Hello all, new user here. I'm thinking of liquidating my baseball card collection, a couple thousand cards collected mainly in the early 1970's when I was a child.
I've Googled for selling strategies but cannot find answers to some of my most important questions, so I was hoping members here could point me to some resources.
What (I think) I've learned so far is that condition is EVERYTHING when determining a price, and this requires appraisals from experts like Beckett, PSA, etc. For dozens of my cards, I see highly graded versions selling on eBay for between $50 and $200. Though I'm not an expert, my cards look very good to me. Obviously it's worth the risk of spending $10 or more to get these cards appraised -- I can sell them and still get my money back if graded decently.
But what about the common player cards? For example, my 1972 common cards list everywhere for about $1.50 - $5.00. It's not economical to have these graded. There's no way I can make that money back.
So, having said all that, what would be the best way to sell the common cards. Would anyone even be interested if they weren't graded?
Last but not least, I see varying opinions on which of the 3 major services is best to use. PSA seems to bring in the highest prices, but their fee of $17/card (plus a $100 membership) seems exorbitant. Beckett seems to offer a better deal, but is Beckett considered as reputable as PSA?
I've written a lot here, and thank anybody who's made it all the way to the end. I realize this question has probably be asked countless times, but I'm just not finding the answers I'm looking for.
I've Googled for selling strategies but cannot find answers to some of my most important questions, so I was hoping members here could point me to some resources.
What (I think) I've learned so far is that condition is EVERYTHING when determining a price, and this requires appraisals from experts like Beckett, PSA, etc. For dozens of my cards, I see highly graded versions selling on eBay for between $50 and $200. Though I'm not an expert, my cards look very good to me. Obviously it's worth the risk of spending $10 or more to get these cards appraised -- I can sell them and still get my money back if graded decently.
But what about the common player cards? For example, my 1972 common cards list everywhere for about $1.50 - $5.00. It's not economical to have these graded. There's no way I can make that money back.
So, having said all that, what would be the best way to sell the common cards. Would anyone even be interested if they weren't graded?
Last but not least, I see varying opinions on which of the 3 major services is best to use. PSA seems to bring in the highest prices, but their fee of $17/card (plus a $100 membership) seems exorbitant. Beckett seems to offer a better deal, but is Beckett considered as reputable as PSA?
I've written a lot here, and thank anybody who's made it all the way to the end. I realize this question has probably be asked countless times, but I'm just not finding the answers I'm looking for.