General Forum

Update from homeowners insurance.  I called them and they can add a $10,000 endorsement to my policy to cover my collectibles. Any item over $250 needs to be inventoried and anything over $500 needs a proof of purchase or appraisal.  Adding this only increased my premium $52 for the year.  I don't have many individual cards over $250 since I am a set collector.  

Wow. Just the thread I was looking for. Appreciate the insight & I'll reach out to our homeowners insurance company.  That said, most of you talk about self-evaluation of your collections. I'm starting to think about selling & would like to get an appraisal of value before I reach out to one of the big auction houses. Anyone use someone? Reccomendations? I'm in Connecticut.

I would look at trying to sell your collection yourself instead of through a third party unless money and time are not an issue for you.  An auction house is going to take a hefty percentage of anything that sells.  You are probably better to try and sell on here, a Facebook group, or to another collector some other way.  If you want it gone fast and don't mind losing money than I would go with the auction house. 
 

Yeah, if you want cash and have time to spend on what was your hobby, sell them yourself. It's so much easier to do now over the internet with all the sites and resources available now. An auction house is probably the worst way to go. They are going to take a large percentage of everything that sells and that is probably going to be even higher than ebay would charge. Depending on what you have, they'd even make lots to try to sell for more money and you get even less money. However, if you want it gone fast for a flat price... Dave & Adam's Card World in Buffalo, NY does buy entire collections. But it has to be a good size, not just a few thousand modern base cards. But your collection of Vintage baseball cards would interest them. If you really do want to clear out the collection, call them up and chat with them. They'll even send someone out to evaluate the collection and make an offer. My family has clear instructions that if something drastic happens to me, call D&A to sell them my entire collection and the minimum amount they should accept. I know that D&A will get my cards to other collectors like myself and that's who I want them to go to if I can no longer enjoy them.

Appreciate the feed back.  What are your thoughts on Ebay consignment dealers like Greg Morris, Card Finese etc?  Worse than auction houses? Thanks

Double cuts. Both eBay and then the consignemnt entites will take a % from you.

If I were selling vintage sets, I would recommend that you talk to and send 1 set to 2 different auction houses, one to Greg Morris, and break one apart and send the stars and high numbers to comc to sell individually. 

Then over the next 6 months you can see which of the methods you like best.

This is assuming of course that you do not want to sell yourself as singles or lots on eBay.

Mark