Selling Baseball Cards Online
One of the most important things to remember when selling your baseball cards is that you need to do your homework. If you do not then chances are you're going to get ripped off, embarrass yourself by asking for an unrealistic amount of money for your baseball cards.
One of the best tools available for gauging the value of your baseball cards is eBay.com. The best part about this is that it's free - all you need is an eBay account. If you don't already have an eBay account, this is an absolute necessity for the sports card selling process so go and create one here before you go any further (again, it's totally free).
As soon as you log into your eBay account you will have the ability to search completed listings from the last week, thereby giving you a feel for the going rate of each of your cards. Alternatively, you can use the standard eBay search to see the activity surrounding active eBay listings for the cards. If you do the latter be sure to look for auctions that have at least a few bids as these will be the most representative of the actual value of the baseball cards. Many folks grossly overprice their cards and as a result never get any bids or offers on them.
Another less known, but emerging market is sportsbuy.com. While it doesn't offer nearly the same exposure as eBay auctions, their fees are much more affordable and allow for less upfront and back-end expenses.
If you have boxes of semi-stars and common cards you're best off pulling them together to sell in a big lot. This allows you to make it an efficient use of your time while still turning cardboard into cash. If you find yourself so situated that you have a number of cards selling for upwards of five dollars apiece you'll probably be best served by selling these baseball cards by the single.
This brings us to the next big factor in determining how to proceed. How much you enjoy baseball cards? if you are a former collector who has lost interest in baseball cards, you most likely want to put as little time as possible into selling them. In these cases, you can consign them for sale through eBay by using any number of popular consignment services. A number of local card dealers around the country also offer consignment packages in return for receiving a cut of the profit.
Another often overlooked tip for maximizing your profits is to sell during the baseball season. This is just as relevant when selling any other kind of sports card. Baseball card values generally dip, sometimes considerably, during the late fall and winter. They heat up quickly as spring training commences and the new season kicks off. The MLB playoffs can also generate higher overall sales prices. In general, whenever there is a player or event that draws increased interest in Major League Baseball, more fans will be on the lookout to land baseball cards and memorabilia from their favorite players or teams.
If on the other hand you still enjoy collecting baseball cards a lot, you are likely to want to be as hands-on as possible regarding the sales process. Although selling baseball cards is not nearly as fun as buying baseball cards, it's a lot easier on the wallet. If you decide to take control the process be sure to invest in a good quality scanner, a budget supply of bubble mailers, and an efficient means for printing shipping labels. Anything that helps you streamline the process of selling cards is money in the bank. For collectors with large trading card collections, efficiency is everything.
For those selling their baseball card collections themselves, eBay feedback is a very serious matter. Even a small handful of bad comments can destroy an otherwise profitable and productive sports card business. Reputation is everything in the hobby and since eBay is a microcosm of that market, the same holds true with the eBay.com virtual auction block. Sellers with high feedback ratings not only command higher sales prices, but they also receive discounted fees from eBay. Be sure to keep the customer first and do right by your buyers.
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