Suddenly, I have cards and questions

[bzkay]

Just ended up with a few hundred Baseball cards, which I know nothing about. Mainly from 1990 - several different companies. Trying to sort through how to sell them as I look at EBAY. Besides everything about baseball cards that I don't get, I also wonder how it is that people end up selling things for $.01 and free shipping. How is this profitable?

Thanks,

Kim

[bzkay]

pic of cards

[butch799]

Most post-1980s cards were produced in such absurdly enormous quantities that they have very little resale value, and the best thing you could probably do with them is donate them to your local youth baseball league for distribution to the kids.  

However, there are a number of cards that were short-printed as limited editions, and many of those have collector value, as do the rookie cards (player's first appearance on a card) of certain star players, so it's possible you have a few cards there that could earn some money.   

You're off to a good start sorting the cards by publisher and year.  We'd recommend you hit your local library and borrow their copy of an up-to-date baseball card price guide.  Bear in mind that prices shown in such publications tend to be inflated prices for mint-condition examples, but at least you'll be able to tell which cards have some market value and which have next to none.  

[bzkay]

Thank you for the info, it was what I was looking for and I appreciate it.

Though I can't really imagine sorting through all these cards and looking them up. Please tell me, somewhere there is a list of cards that are NOT worthless on todays market! Though it is such a different situation now - there appear to be cards for everything, not to mention lots of abbreviations in ads that I don't understand. Looks like unless I want a new (and apparently expensive ) hobby I should find someone to give them to.

[butch799]

Hi, glad we could be of at least a little help.  If you don't know cards, do you "know" baseball -- enough to recognize names of star players?  Or do you know someone near at hand who does?  That would be useful in spotting potentially more valuable "rookie" cards.  Anything marked "1/1" (the only one of the one limited-edition card made), "1/100." &c' would be worth investigating.  Are the abbreviations you're seeing like P, F, G, VG, EX, NM, M ?  That would indicate the physical condition of the card -- poor, fair, good, very good, excellent, near mint, mint.  "PSA," "SGC," and "BVG" refer to grading companies.   Keep asking questions and we or others on board can walk you through...  

[hockeyhillbilly]

Kim

Most collectors these days open boxes and packs looking for Autographs and Game used cards that have a cut up piece of uniform.Some collectors still put sets together or try to collect every card they can of individual players.Right now  opening boxes is like playing the lottery-If you are lucky you get a "hit" in a box that will pay the cost of the box.As an example earlier this summer I opended a box of heritage Baseball that had a johnny bench auto worth $325.00, A Rafael devers auto worth $60.00-70.00- and a boxtopper Poster worth $30.00.That was a great box and I won the lottery on that one, but if I had picked the box right beside it I might have only found $5.00 or $6.00  orth of less valuable auto or jersey cards. There are other ways of making money on cards Than busting boxes like buying and selling singles, but that is risky because something can sell for 25.00 today and bring 10.00 next tuesday.If you decide to play around in the market there is money to be made,and it is the only hobby where you can see something go from $1.00 to  $50.00 in no time flat.