Buying whole collections... your experience & tips?

[Belfast1933]

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