Disposing of old collection.
cladking
Posts: 28,656 ✭✭✭✭✭
A friend recently acquired a collection of cards (mostly baseball) assembled in the 1990's. Most of the cards are older but I doubt there are many if any of the rarities. All the cards are in excellent to virtually perfect condition. There are several thousand.
I'm looking for advice on how they can be sold. The collection is in NW Indiana. The owner is aware that these require extensive effort to sell and not to expect eBay prices.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Tempus fugit.
0
Comments
any pictures?
IMF
You are going to have to supply more information than that if you want a good answer.
From what you have said, throwing them away is probably the smartest thing to do.
Other than that, someone would have to go through each card individually, looking for rookies or perhaps an error card or two that might have value.
Cards "acquired" during the 1990's are pretty worthless unless they were vintage cards. I am assuming they were from the 1990's, so nothing much is going to be worth much.
I have recently done this with my cards and unless you enjoy sorting through thousands of commons to find a $50.00(?) card, it's beyond mind numbing.
Thanks guys.
I'll see about getting some pictures. I might take a while.
The collector preferred older cards and most are older. He also cared about pristine even back then. I think a great number of these are going to be 10 or $20 cards but tough sells.
Older?
Assuming cards "assembled" in the 90s = cards made in the 90s, your toss out advice may be close, but i don't think I'd ever advise anyone to do that, even as a joke.
Assuming cards "assembled" in the 90s = guy buying old cards when they were much cheaper and easier to find would obviously make that horrible advise.
You are right though, more info is needed.
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If "several thousand" means between two and about ten thousand, and the collection is in NW Indiana, then it might be worth bringing them in to Baseball Card Exchange https://bbcexchange.com and ask them to take a quick glance at them to see if they're worth anything. Bear in mind that this is not BBCE's main area of focus, so it's going to be a perfunctory glance, but should give you an idea if you're looking at $50 or $50,000. They may even make a (very fair) offer.
I want to add, the sentiment that cards from the 90s have no value is definitely not true. early 90s, yes, true. mostly. But the rare insert/parallel market for the 90s is very strong. for baseball, basketball and football. the rarest, most desireable will sell for hundreds if not thousands.
Check for Mirror Gold's, PMG, Crusades, Refractors etc.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
My very first comment says to get good advice, you need to supply more/better information. At this point, we have nothing to go on.
The OP has almost 28,000 posts and I assume knows something about collecting? Coins aren't that much different than cards, valuable ones are few and far between.
I recently moved into a small house and decided to go through my cards.
I had about 10,000 cards (maybe more) starting with some 1986 Topps and running through about 1992 from various companies. This included 15 or so unopened factory sets 1989-1991, (unfortunately no 1989 Upper Deck) so I knew I had some good rookies that should have been in nm/mt condition. None of the cards were high end, Tiffany type cards. No "Traded" sets, but a couple of sets like Donruss "rookies", and 3 1987 Fleer Glossy sets.
I pulled the rookie and HOF players out and set aside the commons. Then I looked at the cards I was excited about; Griffey, Bonds, Thomas, Bo, Sosa, McGwire etc.
Checking eBay sold items, I saw that these cards are worthless unless graded a "10".
Then I went through the "good" cards, centering and print spots eliminating about 80-90%.
I have sent many cards into PSA and get a LOT of 9's and a few 10's, (10% or so) some 8's and very few below.
Grading fees and eBay costs made me decide that a card would have to be worth at least $50.00 in a PSA 10 in order to submit, 9's would be at best a break even and usually a money losing proposition.
I certainly have a few cards worth submitting. I ENJOYED going through the cards and spent a lot of time doing so.
Now if the original poster can let us know what decade the cards are from ("older" tells us nothing), my advice may very well change, but at this point, it's a waste of time speculating.
Not a criticism of the OP, but if you can't take the time to go through your cards, throw them away.
I also have gone through thousands of my cards with the same experience. A few inserts and HOF Rookies were pulled out for potential grading and very few were submitted.
If you have a job making $25/hr then you're likely better off working and having BBCE do what they do best. The time and aggravation it MAY save you would likely be worth IMO if these are 90s cards which still has yet to be determined. I'll send DM/PM to the OP to have him fill us in.
Very much agree with this statement. While other eras are taking a hit the 90s insert market is still very strong. One of my most valuable cards is a 98 Purple Donruss Crusade Griffey
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Might even be a 52 Mantle in there!
That's an older card.
Actually, there's a better chance that a '52 Mantle is in there compared to the '98 Purple Donruss Crusade Griffey. There's 100 of the Griffey's and thousands of the '52 Mantles.
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EXACTLY!
If you are looking/hoping for some 1 in a 100,000 card, roll up your sleeves, go through the cards and be prepared to not find it.
Have your friend drive the cards to BBCE in Schererville iN.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
"All the cards are in excellent to virtually perfect condition"
not picking on the OP, but if I had a nickel for every time I heard or read that only to find nothing even approaches a PSA7 I'd easily have $100 in nickels.
It's the singer not the song - Peter Townshend (1972)
Afternoon,
I've seen a couple posters mention to take them to BBCE. What service is Steve offering for nearly worthless collections in the thousands of card I'm not aware of?
Thanks
YeeHaw!
Neil
I wasn't aware BBCE was in the collection appraising business.
Are you talking about yourself ? verse his cards ?
No, I agree completely. But he does buy cards, so I thought he or one of his staff might spent one to five minutes glancing through a monster box or two to see if there is anything that warrants looking further or just recycling. And they are in the same part of the country. And Steve has an impeccable reputation for integrity. No other dealer would I be 100% confident to be straight with the OP.