My new job... sports card appraiser?

Sadly, no, but I was recently asked to evaluate a small collection of cards for an upcoming sale.

As a few of you know, I have three different blogs; one of which is a non-card blog. And as I've probably mentioned on there a few times now, my mom volunteers at multiple places that are somewhat of the retail-ish variety. The above shoebox full of cards was recently donated for a rummage sale (it's not really a rummage sale, but I can't think of a better way to describe it at the moment). Seeing as how no one there knew anything about sports cards, my mom, the volunteer (though she's risen to more than that at this particular place), volunteered my services, as a longtime collector, in trying to help them come up with a reasonable price for the entire box... which they gladly accepted.

There was one small catch though, the box was donated one day before the sale that it needed to be in was happening, which meant that I only had a couple of hours the night before to go through it and try to come up with some figures that they could look at, and then choose a price that they'd be happy with. Now, this probably wouldn't have been much of an issue had it been one of those disappointing boxes full of nothing but late 80's/early 90's beaters that you often hear about other collectors and shop owners being expected to appraise, but it wasn't. Its contents were a little bit better than that, though still not one of those boxes of untouched tobacco cards that pop up from time to time. That sort of box will have to wait for another day (fingers, and toes, crossed).

I started by sorting everything by sport, and year. And as you can see, pretty much everything was of the early to mid 70's variety. As mentioned, this was kind of thrust upon me at the very last moment, so I wasn't able to get very many pictures before the sun went down (the lighting in my house isn't conducive to photos). Had I had more time, I would've at least moved the best card from each pile to the top to make this one photo a little more impressive.

We're a few weeks removed from this sale, so I can't remember all of the numbers at this point, but I believe that there ended up be around 425-475 cards in the box. About half of them were in P-G condition, and the other half was EX- to EX+. It was kind of odd how that worked. Trying to come up with a price was a bit tricky, as I didn't want to price too low and have some asshole flipper come along and profit from them (as opposed to the cause which the sale was for), but also didn't want to price it too high and scare away any and all interested parties. There were a couple of notable cards, which are usually what are gonna move a lot like this, so I based the price mostly on what someone would've had to pay at a show or online to get them; then tacked on an additional lower sum for the remaining cards. And despite the lack of time, I wrote out a page that could be taped to the box which contained a breakdown of the card totals by year (and sport, of course), and also highlighted the notable cards (and their condition) that were in the box.

This is the first time that I've ever been asked to do something like this, and even though it would've been nice to have a bit more time, it was a fun experience; one that I wouldn't mind doing again. And I heard after the fact that the folks who run the sale were very pleased with my efforts (the spreadsheet went over especially well), and I've since been asked if I wanted to assess another lot of items. And thankfully, this time I'll have a couple of months to work on it. I, of course, said yes. This lot isn't sports or trading card related, so when I eventually get around to blogging about it, it'll be over on the non-card blog (sorry for the tease, but I'd like to generate more traffic towards that blog too).

But wait... there's more! Just doing this thing for these people would've been rewarding unto itself, but from the outset, it was made clear that I could pull out, and buy, any singles that I might want. I can imagine that some (or a lot of) current collectors would take advantage of such an offer by plucking out all of the key cards (which would all be conveniently priced lower than they should've been as well), thus rendering the lot as a whole considerably less desirable. That ain't my way though. I already had at least one copy of each of the better cards in there, and while I wouldn't have minded getting more of each of them, I would want them for cheaper than I priced them at. Heck, I would've bought the whole box if it had been one of those ones you hear about people finding at a garage sale for $5-10, but again, I was trying to make sure that these people got what they were worth, so it was a bit more than $5-10. All that being said, I did end up buying five cards, only one of which might've been considered a key card.

I haven't put much effort into doing so in recent years, but I'd still like to acquire all of the '71 action cards at some point. This got me one card closer.

There was more '73 Topps in this lot than anything else. It's also where the bulk of the best cards were hiding. Despite being Willie Mays, I don't think anyone could argue that this particular copy would be overly desirable to the casual collector. And aside form a few weirdo's, it most certainly wouldn't be of much interest to the seasoned collector (or those suffering from gradeitis). It wasn't until my brief foray into the Twitter a few years back that I came to develop a small appreciation for miscut cards. Slightly miscut still doesn't do anything for me, but cards of this nature, are, to some degree. I still won't go out of my way to find them, but this one felt like a must have. I found an uncut sheet online, which was able satisfy my curiosity as to whose partially shown underneath. It's Billy Parker. This particular card has been a longtime want, and while I'd still like to get a decent looking copy at some point, this one is pretty nifty in the meantime.

I can't remember how old I was, maybe 7 or 8, but somewhere around there my grandpa gave me a stack of cards (bound by a couple of rubber bands no less) that was made up of '73 Topps baseball and football cards. They were the first vintage cards that I can recall seeing, and were most definitely the first that I ever owned. Because of this early exposure, I have an affinity for both designs, but the football one has held a bit more sway. I've thought about trying to build the set a few times over the years, even more so recently as I've been jonesing to work on one of the 70's football sets, but after looking through the small stack that was in this lot, I realized that while I love the design, many of the photos don't do a lot for me. 

Joe Namath's card was another longtime want, if only because of his silly Joe cap. Of the five cards I took out, it's the only one that I considered a key card in the lot. That being said, it does have a few minor indents on the back, and a scratch on the front that doesn't show in the scan. I won't feel any need to ever upgrade it though. And I was surprised that I didn't already have the Alzado in my small collection of his. Prior to checking, I would've put money down on my already having at least one copy. I guess it was good thing then that there was no one around to bet with.

Bo sent me a copy of this card a few years back, but I couldn't resist adding another one to the collection. One can never have too many Rick Hunter's.

As mentioned, I did pay the going rate for all of these, and perhaps even a little more for the Mays, as I really wanted that one.

I didn't go to the actual sale. I used to really enjoy such events, but with such a large percentage of people engaged in the #FlipLife these days, I find myself rarely wanting to be amonsgt their ilk (at some point in the near future I'm going to be doing a hatepiece on their sort). I did, however, get one item from it...

This thing really pops when photographed on a red cooler.

My mom found this in a box of free stuff, and even though it was most likely made for Poker players, she still thought it would be appropriate for me, and my activities, as well. And she was right, of course. I believe that it was meant to be stuck on one's vehicle, but I'm not of the put's crap on the back of the car sort, so I'll have to find somewhere else to display it. It's pretty neat though, especially for a freebie.