Poll: What would you do?

LochNESS

I've got a few hundred cards to sell. I have no idea what any are worth. Dates are late 70s / early 80s through mid 90s.

Dozens of cards per team, all teams. 99% Topps. Some Donruss. Some Bowman.

All are in superb condition. Seriously, brand new mint condition white not a single dent or bent corner. But for all I know they aren't worth a dime.

itzagoner

put down the calculator and slowly back away.

bighurt2000

Those are all horrible ideas, do this instead: ________

I would see if there is a member on this board near you and ask them to
meet up with you at a card show or somewere and take a look at what
you have.

James

dennis07

The mid 80's through the mid 90's are not worth the time involved. Honestly 500 cards isn't that many.
Go through them and pull the cards you like or the HOF'ers but the rest have little to no value.
The late 70's to early 80's might bring a few bucks depending on the player.

Edited to add: Even the HOF'ers from mid 80's to mid 90's have little to no value but someone would pay something for them
as a lot on ebay.

LochNESS

<< <i>put down the calculator and slowly back away. >>


Thanks for the great advice gang! James, I'm in Atlanta, GA.

I'll buy lunch for any forum member who wants to flip through my album and cherrypick! Then I'm gonna follow the advice of poll option #1.

esquiresports

If you have a phone with a camera, you could quickly take a photo of each album page and upload to Photobucket (there is a free app for iPhone). I could tell you in about 10 minutes which ones have a likely resale value over a certain threshold (e.g., $5). Please note that even though the cards are in great condition, it is likely the entire lot is worth less than $100 unless there are some nice late 70s cards of particular players. It was just a bad era for sports cards. If you want to go this route, you can send me a PM or let the board know when they are uploaded. Good luck!

LochNESS

Thanks, esquiresports! and great logo!

I will definitely scan and upload and let you know when they're posted.

The reason I mentioned the mint condition, was to let y'all know they were not complete garbage. I know they may only be $1 each (or less) but I also know that value may only be for the mint cards. I figured if they were 5.0 or less they probably wouldn't even be worth the paper this comment was written on ...

Hallco

I live about 2 hours north of Atlanta...maybe we can figure something out and see what you have.

mtcards

Without knowing the exact years, it is hard to say. Regular issue cards of star players are about as worthless as commons from the late 80's to early 90's in terms of actually selling them. Honestly, depending on your total of each player, the best way would be to sort them by player and if you have a few dozen of someone, sell them as a lot on ebay. Taking them to a local card store will probably get you the answer you least desire in this instance, since the time it would take to sell cards that book for low amounts is not worth the time and you would get an answer similar to "Very Little"

Check a price guide or ebay and if the card sells for over $10, then you might try selling them individually. If they sell for less than that, especially if they are the $1-$3 range in the price guide, you would be better off selling them in player lots.


Edited to Add: The above does not take into account low population commons/stars from certain years as a selling issue

LochNESS

Shawn, PM sent.

Thanks gang for the advice. This was a fun poll!

LochNESS

ANYONE GOING TO THE ANA NATIONAL MONEY SHOW THIS WEEK? I will be there, and would love to show you my cards. It would be incredibly convenient. Please PM if you're attending.

EchoCanyon

Pass

LochNESS

I understand, it's not a card show by any means. Just checking on the off chance someone here also collects coins?

WhiteTornado

Howdy from another coin collector . Best advice I can give is to pick out star players and sell them in player lots, such as "10 Cal Ripken cards", or something like that. As already mentioned in the old posts, that was a bloated era for cards, at least the 80s-90s. You could also look up card shows and see if any are coming up in your area. At least you could get multiple opinions under one roof that way. Best of luck!

JoeBanzai

Why should it take several months to go through your cards to determine what ones have value?

You claim they are in great condition, if this is true you may have some valuable cads here.

I would sit down at your computer and after sorting your cards by year, look at completed auctions in PSA 9 for your star cards.

I just took a quick look at 1978 Topps and there are a BUNCH of cards worth over $100.00 in PSA 9 that are commons.

Royals Team card is $150.00 in a nine and $400.00 in a ten.

A PSA Gem Mint 10 Murray rookie sold for $5,300 in 2006 and $6,543 in 2012
A PSA Gem Mint 10 Ryan sold for $5,454 in 2009
A PSA Gem Mint 10 #707 Molitor/Trammel sold for $4,569 in 2012 and $5,836 in 2013
PSA Gem Mint 10s of #703 Morris ($624), #704 Whitaker ($566) and #708 Murphy/Parrish ($349) each sold in 2012

bishop

Since you live in Atlanta maybe you should take them over to Senoia and sell them to the Walkers over there.

LochNESS

WhiteTornado, so you vote option #4? It's definitely something I've considered (hence the poll option) but not sure I wanna go that route. Still undecided. Thanks for the suggestion!


<< <i>Why should it take several months to go through your cards to determine what ones have value?
You claim they are in great condition, if this is true you may have some valuable cads... >>

JoeBonzai, three months because I'm so busy and have such a large pile - and also, honestly have a hard time understanding how to look up cards in those Beckett catalogs. I match the number on the card to the number in the book (and year) and the player/team is different.

Regarding the value and condition, they are in great shape by my standards. But I know enough about (and appreciate the complexity of) coin grading to know that just because it looks flawless to me doesn't mean a PSA grader will grade 9 or 10. I don't see any bent corners or foxing around the edges but I haven't checked them all for centering and haven't the faintest clue about color/ink shades / fading / etc.

that is why I decided to show them to a knowledgable collector in person before taking action that requires (1) a lot of my time or (2) a bit of my money in grading fees or ebay fees

JoeBanzai

Well you said "few hundred" so that is not too many.

You also said "Dates are late 70s / early 80s through mid 90s."

We don't have much specific information.

Break your cards down to years, if you have a large amount of cards from the late 1970's and early 80's, and they are in great condition, you could have some very expensive cards.

Start with the oldest/best condition cards of Hall of Fame players. Go to ebay and search for these cards using the completed listings option. Look under PSA 8 and 9. This does not take long and it will show you what these cards are actually selling for. Don't bother with the price guides, get your information right from the source where the cards are SELLING!

You may find out in just a few minutes that you have some very expensive cards that should be sent in for grading, or you may find out you have a load of garbage.

Either way find a little time and sit down and do some research, you could end up rewarded!

Notes about 1979 Topps
Two PSA Gem Mint 10 #116 Smith rookie cards sold for $20,852 and $19,567 in 2012
A PSA Gem Mint 10 #650 Rose sold for $5,100 in 2013
A PSA Gem Mint 10 #55 Stargell sold for $2,190 in 2013

Notes about 1980 Topps
A PSA Gem Mint 10 Ryan sold for $3,151 in 2009
A PSA Gem Mint 10 #482 Henderson sold for $11,042 in 2012

Notes about 1981 Topps
A PSA Gem Mint 10 Ryan sold for $2,312 in 2009 and $949 in 2010
A PSA Gem Mint 10 #261 Henderson sold for $517 in 2013

Are you really THAT busy?

LochNESS

You raise excellent points. I'm pretty busy, yeah but I also didn't anticipate values that high. Based on the responses I got last year (on the forum) it felt like these were $15-20 cards at best. Also, hundreds is a lot for me! LOL

I will do as you say and begin with the HOF players. I definitely have some Nolan Ryans. Probably not the one worth thousands but we'll see.

Auction records are the way to go, so I will do some online searching.

Also ... I have been to Senoia and I have been to that exact street where the show is taped (and stood next to that sign) and I'm pretty sure I was NOT in Senoia at the time ... It's only 20-30 min south of our perimeter beltway. If you're in Atlanta with a car you should go. I actually haven't seen any episodes; my wife wanted to go antiquing and that area [south of Atlanta; lots of little towns] is FILLED with shops.