Possible Large collection purchase (How to Approach)

[Ironheart]

I have a lead on a potential large collection that is up for sale. It has supposedly never been picked through and is untouched. Close to 600,000+ cards

The seller claims that is all came from Ontario from his grandfathers coin and collectible shop. It is primarily hockey, baseball and all other sports. Supposedly there is dealer special release autographs, promo items and high demand rookies (his words) not my interpretations of what he claims. Years is ranging from the 1960's up until 2007-2008. He is asking $8000 but says no reasonable offer would be refused. The stacks are roughly 11 high and 4 wide and supposedly the stacks are 2 or 3 deep

My interpretation, is there may some valuable rookie and vintage cards are possibly there, however he may basing it off of sheer volume at roughly $100 a box if there is 88 of them.

Would any of you personally take on this amount of cards or would this be a very quick pass. I would have a place to put them, but the amount is shocking to break them down for resale and just keep the good stuff. I'll be seeing it on the weekend and probably taking 2-3 hours to look through it all.

How do you approach a collection like this and making an offer.
Thanks in advance.

[whitehse]

I used to own a card shop and just sold the remaining inventory much like this stuff. I advertised mine as having no high dollar cards in it but I knew there were many stars and other decent items in there but used caution that it was unlikely they would find anything over $20 bucks. I heard from several buyers and despite the fact there were likely no big hits in the bunch, most still wanted to buy them. I decided on a buyer who said he would give me my asking price AND get them out of there that day. I was asking $500 bucks for about 250K of cards and we finally decided on $400 and he took them all off my hands which honestly, was really all I wanted. I just wanted them gone.

Likely this guy just wants them gone too and if you really want them offer him a grand and tell them they will be out of his sight that day. I bet he takes it. I certainly wouldn't pay much more than that even if he did allow you to go through a few boxes.

[Ironheart]

When he said the price of $8000 I had to give my head a shake, but I was still interested in seeing what's potentially there. I am under the impression that it is probably 90% 88 to 97 OPC, Pro Set Topps and UD hockey, which is basically landfill in the hockey world. To educate that to a non card collector is very tough and if the story of it all being his grandfather's is true.. would be even tougher. I wouldnt touch it for more than 500 if I wasnt allowed to go through some of all of the boxes.

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by Ironheart

When he said the price of $8000 I had to give my head a shake, but I was still interested in seeing what's potentially there. I am under the impression that it is probably 90% 88 to 97 OPC, Pro Set Topps and UD hockey, which is basically landfill in the hockey world. To educate that to a non card collector is very tough and if the story of it all being his grandfather's is true.. would be even tougher. I wouldnt touch it for more than 500 if I wasnt allowed to go through some of all of the boxes.

if its too good to be true..it is.

[conor912]

I’ve bought a couple collections like this in the past and ended up paying about $1/1000 cards. As mentioned, talk up the space you’ll be freeing up and that they’ll be gone that day. If there was anything really good in there, grandpa would have made sure sonny boy knew about it. I would personally draw a hard line at $1000 and even that feels steep. If he refuses, walk away knowing you didn’t over pay for nearly one ton of garbage.

[1952boyntoncollector]

How did it go?

[Exhibitman]

Go through a selection of the boxes and then be blunt and candid in your assessment. Last deal I got into like this was only about 30,000 cards but 80% of them were of the early 1990s landfill variety. I valued those at nothing and told the seller so. He ended up taking $100 for the lot. I probably made $200 net on the lot when all was said and done. And I was right: I literally could not sell the bulk to anyone, even in a garage sale. I even offered them to my LCS owner for free on another deal and he said no, that he already had a trailer of the stuff. I ended up recycling them. If it looks like that, don't hesitate to accord zero value to a large % of them.

And yeah, it will take you many, many hours go through it all.

[jbsports33]

Try and get a percentage for just the vintage if you can. Then you will have a easy time making a point on how much real value there is - good luck!

Jimmy