The first step in selling your common baseball cards is to carefully sort through your collection and identify which cards are in good sellable condition. Even common cards can sell if they are in near mint or mint condition. Set aside any cards that are worn, creased or have damage as these will be very difficult to sell. Focus on cards from 1980 and later as older common cards usually have little value unless they are in absolutely pristine condition.
Once you’ve sorted your cards, it’s time to do some research on current market values. The best way is to search eBay’s “Sold Items” using the player’s name and year of the card. This will give you a good idea of what similar conditioned cards are actually selling for, not just listed prices. Take note of recent average selling prices for not just common cards but rookie and star player cards as well from the same sets as comparisons.
With value research done, it’s now time to decide how you want to sell the cards. Your main options are online through platforms like eBay, through a local card shop, or using a service that specializes in selling collections. Each have pros and cons.
Selling on eBay yourself gives you the most control and you get to keep all the selling price but it requires taking photos of each card, writing detailed item descriptions, packaging/shipping the cards safely and handling any returns or issues. For larger collections this can be quite time consuming.
Selling to a local card shop is very convenient as they will give you an instant cash offer for the entire lot but they need to turn a profit so their offer will likely be just a percentage of what you could potentially make selling individually online. They also may not want some of the less valuable common cards.
Using a service like SportsCardSellers.net allows you to simply send your cards to them and they handle photographing, describing, pricing and shipping each card to buyers on eBay and other platforms for a fee (usually 10-15% of final selling price). This removes the workload from you but also means you don’t get to keep all the profits.
I would recommend starting by taking your well-conditioned common cards that seem to regularly sell on eBay for $5 or more and listing them in smaller themed lots – all cards from a certain year of a set for example. Group common cards you can’t find much data on into larger mystery lots. See how they sell over a month or two to get a sense of what buyers are interested in and adjust your pricing/lotting strategy accordingly before selling the rest of the collection in larger drops.
Its important that you take clear, well lit photos showing both the front and back of each card and describe condition details accurately in your listings. Ship cards securely intoploaders inside a bubble mailer or rigid envelope. Consider offering calculated shipping discounts for additional cards to encourage buyers to bundle more items. Respond to all messages promptly and be prepared to refund buyers if a card’s condition was misrepresented. Keep detailed seller records for tax reporting purposes.
With some effort you can potentially make a nice chunk of extra spending money or hobby funds by slowly selling your common baseball cards individually online rather than accepting a bulk low-ball offer. Just be patient through the listing/selling process as it may take time to find the right buyers but persistency will pay off more than a one-time local sale in many cases. I hope these tips help you maximize the return on your card collection! Let me know if any part of the process needs more clarification.
