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Alright, Here Is The Deal on My Set

As I mentioned earlier, I sold my 1949 Bowman set to Ron Hobbs to pay for some cards in my 1951 set. Here are the details, as promised.

I bought #31 Campanella PSA 9 - SMR $2,500 ($4,500), #232 Nellie Fox (R) PSA 9 - SMR $1,700 ($1,500) and #253 Mantle PSA 8 - SMR $22,500 ($17,500). Total price paid $23,500.

I sold my 1949 set for $18,200, including a wrapper, my PSA 6 Mantle for $3,395, my PSA 8 Campanella for $550 and PSA 8 Fox for $435. Total sales price $22,580.

Here is the link to the Mantle picture (thanks to Mike Castaldi for hosting it):

Mantle

I have since picked up two more PSA 8's from dealers, bringing my total down to eight that I need. My set rating is really 8.05 (not the 8.20 it claims). The rating gets out of whack every time I update the set. I have two questions that I would appreciate any feedback on (you can e-mail me if you like) -- 1.) Should I make what cards I have available for viewing? 2.) I still need to sell my 1949 Bowman PCL set. I was thinking of taking out a large ad in SCD with descriptions and minimum asking price for the set or for individual cards. I am not wanting to go the Mastro route and eat 30% in buyer's fees. I have already listed it once on eBay and only got some lowball bids (the high bid was something like $3,000). What do you folks recommend I do? I would like to sell this thing within the next 90 days if possible. Thanks for your answers in advance.

Comments

  • aconteaconte Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭
    Vargha,

    The SCD sounds like a good idea. How come you didn't try breaking it up on ebay? Is that too
    time consuming? I would think you would maximize your income that way? I guess ninety
    days doesn't leave much time for individual sales.

    Any bites in the dealer circuit?

    Either way good luck. I think your Mantle is very nice too.

    Good Luck,

    aconte
  • thegemmintmanthegemmintman Posts: 3,101 ✭✭
    David - these are tough questions to answer because there are no sure fire answers, but here it goes...

    Regarding showing your grades - The Board has discussed this a few times, and there are advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that people will see what you need and may e-mail you. The disadvantage is the same, people will see what you need and "play games with you".

    Taking an ad out in the SCD is worth a try. In the ad, rather than flat out advertise the cards for sale, why don't you advertise the fact that you will be breaking up the set and putting them up for auction on Ebay. You would get tremendous exposure this way. You could advertise this for say 3-6 weeks and then have the auctions. Since you're not a regular dealer people may be more comfortable going the Ebay route. You may want to mention in the ad that interested parties who want to buy the entire 36 card set should contact you immediately. You may want to give people a heads up in the ad on how much you're seeking per card, and then you may want to use Buy it Now options and or reasonable reserves for the cards in your Ebay auctions. I'm starting to ramble, but you see my point that you can go so many ways with this.

    I would also suggest that you change the name of your set on the Registry from "David Vargha" to "For Sale". Then in the description you can give information about when the Ebay auctions are and anything else you deem worthy.

    By the way, approximately what would be a fair value for the complete set? I really have no idea. If the set is worth $5,000 then perhaps an ad in SCD is wasting your time and money. If the set is worth $20,000, well then I can easily see your doing it.
  • David - I think that at this point, you have more to gain than to lose by letting people see your set. I waited on my set until I was about 80% done. In allowing people to see what I still need, I'm hoping that the probabiliy is better that someone will contact me with cards I need, than that they will use the data against me. As far as showing scans of the cards, I have decided on mine just to show the PSA 9's, since I hope to be contiunally upgrading the PSA 8's. You might want to just show scans of the key cards that you have in PSA 8 and all of the other cards that you have in PSA 9. I know that I would love to see them.

    Jim
  • acowaacowa Posts: 945 ✭✭
    David,

    With regards to selling...I would go EBAY. I know that you tried this once already...but someone will meet your reserve on it eventually. I honestly don't think that putting the ad in SCD will do much for you. I get more disappointed with each issue.

    As far as the 1951 Bowman set goes...I would love to see you put scans of the cards up. My guess is they're all low population cards anyways. Thus, they're going to be expensive no matter how you slice it.

    Regards,


    Alan
  • theBobstheBobs Posts: 1,136 ✭✭
    You can relist the set for free on ebay. I would do that while planning what to do should it not sell...
    Where have you gone Dave Vargha
    CU turns its lonely eyes to you
    What's the you say, Mrs Robinson
    Vargha bucks have left and gone away?

    hey hey hey
    hey hey hey
  • qualitycardsqualitycards Posts: 2,811 ✭✭✭
    David, I agree with Brian, put that set back on eBay, no fee to re-list if it sells, if not your out what $3.30. Doing this achieves 2 purposes. 1. it may sell at your price level and 2. it brings exposure and can whet the appetite for a future buyer. You had some nice scans attached. And it takes just a few seconds to click the re-list line on your auction. And regarding SCD, they seem to lack the impact that they possessed 5 years ago.
    And I agree w/ the larger auction houses, you pay a higher fee and the buyer pays a 15% cut as well to the auctioneer. Plus by the time you send them the material til the time they write and print the catalog, then notify the winner and make sure payment clears and the deal sticks. You may be waiting 3 or 4 months from start to finish. The beauty of eBay is you can list it today and get paid within 2 weeks. Whatever you decide, Good Luck...jay
  • A collector to collector ad in the SCD advertising the sale/auction couldn't hurt. You may also take the opportunity to list the last 51's you need.
  • David - If I was in your situation E-Bay would be my second choice. You can probably come out pretty good on e-bay but the listing/posting scans and dealing with slow paying people, packaging and shipping can be very time consumng as well as stressful. My first choice would be a full page or maybe a half page ad in the SMR. A guy in San Antonio a couple of years ago listed a full page of only 1953 Topps PSA 8's. I needed a lot of the cards so I called him about two days after recieving the SMR - he had already sold all of the 53's! There were about 50 cards - he said one guy bought all them. I don't know what they charge but you might be able to get a lot better price doing it this way. SCD is good but it really seems that the internet has hurt it - advertising looks really down. Rick
    "I CAN'T COMPLAIN BUT SOMETIMES I STILL DO" - SMOKY JOE WALSH - - -
    Always looking for 53 Topps Baseball and "stuff"
  • David,

    On an early 70's set, I think it is beneficial to list your set so people know what you need. Some commons bring in less than the grading fees so people are more conservative in what they submit. However, with an early 50's set, a NM/MT common needs no incentive to encourage an owner to submit the card. There will definitely be a market for the card when graded. Although I would like to see your set, I would vote to hold back on listing it until it's complete.
    Please visit my eBay auctions at gemint
  • mikeschmidtmikeschmidt Posts: 5,756 ✭✭✭
    David:

    My thoughts:

    1) You can show your set on the PSA Registry now. Honestly, people will not be "milking" you on the upgrades you need. With so many dollars behind Branca (and even Merkel and the others), you are sufficiently complete to make it worthwhile to list your cards.

    2) Do not break up the PCL set. It is a hard-to-find item, with a premium being sold as a set. I would suggest trying the SCD route, relisting on Ebay, and taking it to a major show (perhaps the National). Sets like that do have a definitive market -- but sometimes because of the "regional" nature of the issue, finding the buyer will be more time intensive than say, a Mantle card in PSA 8.
    I am actively buying MIKE SCHMIDT gem mint baseball cards. Also looking for any 19th century cabinets of Philadephia Nationals. Please PM with additional details.
  • VarghaVargha Posts: 2,392 ✭✭
    I've made it available for viewing. I've put in a handful of images and will be slowly adding them in over time (is there a quick way of adding them?). Although I need Mays in PSA 8, I am not looking to get him right now as it is a very plentiful card.

    Any leads for the 1949 PCL set are greatly appreciated as well.
  • VarghaVargha Posts: 2,392 ✭✭
    You can see it now. The database is still screwed up, so #170 and #304 are really 8's despite what the grades say. I will add more images as time goes on.

    1951 Bowman
  • kobykoby Posts: 1,699 ✭✭
    It has been a while since I placed an ad in the SCD. The last time I checked, the price of a half page ad was over $500 and the price of a full page ad was $900. At one time, SCD was one of the only ways to sell cards outside of accepting pennies on the dollar from dealers at the larger shows. Things have changed quite a bit in the past few years. SCD's audience base has dwindled to a fraction of what it once was. (This is evident in the number of ads and classsified ads in the rag.)

    Ebay appears to be the best resource. I would put it up one more time and if it does not sell, I woudl consign it and accept the incredible fees charged by Mastro.
  • theBobstheBobs Posts: 1,136 ✭✭
    Looks like the 2nd listing on ebay did the trick...


    Congrats
    Where have you gone Dave Vargha
    CU turns its lonely eyes to you
    What's the you say, Mrs Robinson
    Vargha bucks have left and gone away?

    hey hey hey
    hey hey hey
  • VarghaVargha Posts: 2,392 ✭✭
    Thanks -- I added in the values (as well as what I thought it would go for on Mastro) this time to justify the price. Years from now I will wish I had the set, but life is full of such choices.


    1949 Bowman PCL Complete Set PSA 7 and PSA 8
  • Congrats on selling the PCL set Vargha.

    Also, I think your avatar is great. That is the South Carolina state bird.
    "We don't own these cards, we just hold them for awhile." -- Jay of Quality Cards
  • RobERobE Posts: 1,160 ✭✭
    Checked my watch list this morning to see the good news Dave.

    Hats off to you sir!

  • qualitycardsqualitycards Posts: 2,811 ✭✭✭
    VARGHA - Wish I had a few extra bucks, I would have loved to add the PCL set to my collection. Glad you got your price and sold it...jay
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