Baseball cards

[Monty]

This is totally off topic, but I need some advice. My grandmother-in-law recently passed away, and she left behind a fairly large collection of baseball cards. No one in the family knows how or when she got these, but what is clear is that there are quite a few of them:



As I am sure you can imagine, her heirs are interested in figuring out "what these are worth", and they have asked me to help. If she had left behind a collection of vintage Stanley hand planes, I could have offered some real knowledge. However, considering that my baseball career ended when I was about 12, I wouldn't call myself an expert in these matters. In fact, I would be hard pressed to tell you who played in the World Series this year. But... I somehow can't refuse trying to help (this is a habit that I really need to break!).

So.... where can I turn for advice? There must be some baseball card aficionados out there...?!?!?!

[Trog777]

Get yourself a Beckett Baseball Card Guide (12-15 bucks online. Not sure what they would run in a bookstore. $20?) and have fun looking them up. You'll be surprised at how much some are worth if they have some age on them. The new ones never will be in my opinion, but the ones made before all the different companies started flooding the market can be very valuable.

[DaveO]

Monty you might want to try this site - http://www.vintagecardprices.com/
It might give you a more realistic idea of what the cards could be easily sold for. I checked and it shows Barry Bonds cards going for almost nothing.....pretty reliable

Dave (knows nothing about sports in general )

[Jim M.]

Hey Monty,
It's sad to say, but be careful letting them out of your sight. The BB card trading business can have some very unsavory types. My BIL left some his father had with a "dealer" he located where he lives in Virginia Beach to be appraised. He later found out some of the "not worth much cards" were indeed the opposite, and the guy had already "helped him out by taking some of the worthless ones off his hands". He also swears he had more than he got back, but he failed to inventory them first. He wasn't able to do much since he couldn't prove anything illegal was done.
Just a word to the wise, Jim

[Eric Laudenbacher]

Monty,
The Donruss cards you have pictured aren't worth much because they made too many of them. You can still buy them in unopened packs. I would be interested to know what years and makes you have and I might be able to point you in the right direction.
Eric

[ebarr]

I echo Jim's post.

Be careful with the card shops. Use a beckett's or on line source set down and have some fun.

I have boxes of cards in the attic and need to do the same thing.

[ashley_phil]

find a kid who's into cards and have him look up their values. he will already have the guides. i was that kid a few years ago. i absolutely loved going through these folks cards i met at an antique show. they gave me a few cards each day.

in retrospect it was a great deal for them. i valued all of their cards 8-10 hrs worth of work and they gave me a dozen or so cards worth $ 60. but for a 10 yr old kid it was a blast. i got to see and hold mickey mantel cards worth at the time $ 500 bucks! that's rare for a kid.

heck i'd probably do it again for the same dozen cards if i had the free time i had back then.

go with a kid in a controlled environment, because as the others mentioned some dealers will take advantage of you. luckily most kids haven't learned to be crooked yet.

[MikeL]

Hey Monty, the replies thus far are right on the monet. Beckett price guides are the industry standard. You will either need to get the Beckett Plus issues that come out a few times each year or the online subscription in order to get the broad range of pricing info for older cards.

What you have pictured are 1990 Donruss and 1990 Score cards. Both sets hold little value, but don't let that discourage you. It's a thrill to find those gems that can be hidden within old collections!

Now, if MLB will reimburse those of us who collected for years and years only to have scandal (strike, drugs, etc.) tear apart this hobby industry.

[woodlaker2]

Others have offered some real good advice Monty. I really like the idea of having a kid you trust do some of the leg work especially if they have an interest in BB cards. I would add a couple of observations...(1) Beckett, while a good place to start doesn't always tell you what the "market" will pay. Sometimes it's a lot less depending on the cards: (2) Since the mid '80's manufacturers have made too many cards so prices for later sets and singles have not gone up, many have actually gone down. What seems to be hot are the so-called "star" cards for individual players (of course the recent steroids fiasco will hurt these prices too). This is where kids can be very helpful in identifying the hot star cards of value; (3) Focus on identifying any vintage card sets, subsets, HOFers, star singles, etc. (IMO anything over 30 - 35 years old); then look at how Beckett "grades" cards to determine their condition. Condition dictates value but depending on who does the grading things vary widely. An honest assessment applying Beckett grading criteria will be helpful to you in getting getting to a fair price for yoru cards. In the process you will discover where the real valueable cards are and then focus on pricing them for sale. Lastly, I'd suggest you go to eBay and review some of their BB card auctions. You can learn a lot about the market there. Good luck. Have fun!

[Douglas Robinson]

FWIW a quick search of completed sales on ebay for 1990 Donruss baseball cards turned up about 144 listings. None went for big bucks. The listings included multiple unopened packages. One included "

1990 Donruss Baseball cards LOT of Thousands of commons



So I would go through the cards carefully and sort them by year and manufacturer. As pointed out previously there may be some gems in there.

BTW a freind of mine has two Nolan Ryan Rookie cards in mint condition. Last I heard they were worthat least $1,500/each.

Doug

[Ray Martin]

Monty,

If there's a few cards that are real "keepers"... this sounds like a great excuse to build some frames, or a display case, or maybe a collector's cabinet.

Ray

[taandctran]

any card made between the late 80's and mid 90's aren't worth anything. The ones made before can be worth alot it really depends on the card. The ones after you will have to have a "insert" card for it to be worth anything.

[Monty]

Thanks for all the feedback - great advice as usual. I looked through the cards to get a sense of what was in the collection, and I found that there are hundreds of Topps 89s, and Donruss 90s & 91s. There are also a bunch (maybe 100 or so) that say "collectors choice" from 91-92, but many of them are slightly stuck together - causing slight damage to the surface when they're peeled apart. There are a few from the 1970s-80s, but the Beckett guide lists some of them as worth a whopping 40¢ - NICE!!! I didn't spend much time on this, so there might be some gems in there somewhere. Someone in the family has a contact who is more familiar with baseball cards - I would prefer that they get the assessment from someone other than myself. Just wanted to update ya'll - and thanks again for the advice.