Football, Baseball, Basketball cards

[BuckSutherland]

I have a couple boxes from the late 80s. Are they worth anything or should I just throw them in the garbage??

Anyone know of a place in the west metro that would buy them??

[nofishfisherman]

There might be a card or two in the collection that could fetch a couple bucks but I'm guessing the bulk of them probably aren't worth much.

Hard part is going through everything a picking out the individual cards that are worth something. You might find someone who would buy the lot but you'll probably make more selling the individual cards that are valuable and then throwing away the rest.

[Scott M]

I wouldn't toss them. You never know what you have. I collected as a kid, have a ton of Shaqs and Jordans, plus I inherited my Dad's baseball cards. Not worth a penny to me now but I had a good time, lots of memories, and I can get my money back on them in sale.

[DrJuice1980]

The days of cards worth anything are loooonnngg gone Buck. If you have some that may be worth anything you'd have to get them graded on Gem Mint status. Odds are very high that you don't have any that would grade out well. Making them worthless. The 3 column grading scale in the old Beckett Monthly is no longer either. I, like you have a ton of cards from my youth. They're packed away, taking up space, I thought maybe everybody else in the world would dump theirs and mine will be worth something someday.

[DrJuice1980]

If you have the Billy Ripken "**** Face" card I'll throw an offer at you. Has to be the full wording though.

[BuckSutherland]

Only thing I think might have some value is Jerry Rice rookie. I am sure I could go through it and make a couple hundred off it, but I would rather get rid of them at once for a case of beer.

Looks like I will give them to my nephews for Bday presents. I want them gone, and I figured they werent worth much anymore. Probably not even worth as much as the gum inside the packs.

[FISHINGURU]

They're packed away, taking up space, I thought maybe everybody else in the world would dump theirs and mine will be worth something someday.

LOL, I do the same thing with a bunch of stuff I had as a kid. I still have a bunch of Cards, Star Wars action figures, Micro Machines, WWF action figures and ring, Voltron, Transformers, Atari, Nintendo, Sega, ect, ect. All taking up space.

My mom used to try getting me to throw the stuff away now it's my Ol' lady, everytime I tell them they might be worth something someday. I know the second I toss them out I'll see something on TV or online saying it's worth 100 g's.

[DrJuice1980]

GURU, you got the WWF thumb wrestlers? You and I got the same kid toys, packed in some raggedy box I bet too.

[ANYFISH2]

Buck, if you need to find them a home pm me. Always loved collecting cards.

[ozzie]

I was looking on the net the other day as to what some of my sets are worth and unfortunatly I can buy the same sets for $20 unopened!!! I have the Jerry Rice rookie card in the set from that year and it had some value but no where near a $100!!! I think it was more in the $60 range...I just keep them in the plastic tub and will probably pass them to my grandkids in another 30 years!!! haha

[PierBridge]

Thanks guys I just tossed my Wayne Gretzky "tops" Rookie card in the garbage base on some of the info givin in this thread.

[nofishfisherman]

Just out of curiosity I looked up a couple of the complete sets that I have and most fell into the $60-90 range for the set if it was in mint condition. Most sets aren't in mint condition so you can probably expect a fair bit less than that price.

The hard part is finding someone who wants to buy them. Everyone collected them back in the day and you aren't likely to find a collector who wants the run of the mill cards or sets. Your best bet is to look through them and hope you have a something that is rare.

I took over my dads set of cards a long time ago and that collection does have some cards with supposed value, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, etc...

Years ago we took them into a card show and talked to a few people and no one was interested. Even though they were in good condition and supposedly were priced in the $200+ dollar range according to all the books at the time. All the collectors said the same thing, too common and not in good enough condition (even though I couldn't see a flaw). They wouldn't even make a low ball offer.

So having a card worth something is one thing, getting something for it is totally different.

[ozzie]

Well Pierbridge the cards from the mid to late 80's and on were collected and printed at such a high rate that many of the cards just aren't worth much...there are a few with value but in the end not much. some of the cards that use to go for big bucks back in the day are worthless now and then on top of it even it is is stated to be worth $X good luck getting someone to buy it. Would I go and throw my collection in the garbage NO but the way things look they won't be worth anything in another 30+ years because we were taught to keep and store the cards so the market will always be saturared with cards from that era.

The gretzke rookie Topps card is $500-2000 but that was also early 80's/late 70's...not long after the market gets overly saturated and values just aren't there

[rundrave]

I remember begging my mom to buy me a Ken Griffey 1989 Upperdeck rookie card for my birthday when I was kid. We bought it during one of those card shows at the local mall. The guy at the time told me to hang on to it and take real good care of the card and it would eventually get me through college.

If we had only known better at the time. Oh well maybe it will pay for my sons college lol.

[PierBridge]

Yeah its my top dog I think it's worth about 400.

I'd hate to sell it but I may be willing to part with it for a brand new in the box I-Pilot...

[bobbymalone]

I had a card that beckett claimed was worth $800 the day I pulled it from the pack. Mike Piazza rookie, Topps stadium club, first day edition. 1993 I think? It was regularly listed for $8 but mine was "first day edition" with a special hologram logo and was 1 of 2000 printed. According to Beckett the first day edition cards demanded 100X the regular card value, so 800 bucks.

On the spot, the baseball card shop guy tried to trade me what was probably an 84 ford escort in hot rod grey for it, but at 13 years old I wasn't too excited about that trade and I took the card home. It's still sandwiched up in a brick of acrylic, in a box with who knows how much allowance money worth of cards.

Just checked on hsolist and sure enough there are a couple for sale. $20. HA! Maybe I should have taken that hot rod grey ford escort.

[pikestabber]

Maybe I should have taken that hot rod grey ford escort.

Lol! Hindsight is 20/20. Especially in card collecting. I have stacks of cards that weren't worth anything even when cards DID have value and I still don't ever get around to tossing them. Maybe the value is in the nostalgia...

[bobbymalone]

now that I think about it, I can't remember if that ford escort was hot rod grey or hot rod tan, but it definitely had hot rod paint on it. I was not duly impressed with it. I do believe it was the baseball card guy's daily driver though so he must have been pretty hot after that card to part with it. He was very similar to the comic book guy on the Simpsons both physically and personality-wise.

[zepman]

Just out of curiosity I looked up a couple of the complete sets that I have and most fell into the $60-90 range for the set if it was in mint condition. Most sets aren't in mint condition so you can probably expect a fair bit less than that price.

The hard part is finding someone who wants to buy them. Everyone collected them back in the day and you aren't likely to find a collector who wants the run of the mill cards or sets. Your best bet is to look through them and hope you have a something that is rare.

I took over my dads set of cards a long time ago and that collection does have some cards with supposed value, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, etc...

Years ago we took them into a card show and talked to a few people and no one was interested. Even though they were in good condition and supposedly were priced in the $200+ dollar range according to all the books at the time. All the collectors said the same thing, too common and not in good enough condition (even though I couldn't see a flaw). They wouldn't even make a low ball offer.

So having a card worth something is one thing, getting something for it is totally different.

Same thing happened with me with the same vintage class of cards...I had Mantle and ALL the top names in that era and a kept in plastic "card holders" and they were as about as good of condition as could be. Shopped them HARD for about a year...nobody would give me squat for any of it. "Book" value was well over 1000.00...nothing...nodda...squat!!

[bobbymalone]

Same thing happened with me with the same vintage class of cards...I had Mantle and ALL the top names in that era and a kept in plastic "card holders" and they were as about as good of condition as could be. Shopped them HARD for about a year...nobody would give me squat for any of it. "Book" value was well over 1000.00...nothing...nodda...squat!!

Even as a kid I found the "book" value and real life supply/demand don't jive real well. I suspect it's the same thing for folks that rummage antique junk.

I figure you should be able to find a buyer for Mantle cards on the bay-E though.

[BuckSutherland]

I gave mine to the nephews. Maybe they (the cards) will save them when the apocalypse finally hits. Should be good for startin fires.

[bobbymalone]

Should be good for startin fires.

That's what cash is for. No way am I tossing my Ozzie Smiths into the fire.

[DrJuice1980]

The best thing about the cards were trading with your buds. Always trying to pawn off that crummy all-star card on some sucker just cause it was his favorite player. Trading off a Griffey big head all star topps for a Sheffield rookie was a big score. Both worth nothing now.

[JeffB]

When I built my house I left a treasure trove of stuff for the person that remodels it someday when I'm gone. Cards, albums, comic books and some old antiques that were to ugly for my wife to display. Some one may find a surprise someday.

[nofishfisherman]

I agree trading with friends was the best part. I remember some heated negotiations back in 4th, 5th, 6th grade. I'm sure I made some shrewd moves back in the day but I'm also sure there were probably days when I came home from school to show off my latest trade acquisitions and my dad was probably shaking his head wondering how I made such a stupid trade.

Unfortunately in the end we all turned out to be losers in the trading card game.

[bobbymalone]

Unfortunately in the end we all turned out to be losers in the trading card game.

Dude my stack of Ozzie Smiths is like 3 inches tall. Loser? No way!

[Scott K]

Dude my stack of Ozzie Smiths is like 3 inches tall. Loser? No way!

That 3 inch stack and $3 will buy you a gallon of gas.

[SkunkedAgain]

....same with my binder full of Griffey Jr rookie cards. Worthless junk but it looks nice

[pikestabber]

That 3 inch stack and $3 will buy you nearly a gallon of gas.

[Joe_Schmoe]

Sports cards in the 80's and early 90's were one of the biggest rackets going. People made and lost fortunes.

what card companies would do is produce a "player A" rookie card, and then value it at idk $25, then they would wait a while to see what the market would do, as soon as the card became uber valuable, they would produce thousands or millions more in the back room that were identical, and sell them at shops, shows, etc, until the price crashed a few months or years later. All of the major companies got into lot of trouble for this, and paid a ton in fines etc.

Now there are cards that worth a lot of money, classic cards, or full sets that really were/are rare, but good luck with that.

I still have a ton of cards too, I will always keep them, whenever I move I always find them again have a few beers and remember some of my favorite players.