Something Odd When Selling Cards

[Basketball B]

...and I noticed this 33 years ago, when we started our first year of Fantasy Football. Somebody would contact me and want to make a trade, that is really one-sided. They want your star running back, who is leading the league, for one of their receivers, who is average, at best. Why insult my intelligence with an offer like that?

So, I've made it known I'm selling my entire basketball card collection. I'm probably going to start posting things next week. I've got every player from 1968 and up, and multiples. Some have inquired, asking to buy the entire lot. Which I'd much rather do, then spend countless months going thru different cards specific people on this site want to buy, and taking photos of the front and back, and all that jazz.

I've told the 3 different people that contacted me, I'd sell them for 35% off what the book says they are worth. And they scoff at that. Seriously! Once I post them on here, I'm going to do 20% off what they're worth. But, it baffles me that people that are card dealers or run card shops...think that I should sell my cards to them for pennies on the dollar. What do I gain from selling Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kareem cards for $5 each to them, so they can turn around and sell them for hundreds of dollars?

I'm not stupid. I understand businesses want to make money, but...it just insults my intelligence.
When I collected cards as a kid, in the '80s...I'm sure lots of people could do that. You could buy an entire collection from somebody for $100, and as you go thru it, you find a Mickey Mantle rookie card or whatever. But we live in different times. Everyone can Google this stuff, and find out what it's all worth.

So, while I'm not looking at my collection and saying to myself "Holy cow, this is all worth $400,000, I'm rich!!!" I'm realistic, and know I have to sell for less than they're worth.

That all being said...it's just frustrating.

[3124508 on COMC]

First post in what will be a fun thread.

[byronscott4ever]

Everyone likes a bargain…I got this vibe as a kid decades ago when dealers were few and many had a take it or leave it attitude. These days, there’s no shortage to how you or a designee can sell your cards

[JeffG1954]

Are you selling at 35% off of "book value", or 35% off of eBay comp sales?

[mindcycle]

Need examples.

What is book value?

[dengbang]

Welcome to the boards. Confusing post, not sure if you're promoting or just getting something off your chest. Everything goes through changes and that includes what people use to gauge value. Beckett price guides are rarely used nowadays.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

[glen87]

Originally Posted by Basketball B

...and I noticed this 33 years ago, when we started our first year of Fantasy Football. Somebody would contact me and want to make a trade, that is really one-sided. They want your star running back, who is leading the league, for one of their receivers, who is average, at best. Why insult my intelligence with an offer like that?

So, I've made it known I'm selling my entire basketball card collection. I'm probably going to start posting things next week. I've got every player from 1968 and up, and multiples. Some have inquired, asking to buy the entire lot. Which I'd much rather do, then spend countless months going thru different cards specific people on this site want to buy, and taking photos of the front and back, and all that jazz.

I've told the 3 different people that contacted me, I'd sell them for 35% off what the book says they are worth. And they scoff at that. Seriously! Once I post them on here, I'm going to do 20% off what they're worth. But, it baffles me that people that are card dealers or run card shops...think that I should sell my cards to them for pennies on the dollar. What do I gain from selling Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kareem cards for $5 each to them, so they can turn around and sell them for hundreds of dollars?

I'm not stupid. I understand businesses want to make money, but...it just insults my intelligence.
When I collected cards as a kid, in the '80s...I'm sure lots of people could do that. You could buy an entire collection from somebody for $100, and as you go thru it, you find a Mickey Mantle rookie card or whatever. But we live in different times. Everyone can Google this stuff, and find out what it's all worth.

So, while I'm not looking at my collection and saying to myself "Holy cow, this is all worth $400,000, I'm rich!!!" I'm realistic, and know I have to sell for less than they're worth.

That all being said...it's just frustrating.

if you are selling an entire collection (the bad along with the good), it is going to be really tough to get that percentage, whether is "book value" (whatever that is) or ebay sale value.

you could possibly get that percentage if you let people pick and choose what they want, but not if they must take it all in one shot.

[Nomad]

Watch a few videos on how it's done. If you come out just wanting to sell everything in a lot, better know intimately the grade of each key card and its recent eBay comps. Spend a few hours and research. Then the person on the other side knows you did your homework. Oh and if you are willing to trade, that helps. But if you just want cash without any work or give and take, why should anyone give you anything but the kind of offer they give to someone who didn't come prepared?

[RogerGodahell]

Most people don't use Beckett anymore. How does their book value compare to eBay comps?

[mc1]

Originally Posted by RogerGodahell

Most people don't use Beckett anymore. How does their book value compare to eBay comps?

Those that do to sell only use HI book price. You guys do know theres a range and a LOW book price.

[prospectorgems]

If are interested in selling the entire lot at once, yes, you are going to have to take a off a decent percentage because you have to realize, that person that is buying your collection is taking all the risk in all the cards and has to piece them out and list them. All those cards listed individually will not sell in 24 hours. Could take weeks, months or even a year to move them all (depending how large the collection is).

If you are not interested in selling at a decent percentage off for the collection then piece the cards out yourself and list them and understand it will take time to sell each one.

[ExpFacilitators]

Even if we assume your 35% off is not on an inflated “book value”, you’re going to have a lot of trouble selling in bulk here without massive discounts. Buyers here believe they should be able to make 40-60% by reselling your lot (and some won’t bother unless it’s 100%). And almost nobody on this forum buys lots for collecting. Everyone is trying to make as much money as possible.

[glen87]

Originally Posted by ExpFacilitators

Even if we assume your 35% off is not on an inflated “book value”, you’re going to have a lot of trouble selling in bulk here without massive discounts. Buyers here believe they should be able to make 40-60% by reselling your lot (and some won’t bother unless it’s 100%). And almost nobody on this forum buys lots for collecting. Everyone is trying to make as much money as possible.

it's not just here.

walk that collection into any full-time lcs and see what they offer for the entire thing.

[90sbasketballin]

Agree with everything said so far ^^

I think that the Book Value isn't really a metric that collectors use to price their cards anymore (well at least not used as often). It's usually the average of the last 3 completed sales or some people go by the last comp sale itself.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by 90sbasketballin

Agree with everything said so far ^^

I think that the Book Value isn't really a metric that collectors use to price their cards anymore (well at least not used as often). It's usually the average of the last 3 completed sales or some people go by the last comp sale itself.

The other big factor is condition. You cant sell raw cards for PSA 10 prices. As it is, theres big range of condition for raw cards. You cant price a beat up off-centered card the same as a sharp, well-centered copy.

[shrevecity]

Originally Posted by ExpFacilitators

Even if we assume your 35% off is not on an inflated “book value”, you’re going to have a lot of trouble selling in bulk here without massive discounts. Buyers here believe they should be able to make 40-60% by reselling your lot (and some won’t bother unless it’s 100%). And almost nobody on this forum buys lots for collecting. Everyone is trying to make as much money as possible.

If I am buying a large collection I am going to focus on the top 4 or 5 items for my price, I may pay 60 or 70% for those but the other stuff is just added in. I do this no matter if its buying out closet of clothes or room full of electronics on the last day of an estate sale. If selling to a reseller you are going to be luck to get 20 to 25% on most collections. You always do better off selling individually, but you hae to consider the time and energy in dealing with the rest of it.

[Cavaliercards]

Let me go ahead and out myself as I am one of the individuals that have been talking to the OP.

This is one of the PMs that I received from the OP and let me explain our rationale.

In case my explanation was confusing, here's an example of what I'm saying. I've got a few Wilt Chamberlain 1970 cards. Let's say one would be graded PSA 8, making it worth $400. I'd sell it to you for 260. If I post it on Blowout Cards, I'll post it for $320 (since these cards are all raw). But, I'd rather not sell one or two cards this way, which is why I'd take 35% off if you're buying the whole lot of stars.

This is what we said to the OP.

Understand the book part as well but we base it on eBay prices not on book either, because we are going to sell these.

and his response

Well, the funny thing is that you stated "We don't pay book prices for cards that are ungraded" when in reality, you don't pay book prices for ANY CARDS (which is understandable, as you're selling, and need to make a profit). So, I'm off to work and won't respond to anything else until the end of the day, but....here's my logic behind this. If I have 5 cards of each all star player, from 1968 up...I don't think I'll have any problems selling them for 20% off what the book says, on these forums. But if someone (like you), wants to buy my entire collection, or at least a large chunk of it -- getting 35% off seems like a good deal. I don't know how I'd be able to justify going any lower than that. I mean...if I have a Wilt card that the book says is worth $400...it makes no sense for me to sell it to you guys for $25. It just doesn't. My wife has an ebay account (Resale Girl 2001, or some such thing), and we could put all these cards on there, the same as you're doing. I just don't want to go thru the hassle. I'd rather do it all at once. But, if you tell me what the percentage is you want off the cards, I'll consider that. If you think it's going to be too low a number, than we probably don't have a deal. And, when you see me posting cards on here (at 20% off), you can feel free to buy any that you think you can sell for more on Ebay or any other outlets.

We never were asking him to sell a Wilt Card for $25 that sells for $400 on eBay. We never even gave a price, because we never saw pictures or a list. We are not going to use book price to figure out values. We are not going to sit here and blindly base a price of an UNGRADED CARD on a Graded Card, but because we take 20-35% off the graded that is fair. You are still basing it on the original Graded Price. We asked to see a list or pictures, we probably would have made an offer based on that and had no intention of comping every card. Yes, a Wilt is going to sell for more as it should, but a common star that books at $15 and sells for $1 on eBay we are not going to pay $12 for, no one is going to do that.

Like Shreve has discussed above that Top Tier we have no problem paying a higher percentage for, but when you get into the commons and the stars that are selling for pennies on the dollar compared to book value that is the issue.

[oldgoldy97]

When using eBay comps how do you filter out the shilled ones?

[glen87]

op apparently wants to simply list a "book value" of the entire lot and go on to say "give me 'X' percent of that value."

well..it simply does not work that way these days. if you want top dollar op, you need to put in the effort and sell the better stuff individually, and them lump the left overs together and sell for about 10% of you "book value."

otherwise, as several people (shreve, cav, expfac, mc1, 90s, etc...) have said, there are just too many variables to simply expect a flat percentage.

[glen87]

OP - if you are so set on selling this all together, and at a relatively high percentage, why have you already picked through the better stuff and moved them elsewhere???

Originally Posted by Basketball B

I was curious about this, too. I just sent some high end things to an auction house and it would have cost me $2,000 to cover the value of the items!!! So, I just didn't insure the package, but did "overnight" delivery, figuring it's less likely to be damaged in transit (that was $260). So, I'm not sure what the best thing to do is, as I'm planning on selling my entire collection in a few weeks, and...I'm going to be annoyed by going to the post office all the time for different buyers, but...worrying about insurance, adds another element of annoyance.

you seem to be so set in this percentage thing and wanting someone to give you a blind number they will buy this collection for, yet, you do not want them to end up with the nice stuff it seems.

[Spacemanspif]

Send the entire lot to a consignor. They’ll sell everything individually to maximize value. Collect a check 1 week later.

[asujbl]

What the hell is “book” exactly

Unless you think it’s still 33 years ago

[h00perstar34]

They had fantasy football in 1988? Interesting

[mc1]

Originally Posted by asujbl

What the hell is “book” exactly

Unless you think it’s still 33 years ago

Theres still people that use book to price. They either dont want to use ebay or other comps or dont know how!?

Theres tons of folks that dont even use ebay comps correctly. They see PSA 10 listings and assume their raw copy should be worth the same.

[asujbl]

Originally Posted by h00perstar34

They had fantasy football in 1988? Interesting

I started playing before that

So yes they did