I started collecting baseball, football, hockey and basketball cards in 1980. I have all complete sets of baseball (Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck) from 1980-1991.
I also bought a bunch of cards from a neighbor kid when he needed money. Paid $10 for about 30 boxes of cards back in 1984. I thought my parents through them away when I went to college, but this morning, my parents had them sitting at their kitchen table for me to take home. In the words of Kip Dynamite: YESSSSSSSSSSSS!
Cards that I will not part with:
Johnny Bench Topps rookie card
Dan Marino Topps rookie card
Wayne Gretzky OPC rookie card
Michael Jordan Fleer rookie card
Those 4 are keepers until I really need a healthy dose of money, like when my kids need a car, or they go off to college, and even then, I might just hold onto them. But those are really the only cards that are "untouchable." Those are my 4 favorite players in each sport.
The rest of the cards I have, I'd have no problems selling. George Brett rookies, Paul Molitor rookies, Joe Montana rookies, Rickey Henderson rookies, Wade Boggs rookies, Cal Ripken rookies, Jerry Rice rookies, Kareem Abdul Jabbar cards, Magic Johnson cards, Larry Bird cards, Kurt Rambis cards ( ) etc, etc, etc.
Does anyone know what the card market is like these days? I remember in the 90's the cards were starting to get expensive. Beckett listed those Topps Rickey Henderson cards at $125 / piece. I sold 10 of them for around $500 to pay for my car stereo when I was in high school. If I wanted to sell these, what route should I take? Should I buy a table at a card show? Should I sell them on eBay? Should I just take them in to a cardboard heroes and offer them there? Any other ideas? What' the best way to maximize your return for these cards today?
Some people will call you crazy for selling your cards, but as a 34 year old male that is married with 2 kids, I really have no need for them. I'll let my kids look through them with me before I sell them, but they don't know, or never saw most of these players play before. Those cards have no "meaning" to them. My feeling is, why not try and cash them in now and use the money to get something (a new LCD TV, Playstation3, a nice family vacation) that would be more important to me?
So any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.