New to cards completely! Inherited thousands!

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

@BabySharrrk024

Yeah, @bostonsox77 and @PRosefan1 are right. You really do not have a lot of value (if any at all) in those cards unless you have some stars among those 1961 Topps (Mays, Mantle, Maris, Koufax, Aaron, Killebrew, etc.) ----- I'm not saying that to be mean or crush your hopes. It's just that everything produced in the 80s and 90s had print runs in the hundreds of thousands and into the millions making them tough to sell for any amount that would be worthwhile to you with the exception of certain, harder-to-find cards which I didn't see in the photos.
 
Welcome to The Bench! Good luck trying to get everything sorted out!!

Most of what has been said is spot on. A couple of nice looking cards from the 80's/90's, but for the most part not worth a whole lot.

The later vintage cards, definitely something to talk about though. I know there were at least a couple from the 1969 set that I personally might have an interest in.
 
based on what you are sending pictures of is very difficult to determine what you have. Condition of cards is so important so the fact that there are cards that appear to just be piled in plastic boxes with no card boxes or binders makes you wonder what condition this collection you inherited is in. Assuming your grandfather is or was in his 70s or older maybe he collected cards in the 60s. Most of cards in the junk era of early early 90s arent really worth much but it depends if there a Griffey Rookies in mint conditon. Who knows? I would recommend you organize what you have by years and then go buy a Monthly Beckett Pricing guide and try to get a better idea what you have and possible value, Those pictures you post dont seem to help much in identifying what you might have.
..
 
Last edited:
....the last set of pictures you sent shows the 1991 Topps Desert Shield box? If you come across the Chipper Jones card #333, that is a card that has some value and I'd be interested in that one.
 
Chrissy,

You'll probably get overwhelmed sifting through all these cards that you got, but if you have time, you can try to first separate them into these two mega categories:

Vintage (any card before 1980)
Modern (any card since 1980)

I doubt you have any pre-war vintage cards, which are cards before 1940. That's a separate third mega category, which have very valuable cards in them.

So, after separating vintage from modern, then it is easier to approach potential buyers, even local card shop owners, by telling them that you have vintage cards to sell, or modern cards to sell.

They might ask you what brands you have, or if you have any complete sets, or other questions like these, so you can then try to separate your cards by brands like Topps for example. If you can try to organize your collection as much as possible, you could have a better chance of locating targeted buyers, if you so choose to sell.

I personally got like 15k to 20k cards in my garage, and I'm trying to organize them, and yes, it does take a lot of valuable time.
 
....the last set of pictures you sent shows the 1991 Topps Desert Shield box? If you come across the Chipper Jones card #333, that is a card that has some value and I'd be interested in that one.
Be careful, that Desert Shield box is not the Topps Desert Shield cards you are referring to. The box pictured is the 1991 Desert Storm trading cards which picture military and political personnel from the war. It’s a neat set for those of us who lived through it, but the cards don’t really hold any value. For perspective, sealed boxes of that can be had for under $25. Again, cool nostalgic cards, just not much value.

The Desert Shield cards came in regular 1991 Topps boxes and packs. They were delivered to a couple bases state side, and also sent to Kuwait and Iraq for the troops there. There is no way to tell the boxes from the outside that they are the Desert Storm issue, you can only tell by opening a pack from the box. This is also how BBCE verifies these boxes, if I remember right. They open a pack verify it is legit and then replace that pack with another pack from a know legit box.

All of those cards carry a premium if you find some. You will see in the top corner a desert shield symbol that looks like a palm tree. Be careful though, these cards are highly forged. Forged to the point that some graders won’t grade them because of the high level of fake cards.

A PSA 9 graded Chipper Jones RC from Desert Shield would be $3-5,000 card, where as a PSA 9 from base Topps would only be a $20-25 card. Huge difference there.
 
Back
Top