I've collected cards for many years and most of my collection is from the 90s. I've been thinking about selling my collection for a couple of weeks now.

Though I have a bunch of common cards I do have a ton of game used cards, inserts, rare cards etc I have trading cards too from other sports and even Star Wars.

Has anyone here sold a large collection and if so how did you go about selling? This seems overwhelming and I don't even know where to start.

astros4545 said:

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Just know this

It's worth nothing

The baseball card market got Beanie Babied

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And more specifically, the '90s are likely among the least valuable.

Most cards were over printed and many of us preserved our cards in nice boxes and sleeves. There are several articles on how little they are worth. Here is a good one.

There are still local card places. IIRC, there is one in Richardson called Nick's, on Coit/Campbell. I've passed by it, but never gone it.

Personally, I likely have 30K cards +/-. Mostly from the '90s... probably a hundred or so of the insert "rare" cards. AFAIK, none of them are worth anything.

I use my 1990 Donruss cards as kindling for my backyard fires. So they are good for something.

Definitely don't plan on getting much money at all for 90's cards, even for the good players. My youngest son is into baseball and buys cards with some of the money he earns, so we've been in a card shop recently. Not 100% certain, but pretty sure I overheard them tell somebody asking about pricing and they told him $1.00 per 1000 cards for common player cards if you bring in a box full of them. The better cards are worth a little more, but there were just too many of them produced.

If you have a younger kid or relative or neighbor kid, your best bet is likely to give them to the kid and let them enjoy them. You aren't going to get much for them if they are mostly 90's.

Here's an actual response from someone who still collects (you can see my un-updated collection here)

• The common base cards are worth almost nothing. I would find a children's hospital or similar place that would accept them as donations for the children.
• Some of the 90's inserts, depending on set are actually worth something. You will need to do your homework here. Some can we worth a surprising amount (eBay auction), but this also depends on condition. If nothing else, grouping them in lots by year and product may be worth the effort.
• The game-used is better off sold as a lot if you want something out of it without spending too much time on it. Some game-used is worthless by itself, but there are usually buyers out there that would pay 50 cents to a dollar each if they were included in lot.
• Same thing with game-used applies to the autographs, but they are usually worth a bit more depending on the players.

If you have any Pirates cards you are not wanting....

C Loves L said:

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J.P. 03 said:

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Step 1: tell everyone their cards are worthless because they are too common, so their best bet is to just throw them away.
Step 2: hope a lot of people take your advice.
Step 3: wait 10 years for your cards to become more scarce.
Step 4: profit

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Yeah after reading this thread I'm shamelessly hoping for some nation wide disasters

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Maybe Puerto Rico, Dominican, or other Island...

astros4545 said:

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Just know this

It's worth nothing

The baseball card market got Beanie Babied

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Sigh, yup.

Basically, the only cards that are truly holding value come from before 1980. After that, it's crap shoot depending on the level of insert/auto/relic, etc, and even those aren't carrying the same weight they should.

But, of course, some cards are worth hundreds. a 2011 Topps Update Trout in the right condition goes for 300-400 dollars. SO, you know.

My 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. Upper Deck won't put my kids through college like I was planning?

ORAggieFan said:

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My 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. Upper Deck won't put my kids through college like I was planning?

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No, but one day I will own that stupid card.

I always lusted after the Nolan Ryan rookie card, but that was so far out of my price range it was funny.

Finally broke down a few years ago and bought a box of 89 Upper Deck so I could get a Griffey rookie, a card I was never lucky enough to get in my youth. I felt 10 yrs old again opening all those packs.

Occasionally I will go through some of my cards from the 80s and 90s and laugh at how some players were so overhyped (anyone remember Todd Van Poppel?) and think of all the money I wasted, but it was fun.

jef***02 said:

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Finally broke down a few years ago and bought a box of 89 Upper Deck so I could get a Griffey rookie, a card I was never lucky enough to get in my youth. I felt 10 yrs old again opening all those packs.

Occasionally I will go through some of my cards from the 80s and 90s and laugh at how some players were so overhyped (anyone remember Todd Van Poppel?) and think of all the money I wasted, but it was fun.

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TVP!!

I have a few of his. Still have my 2 books with the sleeves by team, year, brand.

Bobby Bragan was a customer at a family member's business. He would stop by 2 or 3 times a year with entire cases of unopened baseball packs. I spent days opening those packs and looking up the values. What a cool gift for a young kid to get.

I know a guy interested in offloading a collection. Lots of common cards, and some game used, inserts and rare cards. Even some Star Wars trading cards. Let me know and I'll pass along their info.

dlance said:

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I remember making a makeshift spreadsheet on a 5.25" floppy on our Commodore 64 to catalog all my cards. At the peak I had around 20k cards. I kept a few sentimental ones and dumped the rest before I had kids. Now that my boy is 7 and loving baseball I have the typical old man remorse about getting rid of them.

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Let me know if you want some of mine. God knows I have enough to donate. Probably won't all be top-notch stuff but I'd definitely put some bigger names in there.

(EDIT: And I meant giving, not selling)

Funny thread b/c just a couple of weeks ago my wife had me pick up about 10 boxes of various cards from a guy in our neighborhood who was cleaning out his attic. I told her not to bother but she thought my boys (13 & 11) would have fun going through them. They did, for a day, with a one month subscription to Beckett online ($25 or $30 I think). The most valuable thing we found was a Tom Brady worth $10 and that was from MY old collection and not the inherited one. Now I'm the proud owner of my own worthless cards PLUS this other guy's. Feels wrong to just dump them all in the recycling bin though....

There are some 1970 -1980s rookie cards graded PSA 10, BGS 10, or SGC 100 that are worth collecting. The 70s are obviously harder to find in that shape, but i've always defaulted to quality. quality is the only real scarcity of the 70/80s era unfortunately. Most everything else I would avoid.

I remember my neighbor giving me a Darryl Strawberry rookie card that got me attracted to collecting for it was worth about $20 at the time. A couple of years and drug lapses later and it was worth 5 cents.

I pulled all my cards out a few weeks back to show my boys but I only collected '89.

My best friend and I collected together around 86-90, including working the dealer side of tables. When I left for A&M, he kept most of it, but with us still knowing what was his/mine/ours. Then I moved to Seattle, so there was no reason or time for us to go through it all.

Fast forward to two years ago, he got a divorce and wasn't going to move out with all of those cards. So, he shipped them to me. I ended up tossing like 94% of the cards. My boys got a couple of handsful, but I didn't want more scattering around the house than that, as kids do. There are a few decent ones left (maybe three UD Griffeys), but for the most part they're just a relic of my past.

... as are my old Richie Rich comics, but the kids have been enjoying those, to my surprise.

Please allow me to write this long post, but I feel that it's worth sharing:

I've been a card collector for many years. Bought my 1st pack of cards in '71 at a drugstore where Double Dave's is now on the corner of George Bush. Think it was called Medley's?. Finally stopped collecting in '94 when baseball had yet another strike. I still collect cards but only collect players that played for A&M.

Before the 3rd straight baseball strike in '94, I had stopped collecting during my A&M days but the market exploded in the mid-80's & I started collecting baseball cards again when seeing them at the Mall shows reinvigorated me. I saved up for over a year & went to the National Convention in Arlington in '88 with the intent on buying a Babe Ruth card, a Lou Gehrig card & a '62 complete set (the year that I was born). I ended up buying a couple of '34 Ruth Goudey's (later graded to be 1 & 1.5 with Beckett) & found 1 guy selling a '62 set (over 800 vendors at this show). I actually knew him, as he had previously had a shop in Westgate & wasn't a big fan of his because he was VERY cocky & bragocious. He had since moved back to Minnesota but came back to Texas for the National Convention. I had decided to bypass him but after a couple of hours of unsuccessful shopping, it became apparent that if I was to get that set, then it would be thru the guy that was a jerk.

This dealer had a very clean set for around $600, more than I wanted to pay, but my wife actually told me to go for it & I took the plunge. The dealer then told me that he was missing 6 cards from the set & he sent is wife to get them from another dealer. After a few minutes she returned with 5 of the 6 cards needed. The loudmouth dealer complained how he got taken advantage of by his fellow dealer but nonetheless, he promised to me that he had the 1 card that I needed at his shop in Minnesota & he would mail it to me once he arrived home. The card needed: the #1 card, Roger Maris. Maris had broken Ruth's single season homerun record in '61 & his '62 card was highly collected & was also hard to find in decent condition.

So, the dealer was getting info to send me the card & my wife was giving him our info & I was just a bystander as my wife had (& still has) no problem with taking over the situation. As she was giving the dealer our mailing info, I observed a college-aged kid approach the booth & ask the dealers kid (about 12-13 years old) if they bought cards. The kid replied that they did & asked what he had to sell. This college-aged kid had a plain white letter sized envelope & he pulled out a single card....it was a '62 Maris.

The owners kid then tried to get his dad's attention but the dad told his son twice that he was busy with a customer. I finally intervened & told the loudmouth that he should listen to his kid. The dealer actually listened to me & turned his attention to his kid as it was explained that the prospective seller was trying to sell this particular card. The dealer asked the guy how much he wanted for the card & the reply was " I don't know, I've never sold any cards". The dealer then offered the guy $20 & the offer was happily accepted. The dealer paid the guy for his card & then immediately gave it to me.

I was dumbstruck (& still am). What are the chances of a set being sold by 1 of over 800 dealers (& the only dealer that I was aquainted with) at the exact same time in which a single card was needed to complete a 660 card set & a random person shows up unannounced at the same time trying to sell that 1 card that I needed?

I'll never get rid of that set.

Shellack them on a table. Sell table for 10% more IKEA's price. Consider yourself lucky.

aggiedata said:

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Shellack them on a table. Sell table for 10% more IKEA's price. Consider yourself lucky.

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That is actually a pretty good idea to make use of some cards that are sitting around in boxes.

When I was younger I glued some cards on the edges of a round trashcan that looked pretty cool and make for an unique looking trashcan (some of which were actually pretty "good" cards). Somehow my mom wound up chunking it after I went away to college.

i have seen them on bars. it's kind of fun to sit there and look at them. even though they aren't worth much, they bring back memories.

I got big into player collecting during college. Was sitting close to 2K unique Jeff Bagwell cards and like 150 unique Jason Tyner cards (which is like 75% of what exist).

I've got another 40K or so from my collecting days in the 90's.

Some of the rare inserts from the 90's go for a decent amount of money on Ebay... mostly to player collectors.

I got into "prospecting" and made a decent amount in college as well. Basically buy up a ton of rookie cards of a guy you think could be good in the majors and sell when he gets hot.

My cards have been in boxes for 10 years or so... I spend all my money on beer and vinyl now.

I'd have engaged the kid trying to sell the card, and attempt to outbid the dealer... if anything, driving the dealer's price up.

I've considered monetizing some of my autographed baseball collection recently, but still think it'll be a great pass down to the kids eventually - particularly the old HOF's

As far as cards go, the above sentiments are right about current vs past value. Hit up some of the bigger national shows and talk to the dealers, my boy loves checking out all the items from cards to memorabilia - lots of cool stuff and traders still out there.