I know this post has gone in a different (and interesting) direction, but I have a comment that pertains to the original poster's point.
You can make money buying and selling collections like these. I used to make a solid 2nd income doing so. Fortunately I am on to bigger and better things. Here are a few rules to live by:
#1 Count only the things that you are confident you can sell right away ie: complete sets, wax boxes and high-dollar singles. Add up what you can sell this stuff for and divide it by 2. That is the most you should pay for the entire collection. If you are selling on ebay then you should factor in fees as well. I usually figure 20% of the gross sales are going to pay fees, so take that off first and then divide it in half.
#2 Once you sell off the items in step #1 you are stuck with the rest of the "junk". This is the part that most people don't like to hassle with. You can normally find someone in your area who buys bulk and unload them cheap. If you don't know of such a person put the collection on Craigslist and they will come out of the woodwork. They will lowball you, but that's fine you just want them gone. You can also find creative ways to sell them off such as team lots, player lots, mystery lots/grab bags etc. This tends to be more work than it is worth though.
#3 If you can add something to your personal collection along the way that is a nice bonus
#4 (And most important) DO NOT OVERPAY! Yes it is exciting to aquire a large hoard of cards and sort through them and find all the gems. For the most part though what you see is what you get. If the dealer/seller wants too much for their stuff it's just not worth it for you.
Best of Luck!
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