Organizing
Your Sports Cards for a Sale
Baseball, Basketball & Football Cards
Organizing your collection is the most important thing you can do
before trying to sell it. You need to decide who you are
trying to sell the collection to. because this will
dramatically impact how you organize your card collection.
This applies to
all sports cards, baseball, basketball and football cards.
Selling
to Card Dealers
When selling to a card dealer, you should
organize your cards so that they know exactly what they are getting. If
you have an '86 Tops complete set, you will get paid the value of an
'86 Tops Set. But not if you don't demonstrate that you have the set.
Card dealers need to be able to verify that you have what you say you
have.
The best way to enable them to do this, and to show them that you
know what you are doing and they shouldn't try to cheat you, is to
organize your cards by set and by number. Each card has a number on the
back of it, going numerically from #1 to however many cards are in the
set. The set also includes checklists that list the cards numerically.
If you have an entire set of cards in order from 1 to the last number,
a card dealer knows he is getting what he is paying for,
and he knows exactly which cards are in the set you are selling him.
When you are selling to a card dealer, unless you have a very rare and
special card, it is almost always best to sell your cards in
sets rather than trying to split up sets and sell cards individually.
The exception to this rule is if you have unopened packs of cards,
which can sometimes sell for more individually. But remember: you are
almost always better off leaving packages unopened if you still have
some that are that way.
Selling
To Other Collectors
If you are selling to other collectors, your
best bet is probably to get a table at a card show (although card shows
are becoming very difficult to find.) Many collector's sell on-line
through an auction site. The best known auction site is ebay, at www.ebay.com. You can
still benefit by keeping and
selling sets together. But if you do not have full sets, this is a good
way to sell your cards.
Collectors are interested in more than the business side of
baseball cards. They don't want to see cards organized by number in
boxes. They want to see cards in binders with clear pages, organized by
team or by sections dedicated to popular players. It's still
a good idea for you to keep track of all the cards that you are
selling,
and how much they are worth. Keep a list with this information for your
own reference.
Know
the Value of Your Cards
Finally, make sure that you have some idea of
how much the cards you are selling are worth. Most card shops will give
an estimate for free, and some charge a small fee. But the time and
effort you will spend re-familiarizing
yourself with your collection
with ensure that you don't unwittingly sell a rare card for way below
market value.
See Figuring
the Value of Your Card Collection.
Information
provided by AD
Sport Cards Etc.
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