I have just inherited many football and baseball cards from my father. I do not want them. Where can one go to try to fair price for these cards???

I do not want to spend the money for grading. The cards include many valuable rookie cards, according to the price guides I have read. I also have many sealed sets from 1991 and earlier.
Any help would be appreciated.


Thanks

Welcome, i3putt2much.

You could auction them on ebay in groups or lots, especially the sets.

This would require some work like taking photos or scanning the cards.

You can always take them to a card show and see if a dealer would want to buy them. If you have enough you could sell them yourself at a card show.

You could sell all the baseball to me for $20.
Sound good? LOL
I would list them on ebay personally.

I would suggest picking up a recent Beckett to find out what these cards are worth, most cards in near mint to mint condition sell at around 40% of the high value, not all of them but most in my personal opinion, once you figure out what you have and what they are worth you can post what your selling on forums like this one but ebay would probably give you the greatest exposure to collectors...Hope this helps!!!

So what are you going to do, i3?

plunge, I'd totally have to disagree with you on that.

If a person knows nothing about the cards he/she has, and goes to a dealer to see how much the dealer would buy them for, that's like me trying to defend Shaquille O'Neal. We'll both be eaten up alive, chewed up, and spit out.

The dealers I have dealt with as a child are scum of the earth (and yes, I am aware there are quite a few here on SCF who are dealers and have their stores).

As a child, I was ripped off quite often. I'd take in a card to trade, and if the card booked $20 high side in Beckett, the farking dealer would trade me for $10 or less high side for any of his cards.

Not to mention, when I tried selling the good rookies, like 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco (back when it was red hot and going for over $50-75), I'd get offers of $15, b/c card was off-centered, or the corners has some fuzz that they saw when they took out their magnifying glass.

Boy, those dealers must have thought I was a low-class, mentally retarded fool, with visual impairment.

And, when I took a magnifying glass into the same hobby shop to examine a card (at a later date), the owner told me I should leave; he didn't want me to damage his cards.

That was part of the reason I stopped collecting altogether in 1990s (still have almost 10 of the 5000-count boxes, with some very very nice cards, including a 1952 Bowman Duke Snider).

Dealers are the scum of the earth; and one of the beauties of the Internet and Ebay is that dealers lost quite a nice profit (although I am aware dealers still flock to Ebay in their attempts to steal/deceive/defraud from customers).

again, I must repeat, this is not indicative of ALL dealers. There are bad apples in every profession ---- podiatrists, dentists, lawyers, etc.

But I know better than to go into a local sports store nowadays. Most of my transactions are done on Ebay, and I get fantastic prices for the auctions I win.

I just feel badly for the kids who walk into the local sports card store and looking to buy cards, b/c they're gonna get what I got, screwed up the A**

I couldn't agree more with you Podstock. It's sad to see dealers screwing little kids and trying to get away with giving them a few bucks for great cards. Then, TJ Schwartz at Tuff Stuff (never read it, just was bored and flipped through it) claims that it's the kid's faults. How stupid! I love eBay, too. I get cheap cards and am satisfied afterwards. It's a great site, and I love getting cheap cards that I want.

Tim

Originally posted by stkmtimo
I couldn't agree more with you Podstock. It's sad to see dealers screwing little kids and trying to get away with giving them a few bucks for great cards. Then, TJ Schwartz at Tuff Stuff (never read it, just was bored and flipped through it) claims that it's the kid's faults. How stupid! I love eBay, too. I get cheap cards and am satisfied afterwards. It's a great site, and I love getting cheap cards that I want.

Tim

When did TJ Schwartz say that. That doesn't sound like something that he would say. Do you remember what issue that was?

He said that he respects kids in the hobby, but should not be going to dealers to deal their cards (forgot the exact basis, I might be wrong). It was the Feburary 2003 issue, I believe. I think Tom Brady or Brett Favre was on the cover.

Tim

Originally posted by stkmtimo
He said that he respects kids in the hobby, but should not be going to dealers to deal their cards (forgot the exact basis, I might be wrong). It was the Feburary 2003 issue, I believe. I think Tom Brady or Brett Favre was on the cover.

Tim

Your right it was Feburary 2003 issue. But that's not what he said.

He says "Dealers shouldn't buy from children. If they come into the store looking to sell something don't buy it from them."

He says that any shop should not buy from a kid because they don't know as much as an adult and that they do not have the knowledge of value and so forth.

That way if shops don't buy from kids then they cannot be taken advantage of.

There you go, sorry. I forgot what he had said, knew it was something with kids and dealers. Forgot though. Thanks for posting it.

Tim

regardless, the point is that dealers (and again, this does NOT mean all dealers) are looking to gouge their customers, and it's much easier to defraud a child/teenager than it is to defraud an adult.

The hobby shop I was referring about (regarding use of magnifying glass to inspect cards) has since closed down.

Perhaps that owner, like Jerry Krause today, closed the shop due to health reasons.

hahahahahahahahahahaha.

LOL, that was funny.

Tim

guys... it doesn't look like i3putt2much has been coming back here to check the answers.

this guy's best bet is to find a friend of his that is into sports cards... inventory what he's got... and then find someone to sell it all for him on consignment, ebay, or other auction.

He could also post his list here... and all of us vultures can make offers... :D

Vultures, us?

nah, we'd offer him a fair price; a discounted price, but a fair market value price.

lol

Thanks for the many ideas and options. The more time I spend going through these cards the more I think I am goning to use Ebay and consult with a couple of local dealers..

Originally posted by i3putt2much
Thanks for the many ideas and options. The more time I spend going through these cards the more I think I am goning to use Ebay and consult with a couple of local dealers..

Heyas I hope you have a fun time over at E-Bay. And also remember that the people here are good people to deal with also. I have not read the trade boards yet so if you posted over there I will give a look. But with any of the ways you can go I wish you luck on your dealings. :)

Richie
mookigremlin
:p

Good luck with your Ebay sales.

Be aware of people who say they have not received cards from you, even though you know you addressed the items correctly and sent them personally via post office.

I will tell you what the hobby shop that I got to, will trade on the high book side and sell 50% off of high book, I think that is really good and on several times I have traded with him to my side buy like $10 or more.

but then again I agree there are some scums, now get me wrong he will never quote a price for someone coming in, he just simply asks like a good salesman is suppose to how much do you wnat for the cards and if they say something he likes he puts the money on the counter.

I once told him a couple cards in his case were too high and he told don't worry about that cause I look up every card before the sale is made to make sure the price didn't go down. To me this guy is the most honest dealer that I know, but it means nothing to you unless you live in the northwest, In or southside of chicago area.

good luck on ebay, I would let the market dictate what the card is worth by maybe starting the cards off at a $1.25 or $1.75 and let the bidding begin, if you start to high you will not get any bids if you start to low you might get a couple but it will not make up for the time it took you to list them and mail them.

it is all trial and error with ebay, for instance I had a yao ming rookie refractor, started the bidding at 14.99 and got no bids, relisted at 1.25 and it closed over $30 couldn't understand that one, but I liked it.

on low bids, once a person is attracted to the auction, he/she keeps an eye on it.

on high bids, they just forget it, and never bother to check the total price at end of auction

interesting human psychology.

Also, if you try to gouge on S&H, less people bid.

I sell GPK cards, without charge for handling fees, and get a very nice price....I've seen similar auctions not go high or not bidded on at all, simply b/c of the handling fees.

Most folks on Ebay know it doesn't cost $6 to mail 40 cards, lolol.

yeah you are right pod, but this arguement will never die, some people sell for a hobby and other sell for a business, I, in no way are not condoning $6 to mail 40 cards but are you mailing them in top loaders because how much does 40 top loaders cost about 3.20 and figure about $2 to ship them them and mailers and a little time. I could actually justify the $6 charge, you see what I am saying. and that is based on top loaders costing .08 per. as I pay $2 for 25. now if you mail in a 50 ct box then yeah it will be a little less, as I don't know how you ship and how they ship. If I am selling for a profit/business then I will mark up everything at least 1.5% and really don't care if I just get 1 bid. if for a hobby then I just to make some money to buy more stuff like selling my extras so I can get somethings I want. I am a prospector first and then a collector and you have to keep them separate or you will go broke.

Do that make any sense?

Gioperation. You make a good point there.

But when people sell a lot of cards (say 40-card lot); it's not usually sent in top loaders individually. Most likely, it's just encased in oversized cardboard, safely placed into USPS Priority Mail, and then mailed for that $3.95 fee. Resulting in a $2.05 "handling" fee

well not really $2.05 handling if you really think about it, like I always say handling is a lot of different things like the time to get it to the Post Office, you got gas to and from the PO, you got your time which most people never put value on. You also have printer ink and paper, the boxes if they don't know they can get them for free, they are a bunch of things that when you are running a business, most people never take into consideration and that is why 80% of business go out of business in the first year, because the don't understand, nor put a value of time, so really they are losing money on the products they sell no matter if they make a profit on the item.