General Forum

Yes the good thing about this website is that there are a ton of us who are still looking for those random junk era commons. If you feel they aren't in a good condition then trashing could be the way. Other than that if you have good condition cards then a lot of us would like to see and potentially trade for them.

Just Saying 2 - take a look at my Want List as I have many from the overproduced eras, too.

i aquired a bunch of 87's i didn't need.  took them to my daughter's trunk or treat.  gave the kids the option of taking a card or candy, and a lot of the kids went nuts for the cards.

I have enough to fill the majority of wbaker01's want lists in most of the sets from 1988-1993.  I have them all sorted by company set and card #.  Every so often a trade comes along asking for some of them.  Yes, even those commons that are really worth less than the paper they are printed on are wanted.  Why? Many LCS or vendors won't bother with them so often the hardest card to find is that little known journeyman player of any sport.  In baseball, I can probably trade it to you, say for a 1968 Topps #177.  Maybe even a lesser valued card.

I also think we have entered that new era where commons are going to be piled up in people's card rooms or in LCS store roooms, unsorted as the hype for those rare SN, MAT, Inserts, Parallels, etc. are causing people to buy boxes, open everything, and flip the valued cards at a profit.  Meanwhile all of the commons are often either thrown out, given away, or listed on any variance of online marketplace for pennies.  I know. I already have 3 5,000-ct boxes of 2010-2020 Topps cards.

There are some people that make "art cards" out of the damaged stuff where they cut them up and make other things. If you look up #cardart on instagram you'll see some of them. They might be willing to at least pay for shipping to get them.

I have a "card" of 1991 Donruss Nolan Ryan that is "3-D". It was put out by Dad's Kid Corporation and called Tri Cards.  They took 3 of the same card, cut Ryan out from 2 of them and layered with about 1/4" separation between the cut images and about a 1/4" offset down adn to the right of the background card, it gives the 3-D effect (or at least that is the idea). It is a limited run of 50,000 SN; I have SN01640.  You had to join the Kid's Club to receive a Tri Card which they say on the box, "...may be worth more than your membership alone." I think my ex bought it for me for Xmas one year.

I keep waiting for Dan to go on an extended holiday so I can upload an incomplete checklist and the item, I mean, card right along side my Toronto Blue Jays jello mold.

Great responses all!   I appreciate it.  A lot of very good ideas.  I thought of putting it up for trade, but I don't relish the thought of looking for little dots on the back of Donruss cards.  Or if organizing 1990 score commons.  
 

For those of you who have donated cards, did you write off the full book value?  That could be the best financial move.  

Before Covid, I would take all the mass dupes and bring the m to the kids ward in our area hospital, I also heard of paking them in to little packs and giving them to kids hockey, baseball teams , Something to think about. Jeff

Personally I can never throw cards away no matter what condition or how common — but then again my collection is tiny compared to some.

I think lots of good options have been mentioned from donating to handing out (or even selling dirt cheap) at flea/trash and treasure style markets if you go.

However, the big one for me is giving to my nephews. Keep in mind kids have different priorities for cards than adults do. As mentioned condition is not import as my nephews certainly view cards as something to be looked at, played with, sorted, reordered then reordered again. They pore over them in the car on long road trips and scatter them across the lounge floor when at home. 

They also love numbers and stats (and errors) above all else. So, Collectors Choice and Hoops and any cards with a full careers worth of stats are better than those with only a single line — and commons are way better than inserts with no stats! 

So, if you have young relations who may be interested or even a local school or after school kids group or the like it could be a good place to unload them.

Look back a few days on the forums, there was a thread were another member of the site posted that they were looking for damaged cards of any condition.
Several other posters here already made a lot of great suggestions, love the idea of the children's hospitals.  Or if there is any orphanages, donate them there too.
I follow a group on facebook that cartoons over damaged cards in comical ways.

Personally, to fill some of the holes in my sets, I would rather have a card that's maybe a 3 or 4 then to not have the set completed at all.  The only thing I would say is to mark the card so any traders know what kind of damage they can expect when the receive it.