Selling cards
talkin2rob
Posts: 8 ✭
I am needing to sell a large lot of cards. They are various assortments of things. I wanted to sell all of it at one time. But it seems like the only people that buy large lots pay less than 50% of value. I was going to do ebay, but I don't want to do it all myself. I was hoping to find a collector that is a hoarder of cards. (Like I was. Lol)
Does anybody have any suggestions or ideas as to the best way to do this? Is ebay my only option? I don't think I have enough value to go to an auction house. Plus that's a little longer of a time frame then what I can do.
I'm wanting to sell the stuff that I could replace at a later date. There's some cards that aren't easily replaced. And this is hard enough as it is having to sell anything.
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Talkin'; I was faced with a similar situation a few months ago. It's tough to find a combination of high sales price and getting money quickly.
It sounds like time is the most important factor in your situation. I would try to post a message in the B/S/T forum listing what you have and see if there is anyone who may be interested. Also, I believe the team at BBCE are active buyers of collections. Note they are resellers, so they will buy things at price points where they can make a profit.
There are also other dealers that I've seen advertisements on the PSA website that mention they are buyers. Contact as many as possible. Put the most work in you can and it should pay off. Good luck.
I don't have a problem with people making money. Just hate it that some will try to take advantage of others.
I will get something posted in the other section. Thanks
'All at once' sales require lots of work for the buyer to make money. Its the same work you don't want to do, yet you want to maximize your income. So do they.
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A lot depends on what type of cards you are wanting to sell. Is it modern or vintage cards; commons, stars or a good mixture of each; graded or raw? What is the condition of the cards? Most people that would buy large lots will pick out what they want to keep and resell the rest of the cards. There will be a lot of time and work in doing this. When you say a large lot, how many cards are you talking about?
James
Keep in mind that the value you may perceive might not be the correct value. Anytime I am buying something and someone reaches for a Beckett I know there is going to be a gap. The more accurate value of the cards is on e-bay sold listings. As a buyer I am only going to pay attention to the price at which I might be able to sell the cards for.
It's a mix of everything. 70s and early 80s baseball and football. 2000 and newer including jerseys and autos. About 200-250k cards total. About 60k junk commons 85-95. I sold off 400k of those commons years ago to make room for more stuff.
I've never expected to get book prices. Ebay is the best to value cards because that's the market price. I also never expected to get 100% of eBay prices unless I do it myself. But 50% or less doesn't seem good.
When I was collecting, I would buy collections and hoard them. I only ever sold or traded stuff to acquire things I needed when working on sets.
I've never liked selling on ebay. I've been going through cards for the past month trying to get stuff sorted out. Good thing I did because I found a nice 56 mantle I had forgot about. Lol
Because I was a collector, I was only concerned of keeping what I had acquired. If it wasn't a need, selling anything would not be something even thought about. At the same time, if I needed a quick sell to get some money, my 51 mantle would have been on ebay already. But, that is something not easily replaced.
I guess I need to accept that selling a large collection, (or any collection) to a reseller, and perhaps any dealer, that I would be lucky to get 50%.
Thank you all for your input.
You better run back and take that 50% before the guy wanders into oncoming traffic.
Disregard, I thought you had an offer of 50% of some sort of value you figured. The retail value of the bulk of those cards will be under the cost to ship. I don't know how you're going about valuing a pile like that but making money from a lot like that would be a hard thing for even you to do, with nothing into it so to speak. Finding somebody to pay you even a tiny percentage in relation to what you think everything is worth will be quite difficult. A dealer will pay a fair percentage for the better stuff based on what they think they can get for it, but they're going to figure next to nothing for the bulk of it. They're not taking advantage of you, and could probably dump a bigger load like that on you for less than you want.
Selling bulk is going to be tough. Shipping usually becomes cost prohibitive. So if I am buying or selling bulk, I am usually looking for a local sale. Unless there's some level of organization to the lot, I am also expecting that key cards have been plucked. Thus getting what you might think is a fair value will be tough unless you make it clear and easy as to what you think carries a premium.
At a penny per card a 3200 ct box would be $32. I think that's a tough ask considering the labor and margins involved in resale.
I have bins full of 3 3200 cts + a few 600-800 cts of assorted 80s and early 90s that I think I'd be lucky to get $20 for. That includes the bins and the boxes that basically amount to the sale price. One could use the cards as kindling and still break even.
If you want low labor you need to temper expectations. If you break into teams/city/player lots you might do better, but that's labor...albeit pretty fun labor.
A lot of how you decide to break these up will depend on what you've actually got. An 800 ct box of 86 F BK is gonna obviously pull a lot more that 86 T BB. And 74 BB will pull a lot more than 87 FB. You need to at least break them into "smart" lots for any attempt at maximizing value. Otherwise I think you're looking at a low per card avg to sell in a single transaction...and again...likely local, limiting your buying pool.
Good Luck. I've got over 500k cards, mostly pack fresh and unsearched since 88, taking up room l, that I'd sell for a song but can't find the heart, time, or energy to get rid of or more appropriately organize.
Wasn't there a Disco Sucks night at Mets Stadium back in 78 where anyone could bring their albums to be burnt in a bonfire.
Anyone able to set something like that up again but for sports cards ? Seriously.
Good luck. Take some pics and post them in the BST forum. You will get a sense of what your collection is worth. The commons will be tough to move.
If you are willing to do a show near you, you can blow out your commons and low end stuff.
Like others have said or implied, 50% of ebay value is going to be VERY tough if not impossible to get. Consider that at 50% of ebay value a $10 card is $5, for which the person if they resold it on ebay and did all the work would profit $5, less full ebay fees+shipping fees of about $1.69 (assuming $3 for shipping), meaning their profit on that one item is $3.31 and a lot of work IF it is sold on the first listing.
Realistically, 20-25%, unless it is unbelievable in terms of high end material is going to be tops unless doing the work yourself. I have people bring in cards to my store and for instance have 10 cards that sell for $10 each on ebay (when they sell, they arent fast movers) and "only" want $50. It is impossible to pay that much and sit on 10 separate items to make only $3 or so per. I am doing all the work, doing the listings, scanning the pics, packaging the items, plus dealing with all of ebay nonsense. That isnt worth the $3. In those cases I usually offer $20-$25 for the lot and feel I am offering more than anyone else would.
As has been mentioned shows are a good place to sell stuff at 50% ebay and let others do the work
I've seen big collectors do a garage sale of cards and advertise it with shops and in the paper. Saves having to haul stuff.