Question for you sports card collectors..

[dxlightning]

I have slightly over 5,000 assorted basketball/hockey/football/baseball collectible cards, varying between fleet, upper deck, pinnacle, etc.

My question is this:

Is it more beneficial for me to organize//sell the cards according to set, or should I do it according to team//player?

[Compbasher]

Depends on a variety of things such as the year, what brand, what sport, etc. The best advice I can give if you looking to sell the cards seriously is to purchase Becketts(pricing guidelines) for each sport. They come out with new, updated issues every month.

Personally, I've seen collectors sell them both ways. Of course, they are always going to be some that are void of both because of their rarity and/or worth. How many COMPLETE sets do you have as opposed to how many cards do you have for key, superstar players(ones whose worth would not fluctuate often and worth higher than most other players)?

Also, I guess it depends how you are selling them. Advertising from home is much different than commercially say at a sports card/memorabilia day at a mall or other larger venue.

[dxlightning]

I'm planning to sell them in a local trade center where card dealers come from all around michigan to peddle their wares and make some purchases. I've got a few complete sets; fleer 1991 for basketball, fleer metal 96-97 for hockey, Topps 1991 for baseball, and a few others. I do also have a few individual cards outside of full sets, like a Glen Rice 1991 (topps or fleer I can't remember off the top of my head) rookie card worth 8-10 bucks... I'm thinking I'm gonna first find full sets then see what I can do about organizing grab bags.

[Compbasher]

Typically, I wouldnt think grabbags would bring in a significant proportionate income? I havent ever sold cards commercially so Im a bit in the dark when it comes to which technique works best. How many cards(counting duplicates) do you have of star players? A lot of dealers will organize them that way outside of sets, so I dont see why you cant do the same thing. Ive also see others who will put all the 1.50-3 dollar worth cards into an album and get 50 a piece which actually attracts a decent crowd. How are you thinking of managing it at this point?

[dxlightning]

Well, so far I'm still not done organizing them. I want to see if I have more full sets, but the way I was thinking with grab bags was - advertise it as, for example, "Grab bag - Fleer 1991 Glen Rice rookie plus 14 assorted 1991 fleer cards!"

Though I'm still not finished sorting the cards...in fact, i'm only about halfway through the first of ten-ish boxes, so depending on what I find I might change that.

I do know I have plenty of star players. I've got at least 15 Michael Jordan cards in this first box alone, as well as plenty of Yzerman cards, and actually I even have an old Gordie Howe card worth 35 bucks. So I'm starting to lead towards your method.