Need some help with baseball cards

[bishop]

I have a binder full of baseball and football cards from late 80's and early 90's, and I'd like to sell them. Problem is, I have no clue of what they might be worth. I never got into collecting them. I think these came from a combined effort of family members thinking I collected them and giving them as gifts.

Looking through the collection, I see that all are in near-mint condition. Brands include Topps, Upper Deck, Fleer, and Onruss. Also included are NFL Pro Set and some Looney Tunes Upper Deck cards.

Guys, I have no idea as to how much these may be worth, or even where to start locally with getting them appraised. I need your help. I trust, given my experience with the B/S/T forum, that folks are going to be honest. I am not looking to sell here directly, yet, which is why this thread isn't in B/S/T. If I get to that point, I will either create another thread there or ask that this one be moved. Right now, I just need advice.

 

[ClubmanRob]

Why not get yourself a Beckett price guide? That's the industry standard. A word of caution, though, the late 80s-early 90s in Baseball cards is the equivalent to the early 90's in comic books- that is, everybody and their brother were into sports cards at the time, creating a big artificial boom. Now the majority of those cards are worthless, though there are a few diamonds in the rough.

 

[TimmyBoston]

I have tons of cards from that era too. Unfortunately sites that ebay that have enabled you to sell them so easily have also dropped the price.

I second the Beckett Price Guide recommendation and you'll need to get any valuable cards graded.

Good luck!

 

[Barbarian]

I have been a collector of many things, including baseball and football cards.

IMO anything from the 80's or 90's is generally not worth much. Too many were produced to hold any real value. I am sure there are some gems in there, and the Beckett's guide would be a great way to separate the goodies out from the tinder.

Ultimately I wouldn't expect to get much. The only things that have real value are scarce. Nothing from that era is really scarce.

 

[bishop]

I hadn't even thought about a Beckett price guide. Thanks!

 

[Monkeydad]

I collected cards as a kid. Had thousands of them. Enough to fill boxes and binders that took up almost the entire space under my bed.

When I got married, needed to trim down my possessions because they wouldn't fit in our apartment.

I took out my favorites, about 50-100 cards and I sold the rest at a card shop for just enough to buy a new suit. A huge loss considering how much I probably paid for the cards new.

The 1980s and 1990s saw a huge mass production, in fact an overproduction of cards. They are pretty much worthless except for some rookie cards of huge stars. Everyone had the cards. They're just not valuable like they were from the 1970s and back. I found that out the hard way.

But, at least I kept all of my Mike Schmidt and Michael Jordan cards for the memories.

So if you want to get rid of them, I'd suggest picking out your favorites and a few that may actually be worth something and sell the remainder as a lot. Either on Craigslist so you can locally deliver them or find a card shop that might reluctantly take them for a few bucks. Maybe even have a yard sale. I see lots of cards on eBay but the shipping cost would be huge. You could separate them into team sets to sell and ship easier. Heck, I'd buy all of your Redskins cards...I should've saved mine.

If you have the space, save them for a son.

 

[bishop]

Two questions:

1. Are there any dependable online price guides? I've poked around with TuffStuff, but nothing else.
2. Would it be worth my time to go through what I have and list them here or in B/S/T? I don't see any notable names in the collection (only Don Mattingly), and from the TuffStuff guide, it looks like I'm averaging around a nickel per card.

 

[Monkeydad]

Beckett was always the price guide I trusted. I believe they DO have an online PG, but it's not free.

Here's an article about some online guides that may help you:
http://sportscards.about.com/od/buyingsellingresources/p/beckettopg.htm

Like I said, that era is really not worth anything unfortunately due to overprinting of cards. If you want to get rid of the collection for space issues or whatever reason, just keep some favorites with sentimental value.