Ever Sold Cards to Buy House/Make Improvements?

Mintacular

Just wondering if you ever sold parts of, or the whole, of your personal collection to help finance down payment of home, pay off mortgage, or make home improvements, etc....and whether or not you have regrets doing so. Share your story if you want.

jmmiller777

No, but it seems to be the answer to the family's dreams. Once I kick off, t he cards and the Camaro are gonna be up for sale.
Note: I'm only 59 and still play racquetball 3 times a week.

PowderedH2O

Sold most of my graded card collection last year to pay for my wife and my wedding and honeymoon. I miss the cards, but I wouldn't trade the decision at all. No regrets. Now, I am rebuilding my collection with a few changes of focus.

PMKAY

How much did you pay for your wife?

itzagoner

spent most of early 1997 moving my accumulation of cards and memorabilia to finance the down payment on a home in which i still reside. in theory, by today's market standards the home is worth 3 times the sales price of 17+ years ago. it took me another 7 years to rebuild what eventually became my card business with a huge assist from a very close friend who consigned enough stuff to keep me busy for quite awhile.

i've bought and sold so many cards, it's just a blur. but, i'll never regret buying this one house.

mccardguy1

I have sold so many cards over the last decade + years to pay for household bills and to keep food in the kids bellies. MY wife had a very rare cancer 12 years ago and has not worked since. Selling a huge accumulation of cards has helped the financial bottom line when a child tells you a week before school starts they need $200 bucks for school fees or they want to learn to play the trumpet. Off to Ebay or the boards I would go and move another portion of my collection. The good Lord above has really taken care of us with the sales of cards and a decent salary. I just don't know what we would have done over the years if I didn't have cards I could sell in a pinch to get the things we needed.

esquiresports

Done this several times. Always sold items I felt were the most easily replaceable and were not sentimental (e.g., would not sell actual childhood cards). Never had a regret, surprisingly. When the choice is between cardboard and something functional (house, furnishings, etc.), functional tends to be much more enjoyable, to be honest, and in hindsight the initial reluctance to sell seems a little silly.

biggmacc

<< <i>Just wondering if you ever sold parts of, or the whole, of your personal collection to help finance down payment of home, pay off mortgage, or make home improvements, etc....and whether or not you have regrets doing so. Share your story if you want. >>



I have purchased many collections that were to pay off mortgages and several home improvements. Not sure of any down payments!

edmundfitzgerald

I wish the questions was have you ever sold houses to make card improvements

Jakt

I've sold cards to help keep the lights on, mortgage paid and gas in the car. Kinda sucked, but, sometimes in life, you have to make adult decisions.

Giants24

The short answer is yes, many times. It's a deal I make with myself so I remain grounded. I can justify spending what I spend on sports memorabilia that speaks to me but only when I give it up at times for the greater good. It's probably more mental bucketing than anything but the process works for me. Over the years I have sold many cool pieces for causes that were important to me. For example, my son is a US Marine who just got out of the Corp and returned back to civilian life. After his tour in the Helmand Province he got pretty banged up so I vowed to try to make his transition back home easier than it otherwise might be. So I consigned a nice chunk of my baseball and football unopened to the REA Spring 2013 auction (yes 95% of all the good BBCE stuff in that auction was mine) to buy him and his wife a decent house to live in. Best thing I ever did. Do I miss my stuff, some times of course but I would do it again 1000x over. Plus I now have the excuse to go out and find that stuff again....!

alnavman

over the years I've sold many sets and cards to pay bills and finance home improvements....the only set I regret selling is the 1960 Topps football that was all PSA 8. When bills arrive I've been lucky enough to realize I cannot eat the cards so they get sold to pay bills. I also have a great wife who helps with the decision making process!!

jay0791

Relatively recently I id sell a few cards to pay for my son's dental work and braces.

Like many of the people here it was a no brainer decision. Replaceable material things for something my son will carry with him for the rest of his life.

Fortunately they went to fellow psa board members...and maybe one day I can knock on their doors.....

craigger

a few years ago i sold my Pre WW2 HOF Rookie collection to pay for our in-ground pool. Yes i do miss the collection, but not as much as I enjoy the fun times shared with family and friends in the backyard

jbox

I've sold about 80% of my collection since February to help finance building a home. Pouring a foundation next week. I'll have to get back to you on any regrets. I've tried to keep things that would be tough to replace, but I've sold a few of those too. The great thing was I always had a rough figure on the value of my collection, but I'm already over twice that in sales.

jbox

flatfoot816

I have not had to sell to finance house repairs or additions--but did sell a very treasured item to help finance my then 5th wedding anniversary.

My (then) wife wanted diamond earrings so I sold a 1971 Topp 4th/5th series rack pack with Aaron on top twice--yes twice--

sold it to none other than jersey5 for $1K (I always knew that I should have kept something if Larry bought it)

when he sold the collection he sold it for $6K--wonder who has it ?????

any regrets--like I said--my Ex Wife

PSASAP

I sold off part of my collection to make improvements on an apartment building I recently purchased. I'm hoping that with the improvements comes extra income, which will allow me to buy back the cards I sold. :-)

sportscardstop

I sold my 69-70 and 70-71 basketball raw sets. They were really nice, but we were buying a house and I wanted to have the money in the bank in case we needed to do some fixes. I guess I don't really regret it. They just sat on my shelf and I can always rebuild the sets.

orioles93

Ive sold cards a few times to make payments on a few things off and on. The only thing i regret selling though, is a 1956 Topps Mantle PSA 4 that i had. Wish i had that one back.

JustinsShoebox

I sold most of my Mathews collection to add some cash to our down payment for our income property about 2 years ago.

I miss some of the cards sometimes, but everything that I sold is replaceable. I kept some of the cards that were extremely rare. The extra down helped. We where front in line with 12 other buyer behind us trying to get in. We won and we got in at low rates. We're in that property at 3.25% currently and I'm extremely happy that we made that choice.

EDIT to add: The property is in a community and other similar properties in that community have sold recently for 14% higher (within the last few months). My wife and I are super happy about that as well.

Justin

bounce

i do that sort of thing all the time

never regretted selling once - if there was something i really missed, i just waited until i could buy it back, but i rarely ever have done that

sometimes it's a good way to actually challenge your collection and what you care the most about - i find i collect way too much so a little purge from time to time (forced or voluntary) is a GOOD THING!

raykasa

I've paid for landscaping with cards; I've paid for a car repair with cards; and most significantly- I paid a Private investigator with card to track down my ex-wife. My only problem is he found her....