I don't make a living out of buying and selling beermats but am just a collector who has found that the most economical way of increasing his collection and spares is to buy the collections of "retired" collectors.
In order to recoup some of my expenditure and have money to buy the next collection, I do sell my spares, either singly or in bulk.
That's a difficult question to answer because the value of a collection is subjective. Different people will prize different beermats within a collection and come up with different valuations. Antique dealers and eBay sellers often raise false expectations by pricing their beermats at an arbitrary price like £2.99. However not many are sold.
Any offer I make would be for the whole collection and exclusive of shipping costs, but to be able to make a meaningful offer I need to know as much of the following information as possible.
My heart sinks when I get an e-mail that reads "Dear Tony, I have lots of very unique beermats and would like to sell them..... " (and I do get such e-mails quite often).
If you live close to me then perhaps I can come and see the collection and afterwards discuss money. If not then the easiest thing to do is send me some photographs of what you consider to be the most interesting 100 beermats that advertise British beer in the collection.
Also can you answer the following questions?
How many beermats are there? A rough count is OK. The quickest way to perform the count is to count out one hundred mats and arrange the rest of the collection into piles that are about the same size.
How many of these are from British Breweries? When counting as above create piles of those that you think are in this category (it can be difficult to tell sometimes).
How old are they? Between which years did you or the person whose collection it is actively collect beermats? Have you inherited any beermats that could pre-date these years?
What condition are they in? The collection does not have to be in mint condition, but if the mats have been fixed to a wall then fading, pin holes, glue marks, missing pieces of design, etc. will reduce their value.
How many doubles are there? I don't mind a bit of duplication but the presence of large packs of beermats that are all the same will reduce the value of the collection.
I'm sorry that you have a bit work to do but, after all, would you buy blind? If you have any questions about selling a collection then please e-mail me.