Pricing for Groups of Cards
 

How you you go about setting a price cards when buying them?
I know you have to take into account condition and all.

I have the opportunity to purchase some cards from 1970, 1971, and 1972.
After looking through them some general thoughts.
1970-Several have writing or name on the back a few on the front, many have worn corners, mostly common, but some from higher series
1971- Better condition but still not stars, includes higher series
1972- Most in very good condition and some stars included and higher series

Do I price each card and give a certain percentage of book value based on condition (10% poor, ?? others??)?

Not wanting to make a bad deal either way. I know you won't be able to give a price without seeing or knowing the cards, but I am interested in you thoughts on how to price it.

Thanks.

I completely ignore the value of any card that can't be sold for at least $1 by itself. Then I sum up all the other cards and get a "value." If they are easy to sell (popular sets, star cards, etc) I probably make an offer of 50-70% of the value. If they are cards that are easily replaceable, lower demand, etc, I make an offer between 30-50% on the entire lot.
Based on the groups you're talking about, I would be ignoring most of them, while giving around 50% of the sale value of the rest of the lot. High numbers aren't what they used to be for those sets, unless they're very high condition. Set fillers (VG-EXish) will take a long time to sell, IMO.

My recommendation is to check some sold prices for similar conditioned lots from these years and try to determine a price per card. Based on the condition and contents of these lots, similar previously sold lots should not be a problem to find. Since covid, the price per card in lots such as these seems to have almost doubled....pre-covid lots such as these might sell from 10 cents/card to at the most 20 cents/card, now some lots like these sell in the 20-30 cents/card range. Based on the conditions from these years, 20 cents/card would be my limit.

What is he asking for the lot? With that info in hand, people here can better help you with your counteroffer and approach.
Good luck!

Thanks guys for your thoughts.

He has asked me to give him a price as he has not kept up on the value of cards that he purchased when he was younger.

I don't want to low-ball, but I don't want to pay more than I should.

Also I don't plan to sell them, mostly I am using them to work to complete or improve sets.