20,000 Cards - They're Mine! And Yours?

If you're buying new product, 90 bucks can get you one hobby box of a newly-released product (maybe?), or 4.5 blasters (without tax) at the local big box retailer.

This is what 90 bucks on Craigslist just got me.

Those are six large file boxes (maybe used for comic books?) that are filled with cards.  They are stacked 3 or 4 layers deep in each one.  I estimate it is between 15,000 and 20,000 cards altogether.

So what is it?  Junk wax, right?  There definitely is some of that in here, but it's the minority.  Talking with the guy who sold it to me, he was collecting in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and it is just a big variety from that time-period, primarily.  Standing in his house for 5 minutes, I obviously couldn't look through every layer of every box, but I saw enough to know that I wasn't going to end up with only crap out of this -- there's a lot of fun stuff from that time-period.....which was the period when I WASN'T actively collecting, so this will fill a big need for my Royals collections from that era.  I am a "low-end" collector so doing all the digging through these should be a blast.

It is approx 70% baseball, 25% football, with 5% being miscellaneous (Basketball, Hockey, Star Wars, Simpsons).  I know one of the six boxes is completely full of MLB Showdown and NFL Showdown cards, which he said he was REALLY into at the time.  I rarely see those up for trade, so I should be a source for those if you have some team/player sets you need help with.

My project:  I am going to start sifting through these and posting the general contents of what I am finding (what years, what sets, how many cards, anything particularly interesting that I find).

If You Want Cards:  I know a lot of you are in the same boat as me, and weren't collecting during part of that period from 1995-2005.  There are WAY more cards here than I will be able to keep, and I'd love to trade away anything that you out in the blogosphere could use.  LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU WANT and I will set it aside for you.
Please make your requests for:
1) Specific card wantlists from certain sets.  I.e., "I need cards #4, 13, 19, 22 from 2003 Fleer Double Header."  If you have a team-based wantlist with card numbers, shoot that my way.  These are the most-specific requests and will be honored first.
2) Player collections.  I.e. "Please set aside any Jeff Bagwell cards" or "Please set aside any Tom Glavine cards, but only if he is shown on the Mets."
3) Team requests.   I.e. "I want all your Seattle Seahawks."   <---This is the least specific, so I will honor those last.
Feel free to add any additional requests as you start to see what comes out of here.

When I brought the boxes home, I let my oldest son pull out a handful of cards to show him what was in here.  He grabbed a stack of miscellaneous football, and in the middle of his handful he says "Look at this one, Dad!"

It's a Starting Lineup oddball of my favorite football player.  Found in the first handful of this "haystack."   Let's see what other lovely "needles" we can uncover in this process, shall we?

Commons Giveaway

This was the picture for the lot I just gave away on Craigslist.  I think it was probably about 7k baseball cards and 4k football.  This was the result of lots and lots of sorting everything that I've bought at garage sales and from craigslist myself.  All my keepers and traders are still tucked away in my closet, but these were just taking up space.

They went to a guy who coaches youth baseball and has two sons of his own that are starting to collect.  They were happy to get them and I was happy to be rid of them.  :-)

What's the largest # of cards you have ever gotten rid of in one shot?  How did you do it -- sell/give?

Victory in the Craigslist Free Section - Griffey and Nolan Ryan

Craigslist is a wild place.

It's main advantage is that it frictionlessly brokers any type of exchange that you can think of.  You can find any sort of trouble that you want there, but it also fosters the quick transfer of goods to people who want them from those who no longer have any desire to keep them.  Usually, there is some cash exchanged, but the best part of Craigslist is the FREE section.  Whenever someone is cleaning out a garage, moving, etc., they will find stuff they don't need but want someone else to have -- so they just post it for free.  No strings attached.   I just gave away my equipment for "Rock Band" on PS2 tonight, for example.

I have an alert set up on my local Craigslist so that all posts with "cards" in them get sent to my Google Reader (note to self, find some service OTHER than Google Reader to use after June).  Recently, one popped up in the free section as "Uncut Sheets of Cards."  I emailed the guy then hustled over there.  Here is what I came home with for a grand total of $0.

Here are two uncut sheets from 1991 Mother's Cookies.  The one on the left is a 4-card "Father and Son" set of Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ken Griffey, Sr.   On the right is the 4-card set called the "300 Wins Set" of Nolan Ryan.  The 4-cards are just printed over and over on these sheets. I guess that means I have 18 complete sets of each.  :-)

Here's a little blurb on them in the 2011 Standard Catalog.

Here's a close-up on the Griffey's.

So are you jealous yet?  There's no need to be.  I'm not keeping these.  As cool as they are, I'm probably not going to display these, frame them, or do anything productive with them.   Living with my family in a 2-bedroom apartment, I don't have a ton of extra room for stuff that is not in the heart of my collection.

So, would any of my fellow blog-people want these to do something with?  Griffey fans?  Rangers fans?  Uncut sheet fans?  I'd let them go for the cost of shipping/packaging.  They are a thin cardstock, so they don't roll-up super tight.  I could try to get them into one of those big priority mail triangular tubes, maybe.  I wouldn't want to make them all curled/bent/jacked-up any more than is necessary.  Let me know if one or both of these is up your alley.

There is some damage on these, although they still look pretty good for being stuck in some guy's garage for 15 years. 

Tear along the side

$175 for 2 Mattinglys

Is it worth it?  ;-)

http://ventura.craigslist.org/clt/3137164850.html

Craigslist Cards - What to Offer?

Hey all -- quick question...this guy on Craigslist has a lot of cards for sale.  Some G/U, Autos, and it looks like lots of miscellaneous.  He doesn't have a price on it -- he says to "make an offer."

My question to you is....How much should I offer him for this stuff?  Based only on what you can see, what do you think it is worth?  He's "local" to me, so there wouldn't be any shipping cost.  Please leave a comment below.

http://ventura.craigslist.org/clt/2885168525.html

Big Pile Shipping and 2011 Spending Total

The BIG PILE has shipped!  That's what the 12 winners envelopes look like, with a little customs form on top for our Canadian winner.  :-)  They went out on New Year's Eve from CA, so should arrive in your neck of the woods sometime later this week.

A lot of people have been talking about collecting goals recently and how they plan to change their behavior in the new year.  I was interested in how much I spent on cards in 2011, so I asked my wife.  My guess was around $175.  I had bought a 2011 Topps Football hobby box ($55), plus a few Ebay purchases, some Sportlots, and some group breaks.  She told me the actual answer...$327.  I had forgotten some supplies, some miscellaneous Target packs, a Craigslist purchase and shipping on trade packages. But that's still a big gap!  Luckily that is not enough to break the bank or cause a problem in our overall financial situation.  However, I do want to be more aware of what I am spending as the year goes on, so I am going to try to track it on the blog to keep it front-and-center in my mind.

I am also going to limit the "accumulating" aspect of my collecting in the first half of 2012 and focus more on organizing and posting things I already have.  I won't pass up a good trade offer or one of my regular group breaks, but will rather try to avoid those days of trolling ebay or Sportlots without a real "need" in mind (none of this is NEEDED, after all).