New to the forum - need some advice

kerriberri

Hello...I'm new to the forum, although I've been reading for a while.

I have amassed a pretty big collection of football, baseball and basketball cards. The problem is that I want to sell them, but I have no idea where to start.

I have 35 three ring binders full. I have boxes and boxes of cards besides that. I have inserts as well. I do have one three ring binder full of older cards (a few Hank Aaron, Harmon Killebrew, etc.). Most are in good condition, but without grading them, I truly have no idea.

I'm a member of eBay, but it seems so overwhelming to sell each card one by one.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Kerri

willmacowski

first off, buy some plastic sleeves, and toploaders, and put any card that u think is worth anything, and any of those old superstar player cards in one (first sleeve, then toploader) . if these cards r in gradeable condition, then u should grade them, get a price (in beckett) and put them up for auction, some old superstar cards can go from 100's to 1000's of dollars on ebay. as for the rest of the cards, ask someone else, because i have no experience when it comes to dealing cards in bulk. hope i helped
-will-

kerriberri

Thank you!

I had no idea that some of the older superstars would fetch any money....I assumed it was the Aarons, McCovey's, etc....

What about grading them? Which grading service is better to use for the older cards?

Thank you,

Kerri

willmacowski

i have never personally graded any cards, but have come to understand that psa, and bgs are the best, most reliable grading services, bgs seems to be tougher to get a high grade.

phreakydancin

BGS is not considered reputable by many, especially with regards to vintage issues. They are "tough", but many believe them to have issues catching trim jobs. For modern issues (1980s to present) BGS graded cards fetch the best prices on the open market, but for vintage I would consider PSA, SGC and GAI before BGS.

kerriberri

Thanks!

What about the bulk cards? For a while, I was putting together sets....I have many completed sets, but of course I have many extra cards of those sets....many superstars, inserts, etc. I'm not quite sure what to do with those.

phreakydancin

One more thing: avoid BCCG like the plague. It is not a proper grading service.

DirtyHarry

Start by narrowing your focus to one sport. Then, further narrow that to a couple of years. Get your reference material together (ie - Beckett, SMR, Tough Stuff, whatever) and then start making decisions on what cards you have identified as valuable. Next, go to Ebay and see what the market is bearing on these cards. List a few cards ungraded and see what you get. If you feel you have some cards in exemplary condition, submit to PSA for grading. If you go thru the rude awakening that your cards are not in the Mint condition that you thought they were, go back to listing your desireable cards on Ebay in ungraded condition . Sell lots on commons and inserts. Repeat the process. No new magic in this reply, good luck.

kerriberri

Dirtyharry,

Thanks! I will do that.

Kerri

mintluster

If you want to move the entire collection quickly:

Sell the ENTIRE collection as one big group on eBay.

Start by picking up a Beckett and pricing out everything.

Then come up with a realistic price to sell the collection for (example: if it's "worth" $5,000 in the guide, you will not get $5,000 for it, especially if they are all raw cards).

Then throw it all on eBay with some nice scans highlighting the best cards and descriptions of everything else.

Add a reserve price so you ensure someone doesn't get your entire collection for $1.

You should have no problem doing it this way and it will be quick and easy. Any other way will require a lot more of your time and research.

mintluster

Plus post the eBay here so members here can go look and maybe even bid.

Before you do the eBay thing maybe you can post your description and scans on here first.

You may get some interest.

I have posted here prior to eBay and have sold several cards and coins.

kerriberri

This weekend is when I'm going to try and tackle them. The books will be easy to take photos of, it's just the 3,000 count boxes that is gonna be the hard part. LOL

There's a card show every weekend and Wednesday where I live. I was going to take the cards (esp. the 1970's) and have the rep. from Becketts or PSA take a look at them.

I will post some of the photos here this weekend to get your feedback.

Thank you...

metsfan

Kerri:
What years are the cards from? I would break them down by sport first,then by year. You will really have to some research before listing them. I wouldn't list them in one big lot, as you will usually get much less $ for them. Whatever you do don't be hasty.

kerriberri

Metsfan:

I have a wide range of dates. Some from the 70's, but most from the mid-late 90's. I put up an auction selling my black diamond doubles and triples....sort of just testing the waters. I don't know how to link to the ebay auction, but my name there is kerri_berri_2004...

Hopefully with a little practice, I'll get the hang of selling.

PlayBall

If your not sure of the value of many of your cards, you may want to do specific E-Bay searches of completed items to see what the cards have been going for in the last 30 days. While the prices on late 70's and newer can be very volatile, at least you'll have a starting point.

If your looking to move cards quickly, try putting together player lots. For example, put an Emmitt Smith RC (as the focal point) to get buyers to view the auction, and throw in 20 or more of the more worthless cards into the lot. This moves a decent chunk at one time, without losing your shirt. It also saves you 20 or more listing fees. Many player collectors on this board amass a huge amount of raw cards, so they can go through them and pick out the finest examples for grading, so they can be added to their registered sets.

As for your older superstar cards (Aaron, Killebrew, etc...), you can check PSA's published standards on this website to give you an idea of what each grade looks like. If you have no experience with grading, whatever you think it is, you can likely deduct two grades from that and you'll have a more realistic grade. If they truly are EX-MT or above, you should probably get them graded. Buyers tend to shy away from highend raw superstar cards, because of the large amount of altered cards on the market. If the cards are EX or below, then you can just sell them raw. Lower grades are more "believable" that they haven't been tampered with.

Just some random thoughts.