Selling Question

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Posted By: telspee

What is the best way to sell a collection? Am I better off selling it by the piece or the whole collection? I keep thinking of putting the whole thing on Ebay, but I have my reservations.

The collection runs from the 1930's on up.

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Posted By: shoo

If you need the money right away your better off selling the whole thing, if not go the other route it takes some time selling individually but you should get more money going that route. Im sure their is people in here who might be interested in some of your stuff. If i was in your shoes and didnt need the money i would sell it individually. Good luck with it, post some of your stuff in the monthly buy/sell/trade thread

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Posted By: hankron

For most types of memorabilia you will get a higher total sales selling it item by item or closely related small group by closely related small group ... Most, or at least many, collectors want to be doing the picking and choosing.

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Posted By: Judge Dred

If you have some really high grade / high quality stuff (Ruths, Gehrigs, etc) then you might consider consigning those items to one of the larger auction houses.

As mentioned earlier you can sell it piece by piece and maximize your dollars or you can blow it out in larger lots just to get the cash faster.

What ever you do don't sell the good stuff short by putting those items in large lots.

Good luck with the sale!!!

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Posted By: warshawlaw

That is a reason NOT to send the items to a big auctioneer. Most of them want to generate lots worth thousands each, so they will cluster your cards in unwieldy and often unrelated accumulations that no one except a dealer will buy. You then give 15% to the auctioneer and the buyer pays 15% as a premium. Net effect, you leave a fortune on the table. The best way to go is to grade all premium cards with SGC or PSA, then work through Ebay to sell them. The remaining cards can always be blown out if you want.

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Posted By: steve k

Another good way to sell off a collection of baseball cards, especially if you are not that knowledgable, is to consign the cards to a dealer. The dealer can list the cards on ebay and take all the necessary steps to get as much money for you as possible. Most dealers, including myself, charge a fee of 10% of the sales price. So this assures you that a dealer will want to get top dollar for you because he is getting the 10% fee. The dealer will not want to see your $20,000 worth of cards sell for only $10,000 because then the dealer only makes $1,000 instead of $2,000. You may contact me at steve49560@aol.com for more information about performing this service for you. Also you may contact other dealers on this forum who can do this or contact dealers from your area or the internet who can do this.

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Posted By: gdp

My comments largely echo the comments of others. You were unclear whether your collection was of type cards, whole sets, etc. In the case of collections of whole sets (assuming that the sets are reasonably uniform in condition) you can do quite well elling them in whole sets. To the extent that your collection does not meet that description, you will usually do quite poorly unless you sell it as individualcards or other discrete units. My experience is that you are best off doing one of the following:

1 - Consign to a well-known dealer. Do your research, but there are a large number of reputable and quality dealers (including those on this page) and part-time hobbyist-loonies (including me). This will cost you around 10%, but will probably be the most cost-effective way of dealing with an unwieldy range of material. Benefits include the fact that he/she will do the hard work for you in figuring out how best to sell your collection, and in identifying the hidden diamonds within your collection. The disadvantage is that, if your collection is of modest value, the dealer may well not be interested in consignment, offering instead to buy at dealer prices or to simply re-sell as a lot.

2 - Picking out the Diamonds: If you know enough about values and "grading" of your cards, you can first pick out the "diamonds" from the rest of the collection and have them graded. Any of PSA, SGC or GAI should work for this, with different people having different preferences. Once graded - assuming you were correct - you can deal with eBay (see 4 below), auction houses (see 3 below) or a dealer (see 1 above) and will likely get a better price.

3 - Auction Houses: These make sense only if your collection includes truly unique items or if the auction house is willing to waive the "seller fee." Otherwise, the 10-15% seller fee can wipe out the benefit of the auction atmosphere. Advantages of auctions are (a) you can piggy-back off the auction house's reputation (assuming you pick a good one) and (b) you may hit a "home run" that nobody would have expected. But, then again, you may not .... You need to make sure whether the auction house will allow you to set a reserve and the auction house policies on starting prices, lot sizes, and listing of multiple similar items.

4 - eBay: This option only makes sense if you already have an established "positive" eBay reputation. If not, you will not be able to get a fair price, since buyers will discount on the risk that you are not honest. Assuming you or a friend have such a reputation, you still will need some expert advice on whether to sell in groups or individually, and a lot of spare time to handle the listings, so expect to either learn by trial and error or go back to option 1 above (dealer consignments).

Hope this helps. Not knowing more about your collection, or your level of sophistication in dealing with this market, it is hard to be more specific. Also, I have avoided the general discussion of whether you are hoping to be paid for this collection without attracting the attention of the IRS (eBay or dealers) versus taxable benefits (auction houses, though some claim otherwise).

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Posted By: hankron

I sell (and buy) almost exclusively uncataloged/rare items, and I almost never predict what an item will sell for on eBay. One thing higher than expect, one lower. As I don't take consignments and don't have a problem keeping what doesn't sell, one can judge my opinion of an item based on it's minimum bid.

I don't think one has to be Scott Gaynor to sell stuff well on eBay. If one slowly gains a good reputation through buying and selling, one shouldn't have trouble selling. Be honest in description, buyers love quick and good shipping (most common comment in postive feedback), be polite and helpful to buyers. The key is not to make a single sale, but to get that buyer to come back again.

It is my strongest opinion that a seller should be painfully honest in describing the item, including being conservative in grade. Don't try and slip stuff by or hope the buyer doesn't notice. Pointing out unseen flaws may hurt on a particular sale, but it only helps you in the long run-- and is what gives a person a strong reputation in the hobby.

If, when writing your auction description, you include details that you really wish you didn't have to include, you're being honest. If you exclude the details so as to gain a higher price, you're being dishonest ... If the buyer opens up the package and thinks "Exactly as he described," you have a repeat customer.

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Posted By: Janet V.

With my many years experience in the hobby,Telspee, I would definetly determine the prime pieces in your collection-and then glue them all down in a very very pretty scrapbook. Borders look good too, and that should sell dandy!

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Posted By: telspee

First off, thanks to all of you for your input. Most of the cards of value are Sport Kings and Diamond Stars, but there conditions are not top notch. The few I sent to PSA came back between 3 to 5. For this reason I am reluctant to have them all graded, since the fees would be larger than I would get back. The good thing is I have key players like Ruth, Foxx, Cobb, Dean, etc.

Additionally I have a good many cards spanning from the forties to seventies that are in better condition and with some good players. I would not say any of my cards would get a PSA 9 or 10, except maybe some Randy Johnson rookie cards I have.

Over the year I have seen many threads on problems with Ebay and PayPal and it seems like it is not the best place for a rookie. I do, however, have a 100% feedback rating, but it is all from buying. Selling through a dealer might be the best way. Thanks again for all of the thoughtful feedback.

Thanks,

Telspee