Advice on Selling a 1953 Bowman Set...

[STL1944]

I have been building a 1953 Bowman set for about 3 years new. Like a junkie or addict, I can't seem to get enough. I started building the set in raw. But that wasn't enough. I graduated to mid-grade PSA. That was good for a while, but then I needed more. I am now going to trying to build a top 20 registry set. Yes, I am sucker. You can lecture me later about not chasing PSA grades... although I am currently #28...

Anyway... this leads to my question. In the next couple of months I will not have one but TWO complete 1953 Bowman sets. Fun problem to have.

The first set will be my "registry set" and one that I will want to keep forever. The second set, however, I am thinking about selling (or maybe trading).

Couple of things about the second set:

- It consist of a mixture of raw and PSA graded cards
- Overall I am guessing that 50 of the 160 cards in the set will be PSAs.
- Almost all of the HOF's will be PSA and will range from PSA 4-6 (Mantle PSA 5, Musial PSA 6, Berra PSA 4, etc.)
- The common PSA's will range from 5-7
- The common raw cards will be anywhere from G - EX

Given a set like this, a couple of questions:

1) Would you sell this as a complete set or break it up?
2) Where would you sell it? (Note: I assume I would list it here first on the Net54 board first, but then where?)

Any other thoughts or things I should keep in mind?

Thank you for any help or ideas. You all are a great resource.

[bobsbbcards]

Jim,

If you have to be addicted to something, you couldn't pick a better "drug."

Here's a few thoughts about selling your #2 set:

1) If you sell as a complete set, you'll lose some buyers due to the mixed condition of the raw cards. If I were buying a complete set, I wouldn't mind some upgrading, but if it got to more than 30%, it would become a consideration.

2) I had a complete duplicate 1960 PSA set that was all in PSA 7. I chose to sell it myself on eBay as a set break (572 separate auctions), and when the smoke cleared and fees had been paid, it turned out to be about a wash compared to what a complete PSA 7 would have sold. If I had it to do over, I'd probably consign it to a catalog auctioneer (the buyer's premiums are better now).

3) I think you'd do well selling the PSA cards individually. The cards don't come up much in PSA 5-6, but when they do, the prices (at least on eBay) seem predictable. The Buy-Sell-Trade section here would be fine.

Good luck with your pursuit!
Bob

[crose]

If you break up and sell items individually, I'm currently in the market for a Mantle around that grade. Please let me know. Thanks

Caleb

[autograf]

You will almost ALWAYS get more if you break it up. Hence the reason there are so many 1950's Topps and Bowman card dealers out there. Buy full sets. Break them up. Rinse. Repeat.