Observations from a yard sale - 80s/90s junk cards

[buymycards]

I bought 250,000 cards, in 5k count boxes, in January and another 250,000 in April.

There are some real dogs in some of the boxes, such as 5000 1995 Pinnacle football cards that are stuck together like concrete. There also some boxes with nothing but 1988 Score commons and some boxes where every card has corner damage. I threw 80,000 cards in the garbage and gave another 20,000 cards to my grand sons.

I went through pretty much every card in every box, pulling out all of the stars, inserts, parallels, and rookies. So that left me with 90,000 cards that have some value for bundling them for sale on eBay or setting up at a show with 25 cents and 10 cent boxes, which I have done in the past with amazing results.

I met a person who has bought every one of the 5000 count boxes of commons for $12 each, even though he has been told several times that he won't find stars, inserts, parallels, or rookies, but he is bundling them by team and selling them in large lots.

While going through the boxes, I have found items such as:

A Kobe rookie that I sold for $275.

35 Dirk Nowitzki rookies that I sold for $30 each.

Non Sports and Marvel type inserts by the dozens that sell for $5 to $10 each.

Topps Heritage and Bowman Heritage short prints and short printed rookies.

A couple of thousand singles that are either going on eBay or going to COMC.

And lots of obscure items that you don't see every day, such as several dozen CBA team sets, Action packed inserts, 100's of vintage hockey cards and many many others.

I love going through the boxes. It is like going on a treasure hunt every night when I go through a couple of boxes while my wife and I are watching TV. I am retired, so I spend my days pricing, scanning and listing cards.

As far as garage sales go, I can find many items that I can make money on. Political pins, political bumper stickers, bobble heads, cards, photos, and dozens of other items. As one of our fellow board members once said, I am one of those "armpit collectors". If I can buy something for a buck and sell it for $3-$5 with very little effort, I am happy. I have 3200 items in my eBay store, so I have a constant flow of items that are selling.

[ocjack]

Are there actually people who know all of the print errors/variations in junk years, that can go thru a 10,000 count box of random years without having to look up every card on a spreadsheet?

[buymycards]

Originally Posted by ocjack

Are there actually people who know all of the print errors/variations in junk years, that can go thru a 10,000 count box of random years without having to look up every card on a spreadsheet?

I don't know anything about the errors and variations, so I'm sure that I missed some that were in my purchases, but I don't enjoy going through the 1989 Topps commons looking for them and I am not going to take the time to learn about them.

Hopefully, the person who buys the commons from me will find some cards that are worth a few bucks.

[philliesfan]

Well, this post got me getting a USPS medium Priority box stuffed with cards and on ebay.
I put in all sports and all manufacturers. I am guessing it holds 3,000 to 3,500 cards.
I hope it sells so I can get more boxes together.
Thanks,
Bob

[x2drich2000]

These are my top 5 worst junk era sets.

88 Donruss is the general joke for junk wax, but I don't think it is that bad. It actually has a decent group of rookies that some of the other 88 sets missed.
I like 88 Score for the colors and the photography. I think it is the best of the 88 sets.
88 Topps is bad, but it is Topps so if you're doing a Topps run you still need it.
91 Donruss is pretty bad, blah design broken into 2 series with no real rookies, but it does have the Elite and signature inserts.
The worst though I think is 91 Fleer. An appalling hideous yellow design, no notable rookies, and no significant inserts. I really have trouble coming up with anything positive about the set.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by swarmee

For those of you criticizing the junk wax buyer, they could just know more than you. There are approximately 15 cards in 1990 Topps that sell for $500-1,000 each if they have a specific rare print defect. There are four or so better known errors in 1991 Topps that regularly sell $100-200 each if you know what to look for.

If all you see is a monster box of commons from Topps junk wax era, and you're not screening them for these rare errors/variations, then maybe you're selling the boxes cheap...

Same thing for modern Topps or Heritage or Upper Deck. So many unannounced/nearly impossible to notice SPs, SSPs, errors, etc that people looking to complete Master Sets still need. Before you toss them in the trash or sell for cardboard recycling value, check your cards against junkwaxgems or baseballcardpedia.

This is why I was glad I never got rid of the boxes of junk era cards I had accumulated over the years in my basement. I recently sorted them for these error and variation cards and found a bunch of them. None of the 1990 Topps blackless cards, but I did find a partial blackless Frank Thomas card that I sent off to PSA. I also found some of the hard to find 1991 error cards like the Mark Whiten and Chris Hoiles. I will never pass up a box of 1990-1991 Topps cards ever again if I can get it cheap, just for the fun of error hunting.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by todeen

Actually, I want to buy some 1987 Fleer so that I can try to create my own pinterest fail! Wanna try to make the T206 Speaker. Anyone want to unload some 1987 Fleer? I need to cut them up for the blue background.

No 1987 Fleer, but hope the T206 Speaker is a fun project for you. Just don't get desperate and start cutting up vintage cards just to get the right color!

Brian

[jayshum]

I had a large group of Topps cards from 2002 to around 2012 out at a yard sale last month, but there was absolutely no interest in them. Are they too new to be of use to anyone?

[ALBB]

I have a box of 88 Score...about 400 cards in NM....will give them to anyone who wants them