New Guy (New Scans Posted)

awesome stuff! some great cracker jacks there. this is quite a nice collection! tbh i would not go with a BIG auction house like rea, the stuff could get lost in the shuffle. i would consign it to a middle AH where your items will be the highlight! the 0% seller's fees should be a given, with these nice cards you might want to ask for a partial refund of the buyer's premium also.

you can let the AH submit the cards to SGC or PSA so you don't have to absorb that cost. i'm optimistic, i say the jax is a 3 and the cobb can be a 3.5 with the little corner crease.

edit: great polar bear run of t206s also

If they are in pages from 1982 I'd strongly suggest taking them out and buying new pages or find some other storage. Mot plastic pages back then had PVC in them with is very harmful to cards.

jbonie wrote:Nice Cristy Matthewson!

Thanks, the back is clean too!

sabrjay wrote:If they are in pages from 1982 I'd strongly suggest taking them out and buying new pages or find some other storage. Mot plastic pages back then had PVC in them with is very harmful to cards.

Thanks, the pages are from "ENOR Corporation, Cresskill, NJ". Anyone know if those are bad?

cccc wrote:awesome stuff! some great cracker jacks there. this is quite a nice collection! tbh i would not go with a BIG auction house like rea, the stuff could get lost in the shuffle. i would consign it to a middle AH where your items will be the highlight! the 0% seller's fees should be a given, with these nice cards you might want to ask for a partial refund of the buyer's premium also.

you can let the AH submit the cards to SGC or PSA so you don't have to absorb that cost. i'm optimistic, i say the jax is a 3 and the cobb can be a 3.5 with the little corner crease.

edit: great polar bear run of t206s also

Great tips, how do I find that MIDDLE AH? Guess what Great Grandpappy used to smoke?

i would shop around, see which auction house gives you the best rate, submit the cards on their dime, etc. this is a 20k+ collection

goodwin: goodwinandco.com
huggins & scott : hugginsandscott.com
mile high: milehighcardco.com

those are just a few i can think off the top of my head. i eliminated some shady ones like legendary, memory lane and smaller places i felt won't give you the most eyeball.

edit: might as well tell u the big auction houses also: robert edward auction, heritage, lelands (they deal in more memorabilia). for my money i would go with goodwin or huggins if they will submit the cards themselves.

Goodwin gets the best prices of those three. Huggins and Scott is a little on the fringe, Mile High is solid. But Goodwin has the best auction descriptions. I would go with Goodwin!

PS I know that Bill is willing to submit cards for you. I have had a couple excellent consignments with Bill on lower grade material and done phenomenally well.

Ummm... Holy SH#$. Welcome to the board!

I think a lot of board collectors are jaded by "I have some good cards" etc only to be sorely disappointed by 1990 Fleers. You have come to the right place. Those are magnificent cards! Very $$$$$$$$$

Take your time, and consult experts (you will find honest opinions here). The scope and scale of that collection is awesome. Grading a great deal of those cards is well worth it. In the least it gives you a relative idea of what you have.

I am not able, as in, these cards are WAY above my pay scale. You will find some very happy collectors out there to pick them up, quickly!

cccc wrote:i would shop around, see which auction house gives you the best rate, submit the cards on their dime, etc. this is a 20k+ collection

goodwin: goodwinandco.com
huggins & scott : hugginsandscott.com
mile high: milehighcardco.com

those are just a few i can think off the top of my head. i eliminated some shady ones like legendary, memory lane and smaller places i felt won't give you the most eyeball.

I really appreciate all your help guys. It is really great of you to help me out.
I am doing this for my Pop so he has a chance of retiring.

Anyway, 1 more question for now.
I have maybe 1000 mid to late fiftes topps baseball and 100 late fiftes topps football cards, as well as 30 or so 1920's exhibit cards. Also 200 late 70's topps baseball cards, and a bunch of mid to late 80's stuff (that I am pretty sure is worthless). Should I include those in one big deal with an AH, or should I take it in steps?

Once again, I really appreciate the help. I shopped around on a lot of baseball card forums and read many many many posts before I decided to sign up here. I made the right choice, you guys are all top notch!

Anyway, 1 more question for now.
I have maybe 1000 mid to late fiftes topps baseball and 100 late fiftes topps football cards, as well as 30 or so 1920's exhibit cards. Also 200 late 70's topps baseball cards, and a bunch of mid to late 80's stuff (that I am pretty sure is worthless). Should I include those in one big deal with an AH, or should I take it in steps?

The AH won't want the fifties and later stuff, especially if they are just low-grade commons. I don't know about the Exhibits. The late 70's and 80's stuff, pretty much worthless, you might be able to find a buyer for the 70's stuff on Craigslist or a card show, but it's really not worth your time.

Obviously if the cards are HOFers then they would be worth something, Mickey Mantle, et al. You're more than welcome for the help. It's always a pleasure when someone comes on the board with cards like this.

not familiar with 50's-60's topps stuff...but imo unless they're really high grade you should break them up into lots and maybe list them on ebay. or leave that stuff for later after you move all the prewar items. there is some money in postwar if you get high grade rookies of hall of famers, like banks/koufax/clemente/brooks robinson/kaline/rose/mccovey/brock etc..

Ebay is good, but that stuff is really for after. Focus your time on the big cards and you can deal with the crap later on, just my opinion.

jbonie wrote:

Anyway, 1 more question for now.
I have maybe 1000 mid to late fiftes topps baseball and 100 late fiftes topps football cards, as well as 30 or so 1920's exhibit cards. Also 200 late 70's topps baseball cards, and a bunch of mid to late 80's stuff (that I am pretty sure is worthless). Should I include those in one big deal with an AH, or should I take it in steps?

The AH won't want the fifties and later stuff, especially if they are just low-grade commons. I don't know about the Exhibits. The late 70's and 80's stuff, pretty much worthless, you might be able to find a buyer for the 70's stuff on Craigslist or a card show, but it's really not worth your time.

Obviously if the cards are HOFers then they would be worth something, Mickey Mantle, et al. You're more than welcome for the help. It's always a pleasure when someone comes on the board with cards like this.

That's about what I figured, I do have a bunch of HOFers from the 50s, but unless they are 100% true gem perfect Mint Perfect Crazy Graded, they just don't demand the $$$ like the true vintage stuff. I might kick them around at some card shows and see what happens. Maybe even get the HOFers graded.

I sold 15 cards at a show a few years back included 1959 Mantle, 1957 Koufax, Campanella, and Mays for $500, because that is all the money the guy at the booth had in his pocket. None would have graded to perfection like they have to now days to get top $$.

I will get some more scans later on and post some more pics for you guys.

I'll let you know how things go!

jbonie wrote:Ebay is good, but that stuff is really for after. Focus your time on the big cards and you can deal with the crap later on, just my opinion.

Yep, thanks to your guys advice, I am going to focus on the prewar stuff, and try and find the best AH I can. I might just sit on the other stuff until it is 100 years old! Pass it on down like Pops did!

The Exhibits will bring good $$$ (fractional compared to the CJ's & t206's). IMO they are perfect for Sterling or LOTG. I can only vouch for Lee (Sterling), he does great work with making the most of what you have. Sold a nice lot of w513's recently through his auction. My 25 w513's; I was expecting $350 he delivered $460. VERY HAPPY WITH HIS SERVICE.

it's very cool that your grandfather smoked these straight out of the polar bear pouches and saved these cards. just blows my mind that your family has that link to these cards. as collectors here we treasure those little guys and are just fascinated about anything that has to do with them. did he also pull the cracker jacks after eating the candy? where is your family from? i also see some philadelphia e96 caramels and e90-1s. please take some pics of the e90-1s. there are a few toughies in there and hof'ers that are worth some money also.

Yeah you might want to keep the PB's if they really belonged to your grandfather like that. It is kind of special. Pass them down to your kids or whoever. Now, the CJ's are a different story, they are worth a ton of dough. But for family heirlooms, I would keep them for sure, anything sentimental like that, never sell. I have a Joe Montana RC my grandmother gave me when I was thirteen - it will be the last card leaving my collection if it ever has to go.

double post

Thank you for sharing. Those sheets stink. If you are selling I wouldn't worry about it. If you are holding onto those nice cards, you should obtain archival quality, or non-acid, pages. I like Ultra-Pro, but others here might suggest something similar or better.

I agree with everything written previously. You should follow their advices pretty closely, but that is my view.

My $2: Personally, I cannot comment on any specific dealer, but in general, dealers need to make money to live and to meet business expenses, so the probability is very high you will not get near top dollar on your plus items. Dealers, in my experience, will not pay a decent percentage for your more common, unusual, or low valued items. They just don't have the customers and will wholesale your item for a small margin. However, the cash is immediate and the transaction is done. Since I do not maintain current business relationships with dealers, I personally would expect 10-15 cents on the dollar at best and if they were to buy (cherry pick). Some might not have the cash, so that's a problem too. You could spend a lot of time marketing your cards to dealers who just don't have the means to handle your business.

An auction house is more likely to return to you better than 50% of value and the reputable ones should be good about forwarding payment. Since, like dealers, they have clienteles, an appropriate auction will garner good returns for your items. As the sales are online, you can look at auction houses that have handled items similar to yours, see the typical auction, and the prices they obtained for them at sale, assuming the transaction was a 3rd party one. I use google to search for past sale items, and sometimes google picks up these completed sales at auction in search results. You might have to look at the 3rd or 4th page of results.

eBay is a lot of work. If you are not a known seller, then you might see some variation in your sale prices. Grading will be a plus. Fees are surprisingly high. For me, the overall hassle is not worth it unless I were to do it nearly full time. Check Out My Collectables is easy, you just send in your stuff. But they have higher fees than eBay, and you might wait a while before your stuff sells. Besides, they are not a site that is oriented to vintage like you've got, at least in my view.

If you are near NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, or Chicago, or maybe a few other places, you could visit one of the major occasional shows, and talk to the auction houses present. For instance, I think Chicago will have both the Sun-Times show around Easter and the National this summer. Just as an example: If you are local to Chicago, if will be convenient for you to approach the auction house proprietors at the show and discuss your business with them. You should probably make an appointment first. If you have a good vibe about one or more, and you like the terms, then you can make the arrangements face to face. While I do not have personal recent experience with selling my cards this way, if I were to proceed with a moderate accumulation like you have, I would probably go this route, or I would contact one or more of the businesses from whom I have been buying.

Finally, you state that these are your father's. If he bought these from either a dealer or auction house that remains in business, I am sure that they would be interested in the sale. Their longevity may be a testament to fair dealing.

Well, these are a combination of my thoughts and few experiences over the past couple of decades. Good luck!

jbonie wrote:Yeah you might want to keep the PB's if they really belonged to your grandfather like that. It is kind of special. Pass them down to your kids or whoever. Now, the CJ's are a different story, they are worth a ton of dough. But for family heirlooms, I would keep them for sure, anything sentimental like that, never sell. I have a Joe Montana RC my grandmother gave me when I was thirteen - it will be the last card leaving my collection if it ever has to go.

The story is.... My Grandfather's brother collected all the CJs and tobacco cards as a young kid (born in 1900?). He passed away (lived in California in his later years), and they were cleaning out his attic, and my dad (at age 11) asked his Mom if he could have them. She said "sure". He kept them for a loooong time, and technically, they are all of ours. I know he collected the CJs from boxes of cracker jacks because some have caramel stuck to the back, and some have pencil writing on them of the names of the kids in the neighborhood that he traded with (you could buy the 1915 CJs as a box set). I can't belive that most of them are in really nice condition. Anyway, they are nice family heirlooms, but I gotta believe that if that little kid from the 1900s could see what they could do for his family now, he would be right proud to be able to provide that kind of legacy to his people.

It will be a family decision in the end, as it should be.

m-mac wrote:Thank you for sharing. Those sheets stink. If you are selling I wouldn't worry about it. If you are holding onto those nice cards, you should obtain archival quality, or non-acid, pages. I like Ultra-Pro, but others here might suggest something similar or better.

I agree with everything written previously. You should follow their advices pretty closely, but that is my view.

My $2: Personally, I cannot comment on any specific dealer, but in general, dealers need to make money to live and to meet business expenses, so the probability is very high you will not get near top dollar on your plus items. Dealers, in my experience, will not pay a decent percentage for your more common, unusual, or low valued items. They just don't have the customers and will wholesale your item for a small margin. However, the cash is immediate and the transaction is done. Since I do not maintain current business relationships with dealers, I personally would expect 10-15 cents on the dollar at best and if they were to buy (cherry pick). Some might not have the cash, so that's a problem too. You could spend a lot of time marketing your cards to dealers who just don't have the means to handle your business.

An auction house is more likely to return to you better than 50% of value and the reputable ones should be good about forwarding payment. Since, like dealers, they have clienteles, an appropriate auction will garner good returns for your items. As the sales are online, you can look at auction houses that have handled items similar to yours, see the typical auction, and the prices they obtained for them at sale, assuming the transaction was a 3rd party one. I use google to search for past sale items, and sometimes google picks up these completed sales at auction in search results. You might have to look at the 3rd or 4th page of results.

eBay is a lot of work. If you are not a known seller, then you might see some variation in your sale prices. Grading will be a plus. Fees are surprisingly high. For me, the overall hassle is not worth it unless I were to do it nearly full time. Check Out My Collectables is easy, you just send in your stuff. But they have higher fees than eBay, and you might wait a while before your stuff sells. Besides, they are not a site that is oriented to vintage like you've got, at least in my view.

If you are near NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, or Chicago, or maybe a few other places, you could visit one of the major occasional shows, and talk to the auction houses present. For instance, I think Chicago will have both the Sun-Times show around Easter and the National this summer. Just as an example: If you are local to Chicago, if will be convenient for you to approach the auction house proprietors at the show and discuss your business with them. You should probably make an appointment first. If you have a good vibe about one or more, and you like the terms, then you can make the arrangements face to face. While I do not have personal recent experience with selling my cards this way, if I were to proceed with a moderate accumulation like you have, I would probably go this route, or I would contact one or more of the businesses from whom I have been buying.

Finally, you state that these are your father's. If he bought these from either a dealer or auction house that remains in business, I am sure that they would be interested in the sale. Their longevity may be a testament to fair dealing.

Well, these are a combination of my thoughts and few experiences over the past couple of decades. Good luck!

Many thanks! Great advice. I have always wanted to fly on a plane with a briefcase handcuffed to my wrist!!!
I currently sit in Atlanta, but for a transaction like this, a plane ticket may be in order.

These cards were not ever bought except for the money to buy a pouch of tobacco, or a box of candy. The providence is kind of cool!

Actually, if you don't have an account with Heritage, you might sign up for one. Whenever I am high bidder, I always feel like I just paid better than top dollar. At least I have the item, right? More seriously, we received an unusual coin collection sort of as a cast off. We did a little research, actually a lot of research, thought we might have something ha.com could market, and sent their coin specialist an excel file and jpegs of what we had. About 5 days later they told us they weren't interested. The point is, at least we knew where we stood with a large seller of coins of all types from all places. We would have called their expert to discuss their viewpoint, but we really are not that motivated.

I feel you will not have the same response from them. I want to assure you, but I cannot. Nevertheless, since they have a regular auction that should handle your business, there are plenty of other auction houses, like Sterling, that I would expect want your business. I can't speak for any of them, Sterling or ha.com, but you have what appears to be a fresh accumulation, and we collectors love those.

[quote="Theo_450Many thanks! Great advice. I have always wanted to fly on a plane with a briefcase handcuffed to my wrist!!!
I currently sit in Atlanta, but for a transaction like this, a plane ticket may be in order.

These cards were not ever bought except for the money to buy a pouch of tobacco, or a box of candy. The providence is kind of cool![/quote]

At least you're in a hub city to any of Dallas, Chicago, or Minneapolis.

They just might come to you. You're easy in for business and easy out back home. No connections.