Overwhelmed and Excited

[MethodKC]

I want to apologize up front my first post with be long winded and full of some questions and thoughts.
Like many people in their late 30's my love for collecting hit a peak in the early 90's. My father was one of the few people who kept their collections from their childhood and kept collecting. We spent hours going through his collection, going to shows and buying new cards. One of my fondest memories was my dad giving me Fisk rookie at a show and telling me to go sell or trade it and I can use the money for whatever I wanted there. On to the late 90's. I get married have kids early and loose interest in collecting. Now fast forward to 2017. My father is still alive and well but they are downsizing and he tells me he wants me to come pick up our large combined collection because its sitting in his house collecting dust and he wants someone to enjoy it. So here I am now with a huge sports and non sports collection going back to the early 50's and I am beyond overwhelmed. I never realized as a kid all the stuff he had and I am enjoying myself beyond belief going through it, but as I dig deeper and do more research I realize how much collecting has changed and trying to figure out what to keep what to sell and what to trade.

The cards...I know pretty much everything from the early 80's on is has no dollar value but man it has been fun going through some and remembering particular cards and how much I wanted them and what I did to get them. Half of collection is from this period and its probably 20k+ cards that someday I will go through and see if there are any of the few valuable one in there.

Vintage cards. There are an overwhelming amount of awesome cards from the late 50-s through the early 80's. Complete or almost complete Topps sets from 65 on (with a brief hiatus in 72-73 when my parents got married). Most of the 50's cards and early 60's cards arent in the best condition because my dad actually played with them but there are some great cards in there. 54 Red Heart Mantle, A few early Ted Williams Bowmans, Lots of other Mantles ( like most people his age he was his favorite player) Ryan rookie in good condition and a few Bench rookies as well. He has almost all the inserts from the 60's most in reasonably good condition. There are lots of non sports cards from the 50s and 60s as well. Topps Look and See, Presidents, Astronaughts, The Beatles, The Monkees, Freddy and Dreamers, Planet of the Apes, Garrisons Guerrillas and more. There are Post cards and Kahns Wieners cards uncut, Kellogs and just about every thing you could send off for from the 60s and 70s. There is so much memorabilia I havent even scratched the surface on. (Programs and Tickets and such)

Ok on to my questions. Where to start. My father has been a set builder at heart his whole life. He never worried about grades just raw cards. I want to finish a few sets. I am like 25 cards short of 59 I think and close to some others. Money is tight enough I dont think I can go tell my wife I am going to drop a bunch of cash to complete some card sets so I am going to use the massive amounts of doubles+ and oddball stuff to finance this.
Grading - Should I grade anything of value I am thinking about selling? Scanning - I see Scans as people put cards up. What is the best way to get this done? Recommended scanner?
Places to sell and buy? Besides forums like this is Ebay the best place to sell and buy some of the harder things to find?

I will stop here because I could go on blabbing about my excitement and feeling of being overwhelmed. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any comments and answers

Adam

[h2oya311]

Adam -

First of all, welcome to the board! That sounds so awesome to get to go through all those cards again. Most of the collectors on this site love the raw stuff, so I'm sure if there are some doubles of raw, good to EX condition cards, you will find plenty of interest.

For rare and/or popular cards (like the Red Heart Mantle), if you plan on selling, then get them graded by PSA. An annual membership costs a fair amount (~$100), but you get some "free" grading submissions, and this might be an opportunity to drop a few of the nicer cards off with them to grade.

Since most are "collector grade", I definitely think you should enjoy them in all their cardboard glory without adding the plastic tomb around them, especially for the ones you want to keep / continue collecting. I bet someone would be willing to do some trades to help you complete your sets. This forum is awesome for that sort of stuff!

Best of luck and congrats on the "re-find".

[ibuysportsephemera]

Adam,

Great story. I think the idea of selling some items to finish other parts of the collection is a great idea. I am not a card guy, but can help you if you have any questions on the tickets or publications. Good luck and enjoy!

Jeff

[Timbegs]

Feel free to PM me (I have more advice) as well but this is my basic advice:

1. Ask your dad what his favorite pieces are. Treasure them forever.

2. I'm new too but the people here are great. eBay is great for a big marketplace and pricing but I'd try here to save on fees.

3. Get any good looking star card from prior to 1970 graded.

4. Enjoy them while you have them.

[swarmee]

COMC is great site to fill out your sets while selling your own cards. I only grade cards I'm going to keep in a set (for my PSA Set Registry) or I think paying the $6/card fee is going to increase the value over $20 for it to be worth it. So a raw card worth $20 is not worth grading to me unless I can then sell it for $40. High numbers that are rare may be worth sending in, as well as any Mantles just to prove they're authentic.

Get a subscription to PSA Collector's Club in order to send cards in on bulk submission specials. You could post scans of cards you think are worthy of grading, and we can tell you our guesses as to what they would get.

[ibuysportsephemera]

Originally Posted by Timbegs

1. Ask your dad what his favorite pieces are. Treasure them forever.

Amazing advice...wish I would have thought to say that. Good job Tim.

Jeff

[Exhibitman]

Grade-worthy cards: Mantle, Koufax, Aaron, Mays, Ted Williams, Musial, Jackie Robinson, any HOF RC from the 1950s-1960s. Your ability to sell will be enhanced if you grade them even in lesser grades. Beaters even sell from these guys.

Not worth grading: commons (except 52 Topps 311-407), anything not listed above in less than stellar condition (and if you have a question about it, yes, it is in less than stellar condition).

Maybe worth grading: regionals (Bell, Kahn's, Wilson, etc.). Really depends on the player and condition.

I'd consider the auctions here on the BST thread. With nice scans it is a great way to get a read on the market for a card.

You might consider consigning to an AH that handles less than minty cards. Sterling Auctions (member here) has a niche doing smaller stuff. The key is not to be forced into massive lots for dealers to buy and break; you might as well just sell to a dealer and cut out the middleman.

Some eBay seller operate on a consignment basis. Check around. PWCC and Probstein are big but there are numerous allegations of shill bidding and poor consignor treatment on this board from those two, so beware. David Bryant (davidbvintage on eBay) does consignment sales and no one has anything but good stuff to say about him, myself included. Depending on where you are, there are also likely board members near you who might be interested in buying a big lot of cards from you directly.

[jb67]

Adam,

Welcome to Net54. You have received some great advice already so I will not duplicate any that has been given. My two cents would be to sell duplicates of what you have to fund completing any sets you have. Take it slow and enjoy the journey.

[mintacular]

3. Get any good looking star card from prior to 1970 graded.

I do not agree with this, u could waste several hunded or k+sending mid grade or less stars that aren't rcs

[Timbegs]

Originally Posted by mintacular

3. Get any good looking star card from prior to 1970 graded.

I do not agree with this, u could waste several hunded or k+sending mid grade or less stars that aren't rcs

You are right - poor word choice. Grade potential 6's or better?

That's what I meant. Not the grade 'good'.

[MethodKC]

Thanks for all the information. Everyone here as been very helpful so far. I spent a more hours last night just getting my head wrapped around what is there and thinking about how I should store everything. Currently everything is in old boxes that were homemade to be like the 3k card boxes that are out there today but with too much wiggle room. Hardly anything is sleeved or in hard cases and a most of the set are in old 800 count boxes that fold in and can damage the cards. Time to go to the local store and get some supplies...



Still looking for a recommendation for a cheap scanner. Any ideas?

As I find interesting stuff I'll throw it up here. Found some uncut 65 Kahn's cards 3 are in really good shape.IMG_1729.jpg

[Exhibitman]

Those are auction-worthy with a good AH like Love of the Game.

[brian1961]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Those are auction-worthy with a good AH like Love of the Game.

Yes, definitely. Insist to the auction house to offer those four Kahn's Reds individually, to maximize your return. Any regional type card collector would love to own one of those! Terrific display pieces. ---Brian Powell

[gregr2]

Here's a previous thread on scanners. The key is getting one with a CCD element.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?p=1572687

Many members, including me use the Canoscan 9000f mark ii but it is over $150. The one Luke mentions in the thread above is the Epson v33 and can be found used on ebay. Here is one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Epson-Perfec...8AAOSwZQRYhTuv

[JTysver]

It all sounds exciting. I sent a Private Message to you. Was seeking some of your wantlists.

[Chris-Counts]

I believe those Kahn's are from '66 (definitely not '65), and that year is tougher than just about any of the Kahn's issues from the '60s.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by MethodKC

I want to apologize up front my first post with be long winded and full of some questions and thoughts.
Like many people in their late 30's my love for collecting hit a peak in the early 90's. My father was one of the few people who kept their collections from their childhood and kept collecting. We spent hours going through his collection, going to shows and buying new cards. One of my fondest memories was my dad giving me Fisk rookie at a show and telling me to go sell or trade it and I can use the money for whatever I wanted there. On to the late 90's. I get married have kids early and loose interest in collecting. Now fast forward to 2017. My father is still alive and well but they are downsizing and he tells me he wants me to come pick up our large combined collection because its sitting in his house collecting dust and he wants someone to enjoy it. So here I am now with a huge sports and non sports collection going back to the early 50's and I am beyond overwhelmed. I never realized as a kid all the stuff he had and I am enjoying myself beyond belief going through it, but as I dig deeper and do more research I realize how much collecting has changed and trying to figure out what to keep what to sell and what to trade.

The cards...I know pretty much everything from the early 80's on is has no dollar value but man it has been fun going through some and remembering particular cards and how much I wanted them and what I did to get them. Half of collection is from this period and its probably 20k+ cards that someday I will go through and see if there are any of the few valuable one in there.

Vintage cards. There are an overwhelming amount of awesome cards from the late 50-s through the early 80's. Complete or almost complete Topps sets from 65 on (with a brief hiatus in 72-73 when my parents got married). Most of the 50's cards and early 60's cards arent in the best condition because my dad actually played with them but there are some great cards in there. 54 Red Heart Mantle, A few early Ted Williams Bowmans, Lots of other Mantles ( like most people his age he was his favorite player) Ryan rookie in good condition and a few Bench rookies as well. He has almost all the inserts from the 60's most in reasonably good condition. There are lots of non sports cards from the 50s and 60s as well. Topps Look and See, Presidents, Astronaughts, The Beatles, The Monkees, Freddy and Dreamers, Planet of the Apes, Garrisons Guerrillas and more. There are Post cards and Kahns Wieners cards uncut, Kellogs and just about every thing you could send off for from the 60s and 70s. There is so much memorabilia I havent even scratched the surface on. (Programs and Tickets and such)

Ok on to my questions. Where to start. My father has been a set builder at heart his whole life. He never worried about grades just raw cards. I want to finish a few sets. I am like 25 cards short of 59 I think and close to some others. Money is tight enough I dont think I can go tell my wife I am going to drop a bunch of cash to complete some card sets so I am going to use the massive amounts of doubles+ and oddball stuff to finance this.
Grading - Should I grade anything of value I am thinking about selling? Scanning - I see Scans as people put cards up. What is the best way to get this done? Recommended scanner?
Places to sell and buy? Besides forums like this is Ebay the best place to sell and buy some of the harder things to find?

I will stop here because I could go on blabbing about my excitement and feeling of being overwhelmed. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any comments and answers

Adam

I'd bet doughnuts to dog poop this is the first time Freddy and the Dreamers cards have been mentioned on this forum.

Welcome, Adam - love your passion!


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