OT - Baseball Card Collection

[Ridgeland Dog]

I have a friend who was left a large baseball card collection. She would like to sale the entire collection. Anyone know someone in the Jackson area who is into baseball cards?

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

That's a tough market now. Definitely not valued like they were in the past. How old are these cards?

 

[PineGroveBully]

They killed the market when they started making all the subsets

I've got a collection of over 500 different Mark Mcgwires including every one made up until 1994 that in 99-2000 was worth over $6000 according to Beckett, was offered $3500 for it, but I don't think I could get $300-400 for the whole lot. I've got about 30,000 total that I would unload cheap. It's depressing to think how many yards I mowed for $10 pop to finance that collection. Now my nephews and baby sister say "$10 to mow a yard? Man you was a chump."

 

[CochiseCowbell]

Funny, just today during spring cleaning I came across my collection and looked one up online on a whim (Topps '92 Derek Jeter Prospect card). $0.99. Good thing I saved that thing in a soft plastic AND hard plastic sleeve! One version was about $215, but that was in some nuclear safe plastic-case with screws and valued by one of the numerous memorabilia agencies.

The poster that mentioned the sub-sets is right, but to me only half-right. The '94 strike killed it as well. Also, adults killed it. I recall there were at least half a dozen card shops in my town in the time of my collecting days (mid 80's to mid 90's). I took a few fantastic trips in my formative years to Florida for some Grapefruit League action with my father. We even stayed at the same hotel the Cincinnati Reds did that first year in Plant City, FL. Lou Pinella and Barry Larkin signed some cards and gave me sage advice about women around the pool.

Anyway, to my point. I got back into town and went to some card shops to see if any of my cards had increased in value. If I could sell a signed Larkin to get 20 more Will Clark's to add to my favorite player collection, I was all for it. Most of the proprietors resembled the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. Several of them told me they wouldn't dare let Nolan Ryan sully one of his own cards with a Sharpie for fear of ruining the mint condition of the card.

To recap on my long 300th post. Over-saturation, Douchebag adults in a kids' world (with whom I had to compete for an autograph in places like Lakeland, Tampa, Orlando, St. Pete), and the '94 strike killed baseball cards, the joy, and their subsequent value to this day.

 

[BoDawg.sixpack]

Back in the WWII era very few had any clue the cards had potential value

kids put the cards in their bicycle wheels to make noises, drew faces on the players they didn't like, and used the ones they hated as dart boards. The few cards that survived were truly rare examples. Once those survivors saw their values increase, hoarding began from the 80s and peaked in the 90s. More cards were printed then, and more were preserved, which has ruined the value in the present.

Today I personally don't know of a single person who actively collects any sports cards, whether baseball, basketball or otherwise.

 

[PineGroveBully]

You are right on the strike

A lot of casual fans never got back into it after that. That strike also opened the door to football to get where it is in popularity today. Without that strike just as the 94 NFL season opened there's a good chance baseball is still the national past time. But football was sitting there primed to jump when it got the chance and the rivalry between the Cowboys and 49ers was there to give the viewing a better option for entertainment.

 

[MSUFORLIFE]

I love baseball cards. I have a collection of over 3800 of them from 1984-2014. I know the market isn't good but I am proud of my collection and plan to grow it. They will make a comeback some way or another one day.

 

[WayboDawg]

It's a real shock to me to look at the current values of some of the cards I used to covet back when I was in middle school in the mid 90s. Collecting cards was something all of us did, and I was one of the lucky ones who had a mom that would buy me a Beckett value book, so I knew the ballpark fair value of mine and everyone else's cards. I remember Ken Griffey Jr's Upper Deck rookie card in mint condition would sell some where around $300 in 1995, and now you can buy 20 of them on Ebay for that price. Market over-saturation, the MLB strike, and hoarding 45 year old "comic book guys" killed the card industry, period. You might also blame changing interests in kids (video games, computers, satellite tv, cell phones, the internet).

I never will understand why someone would want a 400,000 card collection to begin with. A few cool ones like a rookie Mickey Mantle or Hank Aaron are neat, but why would you want a huge collection of cards from the 90's of players that no one has ever heard of?

 

[PineGroveBully]

Funny on advice on women from Larkin but....

If you was gonna take advice on women from that group of Reds then Eric Davis is who you should have paid attention to. My high school basketball coach told a story about he and his frat mates from State taking a trip to St. Louis to go to a Cards game in the early 90's. They stayed in the hotel right across from the old Busch Stadium (not the Hilton but the name escapes me) and the Reds were staying there as well. He said they were in the hotel bar that night when Eric Davis came strolling in with a white 10 (as in Bo Derek) on each arm. Coach looked at him and their eyes met and then he looked to Davis's left and right then looked back at him and shook his head and grinned. Davis still looking at him grinned back and nodded as if to silently say "I know."

 

[PineGroveBully]

MSUFORLIFE, you mentioned wanting your collection to grow

Where do you live? I've got north of 30,000 that I would sell for probably pennies on the dollar and I'd just as soon a fellow bulldog have them. I'm about 30 minutes north of Tupelo. Most of these are in 900 card boxes that hadn't been opened in 15 years at least. I've got a ton of Griffeys, Jeters, Nolan Ryans, Will Clarks, Palmerio's, Michael Jordan's, Bird's, Magic's, Shaq's, Kobe's, etc just to name a few. Probably also got nearly 50 Dampier's(most are with him in his #25 MSU uniform including a certified autographed card) and nearly that many Dontae Jones.

Going by what the Mantle rookie (wasn't it the '54 Topps that was the holy grail) was worth in late 80's and early 90's that I figured my collection would be worth half a million by the time I was 30. I never imagined 30 would come and go leaving me glad to sell my lot of tens of thousands of cards for tens of tens of dollars and giddy at the thought of getting tens of hundreds of dollars. The Mcgwires are probably all I'd care about keeping just for sentimental reasons. By 99 I had quit buying anything but Mcgwires and probably hadn't bought a single card in a decade. My mom teaches kindergarten and 1st grade and I've probably give away a couple thousand cards to a couple of her students that had expressed to her the they were Cardinal fans.

 

[Clevermule]

You will find that the cards with value are primarily those before 1960. Few cards since then have great value as there are so many of them. There are several dealers across the country that buy large sets, but not for the prices listed in Beckett and other similar lists. The condition of cards is critical to value. If you contact me by PM I can give you names of reliable dealers.

 

[Palos verdes]

I collected them as a kid in the 80's. I have complete sets of Topps '84-85, the complete Upper Deck set (first year) and a Bowman set. My Upper Deck set got wet and is now completely worthless. I also have a few albums full of my favorites, and a deck of 1985 or '86 MSU college player cards. Baseball cards are a thing of the past.