1991 Topps Desert Shield Complete Set - what is a good price?

frankhardy

I have the opportunity to buy a 1991 Topps Desert Shield Complete Set in person. This person lives about 250 miles. I think he would meet me half way. He said his bottom dollar is $1800. He put the set together when he returned from Iraq in the early 90's. It has been in a deposit box ever since. He said is in NM to NMMT condition. Is $1800 too much? I would be buying it to resell. I was thinking that they only went for around $1000. Can anybody confirm?

CDsNuts

If corners are sharp all the way through and you could pull some 10s. That's the only way.

Brian48

10's are so scarce, 9's is most likely the best you can hope for with a ton of 8's tossed in. In any case, the price he's asking for in RAW form is very reasonable assuming that most of the cards is NMMT. I'd ask if the cards where kept in a binder or box. Personally, I'd feel better if they were boxed since there's no telling the quality of plastic pages he may have used. Cards kept that long in crap pages containing pvc tend to yellow just like the page itself.

saucywombat

Thats a little more than 2.25 a card - seems fair if not outstanding. I'm sure plenty of folks who collect the set would pay that price.

frankhardy

With my experience (be it little) with 1991 Desert Shield, I told him that there was no way that I could go $1,800. I told him that I would consider $1,000. He reconsidered and said that he would do the $1,000. What do y'all think? How much should the condition of the Chipper Jones be considered? Should that make or break the deal? Thoughts?

frankhardy

I may have just answered my own question. There was on completed set on Ebay. The reserve was not met, but the price got bid up to $1525.

jmbkb4

I think $1,800 is a little high.

CDsNuts

Overall:

Mint- $2000
NM/MT- $1200-$1300
NM- $500-700

clayshooter22

Shane,

Not in a million years!!

The sales, when these even sell, are less than $1000 in NM/MT. I know two people who have been trying to sell their NM/MT sets and cannot get $1000. These have been offered both on and off ebay. One broke down and sold for $750.

If you want to grade and resell than the set better be 25-50% GEM MINT with nothing under PSA 9. $1800 is a dream.

In the last year PSA 10 commons have gone from $130 to $25. I would not touch this set with a ten foot pole unless I knew for certain that the cards were MINT or better. If you want a cheap set I might be able to get you into a NM/MT set for $800-1000. I think a fair price for a NMMT set is in this range. If the star players are MINT than maybe $1000+. Almost every star card would have to be GEM for me to even consider $1500.

Think about it, what would you pay for a PSA 9 common? Half of them don't sell for $9.99 now. Between grading fees and eBay fees you might make $1 per common if they grade PSA 9 while losing $3-4 from every 8. PSA 10's will make money but from my experience I only get about 2 PSA 10's per 25 nice subs. Back when I was getting +$100 for PSA 10's it made sense, now...no way. Tom Cooper sold a bunch of PSA 10's this Dec/Jan and he averaged $30 each!!

I have tons of cards that I can get you into for cheap if you want to chase a few stars down and build a set.

Mike

clayshooter22

<< <i>Overall:

Mint- $2000
NM/MT- $1200-$1300
NM- $500-700 >>



Lee,

6 months ago I would have agreed but this set has lost ground as demand has dried up in the last few months. Take 25% off these numbers and I agree.

Mike

frankhardy

Not trying to dispute you at all, but what are your thoughts on this?

1991 Desert Shield Set

Did it go that high because he claimed it was full of 10's? Somebody can claim that all day long, and I wouldn't bid with that in mind. To me, if I was wanting to bid, I would bid on that as if it is a nice set, but not like it's full of 10's. I would probably consider it NMMT. I would say most everybody else would do the same.

Just wondering your thoughts on it.

CDsNuts

caly- You're the expert so I'll have to defer to you. It's like the set caught a head of steam around the time SMR ran that article. I remeber busting a dozen wax packs and selling PSA 10 commons for over $100, and getting $15-$20 for PSA 9 commons. I didn't pull one high grade star and still made money on the break. I guess it was only inevitable that it would come down to earth.

clayshooter22

Yeah, November of 2006 the pop report was at 8000 total cards and almost every common was low pop.

I remember sending in 50-100 card lots and making 100-200% of my gradiing fees. Back then you could get 10-20 for 9's. Today...lucky to get $10. With 4SC submitting about 1000 a month for the last year the pop report has more than doubled and there is no such thing as a low pop common anymore.

Some 1/1 PSA 10's still comand big dollars but most do not. There was about 5 guys really buying these up in early 07, enough to push the PSA 10's above $100, now there might be one of those guys left. I know 4 guys by name and we traded cards between us for hundreds of dollars. I was the only one submitting and they would beg me to sell the 10's to them without going through ebay, lol. I sold many 1/1 and 1/2's for $130-$150. Last month there were some that received a single bid at $24.99!!!

I have three sets but I have one raw set about 80% w no stars and about NM/MT that you can have for cheap. I have about .50 to $1 a card into it and you can have it for what I put into it if you want to try to build one.

They key to buying any set like this is getting the star cards in the rght condition. You might not need a mint Ryan which might set you back $100 but instead you want a GEM Thomas for <$100. This way you can upgrade if you want or just go cheap on all but your favs.

Mike

btw, how do I explain the set you linked to.....SHILL SHILL SHILL. The only card pictured is the Chipper and it's miscut or dinged! No way that set would get real offers above $800 w/o seing all star cards. He only scanned one card!

SHILL
SHILL
SHILL

Edited to add: The scan on the chipper shows both edge and corner wear. No way it grades above PSA 8!

frankhardy

Interesting.

I have talked to the guy on the phone. He is supposed to be sending me some scans this evening of some of the major stars. Neither one of us want to waste a 2 hr trip. If it's not MINT, it doesn't look like I'm buying. We'll see.

Just a thought, clayshooter, you are coming from the perspective getting cards graded. What about the perspective of someone wanting a nice raw set? Would that make a difference?

mtcards

Yeah, the $1500 bid early in the auction definitely looks like a shill bid

wildjimmy

That same set is being sold again here is the link and look at the current price, granted it may go up.

topps auction

frankhardy

Clayshooter,

I forgot to mention earlier - thanks for the advice.




I think I see how it was a shill bidder. Every bidder was a number or letter, then *****, then another number or letter. Same with the new auction, although it is up to $1550 now with the reserve being met. Looks like he has some nice, hefty Ebay fees coming!

zep33

<< <i>Clayshooter,

I forgot to mention earlier - thanks for the advice.




I think I see how it was a shill bidder. Every bidder was a number or letter, then *****, then another number or letter. Same with the new auction, although it is up to $1550 now with the reserve being met. Looks like he has some nice, hefty Ebay fees coming! >>



that's just ebay's way of hiding the bidders after bids get past a certain amount of $$. That part has nothing to do with shilling

clayshooter22

There is no reason this set should have bids above $800. Three sets have been listed on ebay in the last three months and none received bids of $1000. All sets were listed as NM/MT and stars were in great shape, mostly. I say shill based on the activity. The prices on this set have been dropping like 25% in the last 3-6 months and this guy has people bidding it up above $1500...no way. I call bull $hit on this one.

The reserve was in place to solicit more bids. Dumb people will bid just trying to find where the reserve is set. People have played this game for years. Shill and wait for someone to drop a minimum bid on top of the shill. With the reserve lowered to the next highest raise above the shill...Lee knows these people at the poker table, we call em ATMs. Predictable to a fault.

Shane, If you want a nice raw set a NM set can be had for $800. There is nothing wrong with a NM set as that is still a looker. Maybe try to buy the whole set with out the stars and upgrade the stars in the condition you want. NM stars are cheap....MINT are pricey. You should be able to buy a NM set w/o stars in the $300-350 range.

Yes, I grade mine so I would pay a little more for MINT (with a chance at a 10) stars but I wouldn't even want NM/MT stars. If you don't grade then I don't see the value in a great condition raw set, but that's just me.

Mike

PS. It's your money but if you want to be able to protect the down side, the only way to really get value out of a MINT set would be to grade it.

frankhardy

I got some scans last night. All of the stars look good except for the Chipper Jones, which is the main card. It has corner wear and would only get a PSA 6 or 7. He sent it in high resolution, so I got a pretty good look. I emailed him back and told him that I could not do it with the Chipper being in that condition.

Thanks so much, Mike. I would have probably went through with the deal just because I was going on the current (and closed) Ebay auction, were it not for your advice.