For seniors

[theshleps]

I turned 72 today. Decent health. I have noticed over the years people reaching a point where they decide to sell there collections. I am curious for all you 60+ folks if you are committed to collect and keep purchasing until you die or if you think there might come a time to liquidate. I am just as active in collecting as ever but you start contemplating these things. Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts

[jimq16415]

I'm early 60s with 2 pretty bad strokes in the past year. Definitely been selling non-graded things and trying to make sure the wife knows how/where to get rid of what's left.

I still buy stuff but I'm a lot more selective about it and normally get them graded right away.

[commishbob]

I'm 70. I contemplated selling off my collection for a few years. I knew my wife and kids would have no idea where to begin if I left them this stuff but I was dreading the process. I pictured selling sets one-by-one, weeks of scanning, and quibbling over price/condition and it didn't seem like fun negotiating a couple dozen or so vintage set sales.

A few months ago I received a 'We're buying' flyer in the mail from a well-known dealer so I called and when their buyers came through Texas last month they visited my place, looked at what I had, and made a cash offer that I accepted. I know I left money on the table doing it that way but avoiding the hassle of multiple drawn-out sales, shipping, Pay Pay fees, and potential scam buyers made it worthwhile. Everyone's milage will vary of course.

I kept some things that had more meaning to me than value, my Baltimore Colts card collection, TCMA sets, non-sports sets from the 60s, and a few others. I also kept one project to work on to keep my fingers in the collecting aspect of the hobby... my 1975 Topps mini set is about 60% done and it contains cards that members here very generously contributed without asking for anything in return. I figure it will be the perfect 'post-collecting' project.

Because every thread needs a card:

[SyrNy1960]

I’m 63 and retired last year. When I hit 60, I sold 90 percent of my collection. I have 10 really nice pieces that I kept to enjoy, without the thought of selling. We never know when our day will come, and I don’t want to burden my wife with my collection to deal with. I’ve enjoyed 40+ years of collecting. I used the money for upgrades on our home. Never regretted it! I still dabble a bit, but nothing too much.

[Wihawk]

Happy Birthday Michael!

I'm 63 and continue to purchase though less expensive items than I used to buy. I've trained myself to being more content with lesser grade cards and not so focused on star players, it helps satisfy my collecting urge.

[tlake22]

I can tell you 1st hand as a coin dealer after someone passes, the heirs just want to be rid of that stuff. I sold off my autograph collection 3 years ago. I'm 57 now. Not to offend anyone here, but noone in your family wants your cards. Sell it now and spend the money on them building memories.

[Smarti5051]

What?!? I assumed I just had to outlive everyone, and there would be a flood of vintage cards on the market so I can complete my collecting goals. If everybody sells while they are alive, how is the vintage market supposed to crater over the next 20 years?

[SyrNy1960]

Originally Posted by tlake22

I can tell you 1st hand as a coin dealer after someone passes, the heirs just want to be rid of that stuff. I sold off my autograph collection 3 years ago. I'm 57 now. Not to offend anyone here, but noone in your family wants your cards. Sell it now and spend the money on them building memories.

Couldn't agree more! That's the mindset I had when I sold. However, we all look at things in our own way. Many collectors die with their collection, and I'm sure they were happy doing so to the end.

[Bcwcardz]

Originally Posted by tlake22

I can tell you 1st hand as a coin dealer after someone passes, the heirs just want to be rid of that stuff. I sold off my autograph collection 3 years ago. I'm 57 now. Not to offend anyone here, but noone in your family wants your cards. Sell it now and spend the money on them building memories.

This is actually good advice. I know there is that “ I’ll never sell!!” crowd but you can’t take it with you. I’m slowly liquidating certain parts of my collection since I turned 50. It’s true that family wants nothing to do but get rid of it after you die. I have enough sets to keep me busy.


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[homerunhitter]

First off and most important Happy Birthday!!!

I have found that by selling some items on ebay that what we "paid" for an item and what it is "truly worth" is most often times not even close! what I mean by this is selling on ebay humbled me to what "I thought" my cards were worth and what they were "actually" worth (the old saying that an item is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it) most times pennies on the dollar!

This got me to think, why not just sell everything now and enjoy the money now and let some other sucker take a loss on it in the future!

[Deertick]

I 'retired' from a corporate job in 2019. Working as an I/C for 6 years now. Still a few years away from SS.
I am in the same boat as many, no one has any real interest in maintaining my stuff. I have sold pieces for quick cash infusion several times over the years. I feel better about it because the sales were directly attributed to something, like I could say "I sold a few balls, photos, and autographs to pay for that roof". When faced with something less tangible, I have a much harder time. "Insurance is due" has not caused a major sale....yet.

I am facing a surgery that will put me out of commission for nearly 3 months, so the harder choices may be coming. I am prepping for that nightmare now, getting my space set up that I could do sales more easily in my condition, lining up items, help packing/mailing, etc. I also have a list of all my contacts, websites, usernames and passwords stowed away.

Part of the prep is cataloguing and setting out instructions for how to dispose of what, where, and how much in a manner that my wife would have an easier path. Doing it earlier than (hopefully) necessary may relieve some anxiety and maximize it's value.

I could just take commishbobs approach and clear it out at a discount and be done with it. There definitely is a positive time/value/hassle component to that that may offset some of the valuation loss.

That said, I envision keeping certain pieces, and once the process is at a manageable level, narrowly refocusing. Old collectors never stop collecting, it is just the cubic footage should get smaller.

[BuzzD]

I am 76 on Friday and still whacking away at getting a card, original photo and/or autograph of everyone who has played for the Yankees. I have no idea how to quit or sell - major avoidance I guess. After 40 yrs of chasing, I may have the most complete effort at this, but never paid much attention to high end Yankee stuff, so may be be hard to sell even with many rare items.

[cubman1941]

I am 81 soon to be 82. I know my wife could care less about my collection, not only my Cubs and Bears stuff and the other baseball and football stuff I have collected over the years but I still look for vintage stuff (and some non-vintage Cubs stuff). I also know she could care less about my A&W Root Beer mug collection, Mighty Mouse collection and other things but I hang on to this stuff for no reason other than it gives me pleasure to look at it and enjoy the memories of where (when I can remember) I got it. What I have done is to send the collection of stuff I have acquired over the years of the small town in Wisconsin I grew up in to a business owner in that town who is going to add it to his display of memorabilia he has for local people to enjoy. I also have acquired a small batch of stuff from the city I currently live in and am going to give that to the local archives. As for my collection of sports stuff, I have contacted a member of this site and he has agreed to put it all in his auctions when the time comes. I find the pleasure of looking at, finding and acquiring new Cubs stuff far out ways the dollars I would get by selling it all now. I don't need the money so why not continue to get pleasure out of life.

[rand1com]

Unless you have a collection that is worth a lot of money(half a million or more in real value), I would just keep collecting.

However, I would have a way for your loved ones to liquidate the collection upon your death that is pre-planned.

Obviously, high end stuff should go to major auction houses to be sold. Just leave a list of who they should use with contact information.

The problem is that most collectors have a lot of lesser items that have significant cumulative value but is not material for auction houses. This stuff normally just gets given away for a pittance of the true value. You should have a wholesale dealer who buys collections like this and pays a fair price knowing that they have to make money on it and leave that contact for your family.

Most senior collectors still enjoy their collections.

Unless the amount of value would truly change your loved ones lives for the future, I say enjoy it to the grave.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Not a senior here, but I've always seen it this way:

If you still enjoy collecting, you shouldn't stop regardless of age! It is one of the things that likely brings you great joy and fascination. It engages your mind and excites your being. These positive characteristics tend to extend one's life, do they not? You're not dead yet, so why deprive yourself? Chances are that you're leaving many more assets to your loved ones besides the value of your collection, so it's OK to be a bit "selfish" (you're really not being selfish!) and collect away!

As others have noted, it's always good to have a list of trusted people at the ready for your family when the inevitable moment comes, and it's very helpful to catalogue everything, complete with accompanying photos. This is very time consuming, but you'll do it or pay someone else to do it if you're concerned about your family.

If your collection is sizeable, make sure that most of it is always in a state of being easily transported. One thing that I do see as being selfish are collectors who have entire properties crammed full with their stuff, including outbuildings. We see this all the time on the reality TV shows. Leaving your loved ones to contend with acres of your crap is the ultimate act of selfishness. As we've seen, and much to tlake's earlier point, the kids and wives rarely care about anything other than getting rid of the stuff and seeing a pile of cash. Thankfully, cards and autographs tend to take up much less room than what we see on these shows, but be kind to your families and at least make your collections easy to move when the time comes. Other than these points, my advice is collect till you drop!

[Hankphenom]

1) 77 years old, still love hunting for and then looking at and handling my stuff. Why should I cut my love for the hobby short just because I'm getting closer to the end?
2) Over my lifetime, when I needed money I had no trouble selling stuff. When I had money, I loved to buy stuff. If I need money to age more comfortably, I will have no trouble selling stuff.
3) My heirs will have to deal with a bunch of stuff they can turn into cash fairly easily. I wish I had had that problem to deal with when I was their age. I would have jumped into that challenge with a big smile on my face. If I find the time, I will write some stuff down to make that process easier for them, but I'm not sweating it if I don't. They're smart, and will do just fine.
4) Everyone's situation is different. Live long, prosper, and happy collecting (or not!)

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

1) 77 years old, still love hunting for and then looking at and handling my stuff. Why should I cut my love for the hobby short just because I'm getting closer to the end?
2) Over my lifetime, when I needed money I had no trouble selling stuff. When I had money, I loved to buy stuff. If I need money to age more comfortably, I will have no trouble selling stuff.
3) My heirs will have to deal with a bunch of stuff they can turn into cash fairly easily. I wish I had had that problem to deal with when I was their age. I would have jumped into that challenge with a big smile on my face. If I find the time, I will write some stuff down to make that process easier for them, but I'm not sweating it if I don't. They're smart, and will do just fine.
4) Everyone's situation is different. Live long, prosper, and happy collecting (or not!)

These are the sorts of things I would love to hear from everybody whose age qualifies them as fitting in this category. I hate to see passion and enthusiasm taper off, die, or be tossed aside just to make sure family members get even more money than they might if forced to do some selling on their own (with the aforementioned guidance provided before the person passed). This applies to anything that brings a person joy, is generally rooted in goodness and causes no harm to others.

[steve B]

Almost 60, like a couple weeks almost.

I'm still collecting, and have collected lots of different stuff over the years starting when I was probably around 5.
My kids are getting old enough at 13 and 11 that I'm getting a good idea of their interests. Neither seems to be all that into collecting anything.

So I'm gradually starting to figure out what should go and what should go later or not at all. One project is writing up the better stuff so they can know at least what it is. Plus the things that were special to me that I hope they want because of that.

It's not at all easy for a lot of stuff.

[gonefishin]

Jim here, 71, I've been collecting just about my entire life. Much more over the last 15 - 20 years.

Thankfully I have a daughter that enjoys cards and collecting. Although she lives on the East Coast and me on the West Coast, we still facetime a couple of times a week and discuss cards, do listings on ebay, and interact. Several years ago I shipped and delivered all my collection from 1970 - current, and I kept the 69 and earlier, which I continue to upgrade and work on completing the sets. When I'm gone she will inherit all of the collection which she can do with as she pleases and I don't worry about it. She knows the approximate value of most the cards and is savvy enough not to be taken advantage of.

Collecting keeps me busy in my retirement while my wife works on crafts, etc. When the joy and passion are gone, so will be my sports collection.

[mrmopar]

I have wondered about that myself and how it might go down. Someone like Kit Young, who travels and buys (of course, pretty sure he is older than me...but he is running a business and I am not). I wonder how often he looks at stuff and the seller and he just can't come up with an agreeable price. Time is money and wouldn't want to waste time, but also not wanting to blowout my collection just to take the easy route either.

I would say my collection is sizable, but not hoarder show worthy. I stopped buying wax in the late 90s and have focused my buying on things I like ever since, mostly targeted ebay buying. Got rid of some bulk, but added some back through some shop/local market bulk buys for the fun of going through it, not expecting anything too valuable. I like odd stuff, so I have a variety of small sets, and non-standard Topps stuff. I focused on Dodgers and certain players I liked or sets. Have a decent bit of vintage and a few high demand cards, but missing a lot of keys too. Lots of autographs, mostly cards, 3x5s and other flats.

I would absolutely love to weed through a collection like mine, but not sure how deep a buyer like you describe would go and it would take some real time to really dig in and get a good idea of what treasures were contained within.

How big was your collection? How much time did the buyer spend and how deep did they dive? I could see a scenario play out where a typical card shop type guy flips open a few 5K boxes, pulls out a few stacks randomly and that is their assessment.

Originally Posted by commishbob

I'm 70. I contemplated selling off my collection for a few years. I knew my wife and kids would have no idea where to begin if I left them this stuff but I was dreading the process. I pictured selling sets one-by-one, weeks of scanning, and quibbling over price/condition and it didn't seem like fun negotiating a couple dozen or so vintage set sales.

A few months ago I received a 'We're buying' flyer in the mail from a well-known dealer so I called and when their buyers came through Texas last month they visited my place, looked at what I had, and made a cash offer that I accepted. I know I left money on the table doing it that way but avoiding the hassle of multiple drawn-out sales, shipping, Pay Pay fees, and potential scam buyers made it worthwhile. Everyone's milage will vary of course.

I kept some things that had more meaning to me than value, my Baltimore Colts card collection, TCMA sets, non-sports sets from the 60s, and a few others. I also kept one project to work on to keep my fingers in the collecting aspect of the hobby... my 1975 Topps mini set is about 60% done and it contains cards that members here very generously contributed without asking for anything in return. I figure it will be the perfect 'post-collecting' project.

Because every thread needs a card:

[rjackson44]

ill collect till i die my mom collects art, antiques,my sister vintage basketball and hockey ,,im ok with that ...

[JCRedbird]

Bought packs of baseball cards since I was a kid and fortunately kept what I had. Nearly 70 now and have been collecting in earnest for over 50 years. Man has the hobby changed! I remember when finding a card you didn't have was more important than finding a star card, especially for the really old stuff. I never thought I'd sell but now I've got to admit, I'm thinking about it. Got some dishes my mom collected and they are in a box in the garage...where they've been for 20 years. Got a coin collection my dad had. Been in a tub for 10 years. I think my cards may have the same destiny. I've got a pretty extensive collection with complete sets back into the 50's and several notebooks of vintage cards. I've loved the chase and I've loved learning about the cards--who produced them and for what reason and the nuances of each set (why do some sets not have certain numbers, etc). But now I'm trying to decide if the financial comfort that a sale would give me outweighs pulling a notebook off the shelf and reliving "the good ole days". Any opinions on who to deal with if I opt to sell? Some I've looked at are Deans, Baseball Card Market, American Legends, Greg Morris, etc.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Morris has a great reputation. It sounds like you have a lot of mainstream cards from a certain vintage that Greg & Co. do well with. As many past and present consignors have noted on this site, some cards may fetch little lower than expected, while others have wonderfully pleasant, surprising outcomes. This is funny to me whenever I read it, as it seems like nearly everything I bid on with them goes higher than I anticipated! This is a great thing to hear for a potential consignor!

[rand1com]

If you have complete sets from the 50's/60's I would consign them to a major auction house such as REA, Heritage, Hunt, Leland's, or many other reputable ones.

They will determine which, if any, cards should be graded to cause the sets to bring more money or if they are lower grade they will just sell them as is.

Same with major rookies/stars from that era.

Breaking the sets to sell raw on Ebay through a third party would really only work through Greg Morris in my opinion and they do bring good money but complete sets make more sense to sell as such in my opinion.

Good luck with the sale.

[bbcard1]

I'm 62 and in good health. I do advertising consulting. My plan is to work until I am 66 and then turn my attention to slowly selling off my collection over the next then years or so. I have a "hit by a bus" plan, but i think I would enjoy selling off my collection and making sure it finds good homes, keeping perhaps ten good value cards, perhaps my sets from the 70s and my Marshall University players collection.

[Chicosbailbonds]

I have thought about this a lot in the last year. I just turned 59, and have been a caretaker for years. My mother recently passed from Alzheimer's, and having to deal with Medicaid really sucks. I would hate to lose my collection so a nursing home gets theirs.

[keithsky]

I'm 67 and I have thought about this year trying to get rid of some of my items. My main focus was the 59 white sox and 55 Brooklyn dodger stuff and I'm leaning more towards keeping the white sox items and getting rid of the Brooklyn items. Like what everybody else said just not to burden your spouse at a later time. I have even thought of just keeping a dozen high end items that maybe would fill one wall and I would be happy also with that. Been collecting for over 50 years so at some point it's time to let items go just. Wish the tax law wouldn't have changed for what it's gonna be this year compared to last year.

[Exhibitman]

I've already started the process of whacking the weeds in my card garden, but the plan as of now is to have an active picking and selling business after I stop practicing law, hoping to generate some modest cash flow, stay engaged doing something I love, and have fun. Some things that I think are really strong long term investments I will keep then let my daughter liquidate them after I pass away and she gets a stepped up basis for tax purposes. Probably most of my Ruth, Gehrig, Robinson, etc. I don't see a real downside to holding those. Plus, they are fun.

Thread needs another card

[gonefishin]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I've already started the process of whacking the weeds in my card garden, but the plan as of now is to have an active picking and selling business after I stop practicing law, hoping to generate some modest cash flow, stay engaged doing something I love, and have fun. Some things that I think are really strong long term investments I will keep then let my daughter liquidate them after I pass away and she gets a stepped up basis for tax purposes. Probably most of my Ruth, Gehrig, Robinson, etc. I don't see a real downside to holding those. Plus, they are fun.

Thread needs another card

Since I have already posted my plans and Adam said it needs another card, I thought I might add a few card pictures just to spice this great thread up. I have really enjoyed reading all the other "Seniors" thoughts and plans. Here are just a couple that I haven't transferred to my daughter.

[commishbob]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I've already started the process of whacking the weeds in my card garden, but the plan as of now is to have an active picking and selling business after I stop practicing law, hoping to generate some modest cash flow, stay engaged doing something I love, and have fun. Some things that I think are really strong long term investments I will keep then let my daughter liquidate them after I pass away and she gets a stepped up basis for tax purposes. Probably most of my Ruth, Gehrig, Robinson, etc. I don't see a real downside to holding those. Plus, they are fun.

Thread needs another card

And there ya go trying to drag me back in by posting this terrific Minoso.

[homerunhitter]

Awesome!

[Exhibitman]

FWIW, I just sold a bunch of stuff in REA's Encore auction. Their team is top-flight to work with as a consignor and they handled everything as efficiently as I could imagine. If you have slabbed stuff, the time between them taking the items and sale could be as short as a month or two.