[Exhibitman]

If the only reason you are planning to liquidate is concern over loss in a calamity, insure the bulk of the value of the collection. If there is more to it than that consideration, if it was my collection, I'd liquidate this way:

Sounds to me like what you've got for the most part is mainstream material in nice but not registry-level condition. For that sort of stuff, bargain as hard as you can with an auction house for a reduced commission, consign it and forget it. Be sure to fill out a financing statement (UCC-1) and record it in the state where the auctioneer is located to protect your stuff--no sense in risking the lot if the auctioneer goes bust and the creditors try to grab it (see Mastro). Pull the best of the cards--the big, first tier HOF names--and set those aside. No one is likely to go broke holding and selling off Cobb, Ruth, Speaker, Foxx, Alexander, Mathewson, Gehrig, Mays, Koufax, Mantle, Aaron, etc. I'd also pull and retail any scarce regionals, oddball issues with popular collector bases, and similar hard to find things. You may find that after liquidating the bulk you feel comfortable with your expense leve and want to keep and enjoy the nicest cards as a whole new collection with a better focus. If not, liquidate them yourself via Ebay and BST. It will be manageable in scale and you won't leave a large % with the auctioneer.

You're also going to want to sit down and do a bit of tax planning to determine the tax effect of a sell-off. It may make sense to create a business plan and file a properly documented Schedule C at tax time as a self-employed person rather than treating the cards as an investment. Talk to your tax advisor before you act.