How to sell comics & sports cards?

[tain]

I collected various comic books and sports cards when I was younger. Now I have a couple of boxes of these collectibles but I don't know what they might be worth, if anything. What is the best way to sell a collection of unorganized collectibles when you don't know if any of it is valuable? I'm too lazy to go through it all and determine if anything is valuable. I just want an easy way to get rid of it all and perhaps get some cash for it.

My ideas so far:

1. Take it all to an eBay consignment store. They go through all your stuff for you and auction it all off for a fee.

2. Take it all to a comic book store and ask them to buy it.

Both of the above methods are highly susceptible to dishonest businessmen. The eBay option seems better to me since the business has an interest is getting you a high price for your stuff since they get a commission. That should work well as long as they don't just steal the good stuff

What other options are there?

[Glenn9999]

I recently did what you are talking about with the sports cards and can help you.

What general time frame are the cards from? Let me know that, then I can suggest something from there.

[tain]

The cards are mostly pro football with some other sports mixed in. Nearly all are from 1990-1995. The comics are mostly older than that. Perhaps 1985-1990.

Thanks for your help!

[Glenn9999]

The cards are mostly pro football with some other sports mixed in. Nearly all are from 1990-1995.

I don't know anything about the comic books, but I'll give some ideas on the sports cards.

The major problem with most of the newer era cards was an over-supply compared to the demand. There was a time when people really held onto them and thought they get valuable with time. The problem is everyone was doing that, so given the laws of supply and demand, what is the worth of something that everyone has? Absolutely nothing.

Then there just wasn't any interest in baseball cards (the major sports card market) from about 1988 on because of all the strike mess followed by the steroid mess. That tends to translate to interest in other sports cards as well. In fact, the lack of interest has gotten to the point that there are very few literal sports cards shops out there anymore. They either moved to selling things like used CDs, movies, game systems, games, and so on, or folded up shop.

So what is valuable? Most active sports cards traders these days are going to tend to deal in vintage things (pre-1980), or in major names that everyone knows if past that era. As always, rookie cards are better, when it comes to major names. Sometime in the mid 90's, though, the card manufacturers tightened down on their over-supply problem (MLB limited their licensing to two or three companies, and I'm sure the NFL is doing something similar). They did this by increasing the price per pack and decreasing the number of cards per pack, so you might find a little more generic value if that's how your cards came (they're generally more glossier with gold/silver foil lettering and thicker card stock, too, so that is a good cue to look for).

Given that background, the key things I'd look for in your set if I'd suggest anything with regards to people that are in the general trading market:

1) Condition is a big thing to people. For this era (1990-1995), if they're not absolutely pristine, not many people will want them and they will be very hard to sell at all. To that end, you'll be asked that question most times when you try to get rid of them.

2) Again, the big names (think stars that everyone knows, for example Peyton Manning) are what people will generally look for, more than just cards in general. In your local area, you might get a bump in interest for cards from the locally followed team(s).

3) Most buyers will be lazy/averse to go through them as well. Besides, you'll have difficulty proving any value for a random set and will likely take a hit in possible value if you sell the set as-is. People want to recoup some cost for their time in going through the set. For example, I have in my remaining baseball card pile a complete set of cards (132 total) that is worth as much as 3 of the cards in that set are if they were to be sold individually. The seller has to give the buyer what he wants before he buys.

4) I don't know how many cards you have total, but generally it will be of benefit for you monetarily to go through them when it comes time to trying to sell them. The consignment shop will probably charge you labor for sorting them out (my guess is much more than you will probably want to pay, given the potential return (see #3), but you can always check), and again you don't know for sure if they'll pocket something, etc, etc. It's a lot of work and annoying, trust me I know, but will be worth it in the long run to say "How much for the Peyton Manning?" and hear a higher dollar figure than having someone say "Okay 2 cents a card", or "$5 for the box." which is possible too.

5) If you need guidance on who the famous names are (if you don't know the represented sports well enough), there are pricing guides that get sold in places that generally cater to magazines that you can always sneak a peek at if you know what kind of card (brand/year) you are looking for.

6) If you're not willing to go to that much trouble, you can always see if you can find someone not as knowledgable and see what they'll take for them (you won't find those types on e-bay generally, that's where most of the genuine sports card traders hang out now), put them out at a garage sale or flea market (I've seen that a few times), or give them away so some kid will get them somehow.

I'll share my experiences in getting rid of mine, if they might help:

I had three crates full of baseball cards from about 1985 to 1992. I ended up going through them, and sorting out the major names (Roger Clemens, Cal Ripken, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, etc) to another box and left the rest in the boxes. I don't have the resources at my disposal yet to make an attempt to get rid of those yet. From calling around, I found out that most of the sports card shops tended to give away the non-major named cards (or common cards) they had for free, and would refuse to take the ones I had for any price (meaning they were wanting rid of those cards they were giving away and not being generous). Which meant I'd likely have to pay someone to take them. Not good. So I ended up destroying about 9500 common cards, and keeping roughly 200 of them to try and sell later.

Hope this helped some, though I know most of this won't sound like good news.

[Tripredacus]

Generally speaking, Ebay is your best bet. Card stores aren't going to pay you big money on cards unless they are really old or in real high demand. It doesn't seem like your cards are. It might be different in your area, but the best I can get on trade ins (for credit and not cash) that I have found are a dime per 1,000. This figures in my last trade in I did a few years ago where I traded in 36,000 cards for $40.

The problem is that card stores have problems GIVING cards away from that era because they are EVERYWHERE. You could get away with possibly making more on Ebay but don't get your hopes up too much I guess.

[Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa]

I will help out building a store website with you if your willing to help me out build mine and get a domain name. I am planing to go into same business but I have no money to start with so I am gathering materials slowly.

COMICS

Generally comics value goes up and down over time. You need to know whcih ones are going to sell and not or else your going to be holding on to trash.

The best way is to go by WHAT YOU KNOW and WHY it will sell. ALONG WITH DO OTHER PEOPLE BESIDES YOU LIKE THIS COMIC BOOK. remember you can't hate something you invest in.

You need to know how to handle comicbooks. IN most cases comic books should be handled with gloves even if you feel it is sdafe enough to hold with your bare hands. Exposed comics needs to be put in there special plastics. boards is an option since some boards might cause damae to comics. I forget if the board should be on the glossy side or roguh side also. You need to replace boards every now and again.

CARDS

You need a special license to officially deal cards but you can sell cards freely....I still don't know how that works.

Cards should be placed in a protective card book. Conisder cards to be like stamps but you can't mail them they represent a type of currency.

...........

Lastly you need to know what is hot and what is not. People will ask you if you have this or that. For a website you need to create a LEXICON SEARCH that is basically that little search that goes threw your webpage and brings up options.

You have to keep up with the times even if you dislike them. Like I hate the new Oiga systems ( 360/Wii/PS3 ) but as a seller I would have to promote them. Like "shadowrun 360" is a complete pile of s*** no matter which you can think of it but to a seller I have to say Shadowrun is back and brans spanking new.

It is like my father who brought his first computer from a Chinese guy saying " This is military equipment I will sell you for top dollar" and he spend thousands and thousands of dollars for something that is now outdated even by SNES.

All business have not so nice practices at first. You have to understand this apart of all business ventures.

Ebay is nice but you have to spend money on Ebay to make money. You can use ebay as a front to promote your sales.

Edited December 21, 2007 by Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa

[Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa]

Yes you could allways make a trade list and advertise it and hope somebody clicks on it. Then there is the webiste setup.

[fishman360]

Trade them online with others or just sell them on ebay.