Pinch me I’m dreaming

[brunswickreeves]

Anyone been called upon to look at and evaluate a baseball card collection acquired by a deceased collector’s family member? Your heart races, you imagine what you’ll discover…what’s your pinch me I’m dreaming story?

Tonight I had that surreal experience. It happened hours after a phone call starting with, ‘I’m a relative of your neighbor and understand you know something about vintage baseball cards…my step-grandfather left our family a thousand cards including a bunch of Mickey Mantles.’

Below is a pic of just some of the treasure trove I assessed alongside my kids and wife who were in equal amazement as I went through each card and spoke to select one’s background and price ranges.

Next up is just what to do with the best of best…grading, selling platform, etc. And equally important to the family is what to do with ALL the rest (hundreds of 56 Topps commons, hundreds of modern patch and signed inserts), to honor the legacy of the family member collector.

[hockeyhockey]

that's sick.

i got a chance to look at a mostly early 1950s lot over the summer. tons of bowmans, whitey ford, yogi, scooter. no mantles or mays unfortunately.
but the kicker was a 1912 ty cobb and others. crazy stuff, although this lot definitely is way better - some incredibly high end items. good luck
getting all that figured out - you're gonna make them a lot of money.

[brunswickreeves]

Your story sounds amazing, too!! Per the collector’s directive to have the cards be a vehicle to fulfill the family’s dreams, their aim is to use the proceeds to fund rescue dog housing and care on their property.

I’m giving them my nights and weekends to develop a strategy mix of lot aggregation selling to fund grading costs of the high end cards (some shown), grading co selection and timing, then selling platforms, all with their time investment top of mind so this journey doesn’t take over their lives.

As a thanks, they might donate a couple hundred 56 Topps common duplicates to our local youth baseball/softball league to continue giving out (to-date from my PC) a vintage card to each aging out ball player to commemorate their youth career and share with them the love of our hobby.

[hockeyhockey]

they sound like pretty great people - and they are lucky to have your expertise to guide them. keep us posted on how it goes, some of those cards are insanely nice!

[chalupacollects]

Nice collection! I'd be interested in the54 Bowman Mays and the 56 commons if some will be sold here! Thanks!

[Johnny T]

My once in a lifetime experience was not to assess, but to purchase. One of the guys on my softball team had a friend whose wife's uncle left her a bunch of T206 cards and they were looking to sell. My friend told them he would put them in touch with me, but nothing happened for months. Then, about a year ago, they reached out and we met after the game. Our mutual friend gave them a number of about $1000 for the lot of cards. When I saw them, my jaw dropped. Of course I offered them WAY MORE and they happily accepted my offer. I didn't know much about T206's at the time and now I'm trying to slay the monster and loving it! It would be unlikely that I would go down this road if not for the jump start provided by this purchase. Now I'm at 398 cards out of the 520.

[bnorth]

That is awesome and they are lucky to have your help as that is an amazing collection.

Mr hockeyhockey had a nice "find" also. I remember him emailing me when he was looking through it.

Back in the 80s-90s I got to see a few collections from the 50s-60s. For the last 20 years it seems to always be 80s-90s stuff I get asked about.

[brunswickreeves]

Hi Net54 friends-happy to announce the cards I’ve been helping steward with the family of original deceased owner are back from SGC! Pretty solid grades IMHO.

I’ve agreed to sell them for the family (zero charge or incentive to me except joy of being part of this story adventure and getting the cards (as well as books from prior post) into the hobby to enjoy as the their Grandfather (Bill) did).

These cards will be listed as a lot in the 1950s BST section. I’m not initially posting a price, as I’ll be considering serious and trending offers in partnership with the family. Please PM if interested.

Thanks and happy collecting!

[Peter_Spaeth]

Personally I would not sell those cards as a group lot if you're trying to maximize. You're going to get lowball offers at best. List them individually at a fair price, or send them to a good ebay seller who takes consignments of this type of material, there are several.

[brunswickreeves]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Personally I would not sell those cards as a group lot if you're trying to maximize. You're going to get lowball offers at best. List them individually at a fair price, or send them to a good ebay seller who takes consignments of this type of material, there are several.

Thanks, understood. Only entertaining serious offers for the lot here on Net54. Will put individually on eBay in next couple days if nothing materializes here at their high trending value.

[brunswickreeves]

As an update to this thread, over the winter was able to help the family sell all cards via Net54 (congrats to new owners) and the 55 Bowman Mick via eBay. Didn’t take a single dime (just happy to be part of getting these into the hobby), but was gifted some cool Willie Mays/Giants stuff attached.