What To Do With Cards From the 80s and 90s?

[Matt]

I have approximately 25,000 cards from the 60's through the mid 90's (baseball, football, basketball). 90% from 1986-1994, HOFers, stars, commons, complete sets, etc. My boys had a good time going through and picking out most of the Cleveland players (as I said, the stars are still in there; oh those wonderful Cleveland teams of the 80s...).

I don't imagine they are worth their weight to ship anywhere. Anyone have any suggestions of how I can get some value for them? I was thinking of bringing them to the Ohio Card Collector's Convention today, but wasn't sure how I'd manage to bring them in and shop them around.

[vintagetoppsguy]

I'm facing the same situation. My fiancee and I are having a yard sale soon and I think I will try to move them there.

[mintacular]

Go to a large flea market and try to get $50+ for all of them. Most dealers at a show will automatically turn you away on cards from this era as they don't want to be bogged down with the stuff. Cards from the 60s-70s of course is a diff ball of wax, sell them here or on eBay. Might try Craigslist for the 80-90s stuff.

[milkit1]

if anyone has any early starting lineups ill be glad to take em off your hands my son loves them

[ctownboy]

1) Buy a paper shredder.

2) Find all of the commons from the 1980's and 1990's and put them in a separate pile.

3) When watching your favorite baseball team, if they do something which upsets you, grab a handful of commons and shred them.

4) When you have a garbage bag full of shredded cards, take them to a paper recycling bin and donate them.

This way, you get rid of cards probably nobody else wants, you get to take out your baseball frustrations and relieve stress AND you get to help the environment out also.

Just my two cents,

David

[rp12367]

I just gave 2 huge boxes of 90's stuff to a local church that was looking for items for a charity drive. Their flyer had sports cards/ comics listed on it (as well as clothes/furniture other items). They where exicited, even thought they werent worth anything. They said they would divide them into smaller groups and give away to local kids in need of assistance.

[Anthony S.]

I use them in lieu of sterno when I make fondue.

[Ladder7]

I stuck a few handfuls of the stars in the attic and walls. Perhaps in a hundred years...

[tbob]

Donate them all to charity, Boys and Girls Clubs, local hopsitals, etc. They will be glad to get them and you'll have a great feeling of satisfaction and will have performed a good deed.

[bxb]

Put them up individually on eBay with "PSA ready" in the title, and start the bidding at $0.01 with $2 shipping for each card.

I haven't tried this myself, but it looks like a popular strategy on eBay.

[39special]

The past 2 years at our last little league game,I brought a couple boxes
and let the kids take what they want.They love those "old" cards from
the '80's and '90's.

[t206hound]

Originally Posted by tbob

Donate them all to charity, Boys and Girls Clubs, local hopsitals, etc. They will be glad to get them and you'll have a great feeling of satisfaction and will have performed a good deed.

I gave mine to the boys and girls club many years ago. The administrators were thrilled to get them.

[dherm360]

put them on team lots--I noticed a lot of people now do autos through the mail and dont care what card they send

[Gradedcardman]

I donate the extras to charity every year.

[phikappapsi]

There's a guy at the local flea market that gets them for free as donations, he puts them into a garbage compressor, then sells the logs as kindling... Probably makes $1 per pound on the cardboard.

[Leon]

1. You could list them on Craigslist and make a couple bucks.

2. Go to your local Salvation Army and give them to the kids that are forced to be there. They will love them and have something to play with.

[John V]

Children's Hospital Cleveland Clinic

[packs]

It would be cool to put together custom themed re-packaged packs and give them away at Little League games and stuff like that.

[travrosty]

Ii had a big stack of some 90's cards in my car once, and it got broken into, and I was so mad when I returned because the guy left another big stack next to that one.

Joke but not too far fetched.

[Julz24]

I have my fair share from that time period as well. I think I'll hang on to mine, and continue hoping everyone else recycles or throws theirs out.

[Vegas-guy]

Originally Posted by Leon

1. You could list them on Craigslist and make a couple bucks.

I just moved cross country and did this^^^^ I had about 20k cards and listed them for 40.00 ended up taking 25 for everything. If they hadn't of sold by the time I was moving they would have ended up in the landfill with the trash.

[dacubfan]

Had a huge neighborhood garage sale this weekend so I halled out about 20 boxes '88 thru '93 and put $10 each or 2/$15. Very few lookers. Sold 2 boxes of '93 Fleer for $6 each and then had to stuff all the rest back into my garage cabinets. Ugh!! Maybe shop them around at the card shops?? Donating them is probably the best way to go.























4

[Bilko G]

Originally Posted by Ladder7

I stuck a few handfuls of the stars in the attic and walls. Perhaps in a hundred years...

haha, thats pretty funny

Originally Posted by Leon

2. Go to your local Salvation Army and give them to the kids that are forced to be there. They will love them and have something to play with.

I like this idea the best. Would probably make the kids very happy.

[ksabet]

About ten years ago I traded 25,000 cards for a PSA 7 Walter Payton RC. I felt it was a good trade.

[uffda51]

The Boys Club, or a similar group.

[Rob D.]

Had you not started this thread, I would have suggested:

1. Scan about a half-dozen cards representative of the group.

2. Start the May pickup thread on April 29, ensuring you have Post No.1.

3. Post the scan and describe what a great find you made and how cards of this era represent a wonderful time in your collecting life.

4. About May 15, post in the B/S/T that you've changed your collecting focus and, as much as it pains you to do it, you're selling your "find."

5. Start the price at five times what you feel the group is worth/what you reasonably expect to get.

6. May 17: Bump for price reduction.

7. May 18: Bump for price reduction

8. May 20: Bump to say they're still available.

9. May 22: Bump for price reduction

10. Repeat as needed.

[zljones]

target practice on a dart board. Extra points for a head shot.

[Exhibitman]

Some hospitals and charities won't take accumulations of cards. I used to donate cards to the childrens hospital at County USC hospital here in L.A. They first demanded that the cards be boxed up a certain way [clean new 600 count boxes], then finally told me they were swamped and didn't want any more unless it was unopened original material.

I tried to sell modern cards at a garage sale. I put out two "shoeboexes" at $20 each, took $20 for the pair and was happy to get it.

I tried them at a local card show where I set up for a day. No one even looked through them. I did business all day from my vintage junk boxes but the shiny crap was like kryptonite.

[frankbmd]

Build a giant house of cards in the back yard and wait in the basement for the tornado.

[CardTarget]

Wallpaper?

I've thought about doing this with a wall just to see how it would look... just take random cards and glue them to the wall in a random pattern. I bet it would look interesting and cool when done.

[travrosty]

in 1989 i bought 50 ken griffey jr. donruss rated rookie cards from an ad in a magazine for about 2.5 dollars apiece, 125 dollars as i thought he might do something in the big leagues because his name and the fact he was getting some hype.

i thought i would get rich when his hof career ended and each card would be worth 5o-75 bucks or more.

they reached about 7 or 8 dollars at their peak, then fell back down to about 2.5 dollars again as there are millions of them out there.

A guy can hit over 600 homers and have a rookie card worthless. his upper deck rc, which went over 100, came crashing back to earth too.

I sold these 50 for a loss as I got about 125 dollars, but had to throw in a 89 UD set and a Griffey San Bernadino Spirit minor league set and a 1989 fleer set too. I couldn't give them away. I listed them about 10 times on ebay before I got one lonely bid. They made millions of these cards.

I remember the hobby publications back then had full page advertisements showing a kid holding a griffey rookie advertising "The Ken Griffey Jr. college fund"! They were pushing their card brand with Griffey leading the way. Insinuating that if you stocked up on their Griffey rookie cards when your kid was young, your kid would be in the catbird seat when it was time to go to college. Harvard, here we come!

college fund - Maybe if you plan on attending the college of hard knocks. Sad.

[zljones]

Originally Posted by travrosty

in 1989 i bought 50 ken griffey jr. donruss rated rookie cards from an ad in a magazine for about 2.5 dollars apiece, 125 dollars as i thought he might do something in the big leagues because his name and the fact he was getting some hype.

i thought i would get rich when his hof career ended and each card would be worth 5o-75 bucks or more.

they reached about 7 or 8 dollars at their peak, then fell back down to about 2.5 dollars again as there are millions of them out there.

A guy can hit over 600 homers and have a rookie card worthless. his upper deck rc, which went over 100, came crashing back to earth too.

I sold these 50 for a loss as I got about 125 dollars, but had to throw in a 89 UD set and a Griffey San Bernadino Spirit minor league set and a 1989 fleer set too. I couldn't give them away. I listed them about 10 times on ebay before I got one lonely bid. They made millions of these cards.

I remember the hobby publications back then had full page advertisements showing a kid holding a griffey rookie advertising "The Ken Griffey Jr. college fund"! They were pushing their card brand with Griffey leading the way. Insinuating that if you stocked up on their Griffey rookie cards when your kid was young, your kid would be in the catbird seat when it was time to go to college. Harvard, here we come!

college fund - Maybe if you plan on attending the college of hard knocks. Sad.

What shocks me is that the 89 UD Griffey still has some value despite being heavily produced in millions/billions. A PSA 9 still goes for $50 a piece, I know I had to shell out $50 when I bought mine last year.

[rdwyer]

I'm a teacher at an Elementary school in Long Beach, Ca. We're always looking for donations of any type of cards. We use them to motivate our students. Might be willing to pay shipping costs, if the cost is low. If you're local, I'll pick them up.

[Ejm1]

This may sound stupid but I have got in some bidding wars over unopened material from 1980-1984, those years are my childhood collecting prime and I think a small percentage of collectors my age (39) are looking back and wanting this stuff again. I'm not talking huge amounts of cash but some intrest is out there, at least for the early 80's.

[2dueces]

I gave mine to the kids hospital years ago. They love them!! Unfortunately it is the terminal ill ward but I cannot tell you how much joy you can bring to the kids there when they spread out thousands of cards looking for their favorite team. I'm not the teary eye guy but I was that day for more than one reason. Do something good with them.

[Buythatcard]

When I first started out in the selling business on eBay, I bought a huge lot of over 50,000 cards from the 80's to the late 90's. I thought that I would sell these cards individually and make a huge profit. Obviously, I didn't know too much about the business back then.
When I realized that these cards were not worth my time and effort, I decided to donate all the cards to the local hospital. I gave them to a friend of mine who was a doctor that worked with cancer patients who were children. He distributed the cards among the children. He told me that they kids all loved the cards.

I felt real good about doing that.

[Tomman1961]

I donated all my 1987+ cards to the Salvation Army.Could not sell an 800 count box of 1987 Topps for $2 at a garage sale. Not worth the bother. Donate. Maybe there is a tax write off? The value of a 1987 Topps common will book at 5cents? - is only a guess. Can you donate them and take a tax write off? May get you in trouble because I THINK the write off on donations is what the item is REALLY worth.
I liked what Ladder7 said-I did the same. I built an addition on my house in 1998. I put a 1987 Rose and 1987 Ryan in the walls for giggles.

[Runscott]

I had a huge box full of miscellaneous cards from the '70s through the '90s - football and baseball. Gave them all to a friend who deals in '50s cards and hands stuff like mine out to kids for free at the shows. He ended up selling some of the good stuff and a 'surprise' check arrived by mail one day

Thanks Cy - you're a helluva good member of this hobby!

[Tomman1961]

To-Buythatcard
I agree - donate. Being a cancer survivor at age 47 and having a neighbor with cancer at age 4.
Maybe that is the place to donate to. I just posted that mine went to Salvation Army. But maybe I should have done a children's hospital. And donate the stars with the commons.
Your post is the best I've seen. I hope many will read yours.
Thanks-Tom
Also-thank you to 2dueces who did the same-donate to a children's hospital