Baseball Cards?

ExFlyBoy5

ExFlyBoy5

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Joined
May 29, 2013
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DW and I have been quite busy trying to purge our house in anticipation of moving in the next 4-6 months. In doing so, I wanted to gather *all* our older photos (as well as from my Dad's estate) and sort/toss/scan what we have.

While going through several storage boxes, I came across some baseball cards from my kid/teen years. There aren't a lot of them, but a cursory search revealed that a handful of them could be worth several hundred dollars each.

Since I haven't even *thought* about baseball cards since trading with other kids at the HS gym back in 10th grade, I have no idea how to sell them as I really have no desire to keep them and have no kids to hand them down to. I obviously would like to get a fair value for them, but I don't want to spend more than a couple of hours dealing with them. So, anyone have any ideas?

When I figure that out, I will need to deal with all the coins that my Dad left in his safe...that's a whole 'nother can of worms!
 
Since you don't want to spend much time on it, I'd look up some local sports memorabilia shops and see if you can get a decent offer on the collection. Barring that, an ad on craigslist, but be prepared to show good pics and proper ratings for the premium cards.

A dealer very likely, at minimum, is going to want you to come in person and show them before they commit to a price, and it will be far less than your cursory search yields. But the alternative is selling one by one on ebay or something and that is way more of a time commitment.
 
Have you checked online to find out if there is a sports memorabilia dealer/collector in your neck of the woods?

Our neighbor who recently passed away was at one time a rare book collector. His widow contacted a local book dealer. The guy came to the house, looked over the collection and made an offer on the spot for those he was interested in.
 
Generally the optimized way to sell such collections is to pick out the few, most valuable items and sell them individually via ebay. Sell whatever remains as a lot on ebay. This presumes you can easily pick out the few, most valuable items.

If you are unable to do that, sell everything to a dealer. Quick and easy, but you might only get 10 cents on the dollar.
 
If you have a Mickey Mantle rookie card, I'll be glad to take that off of your hands :D.

Kidding aside, along with the player and year of player (rookie cards tend to bring more value I think) the card condition is also a big factor impacting the value.

Value or not, it is always fun to see what players you have to see maybe some became stars.

I have some cards, of various condition stashed from my younger days. Some big names like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Reggie Jackson. I think the only rookie/future star card I may have is Chipper Jones. The oldest card of a star I have I think is Don Drysdale.
 
Vintage Baseball Cards

Hello,

I am an avid Vintage Baseball Card Collector. My focus is pre-war (Before 1939) and post-war cards (Before 1970). In the hobby people usually collect various era's(pre-war, post-war and Modern(1970-Present). If you want to PM me with pictures I can likely assess your value and put you in contact with a reputable dealer that can either take your collection on consignment (at auction) or buy them from you outright.

Just PM me if you want

Troy
 
Think I may also have a Robin Yount rookie card. But I'm going by memory so that isn't for sure.
 
I sold dear old Dad's coin collection after he passed away last year. I can't speak to bb cards, but I imagine that for all collectibles don't expect to get even half of what you might see things going for online. If you watch Pawn Stars, you know what I mean. The folks running the store need to make a profit.

Good luck!
 
When you get ready to deal with the coins I can probably help you. (I've posted on that topic several times in the past on this board, if you care to search and read the post)
 
Back in my w*rking days, there was this guy who would buy a complete set of Topps cards each year and keeping that set unopened. Guess that was his way of indexing by buying the entire "market." But I bet overall, he spent more than earned as for every valuable, superstar card there are a bunch of cards on nothing but sentimental value for some fans.
 
Don't expect to get near full value selling the cards to a dealer. There is a limited market and they have to take on the risk of not being able to re-sell them. I would expect to get 50% or less than what you might see on ebay or dealer web sites. A lot less if the condition is not good--rounded corners, creases, and fading sharply diminish the value.

If you sell them yourself, I believe most people want them graded by condition. This will also cost you money to get a grading.

Curious which ones you found that are worth that much. Which years are we talking about?
 
I'm in the same boat with 70s football cards. I actually have two or three Walter Payton rookie cards. Condition is only okay so they aren't worth much but I'd love to get rid of them. I can't imagine that our boys are ever going to want to deal with them.
 
As others have said don't expect to get anywhere near what you're seeing as book value. Watch for sports collector shows in your area and take them to one. There will be multiple dealers there and it costs you nothing but maybe a small admission. There used to be a guy called "Mr. Mint" who would show up at major card shows and buy collections. I sold him my collection. Sold it all in one stop and maybe got a quarter of it's book value, but the time saved was worth it. I kinda wish I had saved a couple items that I think could go way up in value like autographs of Ty Cobb and Cy Young, but it's done.I put the money in a separate mutual fund so I could see what the items are worth today. Currently over $20K. That way if I see something I had sell for a big amount I can at least say "I've got this much'. Sadly he has passed and I'm not sure anyone has taken his place.
Also as others said, condition is of utmost importance. If they were handled much, like an average kid would do, you're value will go down dramatically.

From what I've seen, Ebay is a terrible place to sell cards. This is also a down period for sports memorabilia. I have a friend that puts on shows, goes to the national shows and owned 3 mall stores. He's closed them all and there are way less shows and he says way less dealers at the national shows.
 
easysurfer said:
Back in my w*rking days, there was this guy who would buy a complete set of Topps cards each year and keeping that set unopened. Guess that was his way of indexing by buying the entire "market." But I bet overall, he spent more than earned as for every valuable, superstar card there are a bunch of cards on nothing but sentimental value for some fans.
Click to expand...

Problem with that is, there's millions of other people doing the same thing. those cards will be virtually worthless. Unless he was doing it in the 50's and 60's, then he's in great shape. But lots of people started doing it in the 80's at the top of he market hype.
 
Looking to Sell Baseball Cards? Here’s How (and Where) to Do It looks like some pretty good info on the process. Of course this is a dealer and it steers you toward dealing with someone like him, but I still think that's the best or at least easiest way to go.

https://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/i...lue-it-did-but-only-to-me/Content?oid=3695583 is a sobering story that probably reflects reality, unless of course you actually have a few of the target cards they are still looking for.

Like I said in the "Toys" thread, I have no plans to sell mine. I think what I'm going to do is make sure I have the most valuable cards set aside, so that my son can easily save the most valuable cards in a shoe box or two, and just dump the rest if the hobby still has not revived when he wants to get rid of them.

If I were in your shoes, I'd look for a local dealer if there is one and see if they'll make a decent offer. Better would be a large dealer you could drive to, or a card show. Otherwise, I'd pick out the most valuable ones, make sure they won't get damaged in transport, and ship them to a big dealer. I doubt it's worth shipping the common cards unless you have a full set, though you can ask the dealer whether it is.
 
One more site that is interesting, https://www.deanscards.com/sell-your-baseball-cards . Note that they are only buying cards before 1970, with an exception for 1970s cards if part of a larger collection. None from the 80s or newer. I found a lot of good information browsing through their links, and they also show pictures and prices of the cards they sell, which at least gives you more of an idea of which cards you have that are most valuable. I couldn't tell you how much they would buy those same cards for.

My most valuable card is probably this one: https://www.deanscards.com/p/236467/1968-Topps-177-Mets-Rookies-Nolan-Ryan-Jerry-Koosman . I'd have to check against their grading system but I think it's be VG to EX condition. Actually my 1969 Ryan card might be worth more because I remember it to be in better condition.

This thread and the toys thread has me thinking to get them out again and take a look.
 
Last time I had baseball cards was in the late 50s. I even had a couple of Mickey Mantle that unfortunately found their way into my bicycle spokes. I can still recall the taste of that stale bubblegum.


Cheers!
 
Inspired by this thread I've started going through my old cards again. They are already organized, but I need to decide if they are organized how I'd like them to be. I had some of the more valuable ones in my fireproof box, and others tucked away in boxes, but really, no one card is worth $100. I'll get a lot more enjoyment out of putting some of them out on my book case outside my bedroom, so I see them every day.

I'm also working on cataloging them, at least the valuable ones, to make sure when my time comes that my son knows, this box or two and these out on display are worth something, but these other boxes aren't really worth anything.

So far it's been kind of fun but I've only spent a few hours over a couple rainy afternoons. I found an free online site where I can catalog them. SportsCardDatabase.com - Free Real Time Price Guide and Collector Tools
Takes a bit of finding and mouseclicking to enter individual cards including my grading of condition, but it looks like bulk entering a set and unchecking the ones I don't have will be pretty easy. A little more work to enter the various quantities where I have more than one but maybe I don't care for the bulk cards.

I can also export the database to a spreadsheet so I don't have to worry if the site goes away.
 
easysurfer said:
If you have a Mickey Mantle rookie card, I'll be glad to take that off of your hands :D.

Kidding aside, along with the player and year of player (rookie cards tend to bring more value I think) the card condition is also a big factor impacting the value.

Value or not, it is always fun to see what players you have to see maybe some became stars.

I have some cards, of various condition stashed from my younger days. Some big names like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Reggie Jackson. I think the only rookie/future star card I may have is Chipper Jones. The oldest card of a star I have I think is Don Drysdale.
Click to expand...

You can have Mickey Mantle. I will take Honus Wagner if you have it. :cool:
 
You probably saw prices that were for "graded" cards. It might look like they are worth several hundred dollars but yours are more than likely not graded and not very valuable. Graded rookie cards might go for hundreds for a select group of players but 95% of the cards will be worth a buck or so. It takes a lot of time to sell them individually, best bet is just to bring them in to a shop and ask for a price. You might get 30% of value but he would assume all risk and invest a lot of time into trying to sell them.
 
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