how much are star cards generally worth? and do you think its worth the time to sort?

[superpieman]

I just got back from school a couple days ago and until i find a job i have alot of free time. what i was thinking of doing was sorting through all my cards(50k plus) and pulling the stars out to sell. but im not sure what sort of price they would bring. has anyone else done this? if so was it worth the time? it would probably take me a couple days to sort through everything. any advice? thanks in advance for any help.

 

[dp33]

If they're just base cards, I'm not sure it is. I sold a lot of about 40 Joey Votto cards for $13ish plus shipping. Mostly 2007/2008 (RC)s and a refractor or insert or two. Very few non-RC base.

As a buyer, I know I most likely wouldn't bid on a lot unless I knew exactly what was in it. There are so many x-card lots of player y out there, but there's either no list or the scan isn't helpful, so they don't get much attention. Calling them "premium" or "rare" doesn't get me any more interested either. Your best bet is to include some non-base cards, list what exactly is included, and hope for the best. It's a lot more work than you're probably thinking (not counting the time to go through and find all the cards), but I don't think you really have any other viable options.

 

[superpieman]

im not sure what there is for base and inserts. i plan to go through all my cards and sort them out and go from there. from 50k im expecting 1-2k of them to be stars/hall of famers. if theres that many idk if it would be worth it to list them all. if i did i would be more likely to sell on here for 10 cents apeice or something like that then to list them on ebay and get 50 dollars for the whole lot.

 

[dp33]

Sorry - didn't realize you were looking to sell them all as one lot. I'd be curious to hear how that works out for you.

 

[mort]

You'll find out if it is / was worth your time when you sell the cards. The tough part is figuring out a fair price so you get cash-in-hand quickly without losing the opportunity to get more $ from the cards.

Good luck with your job search. It can be frustrating in this economy.

 

[Boots]

I don't think it's worth separating them out unless the BV warrants it, i.e. certain RC's, refractors, etc. Otherwise if they are just base cards with a BV of less than $ 1.00, I think you're putting more time in than it's worth.
JMO.

Frank

 

[cjay101]

I get a quarter each at shows....well worth the time on my end, but as a lot, no.

 

[O'sRavensDevils]

im not sure what there is for base and inserts. i plan to go through all my cards and sort them out and go from there. from 50k im expecting 1-2k of them to be stars/hall of famers. if theres that many idk if it would be worth it to list them all. if i did i would be more likely to sell on here for 10 cents apeice or something like that then to list them on ebay and get 50 dollars for the whole lot.

FWIW Recently i have paid anywhere from $50-$100 for lots of 15-20,000 cards that are made up of base cards and past years (non valuable) inserts.

 

[Hoyt55]

I'd say if you could possibly set up at a show or something with a big box of the star cards for a dime or a quarter each, you might do well selling them individually. I for one love looking through those type of boxes, and I'm sure a lot of people that go to shows do as well.

Selling them as a lot over the internet probably wouldn't be worth the time though, as shipping would probably be pretty costly and there probably wouldn't be as much interest.

 

[valediction]

I'd guess no unless you know you have a market for them. A local show may help you get rid of some of them, but even that has limited upside. Base cards just aren't worth enough to justify the work unless it's a current issue people may not have yet. Not too many halfway serious Jeter collectors still need his 2007-2010 Topps, Bowman, Heritage and chrome base cards. They got them when they were new because it was easy to pull or trade with someone who just busted a box. First off, what would you call a 'star'? Pujols, Jeter, Arod, Ichiro, Ortiz, Hanley, Manny, David Wright, Miguel Cabrera sure, but what about Zack Greinke, Magglio Ordonez, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Torii Hunter, Michael Young, etc etc? As soon as you spend the better part of three days sorting 50,000 cards and pulling the stars, you say "I've got star lots for sale" you'll get people asking for players you never thought about. Back to the boxes, another few hours pulling the Omar Vizquels and Jamie Moyers out only to get them a list and hear "oh, I have those already". Somebody has to do it, and it is possible to make money, but YOU need to figure out how much you need to make to make it worth your while.



Even at a quarter per, if you set up at a show, 100 will get you $25 max, assuming no one gets a bulk discount when buying 10-12. If you can do that for 5-6 shows running, maybe you're on to something. Selling them online (here or most sites) is cost prohibitive except in bulk player lots just on shipping alone.

 

[bombie1138]

I have had 525 HOF cards FS on CraigsList,
No duplicates or checklists,here's the break down:

Mike Piazza,..98 cards
Paul Molitor,..52 cards
R. Alomar,..39 cards
Cal Jr,..73 cards
T Gwynn,..71 cards
G. Maddux,..98 cards
D. Jeter,..51 cards
plus 43 random Ryans,Griffs,Boggs,Schmidts,.

asking price 75.00,..that's 14.3 cents a card,..there are cards in there worth 8 dollars each,and lots of them in the 2.00-4.00 range.....no takers yet,..

Discouraging to say the least and I don't have much faith in Becketts prices either,..

Clint

 

[superpieman]

i try stuff on craigslist once in awhile. its a little annoying its alot of people responding then never getting back to you. i had one guy offer to buy 7500 basketball cards for 50 bucks which i accepted because they were part of a collection i bought out and wanted them gone. 7500 cards for 50 bucks is a good deal i thought. but i didnt hear back from him for a few days and when i finally got ahold of him he said he wanted to pay 30. frustrating

 

[valediction]

I have had 525 HOF cards FS on CraigsList,
No duplicates or checklists,here's the break down:

Mike Piazza,..98 cards
Paul Molitor,..52 cards
R. Alomar,..39 cards
Cal Jr,..73 cards
T Gwynn,..71 cards
G. Maddux,..98 cards
D. Jeter,..51 cards
plus 43 random Ryans,Griffs,Boggs,Schmidts,.

asking price 75.00,..that's 14.3 cents a card,..there are cards in there worth 8 dollars each,and lots of them in the 2.00-4.00 range.....no takers yet,..

Discouraging to say the least and I don't have much faith in Becketts prices either,..

Clint

There are inherent problems with lots like that. Even at a decent price, there is so much there that any given buyer has no interest in, it's rarely worth the time and effort to buy them. Most people who collect go for teams, players, or sets. The HOF collectors usually go after vintage, autos, or maybe game used, and they don't have interest in every card of every HOF'er. Guys who collect Ripken aren't that interested in Alomar, Piazza, Schmidt, etc. Auction after auction on ebay ends with base cards for Jeter, Ripken, Maddux, Griffey in the 10-25 cent per card range depending on the makeup of the lot, and players like Alomar, Molitor, Piazza, Boggs, etc struggle to get half that delivered. You're asking a Jeter collector to buy 475 cards at or higher than they sell on ebay to get 51 Jeter cards at about the going rate, and he may only need 23 of those 51. Base cards are tough sells to begin with, now in order to get them they'll have to buy a bunch they don't want, try to break them up even further to recoup some of the cost, and hope they find takers for a bunch of 15 cent cards

 

[Myerburg311]

at shows I would put up my base cards at .10 a piece and only take out Jeter or Pujols.. Jeters I can get .50 a piece cause of where I am and Pujols I put in my quarter boxes.. I end up just selling bulk lots of 4500 count boxes for around 25-40 bucks depending on the sets involved.. That is just so I don't have to lug around big boxes of commons to my shows when I already have enough stuff to sell..

Chris

 

[bombie1138]

What was discouraging for me was that no one asked even to see them,..
Interest,Excitement,Coventry,Greed,....out the door for sure,.

I should throw a 93 SP Jeter in the lot and not tell anyone just for giggles,..

Clint

 

[valediction]

What was discouraging for me was that no one asked even to see them,..
Interest,Excitement,Coventry,Greed,....out the door for sure,.

I should throw a 93 SP Jeter in the lot and not tell anyone just for giggles,..

Clint

and what would that accomplish? It is a hodgepodge lot, that alone lowers interest for a LOT of people. It's like seeing a 'HOF baseball' and finding it's signed by Bob Feller, Jim Rice, Sparky Anderson, Don Sutton, Rollie Fingers, Jim Palmer, Gary Carter, Tony Perez, Bert Blyleven, and Stan Musial. Technically they are all HOF'ers, but the demand just isn't there for a piece like that.

If you describe it like you did earlier in the thread, it sounds like a Don West special. Yes, they are all superstars/HOF'ers, but of greatly varying demand. List specific cards that are in there, break it down into player lots, you may get some calls, but when people read ad after ad of "10,000 cards for $1000!" "500 superstar/HOF cards $75!" it really makes it sound like it's another overhyped lot short on details. If you're not going to tell them what's in there, they aren't going to spend much time looking for answers.

 

[superpieman]

thanks for all the input so far guys. i may hold off on this or do it slowly rathe then waste 3 days because there isnt to many shows around here. maybe 1-2 a year and they are all more then an hour away.

as for who is considered stars i know that is wide ranging but here is some of the players i began setting aside. manny ramirez, cal ripken jr, nolan ryan, greg maddux, ichiro, josh hamilton, johan santana, don mattingly, ernie banks, miguel cabrera, tom glavine, arod, jeter, yogi berra, reggie jackson, bo jackson, troy tulo, steve carlton, wade boggs, griffey jr, dave winfield, mark texeira, carlton fisk, roberto clemente, vlad, felix hernandez, ryne sandberg

those were some of the names on the top of the pile of star/hof cards. idk how well those would do at a show but i would think 10 cents each would be decent for most of them and being in red sox/yankees country i could probably take those teams and sell then for a quarter each.

how fast do those base generally sell for you guys at shows? thats my biggest concern. if im going to waste 30 bucks in gas and 20 on a table rental for a show then i need to unload at least 50 bucks worth to make it worth it. of course if i do a show ill have other stuff there to supplement but i imagine my first show that the dime and quarter boxes will make up most of my inventory.

 

[Trishlp]

It all depends on how you market your cards on your table. I do a monthly show at a school. Since I am in MD I pull the Orioles and they are in a box by themselves and start at $.25 a piece. I also have all of my inserts/parallels sorted by year and brand in 5000 count boxes and sell non star cards mainly at $.10 each. Then I have current years base that I sell the commons at $.10 each. I price cards that beckett has a bv of $1 or more and then sell them at 50% off the price. I make sure I have signs on my boxes so people know what the prices are before they start looking.
Since I started in this hobby as a set builder I also put my base cards in numerical order, I have built a customer base by doing this, most of the other dealers with base do not organize them by #'s so set builders and even player collectors who know the card # will come to me 1st.
As far as stars I recently put together 2 5000 count boxes divided by star player that I plan to take to my June show to try to sell so I will let you know how that goes. My suggestions though if you are going to try to make your table money by selling the stars is that you have them sorted by player or team and have signs detailing your selling policy.

 

[O'sRavensDevils]

I have had 525 HOF cards FS on CraigsList,
No duplicates or checklists,here's the break down:

Mike Piazza,..98 cards
Paul Molitor,..52 cards
R. Alomar,..39 cards
Cal Jr,..73 cards
T Gwynn,..71 cards
G. Maddux,..98 cards
D. Jeter,..51 cards
plus 43 random Ryans,Griffs,Boggs,Schmidts,.

asking price 75.00,..that's 14.3 cents a card,..there are cards in there worth 8 dollars each,and lots of them in the 2.00-4.00 range.....no takers yet,..

Discouraging to say the least and I don't have much faith in Becketts prices either,..

Clint

on craigslist baltimore there's a guy trying to sell 1,500 willis mcgahee rookies, he says the book price is $3 each and all he is asking is $1 per card....stating one could buy the whole lot and then turn a huge proffit! dont think he has had any takers yet.

i remember as a kid i would look up the prices in tuff stuff, i think there was another mag out there as well, then becket came along and told everyone that the cards were worth more than what tuff stuff says and all of a sudden everyone starts reading becket. I'm not sure if that was a business plan or not but it worked as becket is the only mag out there now.

millercards online price guide seems pretty fair.