You wanted advice on selling sports cards. You got it.

How much would you pay for one of these at The National?

Note to Coach’s Box readers: This is my weekly column for the Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati.com.

By Mike Bass
mbass@mikebasscoaching.com

ROSEMONT, Illinois — The eBay folks were handing out promotional material at the recent National Sports Collectors Convention. Being a passive but curious collector these days, how could I say no? As I was turning to walk away, someone confronted me.

“I’ll give you $20 for that,” the man said.

“Um … no, thank you,” I stammered and left.

What just happened here? I was not even sure what he wanted. Did I just blow it? Was I smart? It did not matter. I just felt uneasy making an uniformed decision.

I had learned my lesson.

I wrote a few months ago about my experience selling some cards. It was not particularly pleasant at the time, but I vowed to enjoy the process and learn from it if I ever tried this again. I received some emails after that asking for advice on how to sell, and another followed after I wrote last week about my excursion to The National.

With you in mind, I asked experts at The National for some basic advice about selling cards. Hope it helps.

1. Check eBay

Experts go to eBay for the latest trends.

So can you.

“EBay’s a great resource for pricing,” said PWCC Marketplace director of business development Jesse Craig, who just brokered the NFL-card-record $4.3 million sale of Patrick Mahomes’ rookie card. “We have a market-price research tool on our website that feeds all the eBay data to it.”

There is some strategy involved here. For a sense of what an item is worth in the marketplace — versus the asking price — type the description of your item, then click on the “Completed Items” filter. Now look at recent results.

 *If the price is green: The item sold at that price.

 *If a line strikes through the price in green: The undisclosed best offer was accepted instead of that price.

*If the price is in black: The item did not sell.

Next?

“Then they can make a decision that, if they’re expensive cards, they can get them graded,” said Rick Probstein, one of the world’s top eBay sellers (Probstein123). “If they’re not expensive, then it’s not worth the money.”

2. Grading matters

Professionally graded cards generally attract better prices. Just make sure the grading is worth the cost.

Especially now.

PSA, arguably the grading-industry leader, faced the collectibles boom and orders backlog by raising prices, adjusting options and suspending cheaper services.

In early 2021, you could pay as little as $10 for a card valued at $199 or less (if you submitted 20 or more cards). Now the cheapest option would be $20 for a card valued at $499 or less (with a 10-card minimum) — except that PSA placed that and other low-end services on hiatus. The minimum now is $200 per card valued at $2,499 or less. The max is $10,000 a card worth $250,000 or more.

There are other options. Beckett Grading Services (BGS), which graded the Mahomes card, eliminated all but its premium option of $250 per card ($125, if you skip the “sub grades” of key elements). SGC, which graded the Honus Wagner card now at action and threatening the sports-card record of $5.2 million, starts grading at $30 for a card valued less than $1,500.

I could go on, but if this is worthwhile to you, you can do the work and look at options. You might even enjoy it.

“Education’s a big thing,“ Craig said. “Research.”

What would you pay for this? Would you believe I have one at home?

3. Making the sale

What Craig just said about education extends to the sale.

And to the whole process, really.

“Do your homework,” he said. “It’s not a get-rich-quick thing. You need to understand the market. There’s a lot of people out there who make a lot of money doing what we call flipping cards — buying low and selling high, grading, all that stuff — but they understand the ins and out of the market. There’s a lot of good resources. Just Google it.”

Plenty of options out there for selling.

Hundreds of dealers set up at The National, many making on-the-spot offers on collectibles, same as you might see on a smaller level at local card shows or stores. Is it worth trying that at home? How much time do you want to invest going to different places to comparison shop for the best offer on your graded or ungraded items?

How about online options? The pandemic showed the power of buying and selling sports collectibles online. Maybe consigning with someone else to sell your items sounds appealing. Some have vaults. Some charge the buyer or the seller or both for sales.

If you feel more comfortable on eBay, great. Use the same research mentioned earlier to set your price. Just remember that eBay gets a cut. (Not that eBay is alone in that, because any transaction might include extra costs.)

Or let one of the eBay sellers handle the deal.

As of 7:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Probstein123 listed more than 27,000 results, ranging from an Andre Thornton baseball card with a bid of 99 cents (plus $4 for shipping) to a set of 13 Michael Jordan rookie cards offered at a Buy It Now price of $6.5 million (plus $50 for shipping).

Probstein will charge you a sliding scale of consignment rates.  Although he would prefer to sell items worth at least $50, if your item ells for less than $10, you pay him 8 percent of that price plus an extra $1. If your item sells for more than $150,000, you pay him 5 percent of that price.

“Most people, if they sell from us, make more money by selling through a broker,” Probstein said. “They just send us the cards … They don’t have to be an expert on it. We handle all the work.”

This is just an example.

4. Now what?

In the end, you are the only expert that matters. This is your call about how to proceed. There is no guaranteed path to the highest dollar for what you own. Your card or collection is worth what someone will pay for it.

And that same someone might turn around and sell it for more. This is what dealers will do. Not every collector wants your cards as keepsakes. This is business.

If the cards meant something to you, of course this might feel personal. Then again, if you are trying to sell at the highest price you can, isn’t this business for you, too?

Pick a roadmap you prefer most, and when you start feeling anxious, ask yourself what is the very least you can get out of the experience. Who knows what will happen in the future? That Mahomes rookie card someone bought might skyrocket if he wins three more Super Bowls, or it might bottom out if he gets hurt.

As for what I did not sell at The National?

I did a little research. Turns out the guy wanted my DJ Skee “I Feel Like Mike” Michael Jordan encased card. Checking eBay, that $20 I was offered seems low. The previous day, it had sold for as much as $250. No grade was necessary. The original wrapping was intact.

The price already was falling by the time I got mine, and it continued to drop. One did sell on eBay for $75 on Monday, and Probstein sold another for $78 on Tuesday. So maybe the value will rise again.

Now I just have to decide if I am ready to sell it.

Would you?

Remember to email Bass at mbass@mikebasscoaching.com or reach out to him @SportsFanCoach1 on Twitter.

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