How do you value a collection?

[silvor]

Originally Posted by mrmopar

I think about that a little more each year as I get older and wonder exactly how I will get rid of my collection, or if I will even have the chance. My boys have no interest at all in it at 13 & 15. My wife threatens that she'll "just get rid of it" if I die first, but the reality is that despite a lot of relatively worthless bulk, there is some real value tucked away in it.

One of the top vinyl collectors by band owns the "#1" set, if there were such a thing. On all this albums over $100, he puts a sticker on them. That way his wife knows its worth at least $100, and to sell accordingly. You could do something similar for certain cards. Or just leave instructions on what to send to PWCC or a big auction house or COMC. Not really that difficult.

Besides, if you have kids 13 & 15, you must not be THAT old For now, just enjoy them!

[steve B]

My wife is at least a bit knowledgeable about all my hobbies. So no worries of stuff getting tossed, even if some of it might be someones great find a few years from now.

Value is tough, one way to see it is a bunch of individual cards, each with a value. The other is as a collection (Or accumulation) That has some good stuff and some stuff that's just not so good.
Or something in between. Individually is usually the most value, but also the most work to sell. As a batch it'll be a lot less, but the sale should be pretty easy.

I mostly buy lower end stuff. The most recent batch was a bunch of cards that had been put in holders for sale maybe in the early 90's. Maybe 4-5 cards I knew were pretty good, a couple of the Nabisco signed cards. And the supplies were worth roughly the asking price, so it was a good deal.

[mrmopar]

I will be 49 this year. I agree that I am "not that old", but you never know when your time will come and for some, it unfortunately can be earlier than expected. I had a pulmonary embolism a few years ago and apparently it surprised a few doctors that I walked into the clinic in the state I was in.

I started collecting for the fun of it and continue to do so. I am not a big ticket guy, but have slowly and steadily pumped a lot of money into it. As I said, there is a lot of bulk stuff from buying wax and keeping everything, but I have become more selective in the last 20 years. Still, I focus on what I like and not necessarily what will be most valuable. Of course it's my stuff and I am biased, but I would imagine someone like me finding this collection and going through it and enjoying the discoveries as they went box by box.

In the end, if I don't sell it first, I won't be around to see what happens and that will be my families call. I did start holding on to some business cards as I got them from eBay sellers and such and reaching out to any of them (if they are still around by that time) would probably be the best start for someone who doesn't know what they have. There will probably always be the internet (or something like it) too...

Originally Posted by silvor

One of the top vinyl collectors by band owns the "#1" set, if there were such a thing. On all this albums over $100, he puts a sticker on them. That way his wife knows its worth at least $100, and to sell accordingly. You could do something similar for certain cards. Or just leave instructions on what to send to PWCC or a big auction house or COMC. Not really that difficult.

Besides, if you have kids 13 & 15, you must not be THAT old For now, just enjoy them!