Ok so I just turned 60 and retired from the business I owned for the past 30+ years. Actually I sold the business. My hobby going back to the late 60's has always been baseball, playing and collecting cards. In the mid to late 70's just about the time when sporting news began the card shows, i was also fortunate enough to hook up with an attorney friend and become a dealer at the shows continuing through the 80's and not just sporting news, all the shows in and around the New York Tri State area. Hey, remember the shows at Hofstra? How about the shows at the Veterans halls? Or Albany? Yes, I was there. Best memories was actually meeting the mick A the NYC show. Does anyone remember up at the Albany Show even when he left early, wasn't feeling good sadly. We had heard later on he flew home to Texas that's how sick he was. Besides all that, I'll never forget the first time I saw mickey at the stadium in 1962, again many times up until his retirement and at a few old timer's games. I'll tell you more later!
To make a long story short.. and as a dealer..and huge fan of the mick, what did I do as a collector of the mick? I have every card every year, including his sub set cards. I did it because of who he was to me not for anything else. Now I see the values of all his cards I have and well, time to get them all graded. You must also know that all my mickey cards are pristine! Nine's and tens....mostly tens in my expert opinion. If I had a mickey card and found one better, I bought and sold them back then. As a dealer, a lot of the other dealers got to know me and would lend a hand finding or helping me to find the best of the best, they did! A few anyway and I thank them for it. I told Mickey at the PG Hotel show in NYC I was collecting his cards, most graciously he chuckled, shook my hand, thanked me for being a fan.
So with all that said, what do I do when the time comes to sell his cards?
Break them up and sell them individually at the auctions? Or try to sell them all as a complete set? Oh and another thing, his cards are kept safely in a bank vault and hardly anyone knows what I have as not to have my home invaded by some a holes thinking I keep them in my home. To further some of the other cards in my collection, you name the top players of the 50's & 60's I have their rookie card as well..9 & 10's.
To make a long story short.. and as a dealer..and huge fan of the mick, what did I do as a collector of the mick? I have every card every year, including his sub set cards. I did it because of who he was to me not for anything else. Now I see the values of all his cards I have and well, time to get them all graded. You must also know that all my mickey cards are pristine! Nine's and tens....mostly tens in my expert opinion. If I had a mickey card and found one better, I bought and sold them back then. As a dealer, a lot of the other dealers got to know me and would lend a hand finding or helping me to find the best of the best, they did! A few anyway and I thank them for it. I told Mickey at the PG Hotel show in NYC I was collecting his cards, most graciously he chuckled, shook my hand, thanked me for being a fan.
So with all that said, what do I do when the time comes to sell his cards?
Break them up and sell them individually at the auctions? Or try to sell them all as a complete set? Oh and another thing, his cards are kept safely in a bank vault and hardly anyone knows what I have as not to have my home invaded by some a holes thinking I keep them in my home. To further some of the other cards in my collection, you name the top players of the 50's & 60's I have their rookie card as well..9 & 10's.