Father Passed and Left me his collection. Please Help.

[orly57]

Yeah, I was kind of laughing to myself as I read the posts. PWCC is like the new Dick Towle of the board: a bunch of people use them, but few will admit to it. Not sure why.
Anyway, I totally agree with you that they absolutely need to get graded. I would bet that pwcc would send them for grading at their cost (with potentially more favorable PSA grades since they come from PWCC). If not, then he can find someone who will. Where I disagree with you is the suggestion that he sell on his own. You know how big a gap there can be between two cards OF THE SAME GRADE. A novice doesn’t know that the psa 3 that pops up on vcp isn’t as well centered or registered as his. He may assume all 3’s are the same and get ripped off. It’s too much for a novice to grasp in a short time. Also, any dealer who buys the collection will probably take more than 20% off.
A lot is being made of the 10-20% that an auction house will take, but the reality is that if he went on the BST, he would be offered 10-20% less anyway. Rarely does anyone offer full price on BST. In fact, that is one of the benefits of BST: the seller makes a quicker sale (or avoids eBay fees) and the buyer doesn’t deal with BP (or paying the seller’s ebay fees). In short, I’m not sure that the 10-20% can ever truly be avoided...especially by a guy who simply doesn’t know enough about the hobby to asses a proper value. If he’s going to lose that 10-20% anyway, he might as well have someone do all the work for him. The evaluation that needs to be done is: where can he maximize his profit? Where are the most eyeballs going to see the cards? I think his cards are perfect for PWCC. I think REA or HA may be overkill on these particular cards. Having have said all that, as I wrote earlier, I would expect for them to cover grading costs. If they won’t, then he should find someone who will.
As a side-note, i too think that he should keep a couple for sentimental reasons.