The point is, card shops were barely interested in buying them at all. Sports cards from the 1980s onward get weak prices on eBay also. There are just far too many of them in circulation for scarcity to drive prices up.
My 60 year old cousin in BC has collected comics since he was little. He has a 14' x 20' room full to the ceiling with 2 narrow aisles to walk in. He would buy 2 of each comic, seal one in archival plastic and box it, and read the other. He had some absurd offers for the collection back in the early 90's but he still has them.
The common cards are pretty worthless, but that's not what you sell for money. You make your money on cards that only have a limited amount produced.
I have thousands upon thousands of cards. In fact, my whole closet is boxes and binders full of cards. In the early 2000's I'd crack boxes that I'd buy off ebay and throw the one's that were worth money back on ebay and almost always at least made back the money that I spent on the box. A good box I could make $50 and up by reselling the best cards. You'd be surprised how many family members of players, big time fans and even players themselves are out there looking for every card of a particular player. I actually sold Pirates SS Craig Wilson's dad a card of his son. There's still a market out there for collecting, its just really diluted these days with too many competing companies, with subsets and subsets of subsets. Its confusing. Then I went to high school, started drinking and chasing tail and my priorities changed and I was forced to get a real job.
I ran shit with Pokemon cards. I sold my 400 card collection for about 1200 bucks. Paid for my car insurance.
my dad gave me the 1987 topps set back in the day for christmas, and you can buy it now unopened for less than it was back then. they were severely inflated for a few years in the late 80s, and now they are worth nothing because everbody just stuck them in the attic. they are all still in good condition and there are millions of them so.... zero value. bg7, what are your best cards?
I'd have to look through them, I haven't looked through them in probably a good 3 years or so. I have a shitload of various Jordan cards. Tons of inserts. I got rookies up the wazoo (never was able to draw a Jordan rookie unfortunately) but got the likes of guys like Barkley, Bird, Olujawon, Duncan, T-Mac, Shaq, Kobe, KG, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Chris Webber, etc. I have a bunch of those jersey cards and autograph ones. I have the Elton Brand press pass rookie card placque thing, Vince Carter First in Flight (has both his Raptors/UNC jersey on it). I have a bunch of rookie cards that were in limited production. Oh, and as far as Topps sets, they seem to be worthless. But I like getting them, because they're so cheap, so you can get the complete set.
true of commons but all manufactures have been randomly inserting limited serial-numbered stuff in their products for years now. that's where the value is now - particularly in serial-numbered autographed and/or game-worn patch rookie cards. those go up or down with player performance, and if a player gets hot his best cards can bring some crazy prices. the bowman chrome albert pujols autographed rookie card really sparked that market in 2001. lebron auto RC routinely go for $800 or more.
