ADVICE NEEDED - Selling 2000 Mao Badges
 

I ask here simply because some of you have years of experiences selling online, while others are experienced in ebay and other selling mechanisms. I don't expect to find a mao badge expert, but I might be lucky enough to find someone with good advice.

I lived between Beijing and Hong Kong for two years, working for my family. In that time I got to collecting Mao Badges. I bought them with the intention of selling in the west, which is what I'd like to do now. I have 2000 of them in total.

I've asked Sotherby's for a valuation but their requirements are arcane to say the least. Likewise, I've asked professional mao badge traders online, who have declined because it was too much work in calculating a figure.

The value could range from $4,000 to $40,000 or more if I stumbled onto a very rare badge.

I've considered selling the lot on ebay with a reserve or setting up an ebay shop and selling individually.

Does anyone have any bright ideas?

Cheers in advance. :)

What the hell is "Mao Badges" ?

Badges carrying the image of Mao Zedong. :)

Bump.......

Cool. .

I knew that :winkwink:

Is there a market for them? Never heard of them before today.

Yes, a huge market. They're very collectable and some badges are rare due to cultural upheavals.

I have a great collection of old rare stamps all around the globe... so your answer could fit my similar question too !!! Hope some of you guys come up with a good idea for selling these collections :)

Well, most likely you will even succeed. There are still enough idiots who would buy badges with the picture of someone who has killed more people than Hitler and Stalin together. Would you sell Hitler badges, too?

The large auction houses can do well with stamps. The problem with the badges is getting an expert willing to value them (there aren't that many experts). Stamps are another thing entirely because there are in-house valuers. I sold 20,000 stamps (again from China) at Sotherby's last year for a good figure.

Sounds interesting do you have a pic?

I'm putting some time aside this week to take pics of everything. If interested, just bookmark this thread and I'll post the link to pics when I get it done. :)

Mao didn't kill more people than Hitler and Stalin together. Stalin is commonly held responsible for more deaths than Mao.

I call BS...if you were for real you'd know how to spell SOTHEBY'S.... :thumbsup

www.sothebys.com/

I'm struggling to understand why anyone would lie about selling stamps. I'm not claiming to have just bought a porsche. :1orglaugh

I'm not trying to sell anything here, folks.

Back to original topic :

Wondering if anyone can suggest a clever way to sell them. Or do you think my ebay idea is the best bet?

Either way, good luck with the sale.

Thanks, dude. :)

Interesting, I have a few from my grandparents that lived through the cultural revolution, How did you like working in china? Did you get to visit shang hai?

One of the best times of my life. I lived permanentaly at world trade, beijing, and spent a lot of time in hk and different provinces (hunan, mostly). The people are what make it wonderful. Everyone is so polite and good-natured. They also have a work ethic second to none (I was in rome before china and boy is there a difference!!). Never saw shang hai, but did all the touristy things : great wall, summer palace, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden city, teracota soldiers. I want to take the family there soon as my daughter is a little older. Anyway, I'm a sucker for markets abroad (i don't like saying 3rd world countries, but you know what I mean) for all the amazing bargains, so picked up badges, stamps, even a couple of rolexes that turned out to be real. :)

No, this is outdated. There are newer resources that give proof of 75 million deaths caused by Mao.