What Should I Do With My Collection?

Thinking about what to do with your baseball card collection? Wondering, “How can I sell my baseball cards?” This is a common query we receive from collectors across the nation — and is a critical part of every collector’s experience. Knowing the Where and How of selling their cards is a critical part of the collecting experience.

If you came here, you might be asking yourself that same question. On this page, we’ll introduce you to some important steps and answer those important questions.

Before diving in, it’s crucial to identify the cards you possess. This page offers valuable tips to help you recognize your collection. Vintage cards typically hold value, even if not in pristine condition. Conversely, modern cards, especially those produced from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, often lack significant value due to mass production.

The market for older baseball cards, particularly those predating 1980, remains substantial. Vintage and prewar cards, driven in part by iconic cards like the 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, can fetch considerable value based on factors like demand and card condition.

While some local card shops still exist, many have disappeared, and local sports card dealers might be interested but may not offer representative value. It’s advisable to consider nationally recognized dealers who possess both financial resources and a broader customer base.

To streamline the process of selling your vintage sports cards, follow these fundamental steps:

Step 1: Identify Your Cards

One of the toughest things when considering selling is identifying which cards are valuable in the collection and which ones are not. For many, this can often be a very time consuming — and sometimes overwhelming — process, and is one of the main reasons to seek professional advice and appraisal services.

While we encourage — and provide — appraisals and advising, we also believe that prospective sellers should be knowledgeable about the process and how to identify the best pieces of their collections.

Everything in card sales is about speed and efficiency, and one of the fastest ways to scan through your cards and assess relative value is to focus on the names you know first — and prioritize your tasks from there.

If you have vintage cards (pre-1980), most of your value will be in hall of fame cards, especially hall of fame rookie cards. These collections, though tough, are mostly straightfoward to assess. Sports card marketing and design was considerably more straightforward before the mid-90s insert card boom, so focusing on names you know and iconic players will take you far, very quickly.

rough your collection — on a first pass anyway — is to stick to rookie cards, hall of famers, and insert cards… especially those with eye appeal.

If you have modern cards (post-1980), it can often be fairly daunting… but don’t worry, you’re not alone! The same rules apply to vintage — stick to names you know. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter, Tom Brady… the names you know tend to hold the most value. Rookie cards of hall of famers are another area to look — but if they’re later than 1990 or so, stick to the icons… think Derek Jeter, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, guys like that. From there, it can get trickier, and can depend on things like “eye appeal” and rarity, but again, you’ll do pretty well focusing on inserts of hall of famers that look really good or have a serial number on them that denotes rarity.

Step 2: Evaluate Card Condition

Raw, ungraded cards are generally separated into 3 condition tiers — Low, Mid, and High Grade. There is nuance here, especially when progressing into the grading scale, but we’ll keep this part simple, especially for newer readers.

Low Grade: This typically encompasses cards that look “worn”, have lost eye appeal, and generally “don’t look good”. They’ll have creases, significant corner wear such as rounding, scuffing on the surface, and other very noticeable defects. These cards are pretty noticeable. This generally encompasses the PSA grades 1 to 3.

The 1952 Mickey Mantle at left is an example of a low-grade card. In particular, notice the crease in the center of Mantle’s hat that goes through the log. The corners as well have issues, with graduated fraying on the top left and bottom right corners.

1952 Mantles are extremely sought after so this card would still carry a very very high price tag, but these condition issues will certainly have an affect on price.

High Grade: High grade cards are ones that are at, or approaching, mint condition. These cards are close to how they’d come out of a pack, right after manufacture. High Grade encompasses the Near Mint and above classifications, so they look “incredible”. Corners and edges have almost no flaws… maybe they’ll have some tiny bits of white on them but not much. Cards have no creases, no bends. They look stellar.

The card at left is an example of a high-grade card. It is centered very well, the corners are sharp, and the card looks just like when it was made. 

Mid Grade: These cards still look “pretty good” but have noticeable flaws. They may have a bend in the card that is not quite a crease. They’ll have some corner wear and edge wear that isn’t “gross”, but is fairly noticeable. The surface might have scratches on it, but nothing terrible. For people new to analyzing condition, mid-grade cards are the toughest of the three to get a handle on. If you’re just starting out, it’s usually easier to figure out Low and High grade — and if your cards don’t feel like either, then mid-grade is most likely.

Obviously, condition carries a premium when it comes time to sell… everything in this hobby is about condition. So, the higher grade your cards, the more you’ll earn. If you can, handle your cards as little as possible, and store them in penny sleeves and toploaders when it makes sense. Aside from toploaders, binders and card boxes are very good options as well.

The card at left is a good example of a mid grade card. The surface will be hard to see imperfections on in this picture, but look closely at the upper right corner. The corner is a little less sharp than the high-grade copy, showing a slight bit of wear and rounding. The bottom right corner, as well, shows some wear. 

Step 3: Understand the Grading System

Grading can be an excellent way to increase the value of your cards. Grading became a fixture in the hobby in the 1990s, and has since grown into one of the main engines behind the hobby’s popularity in recent years.

There are four major graders in the industry: PSA, SGC, Beckett, and CGC. When the goal is maximizing value, we generally recommend PSA for grading, but the other grading companies have their place as well and are very reputable with excellent reputations for service and quality.

Grading, while exciting, can be very difficult if you don’t have a lot of experience in the area. It can increase the value of your cards but can also be a very risky proposition and an easy way to lose money. If you’re new to grading, we recommend speaking with a professional as the field is very nuanced and broad. Boston Card Exchange is happy to help here, and we offer grading services that include recommendations and prescreening.

Step 4: Check Recent eBay Sales

While there are many platforms and marketplaces to sell cards, eBay is the king of the hobby when it comes to velocity of sale and pricing. As a result, sports card prices revolve around eBay sales prices and the site has become the standard for pricing in the hobby.

To get a sense of what your cards are worth, we recommend using eBay sold listings. Be sure to look at sold prices and not asking prices. Sold prices show what buyers in the market are willing to pay, while asking prices show what has NOT sold — and are typically asking prices that are too high, and in some cases, far too high.

Checking sales on eBay is very quick and easy. Just type in your cards, search for them, and on the left side of the screen, you can find “Sold Items”. This will show you all the sold items from the last 90 days, and is a great way to understand the value of your cards.

We recommend eBay as the number one choice, by far, of platforms to list your cards. They receive the highest prices and sell cards the fastest, bar none. Running an efficient and successful operation necessitates taking full advantage of what the platform has to offer.

Be aware, however, that along with eBay’s massive exposure and convenience comes with fees. So, expect eBay to take somewhere in the neighborhood of 20% of the final sale cost. It may seem like a lot, but in the end, the number of people they show your cards to makes the platform worth every penny — and without it, you could be waiting years sometimes to sell your cards.

Step 5: Explore Selling Options

Other platforms exist as well, such as COMC, MySlabs (for graded cards), WhatNot, and even Instagram or Twitter. Each has their niche.

For those who want to sell a handful of cards, or like the idea of trying on their own, these can be sufficient options.

For larger, or more valuable collections, however, we typically recommend incorporating a professional, both for advice and assistance in selling. Using a professional will allow you to get the most for your cards, and you deserve it, having spent a lifetime in the hobby acquiring your cards.

Boston Card Exchange has a huge number of options for prospective sellers — from sale to consignment, in-person or mail appraisals, and much more. As the most knowledgeable sellers in the Boston area, we are always here to help, and are always excited to bring our expertise to collectors and collections across the hobby.

If you’ve made it this far, perhaps you’re considering your options for sale. Reaching out and asking questions is always free, so feel free to reach out to us at info@bostoncardexchange.com, or by phone at 508-340-5984.

We’d love to hear from you and help out. You’ll be happy you did!

We look forward to hearing from you!

-Boston Card Exchange.