Realizing your collection is worthless

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

This is a rather interesting read about collecting cards in the period that I grew up.

http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/i-t...nt?oid=3695583

[freakhappy]

Cool read, thanks Alex.

This article is very sad, but very true

[Leon]

'87-'94 = death of hobby as it was known due to billions of cards being made.....I have seen this story play out many, many times...

[Jayworld]

Very good and heartfelt article. Good thing, I guess, that I quit collecting "modern" cards at the time back in 1984….

[bbcard1]

I am trying to decide how to divest a huge lot of my collection…sadly it is the clump no one wants.

[SikSyko]

I'm using those useless cards to get autographed.

[brett 75]

I wonder if in 100 years after most people have thrown out these cards will they actually gain value ? The current members won't be here to see it but as the cards are removed from circulation could it get to a point when they have value once again ? Points to ponder!

[alanu]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

I am trying to decide how to divest a huge lot of my collection…sadly it is the clump no one wants.

Donating them to a good cause like a hospital is a good use for them.

[NotoriousBOB]

Thanks for posting the link, good read.

[rjackson44]

A few months ago i donated 15,000 cards to hospital they looked at me like i was crazy ,,im happy they took them ,,

[Exhibitman]

Some of the hospitals here in L.A. no longer accept cards unless they are unopened material.

I stopped buying packs as a kid in 1981, so that is the end of the era where I have any feeling for the new issues that relates to my childhood. I have thousands of worthless post-1981 cards that I purchased over the years as an adult after I returned to collecting. I tried to sell them at a garage sale but was only able to get rid of one 5,000-count box for $20.

I've actually decided to keep the pre-steriod era baseball players from the 1980s sets. They are so worthless that there is no harm in just putting them in 9 pocket pages and enjoying them simply as the well-produced items that they are. The card companies came up with some compelling designs and decent looking cards during the 1980s, especially after Donruss raised the bar with the 1984 set, which has some beautiful cards in it. There are some great cards in the shiny crap era [1989-] too but the taint of PEDs so ruins that era for me as a fan that I am just not interested.

I also have kept some of the abundantly overproduced 1991 and 1996 boxing sets. Cheap as dirt but they offer nice looking 'rookie' cards of fighters who are in the HOF classes of the last several years.

[6-4-3memorabilia]

A lot of my friends from high school will call me time to time asking if I want to buy their cards. I usually take a look but being born in 1987 as well as my friends all of these cards are from early to mid 90's and pretty much worthless.