Suggestions for the best way to sell many cards

[selling4nana]

Hi, I am new to the board and have enjoyed reading through many of the posts. I've been helping my grandmother sell many of her collectibles. I recently had just over 150 prewwII cards graded (mostly baseball, some billiard, golf, boxing, etc) plus I have many others that weren't worth grading. I do not know much about the hobby. SGC gave me suggestions on the best ways to sell the cards (through auction houses, REA was one mentioned). Like everyone else, I'm looking to get the most for them and although I'm in no rush, my grandmother is 90. I would like her to use the money for meds and not an inheritance for someone else
Although SGC seems very trustworthy I really want to do my due diligence and see what other options may be worth looking into. I've read about other auction houses on this site and have thought about ebay. With so many cards does anyone have any suggestions?
I'm picking up cards this week.
Thanks!

[e107collector]

Do you have a list or remember what type of cards they were? Any player names?

Tony

[vintagetoppsguy]

The first thing I would do would be to subscribe to VCP (vintagecardprices.com). This will give you an idea of what the cards are worth and what they should sell for. Next, I would offer them to the board members here first in the appropriate B/S/T section. Whatever doesn't sell you can always put on eBay or consign the nicer ones to one of the auction houses...maybe B & L.

[Jaybird]

I agree that selling here will save you 10-20% in fees through either auction house or ebay/paypal. VCP is also a good suggestion because that way you know what similar cards have gone for. The fact that you've had them all graded by SGC will make it even easier to compare.

Then the remainder could be put on ebay/GSB or through an auction house.

I think that the direct sale would put the most money in your pocket with the least aggravation and quickest turnaround.

Invest in a good scanner (Canon).

[GoldenAge50s]

Until we know the years & brands of the collection it's impossible to give you the proper advice. Some scans would be helpful also.

[glchen]

I think a lot will depend on what you have. If your cards are high value (e.g., > $1000), then I would sell through an auction house like those mentioned before (REA, Goodwin, etc.) I send my better cards to Goodwin because they have 0% seller's commission, and a closing auction policy that benefits consigners (which is all lots end at the same time). Although I've never used them, B&L can be good also since they have one of the lowest buyer's premiums and an even better closing auction policy for consigners. (You don't even have to bid on an item before extended period starts.) If you have a bunch of cards, high and low value that you don't really want to deal with, you might try an auction house that caters to all types of buyers (high and low items) like Huggins and Scott. Again, I've never consigned with them, but I believe they will sort your items into different lots for you to maximize value. For example, they might put a bunch of your lower value cards in a 1910-30s lot, and highlight higher value cards singly in their own lot. If you just have a bunch of lower to medium value cards (under $300), I would just slowly ebay the cards individually.

One more word of caution. Do not be conned by expiring best offers if you're uncertain about the value of your card. Let your auction items run. For example, if someone says I'll offer $500 for this card or $2000 for everything because your cards are worth this because of bleh, bleh, bleh, you need to make sure that other people know this card (or everything is for sale), so that others can put in their offers. If no one else offers that can beat that price, take it, but make sure others have a chance to "bid." When selling items on ebay, I've had a lot of people message me with lowball offers, and if I didn't know better, I might've taken them. More often than not, these cards ended up selling for far more than I was offered.

Finally, you might post a few of cards here. If you have some rare ones, it can cause a feeding frenzy on this board. I know that I've seen some finds, and have instantly messaged the poster asking when he was going to sell his cards and where. Good luck!

[selling4nana]

Of all the message boards I've ever been on this one has the nicest group of people. I can't get over how helpful everyone has been.
I will try tomorrow to scan a few cards. Some of the cards I have are as listed below:
1911 T-202 Staht/Cicotte
T-202 Engle/Speaker
T-202 McConnell/McIntyre
1912 T-205 Mcgraw/Clarke
T-201 Cobb/Crawford
T-201 Dougherty/Lord
T-201 Street/Johnson
Those are just some of the ones I'm picking up from SGC. Some of the ungraded ones are:
Mecca Cards
Butler/Abstein
Bergen/Wheat
Hickman/Hinchman
Sweet Caporal; Burch, Sheckard, Moran
Hassan Cigs; Milan/Schaefer/McBride
The only downer is many of the cards have kids names written on them. But I will try to scan some in later tomorrow. Thanks again everyone for all of your help and support. My nana is going to get such a kick out of all of this!
Becky

[wonkaticket]

"I agree that selling here will save you 10-20% in fees through either auction house or ebay/paypal."

Unless you and your nana are in the Boston area then it could cost you around 15% or so...perhaps more.

Inside joke Becky amoung us card junkies, all the advice given thus far is solid.

Good luck with your sale.

Cheers,

John

[Exhibitman]

For boxing cards, go here:

www.americasgreatboxingcards.com

Lots of data and links to extensive type card images so you can determine what you have. I am the proprietor.

[selling4nana]

I am still very overwhelmed! I picked up the cards and saw that most of them graded very low. I'm testing my scanning abilities now. These are just a few of the cards I have. The T202 Johnson/Street is the best one at 80 EX/NM. The guys at SGC got most excited over the T201 Crawford/Cobb cards. I have 3 but the best one graded at 30. The other two have A's.
My cards are clearer than they scanned. I will keep trying but I wanted to put something up.