Had a fire sale today

[bnorth]

Everything that was on fire was for sale.

Burned around 50,000 cards. I tried almost everything to get rid of them any other way. Couldn't even give them away and was tired of storing them.

I spent an entire day going through binders full of star players. Sorted them to remove all the doubles so when i sold them there would not be several of each card. Ended up with 218 nine pocket pages and listed them in the auction section. I ended up getting $1.15 after shipping for a whole day of work.

Now if another half million people do the same thing the they might actually be worth something.

[nebboy]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[mrmopar]

Did you try Craigslist for free? With (10) 5K boxes worth and you still couldn't get anyone to take them, that is surprising? First thing I thought was where do you live. I checked and see your profile lists South Dakota, so there is your problem! Next closest collector of cards is a day away! Kidding, but wow, I would have taken 50K worth of cards just to entertain myself going through them. I even tried a Craigslist add for any card pick up/removal at no cost and didn't get a single hit for anything.

[Rookiemonster]

A video would have been HOT ! Idk if I could do that myself though.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by mrmopar

First thing I thought was where do you live. I checked and see your profile lists South Dakota, so there is your problem! Next closest collector of cards is a day away!

LOL, That's only on a good horse and a clear trail.

[swarmee]

I saw your auction and almost bought it just for the 9-card pages. But then I remembered I had bought about five hundred pages at a yard sale for $15. I have a tub of about 30,000 right now that I'm going to donate to my church's next community yard sale.

[D. Bergin]

Congrats. You must have used a gallon of lighter fluid. Some of those cards are hard to burn...........I know from experience.

[buymycards]

I think I see a T206 Cobb near the top of the pile.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Congrats. You must have used a gallon of lighter fluid. Some of those cards are hard to burn...........I know from experience.

6 quarts of used oil, just changed oil in my Jeep.

[ullmandds]

burn baby burn!!!!! i love it!!!!

[Neal]

lol

[Leon]

This was copied from the water cooler section of the board because how many times do we get to see a bonfire of baseball cards?

[bn2cardz]

I am glad you confirmed you mailed me back my 1991 Double Sided Topps card prior to posting that you burned 50k cards.

[z28jd]

You did a good deed. Were there any 1987 Topps in there? That's what I have the most of, so I could use a mass burning of those cards if anyone wants to help out my retirement fund (88 Donruss also helps and I saw some in there, so thank you).

I think there are three acceptable things to do with junk wax cards to get rid of them:

Burning them will help collectors down the line if it happens enough, especially in quantities like you did. You might bring back collectors who still have them stored away, but don't collect cards anymore because they lost money on them back in the day. If they eventually have a small value, that could bring people back.

Giving them away to children. They either start to collect them, which is good for the hobby, or they throw them out, which also helps.

Cutting them up into art pieces like Tim Carroll. His process of cutting (pun intended) the junk wax population is very slow, but I like it the best.

[PiratesWS1979]

I burnt mine as well, was the most fun I had with 80's & 90's junk in 20 years! You had to have a few beverages with that many cards.

[Tripredacus]

Shipping would have been killer, if it was a local thing I would have definately picked them up. Always hated the idea of burning or throwing out cards. I've done it before also, but then I now know that somewhere, someone would have taken it. Sometimes they are not online or know that they are want to be rid of.

[t206fix]

Originally Posted by z28jd

You did a good deed. Were there any 1987 Topps in there? That's what I have the most of, so I could use a mass burning of those cards if anyone wants to help out my retirement fund (88 Donruss also helps and I saw some in there, so thank you).

I think there are three acceptable things to do with junk wax cards to get rid of them:

Burning them will help collectors down the line if it happens enough, especially in quantities like you did. You might bring back collectors who still have them stored away, but don't collect cards anymore because they lost money on them back in the day. If they eventually have a small value, that could bring people back.

Giving them away to children. They either start to collect them, which is good for the hobby, or they throw them out, which also helps.

Cutting them up into art pieces like Tim Carroll. His process of cutting (pun intended) the junk wax population is very slow, but I like it the best.

Can't you recycle them? Or are they not recyclable? I threw all of mine in the big blue recycle bin.

[cardsnstuff]

Next time give them to your local school, or if you have a boys and girls club in the area; My friend's wife teaches 3rd grade and I give her stacks of cards I no longer want and she gives them out to the boys (and girls if they want any) for good behavior. They love them since their older for them since most of them weren't even born yet {even if their junk 88 donruss, 90 fleer, etc} and usually she asks me several times a year If have anymore to give since the kids like them so much

[Beatles Guy]

Shipping would have been high, but I always donate mine to Commons For Kids.

http://commons4kids.org/

[Bigdaddy]

Can you burn them in a woodstove? Such a waste...to let all that heat escape.

[billyb]

I have about 40,000 of those useless cards and have thought of some way of trying to rig up some sort of a nickle pack of cards again. Sort of roll back price packs. I am from the Detroit area, and I would try to place a Tiger card in each pack.
Then have some advertisement for the kids to have fun with them again. To put one in their bicycle spokes. Just have fun with the cards as they will never be worth much money. Maybe I can sell most of them that way.
At a nickle a pack for 5 cards, maybe they will strike up an interest.

Bill

[Nugen]

I have been considering doing this with the boxes and boxes of game programs, yearbooks, hall of fame and hobby magazines that never sell. The buyer for BBC Exchange had a great quote about the periodicals he comes across when buying collections. Basically said he always passes on them to the surprise of the sellers.

[pokerplyr80]

I can't say I blame you, but this does make me think about that teacher who has posted here before looking for donations. I think his kids could have had some fun with them.