Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

Hi all, I've been exhaustively cataloging my collection here the past few months (mostly 90s but some 80s baseball cards). I can see my total collection's value (about $1k for 3,500 cards), but I'm curious if people here have sold their collections at values comparable to what TCDB says their collections are worth. It feels like something like 50% the summed individual value of all the cards is a fair price (so like, $500), but I really have no idea what to expect. Most of the cards in my collection are worth maybe a nickel or a dime individually, with a couple having a modest ($10) value.

It does feel like part of the value of the collection here is that I have cataloged it, someone buying the lot knows exactly what they are getting. But I dunno if others find that to be something worth paying for. It certainly has been a lot of time for me, haha (I've been enjoying it though).

Just curious on what you guys think.

P.S. I'm only about halfway done cataloging the collection so I expect the total "value" will be about double in the end.

First off you so have the right idea of basically cutting your price total in half. It is vary rare that does someone actually sell there entire collection at once. People would rather buy by team, or by set.

To start if selling bulk you are probably going to get 75% of what is the expected value. But also if you are looking at prices here then probably half of the value. Then take about 75% of that value.

My rough valuation of a collection using TCDB prices is that the true value is 10%-20% of what the value on here says. TBH if you are looking to sell the entire collection at once through here it isn't going to be worth the effort to enter it here. It is great here though if you enjoy trading or want to have an inventory of your collection. If your end goal is to sell I would just enter the major rookies and stars to try to sell those or just sell your collection locally. Shipping is such a killer these days.

For the bigger cards, get a number, cut it in half, and then cut it in half again.  Seriously, it all depends on who you're dealing with.  I try to look at three things: TCDB price, PSI ratings, and Sprtscardspro.com ratings to get an idea of what to charge.  On the TCDB, look at what the card has sold for recently, take the three lowest prices added together, and divide by 3.  The sum is usually in the ballpark as for being fair (card condition weighs into it more than anything else).

For 80s and 90s, it's going to be tough to get any value out of the "nickel and dime" cards, especially if you have to ship them. If I were you, I'd look on eBay and check out various lot groupings you might try and see how much they are going for there.
 

Or, offer the whole thing here for trade and see what people might be willing to trade you for them. I'd consider trading several medium value cards that would be more liquidatable for you in exchange for an already catalogued inventory.

Thanks all! Yes I was leaning towards a local sale since shipping is so prohibitive.

You have hundreds of cards that TCDB shows between 20-40 cents.  For most of those, you will be lucky to get 2 cents/card as part of a bulk deal.  For example, there are lots of 1993 Pinnacle commons in your list that are listed as 30 cents apiece.  I can't imagine anyone really even wanting those, let alone paying that much for them. 

So that being said....maybe take the TCDB price, drop it 90%, and hope for the best.

Why are the TCDB prices so off for these common cards? Even individually it sounds like I wouldn't get anywhere near those prices...

One way to look at it would be if you went to buy a 1990 Topps baseball set you could get it for let's say $15 but if you added up all the values of each card individual maybe it's $60. If you are selling a bulk collection it's similar to selling that set. There aren't many people looking to purhase a common Steve Lake card that is willing to pay that single card price of $.20