Questions about selling a postwar collection

[jchcollins]

It will depend on what you have and condition. If you have a substantial collection in high-grade condition, it may be worth it to check out getting the cards professionally graded before you sell. I think it's important to point out that most collectors notions of "grading" differ widely now when compared to the 1980's. Many cards that were called mint or near mint honestly back then are now held to higher scrutiny, and may only grade EX-MT or EX, say in the PSA 5 or 6 range. While these are certainly still generally considered "nice" and collectible cards, there is quite a difference between the money that PSA 5 vintage cards go for in today's market vs. those in truly higher grade, such as the PSA 8's and above. Just speaking personally, if I had quit collecting for a while and had to go back and tell my 12 year-old self something about card values today - that would be it. The condition of your cards as judged by today's condition standards could mean the difference between something that is just a nice fun collection (what I focus on) and something that could payoff your mortgage...

[ALR-bishop]

...on board. There is never a shortage of opinions or advice here

[capricesquad]

Thanks for the help, I asked around a few other forums and haven't really gotten much other than get them graded but with the cost of grading I would like to know much more before plunking down the cash to find out the cards aren't worth grading.

Back to my dad's collection, he grew up on a rural farm and would watch his younger siblings on the weekend when my grandparents would go shopping and they would buy him a few packs as payment. Living on a farm meant few chances to trade so he has quite a few doubles, in some cases as many as 10 of the same card. He took immaculate card of the cards but looking over them there are many that have gum stains or printing issues that were there from the factory but at the time they were penny cards so I'm assuming the factory QC was pretty terrible.


To start off he has almost a whole set of bazooka all star cards in pretty nice condition

[capricesquad]

He has quite a few Post and Jello cards


Lots of team cards


And lots of all star group cards

[capricesquad]

He has quite a few Life of Babe Ruth Cards



I started by grabbing random good players out of a random box

[capricesquad]

There were quite a few good cards so I started a fresh pile on a table. The ones in stacks are doubles of the card on top.





He ended up having quite a few Mickey Mantle cards which might be valuable depending on how they rate










I ordered some top loader cases on amazon to try to get them a bit more protected, is that ok or should I use something else?

[capricesquad]

Some more post and jello cards. He has a full card box of these.


He has a bunch of the team cards which seem to be worthwhile depending on the team



He also pulled out a binder of what I thought were called exhibitor cards but are actually called exhibit or arcade cards. I guess they aren't worth much compared to regular cards but he has 3 mantles and duplicates of other good players.