Has Anyone Ever Acquired an Entire Inventory from a Baseball Card Store/Stand?

[cbcbcb]

There is a baseball card stand (mostly baseball, but other sports, pokemon, etc), at an indoor flea market near me. The owner is retired and is trying to sell it. I am not sure when he started selling it, but I am sure it will sit for awhile. It is mostly 1980's to present. He is one of those guys who thinks his stuff is worth way more than it is, i.e. a pack of 1991 topps is 2 bucks. I am sure there can be money to be made by acquiring this, but the price can't be too great. Has anyone ever made an offer or actually acquired the inventory from a place like this or a baseball card shop? I am thinking of checking in once a month and if it is still for sale, making a low, but reasonable offer. There were a ton of cards, in a space of about 10 feet by 20 feet. Possibly 100's of 80's and 90's wax boxes and sets, and tons of other cards. An offer of a couple thousand might be reasonable, I just don't know whether to bother. He seems like the type of guy who could be looking for $10,000. Any input would be appreciated.

[vintagechris]

I wouldn't waste my time with cards from that era. It would be more headache than it is worth.

[bbcard1]

Just depends on what you want to do. If you could make some money, it's all good so long as the profit meets you expectations and needs. I dabble in APBA cards...my main "profit" is that I keep what I like and flip the rest...but I probably make a few bucks. It's fun ... but I wouldn't want to try to pay the rent with it.

[David W]

I bought everything a guy had at a card show about 10 years ago for 100 bucks. It was hot, he was tired of spending weekends at shows losing money, and told me to make an offer. I wished I'd offered $50, he would have taken it.

He had about 3000 cards in holders, from 60's/70's beat up Hall of Famers to 80's and 90's rookies like Henderson/Will Clark/Frank Thomas/Boggs et al.

Even at that $100 I didn't clean house, as they were mostly VG/EX kind of cards.

[magic1313]

Don't know much about the baseball card market but I do buy and sell records. What makes you think they would be an easy sell if he has been doing this for years and has been unable to unload them? From the record stores I have seen that have been for sale, most of the stuff they have are dollar records or the more common stuff. Usually the rarer stuff sells or there is not enough of it to warrant the purchase price. I can't imagine that the choice cards in the collection would take up that much space in his home. If you hadn't guessed, my advice from a business stand point is to steer clear.

[IronHorse2130]

I purchased approximately 1.2 million cards (about 90% baseball) that were from the late 70's to the early 90's. Most were 80's. They sat in my garage for a few years and then we simply sold the entire collection as it was to someone else for a bit more than we paid. We realized it was not worth the time and effort it would have taken to break them down and resell individually or in small lots. Unless you can buy these cards for next to nothing I would pass. It's fun to have that many cards at your disposal but you get tired of looking at 500 copies of 1987 Topps Jesse Barfield cards.

[cbcbcb]

Originally Posted by IronHorse2130

I purchased approximately 1.2 million cards (about 90% baseball) that were from the late 70's to the early 90's. Most were 80's. They sat in my garage for a few years and then we simply sold the entire collection as it was to someone else for a bit more than we paid. We realized it was not worth the time and effort it would have taken to break them down and resell individually or in small lots. Unless you can buy these cards for next to nothing I would pass. It's fun to have that many cards at your disposal but you get tired of looking at 500 copies of 1987 Topps Jesse Barfield cards.

My plan was to wait a couple of months until this guy really has to sell them and is tired of trying to sell them and give a firm, take it or leave it offer that is really cheap. I would then probably break it down into maybe 10 or 20 more managable lots that I would resell.