My experience selling a 1954 Topps baseball set through Greg Morris
BaltimoreYankee
Posts: 2,994 ✭✭✭✭✭
In 2014-2015, I built a nice mid-grade 1955 Topps set. A few years later (2018), I decided to build a lesser grade 1954 Topps set (think the equivalent of PSA 3 to 4). I collected the whole set ungraded except the big three rookie cards: Aaron, Kaline and Banks. Those three I bought in PSA 3, 2 and 2 respectively, due to budget concerns.
With the rise in card prices this year, I decided the ’54 set was a bit redundant, so I reached out to Greg Morris for the purpose consigning the set (with the exception of the three graded cards). I knew they could get more for the set than if I sold it myself and they didn’t disappoint.
Including shipping and excluding the Aaron, Kaline and Banks cards, I had spent about $1,500 on the set build in 2018. They did reject a few cards but the checks I received from the consignment totaled $2,820. Not a bad return after three years. Some of the cards did really well. In particular, I had purchased the Willie Mays card for $90 in 2018 (from Greg Morris) and it sold for $591 this time around! Their consignment fees may seem a little high but the higher bids they get more than make up for it and the only work on my part was shipping off the whole set at one time. Easy! After buying from Greg Morris for years, this was my first consigning experience and I would highly recommend them.
As a side note, I sent the Banks and Kaline cards to everyone’s favorite villain, PWCC. They tagged the Banks as a card with ‘top 5%’ eye appeal and it ended up selling for $1,326, way more than the average PSA 2. Those two cards sold maybe two days before they were banned from eBay.
The Aaron rookie card remains in my collection as part of a complete PSA graded run of all his regular issue Topps cards.
Comments
Nice! May I ask how long from when you mailed the set until you received the check(s)? Thanks.
Bosox1976
Hi Mike - I think the turnaround was very reasonable. I shipped the set on June 26 and it didn't take too long to list (they actually held out some of the top cards to list after they listed the majority of the set). I got the first check on August 5th and the final one on August 23.
I've had great experiences buying and selling through Greg. As you stated, his selling fees are high but that's because of the value of the reputation for selling raw cards he built up over many years. The premium he gets more than makes up for the consignment fee.
wow, their minimum consignment is $1500?
I was thinking of consigning some vintage raw cards, but the value would be nowhere near that unfortunately
IMF
25% of final auction value. That seems very high. Where does that rank with 4 Sharp Corners and when PWCC was selling on ebay? The minimum consignment of $1500 keeps the riff raff out. No volume, just dollars.
25% is high, but you figure there is more effort and risk for GM since we are strictly talking about raw cards.. (would be bs if that is what they charge on GM2 for graded stuff). They have to almost analyze each card to give an estimated condition grade and then have to deal with returns when peeps say the condition or photos didn't match what they got (GM doesn't post very high res pics, I'd say more like mid-res, still zooms, but not that much since he has a lot of background in his pics)
I consigned over 1900 cards to Greg Morris in late 2020. Included were: 1955 Bowman baseball master set (high grade), 1967 Topps baseball partial set with graded stars (469/609), 76 1962 Post Cereal football, 600+ star raw baseball cards (mainly from 1960s), etc.
Without going into detail, here are my thoughts:
The prices received for my cards were fantastic, as he got much higher prices for my cards (stars and especially commons) than I could have ever received had I listed them myself. In my opinion, any seller deciding to list cards like this themselves rather than consign to Greg Morris is making an unwise decision.
The time and labor that I saved by not listing 1900+ cards individually and having to deal with buyers, shipping, etc., was well worth the 25% commission.
They listed all cards very quickly after receiving them.
They "lost" over 200 of my cards at one point, and I spent hours reviewing their listings to locate my missing cards. For some reason, they had listed the cards under another consignor. They blamed the error on short staff due to Covid, which might have been true. They told me that I would be compensated if the cards were not located, but, fortunately, my efforts led them to recover all cards and properly credit the sales to my account.
I did consign some graded cards that were part of the 1955 Bowman and 1967 Topps sets. They sold those under their GM2 name, and the prices received were very acceptable.
For some unknown reason, they returned 12 or so cards to me. They gave no explanation, and I am certain the cards were not trimmed and would have brought good prices. I eventually listed these on eBay myself and sold all very easily.
I tried to consign 250 or so 1961-63 Post Cereal baseball cards and 50-75 1939-46 Exhibits, all including stars, when I consigned the other cards, but I was told that due to staff shortage, they were not selling lots and would not accept these for consignment. This did not make sense to me, I later sold the Exhibits myself without any trouble, but I know they could have sold the cards for me and they would have brought higher prices.
Between the stars cards returned to me and the Post Cereal and Exhibit lots that were refused, I felt like I lost a little by having to sell them myself and Greg Morris lost some fees.
Payments to me were timely made.
I would consign to Greg Morris again should the occasion arise. They are as reliable as you can find, and the prices your cards will receive is the best.
David
Always looking for Mantle cards such as Stahl Meyer, 1954 Dan Dee, 1959 Bazooka, 1960 Post, 1952 Star Cal Decal, 1952 Tip Top Bread Labels, 1953-54 Briggs Meat, and other Topps, Bowman, and oddball Mantles.
DId you pay 25% on the graded cards as well?
1500.00 is there more to this? Like 1500 but needs to be 100 or less cards. Or can someone say I’ll send 1,000,000 1987 topps cards that are worth a total of 1500.11. Joking but also serious. I guess he charges a flat fee of .50 a listing(?) so they need to be more than that I guess.
This. He has to accurately authenticate AND grade before listing. And because he does, his buyers trust the process. So the 25% might seem high but considering you are saving on grading fees, and his cards sell for close to graded prices, it's a pretty good deal.
I believe they do charge 50 cents plus 25% for items that sell below $5.
I also had a similar experience as David (Judgebuck) above in that some cards were rejected. They told me they were sending back roughly 37 cards but I only received 17. The other 20 never showed up but they gave me $100 for those cards. This was above and beyond and shows what a class operation they are. Those lower grade cards may have sold for $3 each or so and netted me no more than $30 after fees. The rejects that I did get back were sold as a lot on eBay (described as 'maybe VG' with creases mentioned and netted me $22 after ebay fees.
@judgebuck said: I did consign some graded cards that were part of the 1955 Bowman and 1967 Topps sets. They sold those under their GM2 name, and the prices received were very acceptable.DId you pay 25% on the graded cards as well?
Yes, I did pay 25% commission for the graded ones as well. I should have negotiated a lower fee on those. Or, I should have consigned those to PWCC. I actually was unaware that the graded cards would be sold under another name (GM2).
Always looking for Mantle cards such as Stahl Meyer, 1954 Dan Dee, 1959 Bazooka, 1960 Post, 1952 Star Cal Decal, 1952 Tip Top Bread Labels, 1953-54 Briggs Meat, and other Topps, Bowman, and oddball Mantles.
Yeah, that was a bit of a bum deal for the graded.
He definitely needs a different commission structure on graded. Have had a few offers accepted on his graded buy it nows and if the consigner was paying 25% then they did not do well. If he changes commission structure and can staff up for the simpler process of listing graded cards he could take some of the PWCC business. If he is charging 25% then he will not.