It is truly in the best interest of Dean's Cards to pay the best possible price when you are ready to sell baseball cards, other sports cards or non-sports cards. Many of the people who sell baseball cards to us were either referred to us or are repeat sellers of baseball cards. Many were baseball card customers. Some people take years to fully sell their baseball card collections. They sell us a few baseball card sets every several months or so.

The bottom line is that Dean's Cards sells thousands of baseball cards every week. This means WE ALWAYS NEED TO BUY CARDS and pay "top dollar" for collections. From the customer feedback that we receive, we pay more for cards than other dealers. We would appreciate the opportunity to bid when you are ready to sell your baseball cards collection.

• Dean's Cards buys over 500 baseball card collections a year and pays "top dollar" for collections.

• The first step in selling a baseball card collection is to complete our simple form above. Please give us a general idea of how many baseball cards you have and from what years. We check our e-mails throughout the day and will answer you back within a few hours.  We can then send you all kinds of information on how we buy baseball cards and what we pay.

• If you call our office, we will still need you to fill out the form as the first step. Once we trade basic information and qualify your baseball card collection, Dean or Elana will be glad to speak to you on the phone, as needed.

• Most people are shocked to learn that almost all of the baseball cards issued after 1980 have such a low value that they are rarely worth the postage required to mail them.

Whether you are thinking of selling your boyhood baseball card collection or you have been handed the responsibility of liquidating the collection of a family member, it can be a very daunting task. This section reviews the options open to a person selling a vintage baseball card card collection and will hopefully assist in "parting the fog" on how to get the most money possible for your baseball card collection.

While there is no shortage of dealers who will buy vintage baseball card collections, Dean's Cards is able to offer a higher percentage of the baseball card collection's actual value than most traditional baseball card dealers. Dean's Cards can usually pay more for vintage baseball card collections simply because what we buy goes directly into our own online inventory of more than 1.5 million baseball cards. In fact, quite a few card shop owners who buy baseball card collections will regularly send them to us - knowing that they will make a nice margin on the cards.

Dean's Cards offers the best selection of vintage baseball cards available online. In order to do so, we are continuously purchasing baseball card collections. We spend thousands of dollars every week on baseball card collections.. Dean's Cards makes selling your baseball card collection an extremely easy process. When we receive your baseball cards, we are usually able to provide you with our bid within two business days. We make our top offer right away. If you accept our offer, we will mail you a check.

We sincerely hope that we end up writing you a large check! This means you have some nice baseball cards, and we always need the inventory. If the amount that we offer for your baseball cards falls below your expectations, we will pay the postage to return the baseball card collection to you.

We believe that what Dean's Cards can pay for a baseball card collection is more than you will get elsewhere -- so it is in both our interests for us to give you as many facts as possible to help you make the best possible decision.

Quite often people that have never collected vintage baseball cards inherit the responsibility of selling a vintage baseball card collection. It can seem like an overwhelming responsibility. The first thing that some people do is go to their local baseball card shop (if they can still find one) to ask what the collection is worth. Most are surprised to discover that they are often offered a few pennies on the dollar of a baseball card collection's stated book value.

The dealer at the baseball card store usually offers a brief economic lesson of baseball card collecting in order to explain the low amount that he is offering. The dealer may explain that there are numerous reasons that the baseball cards are worth such a low amount and gives examples such as: buyers seldom pay "full book price" on cards and the shop must pay rent, labor, insurance, and other types of store overhead to cover the stores' expenses. He may also tell you that a baseball card may sit in inventory for months or even years before it eventually sells. All of these reasons may be true, but there is a much more important reason that the "strip mall" card dealer can only pay the collector a few pennies on the dollar for a vintage baseball card collection.

The main reason that their offer is so low is that retail baseball card stores sell mostly the newer collectibles. Their clientele is often kids (and maybe their fathers) who collect the new sports cards, fantasy cards or even comic books. Unlike Dean's Cards, vintage baseball cards are not their specialty. Card shops serve a different niche of the hobby. For every collector of the vintage baseball cards, there are probably a hundred new card collectors. Most of the new card collectors prefer the current players that they recognize and can still see play at the ballparks. Most card shops keep a few vintage baseball cards in the display case for show, but it is impossible for a retail card store to do enough traffic to sell more than a few vintage baseball cards.

On a side note, the traditional "strip mall" card shop is quickly disappearing, mainly because it is so much more efficient and convenient to buy and sell baseball cards online. Only a fraction of the stores remain from the ones that were in existence 25 years ago. Most vintage baseball card buying and selling now occurs online. According to a top hobby newsletter, there were about 5000 sports cards shops in the early 1990s. Today that number is below 500 and getting lower every year.

The "strip mall" card shops simply serve a different niche of the hobby. They either quickly liquidate the vintage collection on eBay themselves or wholesale the cards to another dealer - like Dean's Cards. The card shops are forced to pay less for cards, because they do not have a direct way to sell the cards. Online auctions are usually not the best option, because they generally appeal to bargain hunters and rarely bring top prices for collectibles.

Most people are shocked to learn that it is not unusual for a large baseball card collection to change hands between four or five dealers before the items are made available to the individual collector. Each dealer in the process will take out some of the baseball cards and then sell the remainder of the collection to the next dealer for a profit, even if you find a dealer who is experienced in selling online. The dealer must price the baseball cards for quick sale and is rarely able to pay more than they are assured of receiving from the online auctions.

At Dean's Cards, we offer a different concept than you will find with other dealers. We buy baseball card collections from dealers all the time and pay the same percentages to them as we do the individual collectors. Dean's Cards can pay more for vintage baseball card collections, because what we buy goes directly into our own online baseball card inventory. This way we can both avoid the middleman.

Dean's Cards is often called the "Amazon" of vintage baseballcards and is recognized within the hobby as the #1 Online Seller of vintage baseball cards. Although some other dealers came to be #1 in online sales, no other dealer has more than a fraction of our online baseball card inventory.

Often when it comes time for the non-collector to sell a baseball card collection, they are surprbaseball ised to learn that no one will offer them anywhere near the Book Value Price for their baseball cards. Here are a couple reasons why this may occur:

• The Book Value refers to baseball cards that are in Near Mint condition. Baseball cards that grade "NEAR MINT" still have sharp corners, good centering and no gum stains or pen marks on the card. Very few vintage baseball cards (less than 2%) grade as high as NEAR MINT. Since most baseball cards were originally bought and handled by kids, a very low percentage of the cards remain in high quality condition. Most of the cards that we collected as kids would be graded in FAIR to VERY GOOD Condition - which means that the baseball card's Adjusted (for condition) Book Value is worth 10% to 30% of the Full Book Value! Even baseball cards that are graded in "EXCELLENT" condition sell for half the price of the baseball cards in "Near Mint" condition. The reason that the book value of some baseball cards is so high is that so few vintage baseball cards remain in pristine condition. The Book Value of a baseball card is almost meaningless. It is the Adjusted Book Value that is much more relevant to a vintage cards actual value.

• The "Book Value" is the Suggested or the "Pie in the Sky" Price. Few collectors are willing to pay the book value price for baseball cards. On our website, we list the Adjusted Book Value as the price of the baseball cards, but we are forced to discount this price in the way of quantity discounts to remain competitive. Many baseball cards will sell online for a fraction of their Adjusted Book Value.

• Card Dealers need to make a profit on the cards to cover their time and expenses. Most baseball cards dealers have the expense of renting a table at a card show or in the case of Dean's Cards - the advertising, labor, and hosting expenses of a website. Not to mention it takes months (or years) to sell the baseball cards that we have in inventory.

 

Non-Collectors tend to over grade the condition of baseball cards. Baseball card Collectors can be very picky! You can read about baseball card grading in much more detail in our article on "How We Grade Vintage Cards," but please realize that baseball card grading takes years to perfect. It is very common for a novice baseball card seller to contact us and state "My baseball cards are in MINT Condition". Very seldom does this turn out to be the case. Dean's Cards will certainly buy vintage baseball cards in almost any condition, but it is important to realize that the condition affects the value of the baseball card.

 

The good news is that - if you bought your baseball cards as kid - you are going to make a great return on your investment. How many of your other childhood toys can you say this about?

 

To help put this into perspective, we have a great story about a Financial Investment Advisor that sold us a collection of his baseball cards from the mid 1950s. This guy made a lot of money in his profession and his expectations were that he was going to make a fortune selling this baseball card collection. After all, he had read the stories of people making tons of money selling their baseball card collections. He checked with half a dozen dealers or so and told us, although Dean's Cards (by far) offered the most for his baseball cards, he was still a little disappointed in the bid.

 

First, we suggested that if he was still emotionally attached to the baseball cards, then he should not sell them. After all, they are his baseball cards. But we also wanted to help him put this in perspective, so we broke it down into terms that he was familiar with. First, we figured out the original purchase price for the baseball cards. We figured that he bought these 2000 cards in the 1950s for a penny a piece (5 cards came in a Nickel Pack) to get the gum. That was a $20 investment.

 

So let's say that we offered him $1000 for the baseball card collection. This would be a return of 50 times his investment or 5000%! He was shocked. His comment was "I wish that I could get that return on my client's investments. We are doing great if we can average 15% per year for my clients!"

 

The bottom line is that they are your baseball cards and you certainly do not have to sell them. Many baseball ccard collectors never do sell the cards, until there is a special event which encourages them to do so for the money. Typical examples include: weddings, sending kids to college or paying off a big bill. Most baseball card collectors keep the cards until they die and then let their heirs worry about what to do with the baseball card collection.

 

Often there is too much of an emotional attachment for the seller to part with his "boyhood memories." The baseball cards often sit in a closet until the original collector dies. We certainly understand this sentimental attachment, but if you have not looked at the baseball cards in years, it may make sense to do something useful with the proceeds that you could get for the cards.

It is often the family member that inherits the baseball card collection that ends up selling the cards. If you come to the point where you feel that the value of the baseball card collection could be put to better use then please contact us. You have our word that you will be treated fairly and honestly and that we will pay top dollar for your baseball card collection.

Pre-War (WWII) Baseball Cards have the most value on a per card basis. Although the prices quoted for these baseball cards are typically high, much depends on the condition of the cards. Dean's Cards will purchase these baseball cards in almost any condition. Many of the baseball cards that have survived are not in top condition and this definitely affects the value of the cards.

 

It is difficult for the baseball card collecting novice to determine what years these cards were issued by just looking at the card. Another confusing problem is that most of the pre-war sets have been reissued in the form of reprint (or archives) sets. These baseball card sets have been released over the last 15 or so years.

 

Unfortunately, sellers will send us a Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig Card that they bought for $100 at a Flea Market a few years back, only to discover that it is a reprint baseball card issued in the 1990s that was roughed up to look old. Please be careful when buying these baseball cards. Most of the cards for this era show wear, so if you have a card like this in great shape, chances are that it is not an original. The value of the reprinted baseball cards in very low when compared to the original baseball cards.

 

When you hear about a particular baseball card being worth a lot of money, it is most often from the Pre-War Era. But the baseball card that is worth thousands of dollars is definitely the rare exception. Most of the very valuable baseball cards are superstars that are in near perfect condition. The baseball cards of the common players in average condition are worth far less money. Most of the newspaper articles or TV interviews that you see paint an unrealistic value on these baseball cards. For example, we once saw an "expert" on the Antiques Road Show overestimate the value of a baseball card collection by 25 times!  It may make for good TV, but it confuses many of the people that are seriously trying to sell a baseball card collection.

 

It is important to remember the old "Economics 101" Lesson about Supply and Demand. The supply of the pre-war baseball cards is low, which drives up the value. But, because of the higher price of the pre-war baseball cards, the demand is also fairly low, when compared to the newer baseball cards.

 

When one thinks about this, it makes sense. Suppose that you were starting a baseball card collection, and had a limited amount of money that you could spend. Would you spend it on a few expensive pre-war baseball cards that contained pictures of players that are long since dead? The answer for most collectors is, "No."

Vintage Baseball Cards are still relatively available. Baseball card collectors can still afford to complete the sets. Vintage baseball cards definitely have value, and Dean's Cards will always purchase these baseball cards in just about any condition. These baseball cards are also fun because many of us collectors are old enough to have seen these guys play ball.

 

If you have a vintage baseball card collection, it is definitely worth some money. The checks that we write to the sellers of these baseball cards are often very large, partly because the Vintage Baseball Card Collections are usually much bigger when compared to the numbers of baseball cards in Pre-War Collections. Sellers (who shop around) routinely tell us that we pay more for baseball card collections than other dealers.

 

To determine what year a vintage baseball card was issued, simply look at the player's statistics on the back of the card. Most of the cards will have the "stats" listed out by years. Just take the most recent year on the baseball card and add one, to determine the year that the card was issued. For example, if the card has statistics for the player for the years 1959 through 1966 - this means the card was issued in 1967.

It is truly in the best interest of Dean's Cards to pay the best possible price for baseball card collections. Many of the customers that we buy cards from were either referred to us or are repeat sellers. Many are already customers. Some people take years to fully liquidate their baseball card collections. They sell us a few baseball card sets every several months or so.

 

We are often told by people who have received bids from numerous dealers that our offer was the highest. Quite simply, we can usually pay a little more because we market directly to the customer and sell a high volume of baseball cards. If you would like us to bid on your collection, please complete the form above on this page

 

The bottom line is that Dean's Cards sells thousands of baseball cards every week. This means WE ALWAYS NEED BASEBALL CARDS and pay "top dollar" for collections. From the customer feedback that we receive, we pay more for baseball cards than other dealers.