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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. 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.
For more infornation see Selling
Your
Sports Card Collection.
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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