Sold your cards to fund......
 

I've been parting with some of my scarcer cards to fund home renovations in preparation for a nursery area and other wife "needs". Now that some of my tougher cards are gone it's depressing to look at my collection.:(

What non-baseball related items have you funded with the money from sold pre war cards?

Eric,

Just remember a happy wife takes priority.

a minivan for family, necklace as birthday present for wife

Guitars and other instruments.

Want to sell your van? Looks like I might end up needing one. It is a VW bus right?

Sold a lot a few years ago to finance my daughters internship at The Louvre.
Then another bunch recently, to start moving away from collecting and to buy some toys:D. (Little sports car and farm equipment.)

Selling much of mine to help fund a new home purchase. It took me around a year or so before I could muster the courage to start listing my T206's. Now I'm letting just about everything go! :eek:

nothing comes to mind.

Been down the selling cards to fund sports car road.......Never again. Ended up a losing proposition all around. Ridiculously high maint costs, higher insurance due to it being an exotic, speeding tickets, going through tires at a blistering pace, the need to spend money on "upgrades", arguments with the wife due to high rate of speed, and fearing if I kept it and passed it down to my son, he'd end up killing himself in it..........I should have kept the cards :rolleyes:

I'm guessing your wife has never wanted Swedish made hanging cradles and mid-century modern furniture for the nursery.

Sold my first collection
 

In 1985 to pay for a divorce attorney. I can tell you selling the collection for any reason to help my family today would be much more preferable to those bad old days. Consider the positives! All those cards will be out there for you when you get around to them again.


Peace and best wishes

Keith

Mines just a little tootsie toy, and didn't cost much. Cheap to maintain and a million miles per gallon. Ins. is 4oo/yr, and it's got new tires. Also I'm almost 63 and never got a ticket in my life. Already been offered more than I paid. I think I'll be OK.:) But I see what your saying

Smart choice on car, little invested, fun, economical and won't make you lose your breath when you're handed a five figure maint bill ;)

I collected pretty hardcore from 1984-2000. Late 2000, my Mom developed some serious health issues, as things were with my own life going I had one option left to me to help her: Sell my collection. So I did, and would do it again tomorrow if I had to. And in 2000 unlike now, one could get $80 for a PSA 9 1987 Donruss Greg Maddux, or $80 for a PSA 9 86 Donruss Canseco rookie. It hurt to part with everything for maybe 10 seconds. Looking back now, best collecting decision ever made on my part from that standpoint. And all is well with Mom, still kicking at 81 :)

The family and I spent 9 days in Disney about 15 years ago when my daughter was 6. It was worth it. I wouldn't trade those memories for anything (well almost anything).

In recent years, I am slowly replacing some of what I sold.

Some of the best choices are things we don't want to do, but man did that work out for ya! Glad to hear Mom is still around...they mean so much to us!

+1

I sold out completely
 

4 years ago to fund my employment service. I have since bought back far more than I had prior to selling out. It was certainly the right move for me at the time. I have never regretted it for a single moment. I know have a rather successful business and a pretty nice collection.

had to sell my partial set of T205's when I lost my father. It was my first tobacco era stuff i collected and didn't want to sell but needed some money in the tough times. Speaking of that its been 3 years today since I lost my father.

Sorry to hear that. I imagine it is a tough day.

I have been wavering back and forth over the past few months of selling my collection to help facilitate buying a condo up in Stamford.. Commuting from Queens NY to there daily is a drag but unfortunately job relocations happen... The only thing holding me back is the feeling of regret I will probably have if/when I sell.

I sold some cards to buy a Brandon Bird painting a few years ago.

Sold most of my best cards & postcards to fund a move, so I could be there to help my Dad who were in failing health. Funny thing was, that I got a new job a couple weeks after selling them, & the company paid for our entire move back to the Phoenix area.

I sold a pretty large chunk of my smaller items while I was in graduate school and supporting myself with student loans. Of course I wanted to take out the least amount of loans possible while still being able to eat and live somewhere. Still regret selling a few items but I have done pretty well for myself since completing my Masters.

Grad school expenses and student loans suck.

I was taking some stuff out to possibly sell the other day. My wife got upset and told me not to sell anything. She then looked up all of our finances and explained why she thought I didn't need to sell anything.

I was totally shocked. She cares about my collection and I had no idea. :eek:

The first time around after college, I paid for most of my studen loans and my wifes engagement ring.

The 2nd time about a year ago, I paid for a significant portion of my new home with my golf card collection:D

I sold off most of my 19th century stuff because I needed the money to help a very poor business decision. My guess is I will sell more in a few years for my daughters college. It's nice that they are quite liquid..

When I was 19 in 1989 I sold my 65 Topps Joe Namath RC and 55 Topps Sandy Koufax RC to put a downpayment on my first house. Bought the house for $69,000, sold it 4 years later for $120,000...so the cards did well! (House is worth about $600K now, on the beach on Puget Sound)

I then at the time sold a 1984 Donruss set to buys some furniture, lol.

Recently a couple of months ago I set broke a 1957 Topps set, got twice as much as expected (super high grade set) and paid for the adoption of our latest daughter (I have 4 daughters, 1 son, :)). Wife was pretty happy about that....had enough left over for a nice leather sectional to replace the old couch.

I am not much of a seller, don't like it, but through my life I have a lot of examples where cards were very key and helped with a lot of important things. One of the many reasons I have such a passion!

I am pretty lucky and was hoping to be doing the opposite...about a month ago my daughter who is a Junior in HS got a full ride for softball...me thought I was taking her now defunct college fund and exchanging it for a nice 52 Mantle. The wife then reminded me that my 7th grade daughter blows a trumpet, doesn't swing a bat, and I may just need to put a hold on that Mantle...haha....dang kids!

I just sold a bunch of cards to fund a classic car purchase. My kids are at the perfect age to go cruising with the top down (8, 9, and 12) once the weather gets nice and my cards were sitting in a box in my closet. I'll miss the cards, but I hope I'll generate some wonderful memories. Here's my new baby -- a beautiful '71 Cutlass Supreme Convertible.

http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...%20-%20004.JPG

http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...%20-%20004.JPG

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I collected really heavy my senior year of college (2006) and for about 3 years afterwards. I was still living with my college roommate in his parents "extra" house. They furnished everything I needed and only charged me $300/mo. Man, I was able to stocked back the cash to fund my card purchases. I would advertise and buy up collections, cherry pick them and then sell off the rest to recoup my initial costs. 7 times out of 10 I made money on the overall purchase and ended up with "free" cards in my collection.

Fast forward to 2010. I had complete set runs of 1952(minus Mantle and a few other high #'s) - 1969 Topps Baseball, 1950 - 1955 Bowman Football, and 1955 - 1962 Topps Football, multiple copies of star cards (ie: Ruth and Gehrig Goudey's, Mantle, Mays, Paige, Williams - All the big names in Post-War Baseball and Football) I only had about $14k wrapped up in all this when "Boy met Girl". You all know how the story goes. Anyway, we got married in 2010 and I started selling to fund other purchases like the wedding, honeymoon, a large down payment on a house, and college fund for my daughter. Pretty much everything was sold. Do I miss it? Sure but I treasure my wife and little girl much more than I ever did those cards. Plus, I am much more focused on what I truly enjoy collecting, which at the moment is T206 cards!!

Matt

I sold my t206 drum back solly hofman back in the early 2000's to buy a leather recliner that my cat then destroyed leading to the removal of his front claws.

That's really the only card I specifically sold to fund a non related purchase. I have and continue to sell cards to buy other cards...and I think about selling a good chunk of my collection to buy a car at times...but this would be a poor long term investment in most cases!

I'm guessing this is your first kid....otherwise you guys would be out buying the cheapest Ikea furniture you could find. I'm sure your expensive nursery furniture will look lovely with bite marks, ketchup, sharpie, and whatever else it can get its hands on all over it. :)

david...is that a mazdaspeed mx-5? either way...nice...i've been toying with getting one of those too...good cheap fun!

Tao...I love vintage modern furniture...but I'd have to agree with Conor...the kid(s) will eventually destroy it!!!!!

Wow you made out on that one huh? :eek:

Something tells me you wish you had that Drum back in your hands right now :D

Kids destroy everything.......not a good idea to have anything expensive where they can put their little hands, lol. I've already replaced my 50" plasma due to my "mini me" throwing one of his heavy toys into the screen and cracking it :(

........good times.

Whenever the kid destroys the furniture (which is inevitable) remember that he/she is just a kid and it is just furniture.

Beautiful '71 Cutlass! I love classics and that one seems worth it IMO...congrats


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ha, yes I sold nearly all my '50s and later cards...to buy pre-war....

Yes...it is just furniture...and it can always be refurbished! Or if IKEA...thrown away!!!!

Next month when I get back to NJ, I'm selling some cards to help my friend get back to square one. She suffered from depression after her mom died and started hanging out with the wrong crowds, which led to some legal trouble and she lost her car and her job. I helped her out a little in the Summer, but she just lost her new job because she had to move back home and has no license. So I'm going to get her to break even, give her my old car and a second chance.

So when I sell some cards in March, and I'm sure it will be someone here, whoever buys them will be helping out a really sweet girl who just made a couple bad decisions when she was vulnerable.

[QUOTE=ullmandds;1236976]david...is that a mazdaspeed mx-5? either way...nice...i've been toying with getting one of those too...good cheap fun!

It's a Mazda Miata MX5 a 1999 with only 50K bought it from a doc in Honolulu (hence the GYN plate) Unreal only 5 grand for a snazzy little ragtop. I'm Just under 6' but comfortable.
One of my lady friends is 6' 2" in her bare feet and it's a little tight!
Little tight is ok though:D

That is a great thing! From working in the criminal justice system I have seen countless people get into a lot trouble because there was nobody there to help them back up when they stumbled.

[QUOTE=Cardboard Junkie;1237013]
yup...nice...those miatas are great value and require very little maintenance!

[QUOTE=Cardboard Junkie;1237013]Oh my 6'2"......I'm sure it's worth the climb ;)

+1

"I'm sure it's worth the climb."

........and the dive:eek:

Sold some stuff in the mid 80's to fund a ski trip. Nothing big, a couple T206 commons and a 48 Bowman set that was mostly in poor condition.

Had a fun trip with friends, and started rebuilding the Bowmans in better condition. Still only at 12 cards, and haven't added one in a long time.

Sold off a bunch of extras and "stuff" like boxes full of rotogravure sections when my first daughter was born. Not to fund anything, but to make some room. Most of it was stuff I'd saved from lots I bought, except the roto sections. Did pretty well with most of it, and put some of the money into upgrading the 1880's house. Some new windows- made the place about 20% more efficient, just in time for oil to go up 20%. No actual savings, but kept the bill from being about 800 a year more than it is. (Yeah, big old uninsulated places use LOTS of fuel to heat) Bought a couple nice cards with the rest, an excellent swap in volume, two cards for maybe 10+ cubic feet of stuff.

I'd echo what others have said about the furniture. I mostly buy used furniture anyway.The old furniture is usually more solid than new stuff and at a much lower price.
Having stuff that crayon will clean off of without it being a huge hassle is great. Some mid century stuff would actually work well. My kids haven't trashed the furniture too much, I did have to replace one couch cushion because of ...Something leaking onto it from a diaper. :eek: But other than that they've been ok. Maybe because they're girls? I was very bad on furniture. Trimmed off the edges of all the couch cushions when I discovered scissors.
Covering cloth furniture with sheets or cheap slipcovers is also a good idea. Less worries about abandoned bits of fruit or biscuits gummed into a gooey mess wrecking the upholstery.

Steve B

yes it is!~!