Selling Baseball Card Collection

[kibucs]

Hi-

I'm looking to sell my boyhood baseball card collection on eBay. Majority of the cards are from 1979 with some from '77-'81, it's about 3k cards.

A local baseball store collector said my cards are in VG to EX condition. Looking to sell them as one lot vs trying to sell individual cards. Any suggestions on how much I should ask? I've attached a few samples.

I've aIMG_4497.jpegIMG_4499.jpegIMG_4500.jpegIMG_4501.jpegIMG_4502.jpegIMG_4504.jpegIMG_4505.jpegIMG_4507.jpegIMG_4513.jpeg
IMG_4497.jpegIMG_4499.jpegIMG_4500.jpegIMG_4501.jpegIMG_4502.jpegIMG_4504.jpegIMG_4505.jpegIMG_4507.jpegIMG_4513.jpeg

[doniceage]

If you decide to sell them share a link and perhaps we can help you get a few bids. Selling large lots is difficult. Best thing is to look up past large lots of cards thru those years that have sold,

don

don

[kibucs]

Hi-

Here's the eBay link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/297508830074

I have them separated out by team and the key players of that era. For example for the Yankees I pulled Munson, Guidry, Randolph, Jackson, Rivers, Lyle, Hunter, etc and did that for each team. Assuming collectors are mainly interested in "star" players vs the journey men players. Wondering if I should list all the stars players from each team?

For example:
Red Sox: Fisk, Lee, Lynn, Rice, etc
Dodgers: Garvey, Cey, Lopes, Buckner, etc

Do you think that would make them more attractive if folks knew what cards they are getting or are they so common that the reality is no one is interested in them?

[bigbenjobu]

@kibucs I opened your listing and I have a few comments.

-Take the time to turn your photos the correct orientation. You have many upside down and sideways photos. This makes it difficult to see and honestly tells me that you don't care to take the extra time needed. You can easily edit these photos in both the eBay app and the website.
-Also, I think you're starting bid of $300 is going to scare away a lot of potential buyers.
-You may be better off piecing these lots out into team lots that you mentioned. This could also help get some sales and get your eBay rating up. The biggest thing with eBay is getting the views/watchers/eyeballs on your cards.
-Double check your shipping price too. Could you do these in one of the USPS, if it fits it ships boxes? The medium box is only $21 to ship and can take up to 20 lbs. I doubt you have that weight in cards from the listing that you linked above.

It looks like some nice cards for a set that is coming up on 50 years old, but it is also a big project for a potential buyer. They will likely not pay top dollar for so many duplicates (Winfield x 7, Munson x 6, etc.).

Again, these are just some tips that I have used as a seller (1266 positive reviews and 100% rating). Hopefully they can help you out in getting your collection sold for the most money.

[bigbenjobu]

@kibucs I just looked a few of these up for prices as sold items on eBay

Winfield EX raw is selling for about $2-2.25
Dale Murphy VG to EX is $1-2
Thurman Munson $2
Paul Molitor $4-5
Pete Rose AS $3-5

Do you have any big card shows near you? You might have better luck going there and piecing these out also.

[kibucs]

Yes, I should take the time to create a more clean post and parse them out. No local card shows that I know of...Thanks.

[pwaldo]

If it was me I would sell for $100 at a show and take like $75/$80 as my floor on this. $75 or higher on this I would feel good at selling and the higher the price the better deal it would be for me. bigbenjobu is correct in that the cards you have are desirable but lumped all together isn't your top dollar on these. But even for somebody like me it wouldn't be worth the time to piece the collection out for maximum profit. Just not worth the time and work to get that extra dollar IMO. Most people don't won't multiples of non rookies and the people that do don't want multiples of another player. A guy may be a huge George Brett fan or collector so he will want those Brett cards but he isn't going to want the Thurman Munson cards so he won't pay extra for it. It is the weird thing that adding more cards that are valuable to the lot doesn't necessarily make it sell for more on eBay.

[kibucs]

Thanks for the info. Makes sense. When I first started looking at values I saw some of these cards at PSA10 worth thousands of dollars so I was convinced I must be sitting on a gold mine until I learned what PSA 10 was. I don't know the ins and outs of card trading so I was naive in my initial thoughts.

I'm going to save a few of my favorites for old times sake and give away the rest.

Cheers.

[bigbenjobu]

@kibucs Yeah, that makes more sense to me then if you were comparing to PSA 10 values. If the cards all in VG-EX shape, then you are realistically looking at like PSA 6-7. Maybe some 5 or 8's in there even. See below for the PSA scale and what each one means.

• Gem Mint 10: Perfect card with no flaws.
  
• Mint 9: Nearly perfect, with only minor imperfections.
  
• Near Mint to Mint 8: Slightly more noticeable imperfections.
  
• Excellent to Mint 7: Minor wear and tear, but still a desirable card.
  
• Good 6: Noticeable flaws, but still collectible.
  
• Fair 5: Heavily worn, but still holds value.
  
• Poor 1: Significant damage, but may still be of interest to collectors.
  For a detailed understanding of each grade and its characteristics, you can refer to the official PSA grading standards and additional resources.