Fish or Cut Bait--What do you think?

helionaut

Lately I've been upgrading my 1975 set to straight 8s fairly regularly, and I've been selling off the 7s as I replaced them. I've been thinking, though, that I should just go ahead and remove all the 7s now and sell them as a lot, maybe a "starter" set. I'd have about 65 or so, and on their own they would rank somewhere about halfway down the Current Finest list. The removal of these cards from my set would naturally drop my completion percentage and set rating down, but I'd still be ranked at about #13, but my GPA would go up to about 8.01 from 7.90. Seeing as how 8s have fallen pretty sharply in price and 7s are not even offered very much in quantity, I'm thinking now is as good a time as any to recoup a few bucks out of them. Any opinions?

Virtualizard

Do people actually buy 1975 Topps cards in PSA 7? What do you regularly get for them? I can't imagine it would be more than a dollar or two. But, to answer your question, I would say yes - dump the 7's in one lot. It seems like they'd have a better chance of selling as a nice starter set. If you list them on ebay, list them under the graded and ungraded categories - they might be something that a raw collector would be interested in.

JEB.

Vargha

If you can afford the cash flow situation, save them until you are done upgrading each one of them and then sell them as a lot. They're worth what . . . maybe $2 each anyway? I don't see the value dropping on those.

WinPitcher

what they are worth and what they will sell for are two different things. they very well may get more then 2.00 each. id list them as singles ( 10 at a time ) and see what happens... .....I know that last yr when i needed a few raw cards from that set I had to pay 4 and 5 dollars some times for decently centered cards that were billed as near mint. my 2 cents

toppsgun

Helio,

IMO, that is an excellent strategy. I've done exactly that when I get to 90% or so complete. It sort of cleans up the set, too. Gives one a new enthusiam for that stretch drive.

One slight twist you might consider before dumping the entire lot: List the singles on the trade board, or load scans into a PSA 7 partial set. You may get a few nibbles from buyers who don't need them all, but would appreciate a few.

Wabittwax

I agree. List them for sale on these boards first. They will only sell for about $2 each plus shipping. If you don't mind holding on to them for several months, wait until Ebay has a free listing day then list them all seperately so that buyers can pick which ones they like. Make sure to combine shipping when you do that though to get more bids.

Dhjacks

You may also want to consider the population and cost of the 'replacement' 8. I'd think twice about dumping my common 7 if I knew the 8 was gonna cost me several hundred bucks.

Vargha

There's no such thing in 1975 Topps PSA 8's.

Dhjacks

Vargha, you are absolutely right.

I only mentioned it because I had just finished pondering the same question with another set and that was one of the factors I considered (my set doesn't have 'several hundred dollar commons' either, but some that are really hard to come by). It looks like $15 can buy you any psa 8 in the '75 baseball though.

packCollector

I have had a lot of luck listing on the vintage trading board before going to ebay and I know they are going to good homes. If you consider the cost of listing and final value fees on cards of this price range it doesn't make sense to take 25% out in ebay fees. I would rather list them for a fair price on the board and see if someone wants to get a new addiction.

helionaut

Not all PSA 8s are real cheap, but it's much easier now than ever. A decent McEnaney 8 would still go for about $25+, and they don't come around often, so I have considered holding onto my 7 as a filler. Boog Powell, Mickey Lolich, Bert Blyleven, and Claudell Washington still get competitive bidding. But recently I've picked up the Hughes and Heidemann, what used to be the other 2 toughest 8s, for under $10 each, which is what really sparked my thinking on this. As it is, the population has grown so much that things have pretty much shaken out back to "normal" where the stars, RCs, and HOFers are back to being the most expensive cards in the set, a few anecdotal bidding wars aside. I figure that prices on 7s won't be going up and if I can trade them up or get back $2 for each common and $7.50 for stars like Killebrew and Schmidt now, then I might as well, completion percentage be darned for now. I'm on target for completing it by the end of the year or sooner, and it's getting to be worth it for at least the time it takes to remove cards before updating.

So, anyone want them?