For those that sell hockey cards.....

[ericsells75]

I think it's time to start parting with my hockey cards.. I have a few of decent value but have a few questions.

1 - None of my cards are graded. Can i expect reasonable sales with ungraded cards (I assume value will be less or average book value)

2 - Is it difficult or worth it to have cards graded?

3 - Is shipping in a bubble mailer with a plastic holder sufficent? Or do buyers expect a ceratin packaging?

I think that's it for now. But... I have a dozen or so very high value cards I am NOT selling those just ones that are probably 25-75 in value. Thanks!

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Ungraded cards sell fine. The only types of cards where raw might hurt a sale would be high end vintage, where counterfeit cards are a concern. Something like a Gretzky rookie. Dealers and experienced collectors won't have an issue buying a raw Gretzky rookie, but you will loose out on other people who aren't confident in their ability to determine what is counterfeit.

Grading is a calculated risk because it is very expensive. You have to do your research about the value of the specific card, and what they sell for graded vs raw. If you aren't proficient in pre-grading, it may not be worth it. Additionally, the two major companies for hockey (PSA & BGS) are backed up. Which means, there might be a huge delay.

If you want to look into an alternate grading service, https://mntgrading.com is gaining a bit of traction as a substitute product to PSA or BGA for modern day Young Guns or key rookies. You're looking at around $40 a card if you want a 1 month turn around, $30-35 for a 4 month turn around, or $20 for a 1 year turn around. If you have Young Guns that sell in the 50-100+ (ideally higher) range raw, and you want to gamble (or you know how to pre-grade raw cards), they might be a consideration for grading. I would not get anything lower end than that graded. It doesn't make sense. You will generally lose money on anything below a 9.5 for these types of cards, although 9's can sometimes sell high at BIN due to a shortage of graded cards on the market. If you look at MNT in particular, the sold price of 9's is all over the place with cards sometimes selling for more than the raw price+40 CAD grading fee the buyer paid, and cards sometimes selling for less than that. The more expensive the card sells for raw, the less likely you are to lose money with a lower grade because the 20-40 dollars will represent a much smaller portion of the value of the card. 

As far as shipping goes, the golden standard would be a size 000 bubble mailer (kraft or poly doesn't matter), with the card in a penny sleeve+top loader+team bag. Additionally, you should place some base cards or home made cardboard stiffeners inside the team bag (outside the top loader) or on the outside of the card. That is to prevent the card from being bent. 

If you're selling very low end cards, people will usually be fine with you sending them in a penny sleeve+top loader+team bag in a PWE (plain white envelope). Most collectors would expect that you would disclose this in the listing. The purpose of sending cards this way is that you can send a card for 1 P stamp instead of 2 P stamps. If we're talking about a card under $5, that will lower your margin and allow you to sell it for cheaper.

[ericsells75]

This is the second time in about a year where you have answered a question I have in absolute perfection! Thank you! your feedback is worth more then just a thumbs up! But... that seems the best i can do, so thanks!

[co-630995]

I have 20,000 to 30,000 hockey cards. Many rookie cards , some great some not average. Depending on dealers want so much. What is best way to sell these.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

If you are familiar with selling on eBay, put the obvious big name ones on eBay, and/or list them locally on Kijiji or Facebook marketplace. For example, if you have a Nathan MacKinnon Young Guns, that card has a pretty consistent value and a lot of demand. Unless you don't know how to sell things, you shouldn't need a dealer. A dealer would be useful for large amounts of cards in the 5-10 dollar range, that you don't want to put the work in to sell individually. In which case, they might give you 20 percent of their value, but you won't have to put in the time or work.

The point of going to a dealer is that whatever money you are leaving on the table is worth the service of the dealer paying you upfront for your cards, and the dealer taking on the time/risk of selling them. 

If you have extremely high end stuff, there are some services that will auction them for you on eBay for you in exchange for a small percentage. https://www.ebay.com/str/probstein123 Probstein is one of them. I have never used them, so I cannot offer a review.

Another option is a website like comc.com - You can send any amount of cards to their website. You pay a fee per card. They scan and process your cards. All you have to do after they are processed is decide on a price. From there, they are listed both on eBay and on COMC's website. You can also auction your cards on eBay directly through COMC. The benefit of this service is that you don't have to deal with shipping, photographing, or processing cards beyond initially preparing them to be sent in. I would only advise using this if you don't have a lot of time, and don't mind sales trickling in slowly. It is better for cards that sell in the 10-100 dollar range. Anything with a lot of demand and a high price like a big Young Guns, I would just sell on your own. 

COMC, you will get more than you would from a dealer, but you will have to pay an upfront cost to send them in, and the money will trickle in slowly over a few years. Stuff won't sell right away. 

On a side note, if your cards are all from the early 90s, odds are, they aren't worth selling. There are a few key cards that are worth a few dollars, and the Jagr OPC Premier Rookie is a 20-30 dollar card, but otherwise most stuff from that era won't be worth selling. 

[co-630995]

The cards I have are late sixties to 1985, Lafleur, Dryden, Gretzky and  Mario many more rookie cards plus hockey checklists and lots of scoring leaders. Of course lots of no names.  Was thinking not many of these cards not available unless dealers selling them.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

The best thing to do would be to figure out which cards are worth whatever your threshold is for it to be worth the time and effort to sell individually. Pull those cards out. Then try to sell the bulk of common/uncommon cards to a dealer/reseller/collector either online through Kijiji/Facebook, on eBay in lots (maybe by product and year), or by approaching card shops or looking for booths that are buying at card shows.

Then you can figure out what you are going to do with the valuable cards. Sell them yourself, send them to COMC, cosign them, etc. 

You also may want to consider having the more relevant cards (like a Lemieux or Gretzky rookie for example) graded by PSA. If you do not know what grading is, google and there are lots of explanations. It's a calculated risk to raise the value of your cards. PSA is the industry standard for vintage cards, you pretty much don't want to go with any other service for vintage hockey cards. Grading is quite expensive per card, so you only want to do it if the cards are in great condition. It can raise the value quite a bit with vintage cards. 

[co-630995]

Thank you so much for the time and effort to reply to me! You have been very helpful. I can see it is quite a process to sell the cards. I have so many cards 15 outof20 rookie cards of all time points leaders and multiple cards. Plus checklists unmarked. Almost all are Opee Chee plus baseball cards as well. Thanks again.

[doc-holmes]

I'd say if you have the cards in hand and are ready to sell, don't bother with grading, unless we're talking Gretzky, Orr, Lemieux RCs etc. I personally buy size 0 bubble mailers at the Dollarama, and just tape the toploader shut (use painter's tape, it won't leave residue) and wrap it up in a piece of paper. I'll add decoys or cardboard for more valuable cards. I've never had a complaint about the packing. It really isn't complicated. I use tracking only on orders of $100 or more, it's just not worth it otherwise. I have never had a card go missing.

[co-630995]

Gretzky cards are only 1-2,  but , Dionne, Dryden, Francis, La Fleur , Messier,Sittler, Yzerman, Gilmour, multiple rookie cards between 7-9 grade and many more!! Where do you go for private dealers!!

[doc-holmes]

If you have a local card shop nearby, I would start there. See what they have to say. They can probably get you in touch with someone.