Buying whole collections... your experience & tips?
 

I wonder if some of our experienced "dealer/collectors" would be willing to share their own experiences, tips, do's and don'ts when purchasing larger, vintage card collections. Like so many here, I'm 2% seller to help fund the other 98% of my collector side. I decided to invest a bit into getting the word out that I'm willing to purchase larger, vintage baseball card collections in my local area. I don't expect it's going to be frequent but I did get my first inquiry this morning and am looking forward meeting with the gentleman this weekend. From my brief phone call, it sounds like it may be late 50's or early 60's and he said this is his childhood collection and they are in binders. He mentioned a dozen or so Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron among others -

I can't lie - I'm excited to see what this might be, for my first whole collection purchase! I asked if he could have a family member take a send a few images so I can have a better sense of the card and their condition before taking a 2+ hour drive!

Any specific tips from others in terms of:

1. How to value (ie, 60% of retail for higher value cards, 30-40% for sellable vintage commons
2. Plan to purchase with cash to make his decision easier, no worries about checks, more advanced payment models like PayPal
3. Other tips or experiences to share??

I look forward to hearing others advice and I'll be sure to loop back to share additional background as this unfolds! (if anyone would like to hear how it goes...)

thanks for sharing!

Jeff

I thought it might be helpful to watch this channel on YouTube (BASEBALL CARD COLLECTOR INVESTOR DEALER) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7zjJbYK_u0

Thx David! I have seen many of his videos but will watch this one again tonight! 👍

Yes, we would definitely like to hear what happens.

That is my dream; an entire collection all at once.

I remember how excited I was, to the point of shaking, when I received an entire grocery sack of great cards, and two of my nephew's partial collections (some great cards there, too, as my wife's sisters spared no expense).

Always pay in cash if possible or at least get a cashier's check.

I would look at the overall condition of the key cards particularly and less so at the commons except for high numbers.

Complete sets are much easier to assess from a pricing standpoint.

Many collections like this that are a childhood collection are difficult to purchase at a reasonable price because they look at a Beckett and assume that is what their cards are worth no matter the condition and they want a fairly high % of that number.

I always try to get the seller to establish an initial price and bargain from that point if it makes sense. If you think you can pay $5K and they want $10K, a deal is not likely to take place.

Believe it or not, an acquaintance of mine had his 1951 - 53 Bowman/Topps boy hood collection 4 years ago he decided to sell.

I evaluated it carefully as he left it at my house to look over. It had (2) '51 Mantles in VG condition and (1) '51 Mays in P condition. The total collection was 700 or so cards with many stars. Most of the cards were G/VG with some higher. I offered $10K(The Mantles were only worth $4K each at that time. He told me that was too much but he would take $7500 if that was OK with me and that if I did not make money he would give money back. I assured him I could do OK at $10K but he insisted so I obliged.

The Mantles graded PSA 3 and 3.5 and I got $10K for the two of them which at the time was above market.

I flipped the rest of the deal for another $10K to a dealer so not a bad deal with very little work.

This was obviously the first and likely last time a deal like that takes place.

The seller normally wants twice what I can pay and wholesale deals are hard to close.

Good luck!!

I always bring graded cards with me to share. Most people just go to EBay and try and guess grades..of course always 3 grades higher than they actually are. That is always the first set back.

If they are reasonable and willing to go through graded cards with you; they will understand.

The second shock is when they find out the value difference of a 50s Mantle from a 5 to a 2.

Again, many are reasonable when they can compare side by side. In my experience; just be straight with them and they will many times sell. The majority of people you are working with in those years are retired, don't need the money, and don't have to sell. Remember, they've had these cards longer than their families and they remember every card they bought in a pack. If you treat them and their cards respectfully and remember their emotions are involved, pricing kind of falls in place. They are more concerned who they go to..

This sounds pretty darn cool and exciting!
Good luck with the process and hope it all goes well!

If you plan on reselling anything you're buying and want to make a profit, you can't tell yourself enough that any money you will make will come on the buying end and not the selling end. This simple thought has probably saved me thousands of dollars over the years.

I'll be delving into this in depth in coming posts on my substack blog

https://adamstevenwarshaw.substack.com/

Well said and I totally agree. Bring graded cards and explain the options, (1) auction (2) dealers at a show and their % (3) eBay (4) collector (you). Condition, condition, condition. Good luck!

Wonderful advice from all... many thanks for sharing your own experience! I'll return the favor and will share my experiences as this develops. (consider yourselves "deputized" to help me with this!)

Oops, may not be quite the find I hoped it might be… sounds like he might have a small collection of the 59 Fleer Ted Williams set.

He said he also has a very nice Mantle - “bat on his shoulder and Yankees is in yellow” 99% chance it’s 1960 (1% dream it’s a 52 Topps!)

He’s a very Nice gentleman - but probably very modest “collection!”

but hope springs eternal
 

.. Has he mentioned his age ? If he's in his late seventies that implies a "boyhood collection" of early and mid fifties . Take the drive. Gas is cheap. Then post the Aaron rookie here.

..

+1. Ya' never know unless you go!
.

Agreed. Make the trip. You never know.
I dabble in stamp collecting at times. I was debating whether or not to drive an hour and a half for a $200.00 collection. When I got there she said $200.00 and I saw a cigar box and 6 large bins. I said sure I will have fun going through it. Low and behold when I got home there was $4,226.00 in mint unused US stamps ready for postage. Plus a lot of collectible stamps from around the world. So you never know.
Good Luck
Bob

Robert,

That's kind of like the "Forever" collection with all the unused postage stamps. I suppose you could start using those on shipping packages!

Already have! I will not need to buy another stamp in my life! Some of the Postal workers don't even add the stamp total, they just take my word for it.