Trading cards

I was hoping for some help here from some folks who have discussed trading cards (baseball, football; not Potter, Harry) before. ...

I recently regained control of a big box of cards, which no doubt has a lot of duds but a few gems. In it, I have nine complete sets.

What I'm wondering is if there's a resource (Beckett, maybe?) where I can figure out how much I could get for those sets, or if it would be better to extract the rookies out of them and sell those off?

Anyone have any advice?

The sets, to the best of my recollection, are:

Topps baseball: '90, '91, '92, '93; Donruss baseball, '89; Score football '90; and a few others.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Far more call for "star" cards than for complete sets, but if you break them up, you'll more than likely be stuck with a boxful of commons.

Beckett will give you set and single prices. You may also want to check out ebay and other auction sites, though, to get a feel for how much $$$ people are REALLY willing to shell out. And of course, with cards that new, anything below mint condition is probably fodder for the recycling bin.

--pseudo, who still has a roomful of Pro Set's finest upstairs...

 

Thanks for the info; do they still sell Beckett at bookstores?

And I think one of those sets I referenced is a ProSet. I liked their design.

 

Yes, you can find Beckett at bookstores.

And if you're planning on selling them off, plan on getting not much more than a third of the listed price in Beckett.

 

Don't sell them.

Give them to your kids or another young fan someday. That thrill will be worth more than some guy giving you .30 on the dollar for a card because its cut is off center.

 

Cards will rarely bring in any money unless they're PSA Graded. Do not break up the sets. If anything, buy the same set and break that up. But keep one complete; they'll be worth nothing if it's missing one of 702.

 

the days of 30 cents on a dollar are long gone, at least with this kind of stuff. the sets you mentioned were terribly mass-produced in the early 90s, and as a result, there's no significant value in what you mentioned.

there's a griffey rookie in the 1989 donruss set, a frank thomas in the 90 topps. beyond that, it'd be tough to sell on ebay because the shipping costs will exceed what you can get in a bid (you might be able to get $5 for a set, but if it costs $6 to ship, you're better trying local shops) ... i'd take the set you like best and keep it for the intrinsic value, then donate the rest to a charity that accepts them, then write off whatever you're comfortable claiming for a value. ...

 

Best idea mentioned.

 

I cleaned out a bunch of my stuff and what I knew wouldn't go on Ebay went on our local Freecycle site.
A woman picked up a skate box full of cards and stuff for her 11-year-old son. She later e-mailed me a picture of him surrounded by the cards and holding a big sign that said 'thank you' on it.
That made my year.

 

Joel,

I hate to burst your bubble but the cards you mentioned aren't going to make you rich. By that, I mean that if you can find someone to buy them, you're probably only going to get roughly $10-$15 per set -- if that.

The only cards that are worth anything nowadays are the insert cards that feature pieces of bats, uniforms or hats and/or autographs. I've got a good friend who owns a sports collectible store near my house, and I also recently sold a large portion of my collection, and all the sets I had from that era I included pretty much as a throw-in to complete the deal. I also used to work in the industry myself for a number of years while I was in college, so I have a pretty good working knowledge of the market.

Feel free to PM me if you have any more specific questions.