Sports and Non Sports Cards

[jdiesel33]

I have TONS and I mean TONS of unopened boxes and factory sets of football, basketball, baseball, and hockey cards from the late 70's to early to mid 90's. Also have a lot of non sports like Star Trek, TMNT, Garbage Pail Kids, etc.. All unopened. I want to sell them and put that money into my Charger. I have tried Craigslist a little with not much success. I dont want to do Ebay b/c it is a LOT of trouble and seems like too much in fees. Can't find any card shows around here in the near future. Any other ideas anyone?

[KS71owner]

Unfortunately the market for cards/comics/etc. is very soft right now. It's tough to unload that kind of stuff sometimes, unless you have something someone really wants. I've been collecting comics for years, and I'm kind of in the same boat. I'm trying to phase out my collection and just focus on high-value rare books.

You'd probably have better luck selling to a large collector or dealer. Try some local comic and card shops, they may know someone who would be interested. Pick up an issue of WIZARD magazine, the classifieds in the back always have dealers looking to buy.

I also recommend getting a price guide. It'll help you determine what's worth selling and what's not, and keep you from getting ripped off.

[jdiesel33]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a lot of it inventoried(is that a word?) and the current prices. I'm a little in the dark about what percentage of the book value to ask for. Dont want to ask too much but also dont want to give it away.

[runningman]

Dealers are probably selling stuff for 25% less than book values a lot of times, sometimes even less than that.  Usually they will pay 25-50% of book value depending on the product.  Most stuff from the early 90's isn't worth that much because they made so much of everything.....again depending on the product.  If it were me I would go with ebay, you will pay a little more but also reach a huge market and get the most $$ for your stuff..

[Chad L. Magee]

Dealers are probably selling stuff for 25% less than book values a lot of times, sometimes even less than that.  Usually they will pay 25-50% of book value depending on the product.  Most stuff from the early 90's isn't worth that much because they made so much of everything.....again depending on the product.  If it were me I would go with ebay, you will pay a little more but also reach a huge market and get the most $$ for your stuff..

I agree with the above statement (the rare coin market is exactly like that too).  I used to collect baseball cards back in the early 70s-early 90s while growing up, but it got too much of a circus to buy the new stuff each year.  At that point in time, I started to collect the earlier stuff (Ruth, Mantle, Williams, etc) as I could see that most of the newer stuff would flood the market for a long time without much value....

Your best bet to get what you want out of it is to advertise in a local paper (be it a free ad or a pay ad is up to you) or even website (CR comes to mind).  That way, you will get locals interested in your accumulation without having to ship it to them.  The down side to that is time, as it may be a while before you get people in from the ad.  Ebay can get your stuff sold, but the fees can come back to bite you if they sell below what you have in them.....