2008. If i could go back I’d also tell myself to pick up those gold stars which were like pennies compared to now.
3 Likes
this year i sold off 200 or so slabs i no longer wanted. now im down to about 30. no regrets - less to think about, trying to just keep the cards i actually want, that interest me. so far rockin pretty good.
3 Likes
The core cards in my collection are still with me. Only occasionally let go some extra or low-value cards to streamline collection.
If I sell those core cards, it would take much more money (than I initially paid) to buy back those cards as they’ve appreciated in value now.
Thats the bad thing about appreciating value of cards. You let go now, some years later you have to pay alot more money to buy back (or buy back a cheaper lower graded one).
4 Likes
Charlie Hurlocker once told me in 2017/8 to only sell when you have a purpose and goal for that money, and this has been the driving factor behind the few times I have downsized my collection. I always had a larger item in mind, and that purchase helps alleviate the remorse of letting something go you wish you wouldn’t of. I have repurchased one item I regretted selling, a Rocket Case Giovanni’s Scheme but I knew at the time when I first sold my original copy, that that card would be vastly more obtainable in the future than the card I was selling/trading it towards.
15 Likes
2016- I sold my sealed WOTC Box collection to fund a sports car. Do I regret it? Yes, lol.
2023- I sold 90% of my Pokemon graded card collection to fund my personal grail. Do I regret it? Absolutely not.
I think having a “reason” to sell is important, but making sure the reason is logical and considering the long term is even more important.
6 Likes
I’ve never fully “cashed out”. Of the cards I’ve sold it has either been modern cards that I’m not attached to or vintage that I had duplicates of.
I did sell all my sealed (not much, just ES BB and celebrations UPC) when things were a bit tight.
Little by little since I’m not actively collecting modern anymore I’m not as attached to the cards so I’m fine with selling those minus some master sets I’ve done.
For vintage I have quite a few sentimental cards that I don’t think I can ever part with. For Christmas 2001 my late grandma got me a 1st ed Neo Revelation box and I got all the major holos graded so I’ll keep those as well as my Shining cards.
3 Likes
What I’ve sold out of haste, or necessity, I’ve regretted it. What I’ve sold because it was time, I do not. I largely sold my amiibo collection after covid, and I don’t regret that one bit.
7 Likes
Having a bunch of cards has been part of my life since I was 5. I’ve buylisted extras but I’ll never sell out of having a respectable collection to enjoy
2 Likes
I only sell items from my collection if I have something I need to spend the money on.
So are there regrets, no.
I tend not to look back when something is gone, it served it’s purpose.
The “left overs” of my collection are for sale during the years. Those also have a goal, to fund the grading of my binder collection.
3 Likes
Bits and pieces. Luckily held onto all my original WOTC stuff from when I bought it new, but I DID sell loads of Expedition/Aquapolis/Skyridge stuff and majority of my EX series stuff which I do genuinely regret doing as it went for peanuts (NM raw ex holos struggling to break £10 apiece on ebay auctions…).
Had a complete Evolutions master set and flogged that during the Covid bubble era as I knew it was overvalued and that I’d not get that value again. Also, I didn’t see the point in owning it when I had a complete Base set.
Worst of all was selling all of LC stuff pre-2016 when it was worthless. Had a NM reverse Charizard (that I’d pulled from the first and only actual pack of the set that I’d ever bought) and it sold for somewhere in the £35-£40 range and THEN it got lost in the mail and I had to refund the buyer 
4 Likes
