Pricing Vintage

kidbrando · 11-21-2021, 11:59 PM

I recently bought a lot that contains a good number of vintage cards. I'm thinking that I want to move the whole lot, minus some PC cards. It's some HOFs and a lot of commons all in good, good+ condition. It's about 2 binders of cards from 1959-1975.

Process Thus Far:
1. Look at ebay Last sold for HOFs for like condition and project.
2. For commons select $2 or if really good condition $10
3. Write down each card and price.
4. Sum all the prices and multiply by .6-.7 then list the lot

For example - Topps 1970
Card Team Ebay
140 Reggie Jackson Oakland Athletics $20
350 Roberto Clemente Pittsburgh Pirates $60
458 Pete Rose Cincinnati Reds AS $20
459 Reggie Jackson Oakland Athletics AS $12
462 Hank Aaron Atlanta Braves AS $40
464 Johnny Bench Cincinnati Reds AS $20
470 Willie Stargell Pittsburgh Pirates $40
500 Hank Aaron Atlanta Braves $30
580 Pete Rose Cincinnati Reds $50
600 Willie Mays San Francisco Giants $20
660 Johnny Bench Cincinnati Reds $100

Questions:
How would you price a big lot like this?
Is this a reasonable approach. What else should I search for?
Am I pricing too low or too high?

hxcmilkshake · 11-22-2021, 12:17 AM

True G condition? With creases and stuff? Then yes you are way too high

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kidbrando · 11-22-2021, 12:40 AM

No creases on anything. Corners are good. I would consider grading most of it.

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mjohnatgt · 11-22-2021, 05:35 AM

Good and Good+ are 2 and 2.5 on the grading scale.
https://www.psacard.com/resources/gradingstandards
For many of those cards, you probably want to see what a card in the same condition is at COMC (while logged in, since the price drops after being logged in). You can't just price commons at $2-8, because in many cases, you would only get 15 cents for some. Commons that aren't short-printed or high-numbers are basically throw-ins in a lot.
If you're going to cherry pick a lot of vintage cards, then try to sell the rest in bulk, you're going to need to discount it by half of the remaining value to sell it, most likely.

SpartanWarrior · 11-22-2021, 05:47 AM

How much is your time worth?

You say you bought it as a lot and have added a couple of cards to your PC. Great!

So sell it at a small profit and move to the next deal. Unless there is something worth $100 or more its likely not really worth the time you'll spend to squeeze an extra 40-50 dollars. Good luck.

kidbrando · 11-22-2021, 01:39 PM

Actually it’s a lot of cards. Easily 4K from 1959-1975. The good ones I’ll price the commons… I’ll check for errors / exceptions. Gonna just sell it all maybe keep some Aarons and Ryan’s.

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discodanman45 · 11-22-2021, 02:52 PM

If you want the best deal you will need to sell each card individually. If you add up the going rate of each card and sell it as a lot, you probably won't get any takers for even 60% of that value.

Selling each card individually with eBay's $20 an under shipping in PWE with "tracking" is a good way to go to move vintage cards between $5 and $15. I would personally sell each card individually if you have time. I don't have time anymore and stopped selling $5 cards with PWE on eBay. However, once you come up with a way to list them and ship them it doesn't take that much time. Plus with vintage you don't get the idiot buyers like you do with modern.

JimV · 11-23-2021, 09:02 AM

I agree with discodanman45 that you should price individually. If you list your prices and grades accurately and point out flaws in your description, then your vintage should sell very well. If you grade fairly, you will get repeat buyers.

As Dan also points out, your time is a determining factor, it essentially determines the low $ value of what you decide to list. Under that price point, you can set up “u pick” lots of ten or twenty for each year or try to move common lots via trade here if you don’t want to wait for those u pick lots to move.

Good luck. FYI - I would be interested in any 1972 Topps “In Action” cards for trade or sale. No worries either way.

mizzoujohn · 11-23-2021, 09:40 AM

You can lot them up by year and let fly on eBay in .99 auctions.
You could consign the whole collection go Goldin or similar to be sold as a ‘vintage collection’, those usually do well.
How much are you in it for? Hopefully just a couple/few hundreds bucks then you don’t have to stress about wholesaling it out.

kidbrando · 11-23-2021, 01:01 PM

I'm in for a bit more. But the volume of cards makes it promising. Using Beckett Vintage Almanac for research / pricing as well.

hanes1111 · 11-23-2021, 03:09 PM

I see you have a COMC account, why not send them in?

kidbrando · 11-23-2021, 03:11 PM

Definitely have a COMC account one, never used them. Do you like their service ?

I will be checking out their pricing.

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hanes1111 · 11-23-2021, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kidbrando

Definitely have a COMC account one, never used them. Do you like their service ?

I will be checking out their pricing.

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They are a good alternative to ebay, plus you can cross list to ebay from there. I like them but there prices have gone up and they have definitely ironed out some things. Its always evolving though and you will find pro and con opinions throughout the COMC section.

mintacular · 11-23-2021, 10:07 PM

I don't think COMC is the way to go with most mid-grade or whatever commons as the site is buried with these cards. I think this guy needs a better sense of what he is doing and not using clunky old price guides, etc. He also doesn't seem to know how to grade vintage cards.

kidbrando · 11-24-2021, 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mintacular

I don't think COMC is the way to go with most mid-grade or whatever commons as the site is buried with these cards. I think this guy needs a better sense of what he is doing and not using clunky old price guides, etc. He also doesn't seem to know how to grade vintage cards.

Definitely don’t know how to price / grade vintage cards. Yep. My original question was like how to you price / grade them.

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discodanman45 · 11-24-2021, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kidbrando

Definitely don’t know how to price / grade vintage cards. Yep. My original question was like how to you price / grade them.

To sell vintage cards at a fair price you really need to have experience with grading scales and also using eBay sales as a "price guide." If you don't have experience with grading vintage and estimating grades, there will be two outcomes. The first outcome is you underestimate the grade and sell for far below the true price of the card. The second outcome is you overestimate the card and don't give an accurate estimate of the card's condition. In this case the cards won't sell or you will have unhappy customers when they receive the cards.

Below is an older video, but a quick way to estimate grades. Not the best, but they give pictures to help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV-bQX1i99c

mfw13 · 11-24-2021, 01:07 PM

Like with anything else, the question is how much effort do you want to put into getting the best possible price?

11-21-2021, 11:59 PM	#1
kidbrando Member Join Date: May 2020 Location: MN Posts: 669 engywookmedia kidbrando	Pricing Vintage I recently bought a lot that contains a good number of vintage cards. I'm thinking that I want to move the whole lot, minus some PC cards. It's some HOFs and a lot of commons all in good, good+ condition. It's about 2 binders of cards from 1959-1975. Process Thus Far: 1. Look at ebay Last sold for HOFs for like condition and project. 2. For commons select $2 or if really good condition $10 3. Write down each card and price. 4. Sum all the prices and multiply by .6-.7 then list the lot For example - Topps 1970 Card Team Ebay 140 Reggie Jackson Oakland Athletics $20 350 Roberto Clemente Pittsburgh Pirates $60 458 Pete Rose Cincinnati Reds AS $20 459 Reggie Jackson Oakland Athletics AS $12 462 Hank Aaron Atlanta Braves AS $40 464 Johnny Bench Cincinnati Reds AS $20 470 Willie Stargell Pittsburgh Pirates $40 500 Hank Aaron Atlanta Braves $30 580 Pete Rose Cincinnati Reds $50 600 Willie Mays San Francisco Giants $20 660 Johnny Bench Cincinnati Reds $100 Questions: How would you price a big lot like this? Is this a reasonable approach. What else should I search for? Am I pricing too low or too high? Last edited by kidbrando; 11-22-2021 at 12:02 AM.

11-22-2021, 05:47 AM	#5
SpartanWarrior Member Join Date: Aug 2021 Location: PA Posts: 270	Take a small profit and move on How much is your time worth? You say you bought it as a lot and have added a couple of cards to your PC. Great! So sell it at a small profit and move to the next deal. Unless there is something worth $100 or more its likely not really worth the time you'll spend to squeeze an extra 40-50 dollars. Good luck.

11-22-2021, 02:52 PM	#7
discodanman45 Member Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: CA Posts: 9,653 danch27	If you want the best deal you will need to sell each card individually. If you add up the going rate of each card and sell it as a lot, you probably won't get any takers for even 60% of that value. Selling each card individually with eBay's $20 an under shipping in PWE with "tracking" is a good way to go to move vintage cards between $5 and $15. I would personally sell each card individually if you have time. I don't have time anymore and stopped selling $5 cards with PWE on eBay. However, once you come up with a way to list them and ship them it doesn't take that much time. Plus with vintage you don't get the idiot buyers like you do with modern. __________________ Updating my entire collection on Card Ladder. Lots to go... https://www.cardladder.com/showcase/IOBB7AY2qTVVKSgU9Aqj02kfF4I3

11-23-2021, 03:09 PM	#11
hanes1111 Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Pittsburgh!!! Posts: 5,170 luckylarrys hanes1111	I see you have a COMC account, why not send them in? __________________ Photobucket Kicked me out so Im building my Flickr Flickr-https://www.flickr.com/photos/196537527@N08/albums IG luckylarrys2014

11-23-2021, 10:07 PM	#14
mintacular Member Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: USA Posts: 311 thatguy822 thatguy822	Don't I don't think COMC is the way to go with most mid-grade or whatever commons as the site is buried with these cards. I think this guy needs a better sense of what he is doing and not using clunky old price guides, etc. He also doesn't seem to know how to grade vintage cards.

11-22-2021, 12:17 AM	#2
hxcmilkshake Member Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: Apopka FL Posts: 11,281 hxcmilkshake	True G condition? With creases and stuff? Then yes you are way too high Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

11-22-2021, 12:40 AM	#3
kidbrando Member Join Date: May 2020 Location: MN Posts: 669 engywookmedia kidbrando	No creases on anything. Corners are good. I would consider grading most of it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

11-22-2021, 05:35 AM	#4
mjohnatgt Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Niceville, FL Posts: 14,580 mjohnatgt mjohnatgt	Good and Good+ are 2 and 2.5 on the grading scale. https://www.psacard.com/resources/gradingstandards For many of those cards, you probably want to see what a card in the same condition is at COMC (while logged in, since the price drops after being logged in). You can't just price commons at $2-8, because in many cases, you would only get 15 cents for some. Commons that aren't short-printed or high-numbers are basically throw-ins in a lot. If you're going to cherry pick a lot of vintage cards, then try to sell the rest in bulk, you're going to need to discount it by half of the remaining value to sell it, most likely.

11-22-2021, 01:39 PM	#6
kidbrando Member Join Date: May 2020 Location: MN Posts: 669 engywookmedia kidbrando	Actually it’s a lot of cards. Easily 4K from 1959-1975. The good ones I’ll price the commons… I’ll check for errors / exceptions. Gonna just sell it all maybe keep some Aarons and Ryan’s. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

11-23-2021, 09:02 AM	#8
JimV Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 2,349 Jjvjjvjjvjjv Jjvalenti	I agree with discodanman45 that you should price individually. If you list your prices and grades accurately and point out flaws in your description, then your vintage should sell very well. If you grade fairly, you will get repeat buyers. As Dan also points out, your time is a determining factor, it essentially determines the low $ value of what you decide to list. Under that price point, you can set up “u pick” lots of ten or twenty for each year or try to move common lots via trade here if you don’t want to wait for those u pick lots to move. Good luck. FYI - I would be interested in any 1972 Topps “In Action” cards for trade or sale. No worries either way.

11-23-2021, 09:40 AM	#9
mizzoujohn Member Join Date: Feb 2021 Posts: 175	You can lot them up by year and let fly on eBay in .99 auctions. You could consign the whole collection go Goldin or similar to be sold as a ‘vintage collection’, those usually do well. How much are you in it for? Hopefully just a couple/few hundreds bucks then you don’t have to stress about wholesaling it out.

11-23-2021, 01:01 PM	#10
kidbrando Member Join Date: May 2020 Location: MN Posts: 669 engywookmedia kidbrando	I'm in for a bit more. But the volume of cards makes it promising. Using Beckett Vintage Almanac for research / pricing as well.

11-23-2021, 03:11 PM	#12
kidbrando Member Join Date: May 2020 Location: MN Posts: 669 engywookmedia kidbrando	Definitely have a COMC account one, never used them. Do you like their service ? I will be checking out their pricing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

11-24-2021, 01:07 PM	#17
mfw13 Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 17,228	Like with anything else, the question is how much effort do you want to put into getting the best possible price?