Selling Small Collection Tips

[karmenleary]

Can someone tell me how to go about determining what price I should be selling my cards/collection? I inherited about 300 baseball and hockey cards. They are Topps from 1970-1974. I have done a bit of research and do not have any of the Top money makers per some of the card websites. I have however went to a local online dealer and found that he is selling several of these cards are anywhere from $15-$60. I have probably a handful of cards that he's selling for anywhere between $100-$300 in mint condition. I have not had any of these cards appraised and will not be due to the cost but I can tell you that these were found in my grandmother's attic in a ziploc bag. They look like they were taken out of their packaging, looked at and stuffed in the bag. I'm going out on a limb to say they are in mint condition. SO my question is, I signed up on Beckett's website to valuate my cards and I am finding VERY different pricing for the same quality identical cards under Raw value. Now I know that a dealer's selling price vs. dealer's buying price will differ to make profit but on Beckett's website - what does "Value" mean? What someone will pay or what someone thinks it's worth? I would like to find out how to sell my cards at Raw value with the assumption that these are in mint condition. The corners and edges are crisp. There are no folds, tears or feathering of the card board. I am not looking to keep this collection, nor willing to take extraordinary amounts of time to research each value each card but I am also not in any hurry due to the economy. I just want to know how to determine a selling price for each card (or lot, or collection) as a novice-collector. BTW someone on Letgo said these were "common" cards and he would give me $30 for all of them.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Welcome to the forum....based on the images provided, it is difficult to tell if the cards are in "MINT" condition or EX-MT. But one thing is obvious, the centering is not terrific on many of the cards. The value of the cards will be greatly diminished with the centering seen on these cards. At least for the baseball cards, even if in MINT condition, the centering makes the few star cards (Perez, FRoby) , and the 71T Hi # $2-3 type cards and the remaining others 50 cent cards at best.

Which cards were being sold in the $300+ range....can you post more images?

[Bestdj777]

One thing to remember is that you aren’t getting mint prices for ungraded cards. Grading is subjective and to bring top dollar you have to have them graded. Plus, as Saved mentioned, these have condition issues. The centering is really off on many of them and you can see some corner wear on the black card. Unfortunately, although they are old, they likely don’t have a ton of value absent any superstars. People just aren’t paying up for commons, even in great shape.

[irv]

Are the hockey cards for sure Topps and not OPC?

Any french writing on the back or printed in Canada?

OPC's carry a bit of a premium over Topps cards when it comes to hockey.

I don't really see anything in the pics you provided that would warrant any real money but if they are mint like you say, some might fetch a few dollars, especially that Cup card of the Bruins.