Selling 1965 topps set

Wayne8348

I hope that you can help me with advice. I think I'm going to go ahead and sell my 1965 topps baseball set. The set is the only 1965 set in existence complete with every card in psa 8 or better. I've taken it as far as I can and I have begun to pursue other sets so I've decided to let it go.

1965 set

I have several questions. I prefer to sell all at once and with that being said should I try ebay first and see what happens? Or should I start with an auction house such as Mastro or Superior? What do you guys recommend? I know Vargha sold his in pieces and did very well but I can't see doing that. Any help would be appreciated. I guess the thrill of the chase is more fun than owning a complete set for me. I had so much fun building it and just hate to let it go. But to pursue another set plus payoff a house loan I have it's really the best thing to do.

Thanks,

Wayne

mikeschmidt

My suggestion:

Determine what your "target price" is for this set. Add 15% to that selling price. Contact the major collectors that you probably know (e.g., Charlie Merkel, John Branca and Davalillo would be three that should be easy to contact). Tell them of your desire to sell the set, ask them if they are interested (before telling them the price), and proceed from there if there is a level of interest.

If that does not pan out -- go through Mastro. Though I like Superior a lot -- part of me thinks that a lot of the high $$$ collectors follow Mastro auctions more closely than Superior. If you go through either of them, negotiate a favorable consignment fee (e.g., less than their normal rates).

If you can reach your target price without going through an auction house, I'd say go for it. Though in theory the set may go for more in a major auction than in a private sale -- the buying and selling fee % makes it much harder to make up the difference.


Wayne: For what it's worth, you built an amazing set -- and I am sure it will be difficult to let it go.

Finally -- time may be of the essence. Since MastroNet is auctioning off a superior set to yours -- at the very least, that will set a theoretical ceiling on the value of your set -- and it will also take out a very significant bidder on your set if your set goes to the table after the Mastro set.

gtbeaker

Wayne- Absolutely gorgeous set you have amassed! I wish I had the available funds to take it off your hands. It's a shame you wouldn't be willing to break it up (although it's very understandable), since I'm very interested in your NL HR Leaders.

As far as your questions go, I would personally try to sell it myself on eBay first. If you don't get the price you're looking for, then I'd do with one of the larger auction houses. I know some people who have done it both ways, and I don't think you can go wrong either way.

I completely agree with you that the "chase" is half the fun. I know I personally get a major rush when I bid on a card I need for one of my player sets. Maybe I should seek some professional help!

Basilone

Wayne-

Best of Luck with the sale of your mighty 1965 set. I would try Ebay first as the cost is minimal. I would also attempt to contact some of the big name collectors (you know...the BIG NAMES). They might not have an interest but it cannot hurt to try. Since you have a good number PSA 9's in your set...another possibility would be to sell those off separately then auction off a large lot of 8's on either Ebay or through a auction house. It all depends what you want to get out of the set. Do you want to break even? make a couple of bucks? or take a hit and consider it "sunk costs"? That is the decision you will have to make. I know that you have made an incredible investment in your set (Ive been following it since Feb.) and wish you all the best.

John

anjcollection

Wayne,
As I told you before, amazing accomplishment. I agree with you that the chase is more fun than owning the completed set. I would suggest selling the higher end singles on ebay. I'm interested in a bunch of them and would rather bid on single lots (hence, driving up the price for you!) Then, sell the commons in lots, or take them to an auction house. Superior often runs those kinds of lots in the back pages of their auctions.

Either way, congrats on the set!

Yzerman19C

Wayne

You may want to contact Harvey who owns WWW.AJCARDS.COM. , I know he is working on that set and paying very strong prices. Being that he is a full time dealer it may make sense for him to purchase the full set and sell off the extras on his website or ebay

dude

Wayne,

Wow! I'm surprised to read this. But as mentioned by other collectors, the chase can be more fun than owning the set.

I agree that selling directly to some of the hobby heavyweights is the best way to go. After that, it's not real certain what's the best way to go. Selling it through a major auction house can be risky as we saw earlier this year. Breaking it up and making direct sales on with the other '65 collectors will move the lower pop cards (like Vargha did with his '51 Bowman set), but I'm not sure how you'll do on the higher pop cards.

You know that if you any assistance in consigning all or part of it, I'd be happy to help.

Good luck!

Dan

Wayne8348

Thanks for the input everyone. I spoke with Mastronet about their next auction in December just a few minutes ago and Louis was very helpful. He was willing to work with on the fee but I have to decide right away because the auction is in December. In fact, he would need to know this week so I wouldn't have any time to pursue any other avenues.

Yzerman, I bought several cards from AJ and I may contact him about the set. He's very good to work.

Mike, Everything you said makes perfect sense - thanks.

What do you guys think the market would be for 500 psa 8's sold as a lot if I was to sell of the 9's individually or as a group?

Wayne

LloydsBaseballCards

Wayne, what an amazing set! When building it, roughly, what % were graded by you, ebay purchases, and found by dealers for you?

Davalillo

Wayne,

You would be crazy to have an auction house do the set. Look at what Carlos realized net versus smr and Superior is one of the best. Start with 15% buyers fee, add to that what they would charge you and look at what you would have to make up! With a little work you should be able to realize at least smr for the set. I will start by paying you a negotiated premium for the 200 or so cards I need in the set. I'm sure other collectors would do the same. You could put the remaining cards on ebay. Contact David Vargha. He did much better than smr on his set.
I am ready to make you an offer tonight if you e-mail me at jdc122@aol.com.

Davalillo

qualitycards

WAYNE! - Say it ain't so? As I fight back the tears, you were the inspiration to all us '65 collectors.
As far as your liquadation on the set, you have a few options as discussed in the posts before mine. Zeder so far has done real well in the singles he has chosen, he has sold about half his set at great prices. Last night's auctions went thru the roof, an unlisted leader card #9 went for $150, #266 Campaneris with a Pop of 39 hit $90.66 and so on. McCovey, Mathews, Ford & Killebrew went way over SMR as well. Yes he will hit the wall with the high pop commons, but I imagine when all said and done, he will exceed the amount then if he sold it in 1 shot. As SCHMIDTTY said, figure your price for the set, and see if its worthwhile to piecemeal it. Remember all the tough cards that are listed as $18.00 commons, Bond, Javier, Blasingame etc... That a full set buyer will not add any extra to the mix. Also keep in mind to make a 1 shot sale of say $25,-$30,000. You will have the tax man to consider. But selling individually, you may not.
Anyway, I personally know of 1 set builder who would love to take 125 cards off your hands Email or phone and I can walk you through the Pro's and Con's of every scenerio....jay

mikeschmidt

Wayne -- 500 PSA 8's as a lot would in all likelihood go to a dealer who would probably in turn break it up on Ebay. I think the only way that a collector would go after it is if it had either a) a ton of low population PSA 8's or b) could be attained for a significant (e.g., 10 - 20%) discount of SMR.

Just my thoughts of course. Good luck with whatever course you take -- it does seem like quite an amazing set.

MS

theBobs

Wayne, this is a sad day for the 65ers. I will give you a call tonight to discuss my experience in selling 65s. I was able to get a 85% on PSA 8 commons that were above 10+ in POP.

Wayne8348

Lloyds,

I would guess that about 65% of my set was ebay purchases, about 10% from raw cards I submitted, about 20% from dealers, and 5% from other 1965 collectors who were just incredible in helping me out. Hitting 100% felt like winning the World Series. Anyways, I have received offers already and i really appreciate everyone's help.

wayne

toppsgun

I withdraw the offer.

Wayne8348

I guess that I can go ahead and post now but my 65 set is sold. Mastronet purchased the entire set for what I felt like was a very fair price. I didn't have to worry about breaking it up and trying to sell all of the high pop cards individually and that was definitely a big bonus. He may be splitting up the set and selling pieces or auctioning it off in it's entirety. If anyone has interest in a large lot of cards please contact Louis Bollman. I'm sure he will be upgrading his set with the cards he needs and substituting his others into my set. Hopefully it worked out well for both of us.

Toppsgun, I'm sorry I didn't respond back to you sooner but this was already pretty much done and I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure. He looked at the collection today and decided to take it.

Thanks everyone for the help. I had thought about selling for a while and I guess the moment struck me and I decided to go ahead and do it. I'm sure there will be many days that I regret selling it but it puts me in position to do some things that I really wanted to do. Thanks again for all of the help and look out Brian - I'm coming at you for the top spot on the 74's.

Wayne

GATOR5

Wayne,

Sounds great, at least you don't have to go through the rift raft.
Awesome accoplishment I must say....Sounds like you did what
you thought was right...


Toppgun,

I'm sitting on 200+ 8's if interested lmk rmorse@accn.org.

Matt

pc

can you clue us in as to % of smr you realized
give or take abit?.just a ballpark would be a helpful
reference,thanks.

theBobs

Congrats Wayne. Nicely done.

Wayne8348

It sold 100% of smr at about $28,700.

wayne

dude

Wayne,

Considering that many PSA 8 commons only sell for 50-75% of SMR, you did FANTASTIC! Congratulations!

pc

<< <i>It sold 100% of smr at about $28,700.

wayne >>



WOW...excellent!congratulations and thanks for the reply.

Vargha

Excellent job. I jumped on here too late, but I would advise set sellers to sell directly to other collectors first if you have the time and patience to do so. Selling the PSA 9's in exchange for cash and the respective PSA 8 card is also a great way to make money and still have a complete set.

KING KELLOGG

Congratulations Wayne!!!

toppsgun

Wayne,

No apology necessary. You did the right thing. I wouldn't have paid 100% of SMR. Ask scant. It will be interesting to see how much Mastro's GPA/set rating increases. I would have thought the both of you had many of the same card in equal grade. The fact that he paid 100% tells me he must have seen some cards he needed to upgrade.

Dang, "upgrade a 8.5 set." That sounds like a summer vacation in the Hamptons.

Wayne8348

Toppsgun,

Actually I believe he needed quite a few. I had all of the very low pop cards in psa 9 while mastronet had all of the star cards in psa 9. I also had quite a few low pop 9's that he will upgrade. So this will bring his set up to all psa 8 or better (with the emphasis on mostly better) and should increase his set rating a decent amount. He still had 7 psa 7's and 1 psa 6 in the set. If he upgrade (I didn't count) but maybe 30 cards to psa 9 then 35 - 40 points would upgrade the set perhaps .05 to 8.63 or so plus he still has a high grade complete set to auction or sell individually. The low pop's have been very pricey lately with a psa 8 charlie smith selling for $325 last month and others bringing over $100 apiece in psa 8 for commons. So even though the high pop's aren't selling well I think that the smr is accurate (at least for the 65's) when looking at the set as a whole.

wayne

theBobs

<< <i>I wouldn't have paid 100% of SMR. Ask scant. >>

True dat, true dat.


<< <i>with a psa 8 charlie smith selling for $325 last month >>

Wow. Makes your Charlie Smith acquisition sound like a bargain! Seriously, Wayne, make sure your set is deleted in such a manner that it stays in the All Time Best Ranks...

theBobs

What pricing did you use for the 10s?