Another t206 question~ What's it worth?
 

A "complete" 520 card set in raw vg condition. Demmitt and O'Hara $1000 each. Cobbs all in good.
Is it worth more neatly assembled in 15 card pages or broken down and sold separately? I have to think someone would pay more for the whole set considering it's vg and not a higher grade.
I was trying to find some comps but they are hard to find. REA has sold a few sets but mostly all SGC graded even if in low grade. You dealers out there have probably sold some sets. What do ya think? Thanks

If I were looking to maximize the profit, no question, break it. A Vg demmitt and Ohara would go for much more than 1,000...there are dozens of us chasing pieces of the set but few people chasing a full one...the thrill of the set is the acquisition of the pieces not the purchase of the full set. I would guess that it is worth 50 percent more broken than full...

It just seems silly to put a set together piece by piece and then sell it off the same way. Wouldn't you just beak even? I guess the question should be, Is there a market for a complete set. It seems with the few prices realized on the REA site that there is. I have to think there are people with a lot more money than I have who would pay extra for the complete set just so they have it. I don't know.

I would agree that breaking it up will yield a substantially higher hammer partially due to the large size of the set...combines with what has been said...much larger group looking for parts over the whole!

Set sales
 

I think many who buy sets now buy them for the breakup premium and they profit they can get from selling a set off in pieces. At least that wasn't experience when I tried to sell other sets last year.

Doug,

There's a very low grade near set of 516 on eBay right now with a BIN of $22,500. Might give you a point of reference as to value.

Doug,

For my T206 set, I would break it up.

If I sold it as a complete set, I believe that some of the cards would get lost in the shuffle. I have several cards in the set with nice backs, errors, etc.

Now, if the set is pretty standard with common backs, maybe I could see selling it complete.

Rob

My set is similar to this set and I know I didn't pay $44,000 to put it together.

http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/.../2012/731.html

Sounds like you already decided you're going to sell the complete set.

Agreed, looks like you have your mind made up. Got to consider it went very strong, three times estimate. How would you feel if you pulled up around 20K.

I think they always give week estimates to make it seem like they did a great job selling. $44K is high though.

This must be the set that was built by pleading for help on the BST the last few months.

Tony,

You are correct.

I would suggest the following:

Sell Individually: HOF's, SLers, High(er) grade, Rare Backs, and any other premium cards (ex. Doyle, Titus, etc.)

Sell as lots in varying sizes: commons (I would suggest varying sizes because not everyone can bid on 50+ lots, but will bid hotly for 5-10-25 card lots -- this approach maximizes the bid pools).

I agree that often bidders on large lots/complete sets do so to profit on breaking up.

**Of course, big upside to selling as a set -- avoid hundreds of seperate payments, packages, trips to post office, etc.

+1
What is the premium for Titus based on? the mustache subset?

I like them as a set
 

Agree with the others that you could make more money doing them individually or in smaller lots, but it also takes a lot more time and effort. There is definitely a market for sets, you're probably just trimming some potential profit for yourself.

For what it's worth, I bought a "set" of 510 (with HOFers all graded) for a friend last year. We paid $19,500 for it and he is very happy. And there was a nice set of 520 in Bill Goodwin's June auction that went a little under $20K (with juice).

Titus is hot right now -- selling for a premium over other commons. I would also put Tenny, Taylor, and a couple others on that list.

I can understand the added premiums for Titus and Dummy Taylor etc. I had my T206 out over the week end. I happened to notice (I had completely forgot) that my Titus has a good chunk of scrapbook that needs to be soaked off. I recently practiced on a C046 with great success. Will his mustache survive a soaking?....:D

I don't know how to compare your set to the REA one. The REA set has some real dogs in it... significant creases, bad trimming, and writing on front of some. Missing Demmitt, O'Hara and Willis/Bat (because it was a Drum auctioned separately). Lot described as 45% poor.

But it has the (only) P350 Schulte and lists Broadleaf 350 and Red Hindu in the list of included backs.

Not really apples-to-apples... tough call.

Logic would lead me to believe that there should be a premium for a set (I certainly hoped so), but "set breaks" seem to occur somewhat frequently.

Unless a set is rare or high grade, usually no premium, is what I've seen. More than likely your set will be bid on by dealers. There isn't much of a reasonable chance that your going to have two newbie t206 collectors gunning to complete the set in one purchase. My take...

One card -- and one card only -- drove the price of that set: the Schulte. To use this set's price as any kind of basis for what a typical T206 set would sell for would be a serious miscalculation.

So what is the value of the super beater Schulte? $20,000?

I don't know the "value" of the Schulte. I do know that it's in the collection of David Hall, who thinks enough of the card to have had it included in his display of T206 backs at the National. He bought that set for the Schulte, and apparently at least one other bidder thought enough of the card to drive the price that high.

You might ask him what "value" he placed on that one-of-a-kind card, then subtract that number from the hammer price. Or you could just take the sale prices of a myriad of other T206 sets that didn't include that Schulte.

Yep, there wasn't a good way to value that card, but based on what the others were worth - it was in the thousands.

edited to add: for the most part, it was a real beater set. I bid above what I considered the retail value to be, simply because it was Joe Pelaez' set and I wanted a few of the cards. I wish the Schulte had been sold separately.

I'm not sure about that. Do you know who owns the set are is this an assumption.

An assumption.
I'm not certain of many things in life, so I suppose this is an assumption. Based on the ebay sellers store name being the same name as the net54 member who posted multiple WTB's on the BST wihin the last few months - to help finish his set . That doesn't say who technically owns the set, just points to it being the same set.:)

I am sure it is and so far as I am concerned, it's perfectly fine. He's a good dealer I have bought from and traded with many times. I think he had a blast putting the set together and now if he wants to sell it that's completely fair.

A year or two ago, I bought several t206's from an ebayer.

The description for each card included something along the lines of: "I wanted to get one of every card and that's what I did so now I am selling them" He listed his cards individually about 50 at a time over the course of a few weeks.

I wonder what he made on his set with that effort?

I sold virtually all of my set of 520 a few years ago. The entire thing was graded by SGC. I broke it into different groups and singles by grade, scarcity, HOF, SL, toughies, backs, etc. I was rather pleased with how it turned out.

You will get people who will pay a premium for bulks of T206 cards -- you know, a big lot of 75 or so to get someone well on their way to a complete set.

The bigger the group, however, the smaller the market for the cards. The trick is to maximize price and market by pulling in collectors and dealers from as many interest points as possible.

Probably not what you wanted to see...
 

There's definitely a premium to be paid on a slabbed set over a raw set. Just look at the Legendary results. The difference in cards between these two lots are: Cobb/Green, Crawford/Bat,Elberfeld/Wash.Port

Mostly raw "set" of 516 (Grades 53% VG to VG/EX (with a few nicer)) sold for $27,500:
http://www.legendaryauctions.com/Lot...ntoryid=129500

All graded "set" of 519 (averaging 4.23, VG/EX-VG/EX+) sold for $65,700:
http://www.legendaryauctions.com/Lot...ntoryid=128991