It's not everyday that someone calls up the office and tells you they want to sell 9,000 vintage PSA cards directly to you. So when this happened a few weeks ago, we jumped all over the opportunity and I scheduled a flight to Chicago! And it's not like they were a bunch of 1979 Topps PSA 8 commons. No, no, no. This was a haul of true vintage stars and rookies – Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Bradshaw, Namath, Staubach, Howe, Hull, Jordan, etc – well worth over $100,000. The collection was a mix of all sports, dominated by football and hockey, which made up 80-85% of the collection. The other 15% or so was baseball, and there was only about 50 or so basketball cards mixed in.
So, the 9,000+ graded cards were the main draw to the collection. In addition to the PSA-graded cards, he also had over 30 hand-collated sets, 200 or so monster boxes of ungraded cards, a few cases of unopened wax, and a few hundred unopened packs. Truly an awesome collection. This "extra stuff" wasn't the best or even true vintage, but it still had some value, so we were interested. Examples of this included 11 boxes of 1983 Topps Baseball, 1989 Upper Deck Baseball Factory Set, 10,000 loose singles from 1976-1978 Baseball, and all the way up to 2010-11 SP Game Used Hockey. We normally wouldn't just buy this kind of stuff, but since it was paired with the vintage graded cards, and it was a take all or nothing deal, we made it work.
It had taken him over 40 years to build this massive collection, and you could tell the amount of love and passion he had for the hobby. And what was also cool is that you could tell the kind of phases he went through when collecting -- started off with collecting vintage, then dabbled into modern when the hobby exploded in the 80s & 90s, then realized the money was in vintage and he went back to that. Unfortunately, as life gets in the way, we all have less and less time to focus on our hobbies, which is what happened to him, and it just got to a point now where he started to lose interest. I think it also had to do with the fact that the vintage market it starting to take off, so it can get costly, and there is just way too much modern stuff right now it's hard to keep track. The timing also coincided with a lengthy trip he was gearing up to take, so the money was nice, plus his wife wanted to work on the newfound space in the basement while he was gone.
So, after the seller sent us a complete list of all the graded cards, it took us a few days to get the appraisal done - simply due to the sheer size of the collection. We then made him an offer, and after a few days negotiations (working out prices for different parts of the collection), we came to an agreement on price, and flew out to Chicago! Now came the hard part...
Do you know how long it takes to look through that many cards? HOURS. Twelve hours to be exact. It took us about 8 hours on-site just to verify all the cards, and another 4 hours to transport the collection from the basement and pack them up in the truck. Not only was it a mental grind... but a physical grind as well! The entire collection didn't even fit into the van, so we had to rent a local storage unit to store the rest of the cards. We'll pick up the rest of the collection when we're out in ChiTown for the National next month. I'd say this was the best collection we've ever bought out of Chicago, and ranks right up there in the top 10 purchases we've ever made! Although it was a ton of work and travel, it was well worth it.
Take a look at this collection:
Not only was this collection huge, but it has some monster cards in it. Take a look at some of the highlights:
| 1982 Topps Traded #98T Cal Ripken Jr. PSA 10 | 1972 OPC #272 Ldrs w/ Esposito & Hull PSA 8 |
| 1976 Topps #148 Walter Payton PSA 9 | 1957 Parkhurst #15 Jacques Plante PSA 7 |
| 1972 Topps #200 Roger Staubach PSA 8 | 1971 OPC #148 Guy La Fleur PSA 8 |
| 1971 Topps #156 Terry Bradshaw PSA 8 | 1973 OPC #66 Bernie Parent PSA 10 |
| 1963 Topps #62 Mike Ditka PSA 9 | 1962 Topps #33 Bobby Hull PSA 8 |
| 1971 Topps #200 Bart Starr PSA 9 | 1971 Topps #45 Ken Dryden PSA 9 |
| 1971 Topps #245 Joe Greene PSA 8 | 1958 Topps #66 Bart Starr PSA 8 |
| 1971 Topps #250 Joe Namath PSA 8 | 1972 OPC #247 Ken Dryden PSA 9 |
| 1978 Topps #707 Molitor & Trammell RC PSA 9 | 1979 Topps #160 Tony Dorsett PSA 10 |
| (2) 1987 Fleer #59 Michael Jordan PSA 9 | 1962 Parkhurst #31 Gordie Howe PSA 8 |
We already listed many of these PSA cards from the collection for sale on eBay, and they actually end at auction tonight! Check them out here: just_collect auctions
So how'd the guy find us? He found us, along with other companies, online and did some thorough research. He noted that out of everyone he spoke to, we were the most responsive, professional, and detailed with respect to answering questions and providing the appraisal. This is something that we take great pride in, so it was so good to hear him say that about us, unprovoked. We would love the opportunity to take a look at your vintage collection and give you a free appraisal, so give us a call at 732-828-2261, or you can email me directly: Leighton@justcollect.com. If you schedule an appointment, you can visit one of our NJ offices, or if your collection is too large, we can come to you. We travel all across the country buying collections, so it doesn't matter if you're in New York, Miami, or LA - if you have an amazing vintage collection that you're looking to sell, we'll come out and see it! We will also be in Chicago for The National in a few weeks, so you can also meet us there to sell.