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Advice on Midsize Lot of Baseball cards
BlueKeyboard
Posts: 3 ✭
Hello,
I recently received roughly 15-20k baseball cards. They were bought new and still sealed. I am looking to resell them. I am most likely going to resell them one at a time. Looking for some good resources, on pricing and error or varietys.
I do resell other items and have a ebay store. I was considering selling them on amazon as well if I am able to.
any advice is appreciated as this is my first time reselling baseball cards.
Thank you,
Rich
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Pictures?
There are sites and articles online that detail what to expect in most sets/products. There may not be 1 perfect site to address everything in high detail, but the info is out there.
It seems to me that people buying unopened boxes and sets are usually looking to keep it sealed for future investment or crack it open to try for high grade cards to send in for grading. Sure, there are still old school collectors who want such and such set and maybe even a few people who will even open them and enjoy them for what they are, but I suspect the former is who will be most likely to show up when the hammer falls on stuff like that. It appears to be mostly from the junk era. High production, still relatively low demand in bulk. The high grade possibilities drive prices here and once it is opened, the mystery (and potential) are gone.
Yes, these are not cards you'll want to sell one at a time. The vast majority you won't be able to sell that way at any price.
Sorry.
The 1989 upperdeck set looks the nicest
Hi Rich! Welcome to the boards!
I would have a little FUN and open the sets (or some of them) and pick out the best rookies, sending the nice ones to PSA hoping to get 10's on them and a nice profit for you. Of course, this takes time and grading will take several months. You also end up with a whole bunch of cards worth nothing!
I would especially open the sets that aren't factory sealed. Many buyers will assume they have been searched and may not bid at all.
A quick "advanced" search on ebay under "sold items" will tell you how much the sets/boxes go for and what key cards they contain.
Example; the 1989 Bowman set has a Ken Griffey Jr rookie that goes for a couple of hundred dollars, but the entire set goes for about $20. The problem with breaking the set is, the Griffey probably won't be a 10 and now you have garbage.
From your post, I am assuming you are not really a "baseball card guy", if you're not, this option might not appeal to you.
If you just want to move them quickly and be rid of them, auction the sets and boxes individually, starting at .99 and $10.00 shipping and most, if not all, will be gone. You could also just auction the entire lot off.
Bottom line is, how much time and effort you want to put in here, do you want to make more money or just move them?
This pretty much sums up what I was saying to a T. Nothing against that kind of buyer, as this is what trading cards have become for so many, but I am from what may be a dying breed of collectors who bought the cards for fun and maybe to some extent, completeness. I have built very few large sets by hand (like an annual Topps set for example), this was mostly in the early days of my collecting and frankly would never do it now, but I used to buy the completed sets from mail order in the 80s just to have them. I was also a big fan of the smaller boxed sets. I was accumulating to accumulate. When I got back into cards in the early 90s after a short break, I didn't open anything that was sealed and still have most of that stuff sealed. Some was never sealed, but if I bought it "sealed", it stayed that way.
Maybe some day, when I am getting rid of my cards, I will elect to open and break up some of the sets. I think I would have to know I could do better than just selling the full set to a speculator though, as having a brick of worthless cards in order to sell a few at a lesser price just means the rest would probably end up as freebies or recycle. Not that I set out to sell anything when I started, but if the hobby developed into an active marketplace and my older cards and now worth some money, then when I am done with them I will try to take advantage of that.
Thank you for the detailed response! Its true I am not a card guy, but I am a reseller and I have time to devote to doing many smaller sales, and also time to do the extra research and possibly even get some cards graded if it would be worth it. I have been looking on ebay for completed items and i do see some individual cards moving. I'm just a bit curious if certain cards will ever move, may have to do some bulk deals. I see some people offering .99 cents per card ( a you select which card you need type of deal ).
My plan at this point was going to be to pick box or two and start listing each card for .75 - 1.25 - 1.50 each plus .50 cents shipping. See what happens.
I am a bit of a coin collector and I do enjoy looking for errors and variety coins, so i figured it would be fun to check for that.
I did notice that in a few of the non sealed boxes the cards have a slight 'U' shape to them. =/
If you are intent on selling individual cards from these years, and have a lot of time to spend, take a look at Sportlots. eBay only for the truly high valued items. I expect after fees you’ll do better this way.
If it were me, I’d auction the boxes/sets on eBay. Start low as others have suggested.
You will have some success with some of the star players, most of the commons probably won't sell.
A buddy of mine says there are TONS of errors in these sets. Try looking at the "Trading Card Database" for help.
Slightly warped cards are not a problem.
Good luck and have FUN collecting.
Wanna bet the Griffey and Johnson are not in that set!!