Question for collectors

[i3putt2much]

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

[plunge]

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.

[Molina00]

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

[Qball76]

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!!!

[plunge]

So what are you going to do, i3?

[podstock]

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**

[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

[pwaldo]

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?

[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

[pwaldo]

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.