Looking for help and advice

[PeterMan]

Hi all, I am glad found this forum. I am a small time collector, in Canada, however, my father-in-law has a pretty substantial collection and he is looking for help. He asked me if I could figure out what he should do. His collection is varied, lots of baseball, hockey and basketball cards for the most part, also some NFL. He has probably 10k plus card, maybe even twice that we really are not sure... lots of singles, tons of sets and a number of unopened boxes/packs.

I have just started looking into comc.com and have also thought about some ebay auctions, but he would really like to move pretty much everything, and we have no ide what the best approach would be. Do folks buy and sell here?

Some of his top individual cards would be Roberto Clemente, Ted Williams, Ralph Kiner... Lots of early 80's hockey, Gretzky's, Messier, etc... Some good NFL sets, Brett Favre rookies, lots more... Some good Jordan and Kobe cards, etc...

Anyway, I am here to learn about the business, and I appreciate any tips or advice.

Thanks

Peter

[JFried1029]

Peter- Welcome to SCF! Yes, people do buy and sell here. There are sub-forums dedicated to buying and selling. The best thing would be to post a few with either scans (best) or detailed descriptions. The value of any cards that are vintage (pre-1990) in particular will be heavily subject to the condition.

[PeterMan]

Thanks for this, I appreciate it.

[baystate123]

Realistically, you're talking 15-20 thousand cards. It's a lot to get a handle on. The first and probably biggest question is how much time you want to throw at it. Certainly organizing and taking an accurate inventory will have to be done regardless of what route you take. The only way to avoid that chunk of time is finding an auctioneer or dealer that you trust 100%. That might be hard to do depending on where you live. Even if you did, personally I would still do my own math to realize what you've got. If you're wiling to put in the time, get a comprehensive list of what you've got. You seem to have a pretty good handle on the bigger names etc. Post it up here and see what people say. Law of averages should give you an idea of what you've got.
Maybe skim off the top 20-25% of the top and piece that out. Put the rest up to auction as a lot somewhere. Just a thought. Start with the list regardless.

[PeterMan]

Realistically, you're talking 15-20 thousand cards. It's a lot to get a handle on. The first and probably biggest question is how much time you want to throw at it. Certainly organizing and taking an accurate inventory will have to be done regardless of what route you take. The only way to avoid that chunk of time is finding an auctioneer or dealer that you trust 100%. That might be hard to do depending on where you live. Even if you did, personally I would still do my own math to realize what you've got. If you're wiling to put in the time, get a comprehensive list of what you've got. You seem to have a pretty good handle on the bigger names etc. Post it up here and see what people say. Law of averages should give you an idea of what you've got.
Maybe skim off the top 20-25% of the top and piece that out. Put the rest up to auction as a lot somewhere. Just a thought. Start with the list regardless.

Great advice, thanks! It is a daunting task but a necessary one...

[bakemeister52]

First welcome to SCF and yes the hardest part will be doing an inventory of the cards. Scanning the cards of the good ones help, especially if you want the bigger names to sell. Condition is another issue that you need to look at. Do you have any Autographs or Graded cards? Any other questions just ask!

Bake

[Brandon7575]

Welcome to the forum! You will find a lot of helping people here. As others have mentioned inventory would be the best way to go. It may take some time but in the end you will know exactly what you have and what you need to do. If you have any problems or have questions feel free to ask!

[Rybowski]

Welcome to SCF Peter, hope you are enjoying yourself here! If you haven't already, just do your research on the names that catch your eye first as you might have some hidden gems in there. Use eBay as a spot to determine the current market value as to what people are paying. Take some great pictures and use a website like Flickr to upload your photos too. It will take some time, but enjoy going through the collection with your father-in-law.