My husband has been collecting cards for over 20 years and he is ready to part with quite a lot of them, 1000s of cards, including promo, specials etc. I have created a word document with the list of everything that is in the lot. However I am looking to try and get a rough value from someone who may know. If there is anyone who is willing to help us out it would be greatly appreciated. I am not sure how to attached the word doc here, but maybe someone can help. Thank you.

Hello DNK,

Welcome to Card Talk. As you probably already know, it will be difficult to find a buyer for 1000's of cards. It's not impossible but more likely that you will have to try selling it in lots. Every buyer will want photos. It's also likely that your main buyers will be in Australia because international shipping is slow and expensive.

There isn't a way to attach a document in this forum and it's not a site for selling but I think we all understand you asking for advice on how to sell. You may have to hire an appraiser but you can also do the work yourself since you are looking for a rough estimate. You can check the Completed Listings section for Ebay and search for sales of particular sets and singles to determine price ranges. You may have to search for at least 100 sets and singles and then make a calculation based on that. Many things might not have a sales history. Ebay provides sales date only going back 90 days.

That will give you an idea of what your buyer will want to sell at so you are going to have to sell to that person for less than that unless you want to try selling at a flea market or collectibles show in your area. Keep in mind it will be impossible to get top dollar when selling a bulk quantity. It's going to have to be a good deal for the buyer. You would do better selling set by set and the rarer cards separately but then that is also slower.

Another thing you can try is making it known in your area that you have a large lot of cards for sale. You might get buyers to come to you. You may have to advertise in a card collecting magazine or at a collectibles show.

I hope this helps you.

Jess

As catskilleagle has already indicated, the larger the collection, the harder it is to get good value on it without putting in a lot of work, or finding someone else to do it for you. Any bulk sale will literally get you pennies on the dollar. You will get only lowball offers for the ease of getting rid of the cards and the likelihood that the buyer may only want a small portion of your collection anyway. The fact is, many cards in large collections are only "fillers" to other people. Buyers are much more likely to want to pick out only certain cards, then want to pay for something they don't need and that is understandable.

So the first thing is for your husband or some other knowledgeable card collector to decide what you have. If there are vintage pre-70s cards and sets in there, they are worth something. If there are autograph cards or other hits in there, they are worth something, maybe a lot for some. If there are hot items, like old Marvel cards, maybe they can be unloaded. If you have thousands of cards, but they are mainly modern base cards, they will have very little value in a bulk sale.

If you take the time to identify the cards and try to do individual card sales and group/lot sales on eBay you may see much better results, but it will be like going into business on it. No matter how you do it, barring a miracle where you have some terrific cards, you are not likely to get anywhere near the cost he paid for the cards over 20 odd years, if he is an average card collector.

Some suggestions, if you are not going to do it yourself. Try to contact some of the more recent people who sold you the cards. Perhaps they are in the business and will make you an offer to take some back. Of course look to connect with local card collectors, since they are likely to give you a better price than a dealer. Or look into consignment services, where other people will put your merchandise up for sale in their store or on the internet for a percentage of the sold price as another option.

Lots of luck, hope you do well.

Well, my devil's advocate question would be; how does a 20 year collector not have some idea what his collection is worth?

The card market value has gone a bit volatile over the past three years but most collectors have a pretty good idea about the 10% or 20% of their collection that they know is worth something.

Unless the collecting focus was obscure or hard to find vintage an annual price guide and watching current ebay sale averages should put you in the ball park.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Well, my devil's advocate question would be; how does a 20 year collector not have some idea what his collection is worth?

Because the husband doesn't know they are being sold LOL

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
how does a 20 year collector not have some idea what his collection is worth?

Depends on what you consider "some idea". On the few occasions that I have lost interest in certain areas of my card collecting, I have never gotten anywhere near my idea of its value from quick bulk selling. Truth is, it doesn't matter what you estimate. You find out what you can get when you seriously go to sell it and shop it around.

Whenever I have wanted to sell bulk to dealers I knew well, I have either gotten no offers or gotten offers that were so lowball, I could have just tossed them in the trash and saved myself the trouble of carrying the binders around.

I get it. It's a business to them and they are not in the buy-back business. Bulk selling is never the way to go if you have anything that isn't common and you're not just happy to get rid of it.

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Well, my devil's advocate question would be; how does a 20 year collector not have some idea what his collection is worth?

Because the husband doesn't know they are being sold LOL

I'm not gonna lie, the thought had crossed my mind.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

Depends on what you consider "some idea". On the few occasions that I have lost interest in certain areas of my card collecting, I have never gotten anywhere near my idea of its value from quick bulk selling. Truth is, .............................

And how did you come to this understanding of how your hobby works?

By being a decades long collector. Which was my point.

I wonder if you could sell tickets to a live on-line bulk card burning? $1 for every thousand cards and you limit it to only 100 viewers or so.

I mean ya gotta make it entertaining and there needs to be an account of what is inside but seriously, think about it!

It removes the nightmare of bulk selling, it gets the seller more money than they would have gotten in the first place AND it narrows down the existing card population for real collectors!

How is that not a WIN!!!

quote:

Originally posted by dnk:
My husband has been collecting cards for over 20 years and he is ready to part with quite a lot of them, 1000s of cards, including promo, specials etc. I have created a word document with the list of everything that is in the lot. However I am looking to try and get a rough value from someone who may know. If there is anyone who is willing to help us out it would be greatly appreciated. I am not sure how to attached the word doc here, but maybe someone can help. Thank you.

Certainly look to see if there are any high value cards and sell them separately, they must be a few that your husband spent a few $$'s on so look and see what they are worth. Base sets - Generally - aren't worth a lot.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

Depends on what you consider "some idea". On the few occasions that I have lost interest in certain areas of my card collecting, I have never gotten anywhere near my idea of its value from quick bulk selling. Truth is, .............................

And how did you come to this understanding of how your hobby works?

By being a decades long collector. Which was my point.

So I guess you are with me when I say that we can know what our large card collections cost us and even have "some idea" of what they should be worth in the current market. But as for what you can really get when selling? No, you have to put in the work, and even with that you will have thousands of cards that people will love to have for free, but they won't want to pay for them.

It's like when you're unemployed and you really need a job. So the interviewer says "your resume is awesome, you're the best applicant we've seen. Only you are so overqualified that sorry, we just can't hire you."

Trying to move a large card collection in bulk lots is like that. "Your 25 sets are great. Your 10 binders of 8,000 cards in alphabetical order by type and in mint condition are the most I've ever seen. Unfortunately I can't possibly give you what these cards are worth, so I'll have to pass, but I will take these 3 cards, OK." Yeah, that's what happens.

Personally I have thousands and thousands of cards and I have no idea what their value is but then again I am a card collector so that's that.

DMK

I think you probably need to invest in a card dealers catalogue. I only know of two and both have Cigarette and Trade cards listed with prices that they sell at. LCCC have produced one annually for some years and I believe Murray's Catalogue has been reissued here in the UK by a firm of auctioneers. These catalogues will give you an idea of what it would cost to buy the cards and therefore help you with scarcity which is often a gauge on the value of a card.

Have you tried The Australian Cartophilic Society at www.australiancartophilic.org.au. They may be able to point you to a suitable dealer in Australia.

regards

John

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

So I guess you are with me when I say that..........

This conversation is going in a circle

Not disagreeing with you, when someone tells me they have been collecting for 20 years I make the assumption they know something about the hobby. It doesn't take much to know what purchased cards and sets sell for in price value. Love or hate Ebay it is a valuable market check right at the tip of your fingers. Most collectors have a system of separating high and low value items within their collections. In a bulk sale your low value items drop closer to no value.

Bulk selling and it's downfalls are a common conversation among collectors. It is understood that it is usually the lowest value you can get for your collection but you can get rid of it quickly.

The reason I said it was my devil's advocate question is the original post seemed more like a fishing expedition to me. I may be wrong but the idea crossed my mind. In either case all of the basic info concerning bulk collection sales has been revealed.

It does seem that mykdude may have hit the nail on the head as the original poster has only made the one post.

regards

John

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

This conversation is going in a circle.

A lot of them do,

As for the original poster, you can only answer in good faith. If doesn't hurt one way or the other.

Thank you to everyone who has replied. As this was our first time posting, we didn’t realise we had any replies, until rolling through my junk emails today and I find heaps of people replying. Sorry for the ignorance here.

My husband is aware of them being sold...
He has been collecting for many year and is keeping quite a few sets, these are cards that are excess to his now much smaller collection.

We realised that a bulk sale won’t get us too dollar but we just need to move them quickly. We would rather have someone finish a set or make use of them in someway rather than them sitting boxed up in our living room.

Maybe can I regrade the question and say where should I list them? I guess it was a tricky question as they are only worth what someone is willing to pay.

We are serious on moving these cards and just want to see them made use of in another collectors arms.

Thanks everyone.

Hi DNK-

Well it's a tough question, and it really depends on what you are selling and how much effort you want to put into it.

Shipping costs have become problematic for true 'bulk,' so that may limit your options for less valuable things.

If you have bulk that isn't valuable you are likely going to need to sell it locally. In the US I'd look for Facebook groups, or craigslist, or try to connect with local collectors. I'm not sure what the popular similar sites/apps are in your area.

If you have more expensive material that you want to sell individually there are some Facebook groups for non-sport cards, there is also eBay -- some people also tout mercari, but I've never had any luck at all on there. You can also look to other websites / forums that allow selling like the Blowout Cards Forums. You may find some Australian collectors on those sites as well.

Good luck.

Jon

quote:

Originally posted by dnk:
My husband is aware of them being sold...

Thanks everyone.

Nice to clarify that for all those guys who secretly harbor suspicions that they may come home one day to find their significant other standing by a bonfire.

Wish I could tell you more than I did, but its hard not to talk in generalizations that every one already knows when you don't know the local environment. If you aren't too concerned with price, just speed, do you have any local hobby stores in Australia? You must have thrift stores or antique stores. Try the consignment route, if they will take them. Where do local card collectors talk, in person or online? You need to let them know of your intention in some manner.

It will be much better if you stay local than trying to negotiate a deal from afar, not just because of the high shipping, but because a buyer will want a lot of information when he/she can't see the cards. Unless its all for free, but you want to get something back I'm sure. Even if its just commons, they have value to someone and a dealer can make money on them, provided that they know someone who collects them. That's another problem. Some card collections are so expert and so obscure that no one besides the collector has any interest in them.

So if you decide to bulk sell, make sure you remove any cards of individual value because they can be easily kept. If your husband had a large collection as a completist, you can get rid of probably around 75% of it without touching the cream of the crop. Sell good cards, only if you get a reasonable price on them. Sorry I can't give better advice, but you need to talk to people who know what card sellers do where you live. Good luck again.