I have a $20k+ card collection I'm finally ready to part with. How do I sell it?

General
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For more accurate opinions, would be helpful to see photos of the backs of the cards unsleeved and against a dark surface. And photos of the fronts of the cards with the camera flash on.

Based on what I can see, it’s definitely not a safe assumption that the Lugia gets an 8. It looks like there’s potentially some edge peeling on the front left edge. The back looks pretty good and isn’t the primary concern.

Would need to see better photos of the back of Charizard, but it looks like a pretty typical 8 if the white background isn’t hiding whitening. Pretty unlikely to get above that bc of the scratching.

For Umbreon, assuming no dents or anything, should be in the 6-7 range. Definitely not capped at a 5.

All three of those are nice cards and would be reasonable to grade, but it’s far from necessary. These would all get nice prices on eBay auction raw. Purely from a value maximization perspective, I’d just do that. Especially bc PSA will upcharge you on Lugia/Charizard, probably.

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I took photos with flash on for the back as well…

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https://imgur.com/a/KGJe7iV

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https://imgur.com/a/EYIY34X

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https://imgur.com/a/tzAZyyA

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Surely grade the Lugia and Charizard with PSA. Can sell the Umbreon raw as LP. Those same photos on eBay won’t cause any problems if someone really thinks it is MP.

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Congrats on the nice collection. It’s awesome when a fun hobby can help financially. I also think taking it to a card show is best. More eyes to look at your cards and take offers. Best of luck!

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I’d want to look into CGC but they don’t seem to have anything set up for Canada the way PSA does (US tariff circumvention by way of an in-Canada intake location). Mint exists and would be relatively convenient for me, but does not seem to be taken seriously?

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You could look into a fanatics vault account. They have discounted CGC subs and you’d be able to store/sell from the usa after than so you’d only pay the shipping premiums once (and in your case, pay them on the raw card value not slab value which is less)

There’s probably other middlemen services that do this sort of thing but imo, the fewer people involved in any process, the better. Fanatics allows you to grade, vault and sell all from the us

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Wait did that just happen?

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Well it’s discounted compared to a membership. But it’s always been that way

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Ah whoops I read your post as discontinued

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Yeah, Lugia and Charizard both look like 8 range to me. Umbreon probably 6-7. Nice cards. Would still recommend just selling them raw.

Hell, could even send them to a consigner and have them handle the selling. The DC sports guy on eBay seems fine and he does a lot of raw cards. Probstein does raw cards sometimes, too.

Of course, PSA is a fine option if you don’t mind paying $25/card, being upcharged an extra $50/card (for the Lugia/Charizard, at least), and waiting 7 months. CGC is nice because they don’t do upcharges, won’t take 7 months, and the grading is half the price, but a CGC 7-9 gives very little (if any) value over raw in the 7-9 range.

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Hey I’m in Ontario too! Welcome! If I can help in any way let me know!:slight_smile:

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Have you ever considered vending at a card show? You’d pay a couple hundred to get a table, but you’d make that back with getting at least 90% market on everything you sell. If you sell on eBay you’re getting 85% minimum, and if you sell as a lot, unfortunately, you’re getting prolly like 60-70% because of what @fourthstartcg said.

Also agree with what @wisewailmer said about grading. Although with grading fees and eating, you’d have to spend a significant amount of money before you saw the return on that. Wouldn’t be long, but not short either.

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Also welcome to the forum!

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Ebay is the way to go, to be most “efficient” in an economic sense. Grading will cost a pretty penny, take time, and comes with potential upcharges. Sell them raw on ebay individually, or in large batches. Use the ebay ""sold” selector to see what prior cards have sold for, and use that to accurately price the cards. Selling them in lots of 5-10 cards may be the fastest way to go. OR, you can go the mongo-options: out it all on ebay for 25k as a whole single lot.

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You should definitely factor in the amount of free time that’s required to do your homework, take pictures, list on ebay, manage offers, get orders together, and ship. I’m not knocking that route, as you’ll probably get the highest returns doing this. However if you’re short on free time like I am (married, father of 2, work is demanding, and I’m into lifting/fitness), consider a consignor.

As an example, I have lots of raw cards I’m probably going to send to dcsports87 soon. I have SOME free time, sure, but not enough required to sell everything I plan on getting rid of.

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I don’t not have the time, but spending the rest of my life at the post office isn’t something I’m keen to do. Once I start selling and slabbing any of my cards, I’m going to be want to be done with them altogether pretty much then and there. However, I’m necessarily looking for an instant pay day on the spot…

I think consignment is an increasingly appealing option, I just wasn’t sure if my collection met the threshold to be a suitable client for such a thing. I’ll try calling my local card shops on the off-chance they do consignment or know someone in town who does, but more likely I’ll be looking into the suggestions made in this thread.

Thanks for all the advice and responses!

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If you want to post whats in your collection like a spreadsheet or list it would be helpful im sure myself or others on here would buy it out entirely for a % off market. Id be happy to take a look and shoot an offer.

otherwise best bet is to do one big ebay listing with lots of photos, and let the auction run. it will sell for much better than you think in this hot market.

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Hey, hey, didn’t read the whole thread, so forgive me if I’m reiterating some things people have already said.

I’m a vendor, so I have some insight into this, and will speak to my experience in the states.

DO NOT SELL TO A CARD SHOP. They usually only give 50% or 60% of comp because they need higher margins to run the store.

Grading
Definitely grade your high-value mid-era cards mainly because it takes the guessing out of what the condition it is. They’re older cards, so they won’t have the volatility you see in the modern cards, and you can be sure they’ll have the same value or more in the next several months. In this market, PSA generally has the highest value and the most interest in the market. Beckett, TAG, and CGC are fine, but folks are really only interested in them in the 10s. Sidenote, CGC specifically needs to be a Pristine 10, and some folks just won’t deal with TAG cause it’s new and it’s hard to price.

Lugia example for grading:
last sold on ebay
PSA 8 - 1750 USD
PSA 7 - 1275 USD
ungraded - on ebay you can’t find a card in the same condition so hard to say. TCGplayer most of the time doesn’t include photos so again hard to say, but the last sold LP was $900+ usd. At a glance, your card is probably in the range, but if it were graded, it would remove a lot of the ambiguity.

Pricing
TCG player is really good for modern singles and somewhat good for mid-era vintage cards.
For the Lugia and other high-value mid-era, your best bet is to check last sales on eBay or use Card ladder. Card ladder is a pay-to-use, but you get the most up-to-date sales on eBay and Fanatic. I would not recommend using price charting just because it’s not accurate - nobody uses it at shows.

Condition
You really need to know how to condition your cards. Folks will try to talk you down condition in hopes of getting a better deal. The difference could be 10s to 100s of dollars. Grading comes in handy for this

Selling options

Ebay
They take like 13%, so in an ideal world, you’d make 87% of your total, not including packing costs and such. In the US, you also have to pay taxes on your 20k profit. Not sure if it’s the same where you’re at.

Ebay consignment
Haven’t used it, but like ebay they take a percentage and really only accept higher-end items

Local Vendors
For vendors, their floor is typically 70% and can go up on higher value cards. Reach out to vendors in your local community via Instagram and see if they would be interested in buying a collection (they usually are). Or go to a show if you can and meet some in person and talk to them about what you have. Since you’re in the 20k range, you probably need a bigger fish, so consider that. Next, you need to set up some time to meet with them and review your collection piece by piece (I do not recommend shipping it out to them for them to check the condition privately). For lower-end items, accept the 70% and move on (think 70% on a $5 or $10 card). For the high-end, negotiate a higher percentage (90-95%) because they’re highly liquid and can be sold quickly. Lastly, the place where ya’ll review the cards needs to be safe and secure. It’s kind of a weird time; there have been a lot of Pokémon store break-ins recently.

Online creators
My mind goes to Oyama Trading - A very trusted creator in the community, and has videos of him receiving collections before payment, and then he takes the time to review each card and price them fairly. He’s pretty responsive on IG.

Hope this helps - it’s honestly kind of a marathon for the best deals, but well worth it if you can wait.

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