Baseball Cards

Siji · Post by **Siji** » November 4, 2003, 10:41 pm

Circumstances:
Ex's sister & her son are in jail. Need money for a lawyer.

Solution:
Son has huge collection of baseball cards he wants sold to pay legal fees.

Problem:
There are literally hundreds and hundreds of cards.. gold cards, individual wrapped cards, signed cards, sealed cards, card sets, old cards, new cards, expensive cards, signed baseballs with gold cards, gold baseball player coins, numbered collectors plates, numbered collectors patches, etc.. And I don't have the slightest idea about how to start going through the mess. He apparently didn't either, as they're in no noticable order.

Does anyone here collect (seriously) baseball (sports) cards that could give me a bit of advice about the best way to go through them, get them sorted and such? I've collected comics but nowhere near the quantity that this guy has cards. I know I'm gonna need to find a price guide, but I also know that sets of cards (especially complete sets) sell for more..

Currently I'm thinking of getting them sorted, then flooding eBay with them after going through the pricing guide. I thought about taking them into a card shop - but I know w/o a doubt that they're going to rip me off if I do.

Anyway, suggestions would be helpful.. unfortunately, I don't have a month or more to go through all these things (which is how long I seriously think it should take) and need to raise the money asap. He (the son) believes that he's got well over 10k worth of items here to give an idea of what I meant by 'serious collecting' above..

Thanks in advance.

Zamtuk · Post by **Zamtuk** » November 4, 2003, 11:45 pm

http://www.beckett.com

order one or go to any sports store and pick one up

Canoe · Post by **Canoe** » November 5, 2003, 12:37 am

To be honest bro - they aren't worth what they once were (baseball cards in general that is) but i'd have to take a deep look at what you have.

Certain individual cards may - depending on the year and shape they are in (and of course the player) - however $10,000 is going to be a stretch for me.

In the essence of time - try beckett for starters, like linked above, they are available everywhere.

Then start sorting - start by getting the real expensive ones up on E-Bay right away - The signed ones, the special edition, and anything older than 1985 or so.

Anythin 1987 + is going to be pretty valueless (except very rare cards), outside of signed ones.

Just to give you an example I have about 25 barry bonds rookie cards (1987) - mint condition, worth $5 if you are selling to get rid of fast on a really really good day. For some reason people during the late 80's and early 90 collected tons of cards - and no one wants to buy. Supply > Demand.

However throwing them up on e-bay you may find the rare buyer - so it's worth a shot.

Like you said, if you go to to a dealer you will get ripped - start by sorting the good ones as i outlined above, look up the price/value, then get them going. Work with the lesser ones in bulk and try and get 10 cents apiece or something if he has thousands of them.

I'm by far not an expert - but I was looking into it recently myself (I have over 10,000 cards which at one time i thought were worth a decent penny), so at least i have an amateur's knowledge.

For times sake - sort the signed ones, and old ones, get them up on the web, then worry about the rest.

Laliana · Post by **Laliana** » November 5, 2003, 12:57 am

Sooo, what might this be worth, in pristine condition?

masteen · Post by **masteen** » November 5, 2003, 1:02 am

Laliana wrote:Sooo, what might this be worth, in pristine condition?

Rights to the firstborn manchild

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » November 5, 2003, 1:44 am

I think I have some Darryl Strawberry cards somewhere... how much they are worth in crack is hard to determine atm though...

Spang · Post by **Spang** » November 5, 2003, 3:45 am

http://www.thepit.com

this is the wallstreet of sports card collecting.

Laliana · Post by **Laliana** » November 5, 2003, 4:48 am

masteen wrote:
Laliana wrote:Sooo, what might this be worth, in pristine condition?

Rights to the firstborn manchild

I was hoping a dollah amount.

Post by **Xouqoa** » November 5, 2003, 11:42 am

says $62.50 on thepit .. if that is to be believed (never heard of it till now)

says my Ken Griffey Jr. 89 upper deck is $330 tho.. woo!

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » November 5, 2003, 12:08 pm

What about Topps '82 Ripken? I have him on an Orioles Future Stars card w/ two other numbnuts. Most of my cards are from '75 to '83. I can't even begin to fathom the amount of money pissed away in my bicycle spokes.

Dula Allazaward · Post by **Dula Allazaward** » November 5, 2003, 12:27 pm

A familar story. Before retiring 6 months ago, I had owned a gaming/sports store for the duration of 10 years. People would come into the store everyday wanting to get rid of collections for one reason or another. There are a few options open to you.

1.) Take them to a card shop. This is the quickest fix. With this option you must remember that the card shop is in it to make money. Their objective is to flip the collection as quickly as possible. They will look through your collection, see what cards "they" can sell fast and offer you an amount based on "only" those cards, the rest is gravy. Remember, they are in business to make money.

2.) Ebay. This option is the most lucrative. But it is a long continuous process. You could sell the entire collection , group or single them. To get the most out of the cards, selling them singly is the way to go. It is also the more time consuming option. Depending on how large the collection is and how much time you actually have to devote. It could easily take you months, even years to sell them all. This is actually what I have been doing in my "retirement" to keep me busy. I still have over a million cards (no exaggeration) that did not go with the sale of my business.

3.) Go to a card show. You can find these buy picking up a Baseball Beckett (price guide, one exists for every major sport). In the back of the magazine there are listings of all the advertised card shows. They have them listed by state. Be careful if you choose this one. It just may get you hooked to the hobby. There are actually two ways to approach this particular option. 1.) Take your collection to every vendor at the show, ask them how much they will offer you for it and take the best offer. (Very similar to option 1 above, but you have more dealers to choose from) 2.) Set up as a vendor. A table usually costs around $45.00 per day. Pick up a beckett and tell people that your cards are 60% off beckett. (everyone does 50% these days) They will haggle with you do not be surprised if you tell someone you want $100.00 for a card and they offer you $60.00. It's part of the game that makes me very happy I am "retired", called "beat the dealer". If you keep in mind that Beckett is what is says it is. ( Beckett is a price "guide". ) You will be fine. There are very few cards that will sell for what is listed in the Beckett or more.

Hopefully this will help. If you have any questions you are most welcome to PM me your phone number and best time to call. I would be happy to help. Good Luck!

Dula Allazaward · Post by **Dula Allazaward** » November 5, 2003, 12:39 pm

Laliana wrote:Sooo, what might this be worth, in pristine condition?

If you have it and want to sell it, put it on ebay and start it off at a $1.00. The market will not let it go for less then its worth. If you want to see what people are paying for it. Go to ebay and do a search, hit completed auctions. I find ebay is the best to find what cards are worth because my philosophy is: "It is only worth what you can get out of it"

http://search-completed.ebay.com/search ... etedonly=1

Siji · Post by **Siji** » November 5, 2003, 1:13 pm

Dula Allazaward wrote:my philosophy is: "It is only worth what you can get out of it"

My thoughts on everything collectable, exactly.

Sure you may have a collector's edition of something, but if nobody is gonna buy it, it's about as valuable as toilet paper. And one more reason I stopped collecting things (comics & movie posters specifically).

Tonight I'm gonna start going through the lot of the cards.. I think I'll find the valuable ones, sell those individually, and then sell the rest in blocks.. I'm figuring it'll be easier/faster than trying to include valuable cards in full sets and trying to sell the whole set. But what do I know.

Spang · Post by **Spang** » November 5, 2003, 1:49 pm

Xouqoa wrote:says $62.50 on thepit .. if that is to be believed (never heard of it till now)

says my Ken Griffey Jr. 89 upper deck is $330 tho.. woo!

the prices on thepit are for cards that have been professionaly graded by either Beckett or PSA.

you send in your cards to either company, they grade the card and put it in this highly protective, tamper proof case and the price of your cards if graded high enough go up.

for instance, let's say you have an 86 topps traded Barry Bonds in mint condition, it might be worth 80 dollars, but get it graded from beckett at GM (gem mint) 10 (the highest grade you can put on a card) and the price can sky rocket to anywhere from 500 to 1,000 dollars.

what are they looking for....a perfect center, perfect color, perfect edges and corners...basically, they're looking for flaws. if there isn't any, your card just went up in price.

Deward · Post by **Deward** » November 5, 2003, 2:02 pm

If you go ebay then do the grab bag method. Sell them in lots of 100 and shuffle everythign together. Maybe you will make more in the long run and you won't have to deal with pricing each individual card.

My dad had a similar situation about 5 years ago where a buddy of his went to prison and needed cash. For some reason his buddy had several hundred beanie babies and needed them sold. My dad just ebayed them individually and he said it was a pain to do it that way. I have seen the grab bag done before and it seems to work ok.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » November 5, 2003, 2:20 pm

Deward wrote:his buddy had several hundred beanie babies and needed them sold.

This reminds me of another thread on these boards..

Dula Allazaward · Post by **Dula Allazaward** » November 5, 2003, 4:56 pm

Deward wrote:If you go ebay then do the grab bag method. Sell them in lots of 100 and shuffle everythign together.

ACCCCKKK!!! Never ever shuffle sports cards!! The grab bag method is a good way to get rid of the cards you would never sell. But make sure the price is low enough and have some decent cards in it. Lots of work, but can be fun putting them together. I would list names when posting these. ie, grab bags include famous names such as: Ken Griffey Jr., Pete Rose, and Sammy Sosa. Give it a little mix these guys have cards that are only worth .5 as well as 500.00. It gives your auction a little spice.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » November 5, 2003, 7:08 pm

Baseball Cards < Garbage Pail Kids

Kargyle · Post by **Kargyle** » November 5, 2003, 7:10 pm

I really wish I could find my collection of Garbage Pail Kids from when I was a kid. If nothing else, just so I could look through them and feel nostalgic.

Post by **Sylvus** » November 5, 2003, 7:20 pm

This used to be my avatar on our guild board.

There was a site that had like all of them scanned in. God those damn things were popular when I was a kid. =)