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I sold off most of my baseball cards today ...

I spent a good part of the weekend taking my cards out of binders and putting them into 700 count boxes to clear up some shelf space. After it was said and done, I realized that I no longer needed these cards. They were commons from 87-93, just about the time when everyone who is now over 25 was collecting heavily (think jr.high / early high school). I wound up with about 8 "new" boxes that came out of the cards that I pulled from the binders. I had about another 12 in the closet. After deciding to keep a few boxes of just Topps cards, one box from 87, 88, 89, 90 and 92, I came to the conclusion that the rest had to go.

Knowing the value of these cards, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get any money past postage for them. I put a few notices on other message boards that I would sell them for basically the s/h costs and I had no takers.

I then put them on craigslist for $5 per box of commons, which comes out to almost $.01 per card. Someone hit me up within the day, wanting the whole thing. In the end I sold him 15 (700 ct.) boxes for $65. It's kind of liberating to get away from all of those cards. I have about 6 boxes that I kept which fit nicely into one corner of the shelf in my closet and about 4 moderate sized binders of cards.

The cards I kept aren't worth a whole lot, but I wanted some for TTM / IP purposes. Has anyone else gone through a similar purge of their cards and if so, what was your experience?

PS - I have about 150 9-pocket pages here and a few binders if anyone is interested. If so, PM me.

Comments

  • Yes. Sold/traded/gave away nearly all of my collection several years ago. Decided to focus on just a couple small projects, which I may or may not complete. I have a single box of my graded cards, and a couple binders containing my player projects. I'm much happier with what I have now.
  • JohnnyDJohnnyD Posts: 520 ✭✭
    I also had a storage issue with probably 100,000 cards that were basically useless 80's and 90's junk. I kept the good cards, gave a bunch to Goodwill, gave some to my mom's church for the kids, and hate to admit it but filled a garbage can for trash day. And I still have too many garbage cards!
  • Johnny, luckily I never had the finances to buy that many cards. I can't imagine what the people who bought in bulk back then have. I imagine many have just thrown out their cards. I threw out all of my football cards about 2 years ago when I first rediscovered my boxes in my closet (I thought something else was stored there!). I didn't have much NFL, maybe 1,500 or so of them. Now I'm just glad I got rid of most of them. It's time to turn the page (no pun intended). I'll just stick to autos.
  • MULLINS5MULLINS5 Posts: 4,517 ✭✭✭
    Absolutely.

    I spent this summer working hard to rid myself of just about every card I own. I kept my 1981 OPC Hockey Stickers TTM project and started building a low, and I mean very low, set of '80s Gretzky cards. I'm sort of away from collecting graded cards, but if a nice low grade shows up I'll buy it.

    As far as display purposes, I'd like to build Gretzky and Bossy PSA basic sets and display them on my wall as ezyshooter showed in the "man-cave" thread.


    ...Here I go again image
  • 72skywalker72skywalker Posts: 1,539 ✭✭✭
    I always keep my commons around for a few years in case a rookie breaks out. If after 5 years or so if they haven't become a superstar i figure they never will. I then put them in boxes and sell them at our annual tag sale for $5.00 a box. I now only have one monster box full of stars and common cards that I just like either because of the player or some kind of memory of how I obtained it or what it meant to the hobby in the 80's 90's or if it was a good card in its day (Greg Jeffreies, Jerome Walton, Sandy Alomar Jr....)
    Collecting Yankees and vintage Star Wars
  • HallcoHallco Posts: 3,621 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I donated most of a 3200 count box of commons containing early-mid 90s baseball commons and semi-stars to a little league program in 2009. I went through it one last time before I sent it and kept about 100. I am hoping to do something similar with basketball later in the year.
  • I gave away 10 monster boxes full of baseball cards to one of my co-workers kids. They loved them! After that I donated a ton of new crap that I didn't want and old crap I didn't want to a community yard sale. It's nice to know that money from my cards went to keeping the part of town I live in clean.

    It can be a big dream crusher when you find out that the cards you collected are worth zero. Even in a stable economy they were worth nothing.

    Guru
  • larryallen73larryallen73 Posts: 6,054 ✭✭✭
    Good for you!

    I have given away (and/or sold) about 200,000 cards over the last 15 years and found it be a huge relief when stuff leaves the house. I still have more to go but am not quite ready to sell the "good stuff." However, I would love to have the space for other crap so will probably sell sometime soon.
  • Sold a bunch of mine off but also threw away a bunch of the duplicate 88-90s cards. I now have a very small manageable collection and it feels nice to be organized and know what's in there. Has anyone else thrown away cards? If so, what years?
    Visit www.Davis44.com - An Eric Davis Collection.
  • markj111markj111 Posts: 2,921 ✭✭✭
    I bet I have 10 3200 count boxes from the late 80s-early 90s. I can't didpose of them-they're my kids cards.
  • dohdoh Posts: 6,457 ✭✭✭
    My friends and I used to burn our old commons. There was something liberating about being able to say goodbye to all the mediocre players....plus those 80s and early 90s Topps burn REALLY well.

    Positive BST transactions with: too many names to list! 36 at last count.
  • The last yard sale/tag sale I sold 6 - 3200 ct bxs (mixed all 4 sports together) for 5.00 a box and was happy still have about 15-20 3200 ct bxs thought about having a big marshmallow/smore fire. might taste a little funny with that UV coating though.
  • Bump...liked this thread. How have others narrowed down their collection?
    Visit www.Davis44.com - An Eric Davis Collection.
  • I'm waiting for all of you to throw out your cards. Then, 75 years from now, my 88 Topps and 91 Donruss will be worth a ton
  • jfkheatjfkheat Posts: 2,721 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The last time I moved, about 10 years ago, I got tired of moving cards so I donated about 450,000 cards to the Shriner's Hospital in Greenville SC and the Greenville Memorial Childrens Hospital.
    James
  • Great topic!

    I sold or gave away most of my cards in 2008.

    I manage my stuff a lot better now. I like to open packs, but I limit it to Topps BB and FB and the odd pack/blaster of A & G or Heritage.

    The only constant to my collection, if it can be called that, is about 50 minty Topps BB cards from 1970-73 that I like having around. Nothing too great other than my Fisk RC.

    I think the best part of this hobby for me is seeing the cool stuff that members show on this board.


    Robert
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