What To Do With Extra Cards...?

[irv]

Originally Posted by LuckyLarry

The first card show I took my grandson D to, he was looking at these packs of shiny cards that cost $5 each which I thought was an outrageous price. So I bought him a whole box of these mid 90s basketball cards that had college players on them, and the whole box was $2. He never even opened all the packs, they are still sitting in the corner of his room unopened. I don't think he recognized one player. What fun is that?
Last week I had grandson A and grandson D in the car with me, and we made a quick stop at my local card store so I could pick up supplies. Grandson D wanted basketball cards, so the card store manager showed him the latest products, and D chose a pack of new Donruss. Grandson A wanted Pokemon cards LOL, both packs cost $4 I think. Now they had fun with those!

Sometimes I see these hoards of '90s cards at garage sales, and I think to myself "dude you would have to pay me to haul this stuff away".

You want to get kids excited about cards? Give them some players they have heard of, not a pile of junk.

Larry

Originally Posted by bnorth

I agree with a few previous posters, no kids want your junk cards with players on then they never heard of. Hell most don't even want the new shiny cards unless they are free and Mike Trout limited edition or super shiny limited editions.

The last few years I have tried handing out free packages of cards to kids that got drug along to my produce stand with their parents/grandparents. I put 1 modern autograph, 1 modern patch card, 1 Kirby Puckett and then 7 random Twins(this is Twins country) players from the 60's to present to make 10 card packages.

I had several want them at first. Then because there was no big $ cards in them only a few wanted them after that. I even had a few kids complain to me that they could not sell them at school.

I agree with what's been said, but keep in mind, not every kid is going to get all giddy that they received some BB cards.
Just like everything else, it is hard to please everyone and of course that's not possible but if I know there is at least the potential to put a smile on one kids face, it is certainly better than just throwing them in the trash.

Right now, I currently have a bunch of 92 Stadium Club cards in acrylic holders that I plan on donating soon to somewhere. My thinking is, it is something solid, protected and may give some the assumption that it is something special for a young, underprivileged child to hold?
Either way, if my thinking is offside, I know that I at least tried to do something to put at least one smile on a child's face.

[z28jd]

I got a small pile of low grade 1973 Topps cards when I was a kid and I didn't know many of the players, but the cards made me want to learn about them. I think donating cards is good if you find the right people to give them to, which wouldn't be every kid. It might be better to group them into teams and then give kids cards from their favorite team.

I often wonder if it would be better for the hobby if you threw away a large pile of cards instead of giving it to a kid. Maybe you get a new collector for life into the hobby, but if people threw away large piles of junk cards, eventually they would be worth something and might bring back former collectors who still held on to them. At least with the former collectors, you know it's people who recognize the players and had a passion for the cards at one time.

Personally, I think the best idea is donating large groups to kids and if they don't like it, they will probably throw them out. If they do like them, then you have a new collector, which helps the hobby.

[KMayUSA6060]

Originally Posted by z28jd

I got a small pile of low grade 1973 Topps cards when I was a kid and I didn't know many of the players, but the cards made me want to learn about them. I think donating cards is good if you find the right people to give them to, which wouldn't be every kid. It might be better to group them into teams and then give kids cards from their favorite team.

I often wonder if it would be better for the hobby if you threw away a large pile of cards instead of giving it to a kid. Maybe you get a new collector for life into the hobby, but if people threw away large piles of junk cards, eventually they would be worth something and might bring back former collectors who still held on to them. At least with the former collectors, you know it's people who recognize the players and had a passion for the cards at one time.

Personally, I think the best idea is donating large groups to kids and if they don't like it, they will probably throw them out. If they do, then you have a new collector, which helps the hobby.

Bingo.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by KMayUSA6060

Bingo.

I like the spray and pray approach too. All we can do is try and hopefully some of the young ones become interested. If not then there are that many less of the over-produced cards.