Some advice for thinning out collection please

StrikeOutXXX

Greetings all,

I'm one of those who has kept 4-5 rubbermaid totes of cards from when I was a kid for up to 25 or so years. I know 99% of them are literally worthless, with the other 1% almost worthless and time has come to quit moving these things around. These are mostly baseball and football from mid 70's though about late 80's with a few misc stuff in the 90's and a little hockey and basketball mixed in for the sports stuff. Most of them are in great shape and were stored in card pages in binders or those cardboard card holder boxes.

The stuff I get rid of I'll either donate to a local youth club, give out some at halloween, or find something creative. The ones I keep will hopefully fit in only one tub or less and will probably collect more dust for another 20 or so years.

My question is basically on how to decide what to keep? If I just take a Beckett and keep all the single cards that are listed, is that about the best way to go? I figure I'll keep the few boxed sets and unopened packs and such, but for the 25,000 or so loose cards, is the becket method about the best? Given the age of these, I doubt any more superstars will pop up that aren't listed in the magazines today.

Appreciate any advice you can give.

Jeff

yankeeno7

Jeff I have no advice for you but I have to comment on your sigline pics of your Golden Retrievers. Your pups are beautiful!

Mine unfortunately passed away last year. She was the best dog I ever had. One day I'll get another but now is not the time.

Just want to say thanks for those pics...I have a great appreciation for Goldens and love seeing the pics.

jimq112

go thru them and keep what you like. chances are that most of what you have aren't going to be worth the big money unless the name is real obvious to you - marino, montana, payton, ripken etc. Keep the ones you don't want to regret getting rid of later. don't even look at the beckett till you're done there.

that should cut down a bit, then see what's left and see if it's worth listing some on ebay, maybe bigger names that you didn't really like all that much.

when you're done, put the rest on ebay and see what it goes for.

just my opinion but keep anything where it gets a smile. Even a $0.10 card can be a good card in the right hands!

Downtown1974

You could also take what you have and create a focus on what you collect. For example, go through and just keep all of the HOFers and players you know that will be in the HOF. Or keep your favorite teams. Just my 2 cents.

StrikeOutXXX

yankeeno7 - Thanks, they're my babies. Mama is 4 now and the lighter one in the avitar/left sig pic is one of her pups from the right sig pic and is 2 now. Goldies certainly are special, sorry to hear about yours.

jimq112 - Good advice, I flipped into a few holder pages and there is a '78 Keith Hernandez, 81 Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton and a '85 Nolan Ryan staring back at me - none listed in the Beckett, so that method may not work. Names from my era I probably wouldn't want to ditch even if they're monetarily worthless, so I may have to rethink the Beckett thing. I think the last Beckett I bought was early 90's, but I remember 50+ names listed for each year, not just a couple and it seems they are primarily just the rookie cards now that they consider valuable... Times have changed. If I go that route, is there a better value source to separate the wheat from the chaff?

Downtown1974 - The problem is I don't really collect them any more and at this point don't really want to assemble much of anything sports card-wise, most of my energy is chasing down coins and antiques. I figured I'd just keep whatever might be worth something in 20 years to give the kids and get rid of the dead weight basically. My wife yells at me to move them every few years and I'm running out of spots in the house

I considered eBay, but it seems if it isn't graded it isn't useful, and most of these probably aren't worth grading anyhow, just not quite old enough for the most part. OK, I have half a dozen PMs to answer, guess I was looking for the magic answer, but I'm thinking there just isn't one. Maybe I'll put everything the Beckett gods feel inclined to list in one folder and the rest of my favorites in another and try that.

Thanks

Uncbob

Go through all the sets and cleam out the All Start Teams--30 HR --100 rbi -- 300 hitters--20 gamewinners--era leaders--SO leaders--save leaders --golden glovers --MVPs for each years and make labels for the categories and put them in CardSavers
Give the rest away

colebear

<< <i>Greetings all,

I'm one of those who has kept 4-5 rubbermaid totes of cards from when I was a kid for up to 25 or so years. I know 99% of them are literally worthless, with the other 1% almost worthless and time has come to quit moving these things around. These are mostly baseball and football from mid 70's though about late 80's with a few misc stuff in the 90's and a little hockey and basketball mixed in for the sports stuff. Most of them are in great shape and were stored in card pages in binders or those cardboard card holder boxes.

The stuff I get rid of I'll either donate to a local youth club, give out some at halloween, or find something creative. The ones I keep will hopefully fit in only one tub or less and will probably collect more dust for another 20 or so years.

My question is basically on how to decide what to keep? If I just take a Beckett and keep all the single cards that are listed, is that about the best way to go? I figure I'll keep the few boxed sets and unopened packs and such, but for the 25,000 or so loose cards, is the becket method about the best? Given the age of these, I doubt any more superstars will pop up that aren't listed in the magazines today.

Appreciate any advice you can give.

Jeff >>



Holy awesome sig. line!!!!!!!!! Truly cool

As far as the cards, you could sell them as lots or if you want to get rid of them quickly sell them as a whole. What are the highlights of your collection?