Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

Bulk selling

5 years ago I started selling my nephew's collection of over 180,000 cards.  (all sports and non-sport  from the 40s to 2012)  He paid close to $20K for them per his notes.    For months I tried selling it as one unit or just one sport.  Best offer as $450.00   Then I started selling a card(s) or set at a time  now still have 150,000 of them but close to $6500.00 for my brother.

Why commons so high?

Most sellers online or shops do not list commons as it is not worth their time (per them)  So it is harder to find a fair price for them and if you do they are price them high.   Even hard to find commons at shows now days.   I think we all have paid more for a common then what we think they are worth.  Just to finish out a set or group.  We paid for it so we put it in.

Why are the prices here out of line?

You can use several reasons:   Some members used to put in what they wanted for their cards.     Others find the prices on E-bay and other sites that has fees added into them,  a few just used the higher sales.  (Why I do not know)   Some add in the postage paid.     Some have been added a long time ago so the prices reflex the hype or when they when 1st released.   Some cards have one real high price and a few normal price so the Median is odd.

Appreciate your perspective @budler -- I think my view is that cataloging them will increase their present day *and* future value, in case I decide to hold onto what I have indefinitely. At the very least I'll know what I have and can unload the collection later.

For the TCDB pricing: I honestly don't understand how it works. Can anyone set these prices (I see that I myself have the option to edit the prices)? It just seems strange to me that pretty much every single person replying here agrees that the prices are too high by at least some amount, including me. Isn't that a problem? Shouldn't the prices here reflect the market average at least, not 5 - 10x the average?

The TCDB pricing is generated by users like you or I who submit prices paid on a specific card, then an average price is posted on the site. For example I buy an 1998 Ultra Ryan Leaf RC on ebay for say $1, and I enter that price on the site. You buy the same card at a flea market next weekend for 5¢, and enter that price on the site. Either way we both paid too much, but the site will take the two entered values average it out to either 52¢ or 53¢ and that price will appear on the site. Then some other poor schmuck will find one in the bargain bin at his or her local card store for 25¢, so they enter it onto the site and now the site will assign a value of 43¢ ($1 + .05 + .25 = $1.30 ÷3) and so on and so on.

The problem is someone back in the day who may have invested heavily on Ryan Leaf over Payton Manning in the rookie wars of '98, can make up a fictitious price or two and well next thing you know the price is out of touch with the real world. It only takes 1 bad apple to spoil the bunch. 

Feels like either prices from greater than X years ago, or outliers (or both) should be excluded from the presented prices then. I guess most people entering prices are doing so one by one and not for the lot...is there a way to enter the prices for all the cards in a set when you sell by lot? If not then that would explain quite a bit...

Yes If your collection is cataloged, sorted and stored correctly it does increase the value.  Why?  most bulk buyers are only interested in the better cards.  So if you show more of better cards they are more willing to give you a better price.  If you sell them one by one it is easier to find for you and the buyer.  So add them all.

Have you read the FAQ on pricing?   Frequently Asked Questions | Trading Card Database (tcdb.com)  It may help.  Check out Median vs Average prices there

There have been many postings about price/value here.   A lot of members do not reply as they have done it many times.   It all boils down to this site  is not a Price Guide.  There are millions of cards and a lot of them are without prices.  It would take an army to try to add and keep up with all the changes in pricing on all of them over the years.  Most members just add the cards they buy.  Some just so they know what they paid for that card.  A lot of prices do not have dates on them so should they be removed?  If so then there are a lot more cards with out any prices on.

No    There is no way to price out every card  in a lot at one time.  One card at a time.   If I sold a lot of 100 cards at $10.  Are they all are worth .10 each?    Then  how do you figure that out,  except by saying this is worth x amount and this is worth y amount.   You guess at the worth or what you think is the value.