Sports card collecting

[WeAreDePaul]

Anyone here collect or used to collect? I stopped collecting in the early 90s, but with my dad dying last year I've had to jump back into it a bit since my dad had an amazing collection. For some background, my dad collected his whole life and was working on the Honus Wagner cigarette card set before he died. Didn't have the Wagner, but had a few hundred other cards from that set.

He also had a Mantle rookie, several Babe Ruth and Lou Gherig cards and many more.

In the 90s he went and bought the entire inventory of a sports card store from a widow. Took him 3 trips with a U haul to bring it all home. he spent the last 30 years sorting those cards as well as working on his vintage stuff. When he died he had 2 rooms in the house full of cards, the entire basement full of cards and the garage full of cards.

Since then I have been sorting it, getting it appraised and now getting it ready for auction.

We took about 20 cards to PSA grading at the national convention and they were all vintage cards in bad shape, but very valuable cards. The Mantle rookie graded a 1 and is still worth around 25-30k.


We also sent about 200 cards in as a bulk submission and we just got those back. Those are mostly 1960s - 80s cards. Meetign with my auction guy tomorrow to reveal all the ratings for those cards. Could be some very valuable cards in there depending on the grade.


Next step is the online auction which will take place end of the year or so. It is with Hindman Auctions and they are going to feature my dad's collection in a special auction and do a bio on him. I'll keep all posted if you want to bid or just want to see what his lifetime hobby looks like.

 

[dukedevilz]

The Mantle rookie graded a 1 and is still worth around 25-30k

Wow! That is wild. That's quite the collection. I would gladly sell the Mantle card for 25k, if there were any takers. Gehrig and Ruth cards, too? Sheesh. Sounds like you could amass 6 figures from all of this.

My dad graduated high school in the 60's and he said his mom gave away all his baseball cards to some kid that lived down the road in the neighborhood. Thousands of cards. He wasn't too pleased about that. We've always wondered what those cards may have been worth.

I don't have anything remotely close to that. Maybe 4-5 Kobe Bryant cards. Enough to perhaps pay my car insurance for a couple of months lol.

 

[WeAreDePaul]

Wow! That is wild. That's quite the collection. I would gladly sell the Mantle card for 25k, if there were any takers. Gehrig and Ruth cards, too? Sheesh. Sounds like you could amass 6 figures from all of this.

My dad graduated high school in the 60's and he said his mom gave away all his baseball cards to some kid that lived down the road in the neighborhood. Thousands of cards. He wasn't too pleased about that. We've always wondered what those cards may have been worth.

I don't have anything remotely close to that. Maybe 4-5 Kobe Bryant cards. Enough to perhaps pay my car insurance for a couple of months lol.

my dad has a similar origin story. he got married mid 60s and told my grandma that she could throw away all his cards which she did. A couple years later he felt regret and started the process of recreating his old collection.

Auction should definitely get us 6 figures. Appraisal for the entire collection came in at $320k.

Definitely expecting bids for the Mantle. It's the holy grail of the collecting world and everyone wants one. But, very few can afford a nice one so just being able to have one for $25-35k should get a lot of people motivated.

 

[dukedevilz]

my dad has a similar origin story. he got married mid 60s and told my grandma that she could throw away all his cards which she did. A couple years later he felt regret and started the process of recreating his old collection.

Auction should definitely get us 6 figures. Appraisal for the entire collection came in at $320k.

Definitely expecting bids for the Mantle. It's the holy grail of the collecting world and everyone wants one. But, very few can afford a nice one so just being able to have one for $25-35k should get a lot of people motivated.

320k. That is bananas.

 

[WeAreDePaul]

320k. That is bananas.

honestly, everyone thought it would be a lot more. But, my dad was old school, he wanted the cards, he didn't care about the condition. So he has all these amazing cards, but they're not in good condition so they aren't worth the huge bucks. Nowadays people are obsessed with condition. Everyone is looking for PSA 10s. My dad was never interested in improving his cards by replacing them with better conditioned versions. he was happy to just have the card. He's got all the famous cards though. Jackie rookie, Koufax rookie. Willie Mays rookie. Both Mantles.

Other sports in there as well. Found a Kareem and Dr J rookie. Unfortunately no Jordan which is surprising.

 

[Necessary Roughness]

I have a meager collection and some of my Dad's football cards he still had from the 70s and on. But, he has a similar story as many I'm sure. He graduated HS in 1970 and left home leaving his cards behind which were gone when he tried to get them back years later. By his account, he began collecting in the 50s and had some good cards plus old bottle cap cards and such. He saved all kinds of things that might be worth something today. I don't think anyone could have anticipated the value of those things back then.

 

[WeAreDePaul]

I have a meager collection and some of my Dad's football cards he still had from the 70s and on. But, he has a similar story as many I'm sure. He graduated HS in 1970 and left home leaving his cards behind which were gone when he tried to get them back years later. By his account, he began collecting in the 50s and had some good cards plus old bottle cap cards and such. He saved all kinds of things that might be worth something today. I don't think anyone could have anticipated the value of those things back then.

I still remember my dad showing me his Mantle rookie and telling me if it was in better condition it would be worth $10,000. Nowadays a Mantle rookie in good shape is a 7 figure card.

 

[coryfly]

Apparently my father's brothers shot holes in all his, or that is always what I heard.

I used to collect years ago. I gave them all to my boy. Some of them were worth a little, some in the hundreds, but nothing like what some of you all are talking about.

 

[GE Nole]

Anyone here collect or used to collect? I stopped collecting in the early 90s, but with my dad dying last year I've had to jump back into it a bit since my dad had an amazing collection. For some background, my dad collected his whole life and was working on the Honus Wagner cigarette card set before he died. Didn't have the Wagner, but had a few hundred other cards from that set.

He also had a Mantle rookie, several Babe Ruth and Lou Gherig cards and many more.

In the 90s he went and bought the entire inventory of a sports card store from a widow. Took him 3 trips with a U haul to bring it all home. he spent the last 30 years sorting those cards as well as working on his vintage stuff. When he died he had 2 rooms in the house full of cards, the entire basement full of cards and the garage full of cards.

Since then I have been sorting it, getting it appraised and now getting it ready for auction.

We took about 20 cards to PSA grading at the national convention and they were all vintage cards in bad shape, but very valuable cards. The Mantle rookie graded a 1 and is still worth around 25-30k.


We also sent about 200 cards in as a bulk submission and we just got those back. Those are mostly 1960s - 80s cards. Meetign with my auction guy tomorrow to reveal all the ratings for those cards. Could be some very valuable cards in there depending on the grade.


Next step is the online auction which will take place end of the year or so. It is with Hindman Auctions and they are going to feature my dad's collection in a special auction and do a bio on him. I'll keep all posted if you want to bid or just want to see what his lifetime hobby looks like.

Wow. That’s incredible. Sorry about your pops passing. Mine passed last year and he got me into card collecting when I was little. He actually loved to collect coins, but got me my first cards. I have a bunch from the 80s and 90s. Bunch of junk wax with a few goodies mixed in. I’ve gotten re-interested in it some over the last 5 years but it’s junk wax 2.0 era right now.

 

[lurkeraspect84]

Anyone here collect or used to collect? I stopped collecting in the early 90s, but with my dad dying last year I've had to jump back into it a bit since my dad had an amazing collection. For some background, my dad collected his whole life and was working on the Honus Wagner cigarette card set before he died. Didn't have the Wagner, but had a few hundred other cards from that set.

He also had a Mantle rookie, several Babe Ruth and Lou Gherig cards and many more.

In the 90s he went and bought the entire inventory of a sports card store from a widow. Took him 3 trips with a U haul to bring it all home. he spent the last 30 years sorting those cards as well as working on his vintage stuff. When he died he had 2 rooms in the house full of cards, the entire basement full of cards and the garage full of cards.

Since then I have been sorting it, getting it appraised and now getting it ready for auction.

We took about 20 cards to PSA grading at the national convention and they were all vintage cards in bad shape, but very valuable cards. The Mantle rookie graded a 1 and is still worth around 25-30k.


We also sent about 200 cards in as a bulk submission and we just got those back. Those are mostly 1960s - 80s cards. Meetign with my auction guy tomorrow to reveal all the ratings for those cards. Could be some very valuable cards in there depending on the grade.


Next step is the online auction which will take place end of the year or so. It is with Hindman Auctions and they are going to feature my dad's collection in a special auction and do a bio on him. I'll keep all posted if you want to bid or just want to see what his lifetime hobby looks like.

collecting as long as I can remember. Done all the card shows. Had two Mantles at once. Have zero now. Went in halves with my BIL. I had the cards and comics, he had the otherstuff. Magik, dolls, etc. We ran it for a few years.

Sold everything including the building in one lump sum.

Still got a sweet Jack Kemp rookie card for those die-hard pubs out there. We kept a lot of nice things. Just whored out the rest. We didn't get near the money you're talking. All in all I think we cleared about 130K. that was everything minuse the pieces we kept.

I think I spent my share on a semi to flip.

The fun part was collecting. I don't collect anything anymore other than money. Sorry to say. Gold is up there.

It was fun. I'm the guy on the left. I ended buying the strip mall. It included rent from a furniture store. thriff store, comic and laundrymat. His mom, my MIL asked me to take care of him.


But yeah, we've had a bit of card collecting.

*we were celebrating a 10k night.

 

[lurkeraspect84]

MHO. Don't sell them at once. We kept the good stuff. In a safe.

 

[lurkeraspect84]

Y'all want to here something funny.

back in the day of the early Nonsense thread before there was a nonsense thread.

There was a poster here named schooner.

After I talked about how to buy trucks he sent me a 25 dollar gift card. He PM'd me about a gift, I sent him the address to our shop. He could have been a psyho. time passes and sure enough, from scooner was a gift card.

I knew he's a KU fan and his favorite player was Nick Collison. I took his gift card, put a little extra on it and sent him back a signed Collison rookie card.

Probably not worth much today, but back then on this board it was two guys

Miss that dude.

 

[lurkeraspect84]

If the KU fans still posted here today, they'd be by far, the best fanbase and it wouldn't be close.

 

[GE Nole]

Y'all want to here something funny.

back in the day of the early Nonsense thread before there was a nonsense thread.

There was a poster here named schooner.

After I talked about how to buy trucks he sent me a 25 dollar gift card. He PM'd me about a gift, I sent him the address to our shop. He could have been a psyho. time passes and sure enough, from scooner was a gift card.

I knew he's a KU fan and his favorite player was Nick Collison. I took his gift card, put a little extra on it and sent him back a signed Collison rookie card.

Probably not worth much today, but back then on this board it was two guys

Miss that dude.

Love this. Great story.

I sure do wish we had a lot of the old posters here.

 

[WeAreDePaul]

Wow. That’s incredible. Sorry about your pops passing. Mine passed last year and he got me into card collecting when I was little. He actually loved to collect coins, but got me my first cards. I have a bunch from the 80s and 90s. Bunch of junk wax with a few goodies mixed in. I’ve gotten re-interested in it some over the last 5 years but it’s junk wax 2.0 era right now.

don't even bother with cards now. I call this era the Golden Ticket era and its way worse than the junk wax era. Manufacturers have fabricated demand by releasing all these limited edition cards, usually with autographs or pieces of a jersey. Every player has about 50 different rookie cards. All cards come with 10 different colored backgrounds, some more rare than others. People now just rip packs looking for golden tickets and throw away all the cards that aren't rare. No one collects sets anymore.

It's pure garbage now. I'm dabbling at getting back in to collecting, but no way I'm collecting anything produced after the mid 80s. It's all shit.

 

[GE Nole]

don't even bother with cards now. I call this era the Golden Ticket era and its way worse than the junk wax era. Manufacturers have fabricated demand by releasing all these limited edition cards, usually with autographs or pieces of a jersey. Every player has about 50 different rookie cards. All cards come with 10 different colored backgrounds, some more rare than others. People now just rip packs looking for golden tickets and throw away all the cards that aren't rare. No one collects sets anymore.

It's pure garbage now. I'm dabbling at getting back in to collecting, but no way I'm collecting anything produced after the mid 80s. It's all shit.

Sounds pretty spot on.

I’ve enjoyed hunting down cards of some FSU guys like Scottie Barnes, Devin Vassell, Terance Mann, and Jon Isaac. Good news is, besides Scottie they are pretty cheap. I like the sets that are more artistic or actual game photos/action shots instead of a photo superimposed onto a weird color rainbow. That Photogenic set is pretty sweet and I liked some of the Court Kings too.

But yeah no one even attempts sets anymore. Too many variations.

 

[della]

Sounds interesting...

 

[arbitrageagent]

don't even bother with cards now. I call this era the Golden Ticket era and its way worse than the junk wax era. Manufacturers have fabricated demand by releasing all these limited edition cards, usually with autographs or pieces of a jersey. Every player has about 50 different rookie cards. All cards come with 10 different colored backgrounds, some more rare than others. People now just rip packs looking for golden tickets and throw away all the cards that aren't rare. No one collects sets anymore.

It's pure garbage now. I'm dabbling at getting back in to collecting, but no way I'm collecting anything produced after the mid 80s. It's all shit.

this is my issue my kids wants football cards and panini has like 30 different products. sucks