Tips on how to keep your sports card collection neat and how to convert your cards to cash.
You are not alone. This is a common problem in the sports card industry. It does not matter if you are a recreational collector or if you are someone who uses sports cards to generate income.
Chances are you have sports cards in many random places of your residence. As someone that makes their livelihood off of hockey cards, I can tell you that I have sports cards all over my house.
Let me remind you that I have a dedicated office in my house for my sports card business.
I have boxes of cards in my bedroom closet, crates of cards in my garage, and random boxes of cards all over my office. To be honest, I have zero clue what is in those boxes. There may be a chunk of cards from the junk wax era, base cards that I simply refuse to throw away, and some hidden gems that would serve my life better as presidential flash cards.
The tone of this article is meant to be fun, but having sports cards all over your house can lead to anxiety. I have yet to meet a sports card collector's significant other who appreciates cards littered throughout the house. Mine does not, and she is the Vice President of the family's hockey card business.
Warning, this article has some hypocrisy to it. I need to take my own advice. There is a lot of "Do as I say, not as I do," coming.
Divide Your Collection Into Categories
Start with three categories. Cards you care about, cards you do not care about, and cards you might care about.
Set aside the cards you care about. Those are the cards that will become your personal collection (PC). Find somewhere to keep them safe and organized.
The cards you do not care about need to go. If you like keeping your base cards that contain little to no value, get them in boxes. If they carry value, sell them now. More on where you can sell your sports cards later in the article.
The cards you might care about can be tricky. Ask yourself, "Why do I care about these cards?" Is it an up and coming Young Gun that is starting to make some noise in the NHL? Maybe it was your favorite player growing up. Whatever your reason is, the ultimate goal is to get these cards into the other two categories as quickly as possible. You need to be constantly reviewing this category.
It is Time to Convert Your Sports Cards to Cash!
Converting sports cards to cash is the fun part. This is where the important choice of where you sell your cards needs to be made.
Disclaimer, talk to someone who understands the tax implications you may face of selling sports cards before doing so. No one likes a surprise when preparing their taxes.
eBay is a great option for selling your sports cards. It can be very time consuming as well. eBay will charge you somewhere between 10% and 15% per card. Plus you have the additional fees of shipping supplies.
This is where consignment comes into play. There are many businesses that will take your cards on consignment for a small fee. You have to weigh the time spent doing eBay listings plus the cost of shipping supplies against the simple process of sending your cards to a consigner and forgetting about them for a few weeks.
If we are talking sports cards in the $50 or less range, consign all day. Especially if you have hundreds of cards you want to get rid of.
Another option is taking your sports cards to your local card shop. The amount paid on your cards will vary by shop. Some shops will only take cards that meet certain criteria. Whereas other shops will take anything, as long as you are okay with getting 60% of the card's value.
eBay sold listings are a great way to get a general ballpark of the value of your cards. 130 PT. is another great website to find the value of your cards, 130 PT. will also show you the offer accepted on eBay.
"Rome Wasn't Built In a Day."
Start slow. Instead of trying to fix the problem in a day, set small goals. Achieving smaller goals will lead to your biggest goal being achieved. My personal goal is to do five eBay listings per day.
If my mindset is to lock myself in my office, with messy boxes of random sports cards all over the place, for five hours to do eBay listings. It is not happening.
I also know that I am not stopping after I do just five eBay listings.
Happy hunting, and collecting!