Looking for advice

[JoshB]

Hello and thank you for reading my post. I hope to get some information from the pro's here. I just acquired a huge lot of cards. Football, Baseball, and Basketball cards, plus a few other memorabilia. I have about 6 Costco totes full. Everything is in great condition and mostly from the early 90's. I have some time on my hands and am going to go through everything to find the treasures, if there are any (there has to be something with this many cards...lol). A few questions:

1. What should I be looking for? I am already on the lookout for Derek Jeter cards and I found what looks like some valuable Michael Jordan cards.

2. I would like to make as much as possible on these. How do I get a PSA grading (is it worth the effort)?

3. Is eBay the best place to sell, or are there any other auctions I should look into?

4. There are a few cards with a slight bow or arch. How does this affect the value?

5. How should I sell non-valuable cards? Should I take the time to make team sets? Or just bulk sell everything that isn't valuable?

6. Should I open unopened sets and look for valuable cards?


Thank you again and I appreciate any input!

Josh

[pwaldo]

Depending on the card and the condition it would be worth it to send to PSA but I'd probably post a scan of any card you want to send in on here before you do. Just to give you a different set of eyes on your card to make sure it is worth it condition wise to send in.

[FireRob]

Everything is in great condition and mostly from the early 90's.

This here says a lot and will be a big influence in my answers below. Generally speaking, first and foremost I am a football card guy and that is about all I feel comfortable giving my opinions on and what my opinions are directed towards. The ‘90’s cards are known as the Junk Wax Erra. Reason is, the card market and hobby went through a big boom of popularity and the card manufacturers took full advantage and printed millions of cards and saturated the market. There is almost no such thing as a rare card from the early 1990’s. Even the first rare serial numbered cards back them where limited to numbers like 20,000 or 45,000. Back then we thought that was something special. Today that’s a laughable number and not many cards get serial numbered with anything higher than 1,500 to 2,000 and those are the dime a dozen cards especially for a no body player. Most don’t think twice about a limited card until it gets to the 25 and below card range.

Despite my gloomy comments. This is the time to sell all your junk wax cards because we are in another card craze boom. People are paying top dollar to get their junk wax cards back into their collection. Cards that two years ago you couldn’t get a penny to a quarter for are selling for a dollar or 10 or more over the past year.

1. What should I be looking for? I am already on the lookout for Derek Jeter cards and I found what looks like some valuable Michael Jordan cards.

Those are good players of course. Off the top of my head, in the football world some of the biggest stars of the early 90’s where

Barry Sanders
Emmitt Smith
Joe Montana
Dan Marino
John Elway
Troy Aikman
Jerry Rice
Brett Favre
Deion Sanders

Rookie cards are always going to be the number 1 card to have. Don’t waste your time looking through any rookie cards in anything from 1992. Basically that whole draft class was a bust. Don’t ask me how I know. I have more cards from 1992 than any other year and when it comes to value it’s one of the absolute worst years and not a single HOF player from that year.

2. I would like to make as much as possible on these. How do I get a PSA grading (is it worth the effort)?

We have a graded card forum and that is a great place for info. The short and sweet answer is. Graded is the best way to make money on early 1990 cards. That said, the cards need to be a perfect 10. Raw cards from the 90’s sell for very little.

Don’t know any other way to say it, but Gem Mint 10 cards are so hard to come by. Spend some time reading and learning as much as you can about graded cards. Ask questions in the graded card forum. Post pictures of cards you want graded and ask for honest opinions on what others think a card will grade. You may not like the response but maybe we can save you the trouble time and money before you submit the cards.

3. Is eBay the best place to sell, or are there any other auctions I should look into?

As far as auctions go eBay is still king. Especially when it comes to low end 90’s. If you had high end Kobe Bryant, Labron James, Mike Trout or Mantle or Babe Ruth cards there could be better avenues to sell those.

eBay is starting to have competition with places like Facebook market place and Instagram and such as they are gaining in popularity for selling cards.

4. There are a few cards with a slight bow or arch. How does this affect the value?

Most likely not at all.

5. How should I sell non-valuable cards? Should I take the time to make team sets? Or just bulk sell everything that isn't valuable?

Just depends. Easiest thing (less work on your end) is bulk sale. Some teams will sell good others will be hard to find a buyer.

6. Should I open unopened sets and look for valuable cards?

I would not open them. Their value is in the seal. Even though the cards have been untouched for the last 30 years the odds of finding a Gem Mint 10 are still low. Sure they may have sharp corners and edges and a clean surfaces but they are probably still not perfectly centered and have print defects.

Thank you again and I appreciate any input!

Josh

Hello JoshB. Going to give my answers in your quote above

Also going to say if you are ready to sell and especially if you will break down this collection and sell some of these cards individually. Invest in some supplies. Penny sleeves are a absolute must!! Top loaders, painters tape, team bags, padded envelopes, PWE (Plain White Envelopes). No one likes to buy even cheap cards only to find it arrive damaged when it could have been prevented.

Any more questions let us know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[doniceage]

Josh,
You posted this:

I have about 6 Costco totes full.

I hope the cards are in sleeves and toploaders or binder pages. As you say everything is in good condition if there are cards just floating around for all those years they are probably not in good condition especially for grading purposes. Pictures will definitely help.

If you want maximum dollars it always best to break up the sets and get the top cards graded In hopes of a top grade. The problem with PSA now is the wait time and the amount of dollar it cost to get the cards graded. So just a fyi on that so check into it to see how much your wiling to invest as grading as it can be very expensive to do it. In my opinion it definitely can be worth it but you need to educate yourself on what the graders are looking for corners, surface wear, centering, etc.

Ask questions as members and staffers will be more than happy to help you with questions you have.
@JoshB

DON

[chakhae1]

The 90s was known as the junk wax era for a reason. Chances are most of the cards you have are pretty much worthless and not worth the time and effort of trying to sell them. Grading is a battle of patience and submissions take months to be completed.