Need Help getting started

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Posted By: Andy

Been brownsing for a while, but I guess its time to get serious. You folks all seem to know your "stuff", and admittedly I am new to this. About 25 years ago we came into possession of a bag filled with various cards (baseball, birds, soldiers, warships...etc) Well, they have sat for years in a bank vault. Where do I Start? We have gone through the piles, and ended up with roughly:

t206 - 356 cards
t205 - 201 cards
e91 - 56 cards
e101 - 3 (2 of which are Honus Wagners)
d359 - 11
t201 - 3
t202 - 23
380-1 - 14
380 - 19

Plus Various other types of cards

I realize I should probably get these graded. I know of PSA, Beckett and SGC, but who is the best?

And folowing up on that, We will probably want to sell them--
Any advice on who to use to do this??
Would we do better with an auction or selling outright??
Should I keep them together or break them up??

And lastly, what do I do with the other 400 or so non-baseball cards??? ANy advice on where to find a market for them?

Thanks to everyone in advance. I look forward to your responses.

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Posted By: dennis

if i were selling these cards i would call one of the auction houses. sloate/mastro/rea/ let them authenicate and sell for you. see the vintage links for phone #'s. they will do all the work for you as you said you are new to this. the auctioneers will make the best choices for you,to max profits.

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Posted By: Ray Piskadlo

I agree with the auction house concept. Off the top of my head, here is how:

1. Grading that many cards is expensive! They would know which to grade and do it for you.
2. They would know what cards are rare in certain sets.
3. They would know what backs are rare.
4. They could break up the cards into appropriate lots and sell them for their true value.

The cut that the auction house takes will vary, but is negotiable, especially if you bring some high value items that will give them good publicity.

In the end, an auction house with make sure you get the most value for your items.

Good luck!
-Ray

PS.. two out of three were Wagners? Nice!

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Posted By: barrysloate

You do have some rare cards there. That find is unusual in the variety of different sets.

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

Very nice!

Sounds like an awesome start to a collection. Why not start collecting? 201 T205s is close to an entire set. 356 T206s is also a nice start. What an awesome introduction to an incredible hobby, where your collection becomes an heirloom that can be passed down for generations! Why not do some research on this unbelievable piece of baseball history first? I'll bet you find that it's a fascinating way to pass free time.

Either that, or you'll become slightly wacky like the rest of us.

-Al

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Posted By: peter ullman

33 clements...wow!

pete in mn

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Posted By: Jimmy

this forum is a great place and we are always here to help, grading can be expensive as mentioned above. Try and break down the cards - sell some graded and not graded. Many of us on this board have websites and buy and sell all the time to keep up with the hobby and our investments. Good Luck

Jimmy

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Posted By: Dave F

Well...I can assure you if you took the time to list the T206's you have, you would draw some interest here listing them in the B/S/T section. As long as you have a scanner to show the condition the cards are in...might be worth a try..then your not paying anybody a consignment fee up front!

Actually you could do it with all your baseball types....whatever doesn't sell here than stick with an auction house or ebay or the likes.

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Posted By: Wesley

That's a lot of Clement Bread and Williams Bakery cards. I am sure your mailbox is already full of emails with offers from the sharks here. Good luck!

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Posted By: quan

i would contact either mastro/rea, with you stuff you can prolly negotiate 0% seller fee (sorry barry you have no clout with the grading co's or i'd mention u too ). let them handle the grading process. the non-sports market is burning up also.

bst would be a bad idea as i can already see the lowball offers rolling in

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Posted By: Brad

Hi Andy,

My advice to you would be "just do the right thing", everyone has a different plan when selling off there cards!

But if I were you Mastro/REA wouldn't be a bad idea, just remember %20+ off the final bid!

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Posted By: peter ullman

yea...it's kinda funny how things get really quiet when there's a "find" such as this announced to the shark infested waters...dun dunt..dun dunt...dun dunt dun dunt!!!

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Posted By: Scot

Nice collection. Call or email an auction house mentioned above. I would keep the E & D cards to grade PSA/SGC and sell on ebay.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Quan- I don't think clout with the grading company is the issue here. It's finding someone trustworthy to help them sell the collection.

How on earth could somebody advise the owner to list the cards on BST? Don't you have to have a sophisticated knowledge of the market to do that? That's about the worst advice you could give somebody like this.

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Posted By: Dave F

Barry...
I wasn't sayinh "hey stick the cards on the B/S/T for $5 each. First, I mentioned to him his T206's...would draw interest. There are pretty concrete prices for T206's..not hard to find out what the values are. I wasn't trying to make a "underhanded" grab at his cards. For the record...I haven't emailed him. But when there are easy to obtain auction prices for cards he has..especially the T206's....why in the world would it be so awful for him to list them here on his own? It doesn't take rocket science...and he wouldn't need to worry about fees to anyone else...at least for part of his collection.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I've already spoken to him today, and he's not going the BST route. He needs an auction house. He inherited these, he's not a collector. He would make hundreds of mistakes and would get eaten alive by the vultures. We both know that.

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Posted By: Steve Murray

Barry, since we all know a strong buyer of Clements might you suggest brokering a deal between the parties.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I think there are a dozen people who would buy them. Auction is the route, period. Any other method will leave countless dollars on the table.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Wow....two big finds of Clement cards in the last year.

I hope he goes with you to sell the cards Barry.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I'm approaching this with my eyes wide open. It won't be easy.

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Posted By: JimB

I am glad I don't collect D359s right now or my attachment-wheels would be spinning at 100mph.
JimB

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Posted By: Andy

WOW! I am overwhelmed to say the least. My family and I thank everyone for the feedback.

Andy

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Posted By: Wesley

You're welcome, Andy. Let's see some scans of those D359s.

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Posted By: Dan Kravitz

Please let us know where you decide to sell your cards. Good luck.

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Posted By: ralph

Horrible advice with that "list them here and let us guys have at it !! are you kidding me ? that would have been rip off city !

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Posted By: Anonymous

Andy, I also came into possession of a similar find about 20 years ago. The first dealer who looked at my cards was, if I think the best of him, ignorant, but more likely, a swindler. He offered me $1,200 for the whole collection. It has turned out to be worth more than a hundred times that. My best advise is study, take it slowly in manageable chunks and Rob Lifson.

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Posted By: Wesley

OSeedy is right. There are so many opportunistic and dishonest people in this hobby, you have to be very careful. If I were in your shoes, I would give Rob Lifson at Robert Edwards Auction a call. He is one of the few people in this hobby that I would trust. Two other good and honest auctionhouses are Goodwins and Barry Sloate, whom I believe you already spoke with.

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Posted By: Scott Elkins

negotiate on the seller's comm. - no matter who the auction house is you choose! I would suggest at the very least - NO seller's comm. OR maybe a 10% comm. and have the auction house include grading the cards for you. Again, these are the very least in negotiations you should settle no matter what auction house you go with! You might even want to try and get a little better than this!?

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Posted By: leon

You can click on any of the auction companies that advertise banners on this board and give them all a shot....They are all reputable. See who you think will get you the most for them and go with it. Good luck.....and do let us know .....regards

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Posted By: Andy

Thanks to all who responded, e-mailed and called. We have conisgned all of the baseball items to next year's REA auction. I hope everyone who had an interest can find something they can use. Thanks again to all.

Andy

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Andy, what are you going to do with the non-sport cards?

btw you made a good choice going with REA.

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Posted By: Andy

Dan---
Having focused on the baseball side for the last two months, we are now turning our focus to the non-sports side. We have started to catalog these, and hopefully will have this taken of shortly. Again, being a little green at this, I guess I will be popping over to the non-sports forum to find out what is what, and such. Any sugestions?

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

My only suggestion would be to listen to the guys over on the non-sports side. I know very little about non-sport cards. I was just curious as to what you had done with them.