[djohn]

Honestly, I'd just pitch (or donate) all of the 1980s cards.

I always cringe when I see people saying this, not because MOST 1980s cards are worthless, but because there are a number of cards from the 1980s worth keeping. There are plenty of rookies from the 80s worth a good amount: Rickey Henderson, Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Ryne Sandberg, Don Mattingly, Kirby Puckett, Roger Clemens, all the way to Ken Griffey Jr. Not only that, but there are some valuable error and variation cards: 1982 Fleer John Littlefield, 1983 Donruss Ron Jackson, all the way to 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken and Jeff Treadway. Plus there are some HOFer base cards that are worth $5-$10 each. Then you get the oddball sets, that some people don't know much about but can be worth a lot to player collectors that are looking for them.
Familiarize yourself with what cards are valuable from different years and it will be much easier.

[uvaspina]

I always cringe when I see people saying this, not because MOST 1980s cards are worthless, but because there are a number of cards from the 1980s worth keeping. There are plenty of rookies from the 80s worth a good amount: Rickey Henderson, Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Ryne Sandberg, Don Mattingly, Kirby Puckett, Roger Clemens, all the way to Ken Griffey Jr. Not only that, but there are some valuable error and variation cards: 1982 Fleer John Littlefield, 1983 Donruss Ron Jackson, all the way to 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken and Jeff Treadway. Plus there are some HOFer base cards that are worth $5-$10 each. Then you get the oddball sets, that some people don't know much about but can be worth a lot to player collectors that are looking for them.
Familiarize yourself with what cards are valuable from different years and it will be much easier.

I understand your point, but considering theres over 100k cards, the time involved, and the fact that the vast, vast majority of ungraded base goes for next to nothing, I stand by my comment. Unless you value your time at almost-zero--or if you love sorting base--I can't in good conscience recommend that someone invest dozens (or even 100+) hours to this project.

[zeprock]

This thread got me thinking.

I thought my collection was a decent size, but it is less than 5% of the 250k in the collection that the topic creator mentioned.

I can't even fathom what 250,000 cards would look like.

250,000 cards looks something like this.



On the other wall is another amount of boxes that takes the collection up closer to 350,000.

[hempick]

Holy moly

[djohn]

250,000 cards looks something like this.
On the other wall is another amount of boxes that takes the collection up closer to 350,000.

If that's 250,000, then I must have close to a million cards. Middle of last year I bought a collection of 20 5-row monster boxes, and my own collection is closing in on 100 of the 3-row monster boxes, plus a ton of other random sized boxes, binders, and unopened boxes/cases.

---

I understand your point, but considering theres over 100k cards, the time involved, and the fact that the vast, vast majority of ungraded base goes for next to nothing, I stand by my comment. Unless you value your time at almost-zero--or if you love sorting base--I can't in good conscience recommend that someone invest dozens (or even 100+) hours to this project.

I think you are overestimating the time it will take. I am not saying that he needs to sort and organize all of the 80s cards, but going through and pulling the key cards won't take that much time. Last year I bought a collection of 20 5-row monster boxes that were full (around 100,000 cards). It only took me 2 evenings (after work) to go through them and pull out any card that I knew was worth $5 or more, along with any cards I needed for sets or players I collect. Now, I may have missed some cards, but I also ended up accidentally pulling some cards that were only worth $1-$2 (simply because I pulled them because they were cool looking inserts that I wasn't familiar with, and they turned out to be lower value than I expected).
I don't value my time as $0, but I also don't look at the cards as being worthless either, and I enjoyed going through them. That being said, for sake of argument lets say that over 1/3 of the cards he got are from the 80s. Make it an even 100,000 to make the math simple. Now if these are in 5,000 count monster boxes it may take you about an hour to go through each box (that's fairly conservative). It would take you 20 hours to go through them all. Now let's say 1% of them were cards worth $1 or more, and to make it better let's say only 10% of that 1% were cards worth $5 or more. So only 0.1% of the 100,000 cards are worth $5 or more. Well at $5 per card, that comes out to $500. So you get $500 worth of cards for spending 20 hours, or about $25/hour. Now let's say that 10% of the 0.1% were cards that booked for $20 or more. That would be another $200, or up to $35/hour.
I am not sure what your time is worth when you sort cards, but if somebody was paying me $35/hour to sort through cards I would easily take it, especially if that was just a thing to do on the side in my "free" time.

[bengalsandreds]

250,000 cards looks something like this.



On the other wall is another amount of boxes that takes the collection up closer to 350,000.

I'm using this picture the next time my wife complains that I have too many cards. She could use a little perspective.

[hempick]

I'm using this picture the next time my wife complains that I have too many cards. She could use a little perspective.

XD

[uvaspina]

If that's 250,000, then I must have close to a million cards. Middle of last year I bought a collection of 20 5-row monster boxes, and my own collection is closing in on 100 of the 3-row monster boxes, plus a ton of other random sized boxes, binders, and unopened boxes/cases.

---

I think you are overestimating the time it will take. I am not saying that he needs to sort and organize all of the 80s cards, but going through and pulling the key cards won't take that much time. Last year I bought a collection of 20 5-row monster boxes that were full (around 100,000 cards). It only took me 2 evenings (after work) to go through them and pull out any card that I knew was worth $5 or more, along with any cards I needed for sets or players I collect. Now, I may have missed some cards, but I also ended up accidentally pulling some cards that were only worth $1-$2 (simply because I pulled them because they were cool looking inserts that I wasn't familiar with, and they turned out to be lower value than I expected).
I don't value my time as $0, but I also don't look at the cards as being worthless either, and I enjoyed going through them. That being said, for sake of argument lets say that over 1/3 of the cards he got are from the 80s. Make it an even 100,000 to make the math simple. Now if these are in 5,000 count monster boxes it may take you about an hour to go through each box (that's fairly conservative). It would take you 20 hours to go through them all. Now let's say 1% of them were cards worth $1 or more, and to make it better let's say only 10% of that 1% were cards worth $5 or more. So only 0.1% of the 100,000 cards are worth $5 or more. Well at $5 per card, that comes out to $500. So you get $500 worth of cards for spending 20 hours, or about $25/hour. Now let's say that 10% of the 0.1% were cards that booked for $20 or more. That would be another $200, or up to $35/hour.
I am not sure what your time is worth when you sort cards, but if somebody was paying me $35/hour to sort through cards I would easily take it, especially if that was just a thing to do on the side in my "free" time.

Good points, all of them