What to do with traders no one wants?

[pacadie]

Hi,

I am pretty sure some of you have experience this: getting stuck with cards that no one wants. I am not talking about bases, but Inserts, Parallels, Game-Used, RC and even Autos.

The economic crisis seems to hit the hobby very hard. Only serious collectors seems to still enjoy collecting hockey cards. The less serious, the one I used to trade my less desirable traders (the one that could be excited over something else than a shield, a 1/1 or a seven breaks patch), seems to have left.

Result? I am now stuck with mid-end cards and low-mid value traders that no one want.

For example, I posted a list of over 300 cards, all booking for more than 10 $ over the last month. The post have been seen on three different forums for a total of near 700 times. I think I have been able to make 7 or 8 trades out of this post. And in most of the cases, I end up getting tradebaits, not even cards for my PC.

So, my question to you: what do you do with your traders that no one wants? Do you sell them in bulk? Give it to the kids? Trade them at others advantage?

Would really like to get some input on this matter.

 

[MMarch]

Bulk sale or Childrens Hospital, always my go to for the cards you can't move by themselves. Good luck!

 

[chakhae1]

Bulk sell them. I am lucky to have a guy I can sell my unwanted stuff to, but I concur that it is extremely hard for a lot of people to trade since a lot of people are looking for high end stuff only.

 

[DougLaurieSports]

We take in a lot of lots similar to what you're discussing. You're always welcome to fire me a list with what you have, and if we can use the cards, we're always willing to buy or trade.

Unfortunately, most people aren't willing to accept that a lot of $10 BV cards aren't going to sell for $.99 on eBay and temper their expectations. We buy 100-1,000 cards at a time of that sort of stuff and average about $.75-$1 per card for autos and memorabilias, far less for inserts.

We're not trying to screw anyone -- it's just if we're going to take on the work of listing, shipping and hoping to sell enough to cover our initial costs, we're going to have to think we'll make a little money on the deal. I'm even known to be willing to pay a little more than most other guys. It seems to be fine for some folks emptying their traders or clearing their desks -- I've made seven or eight trade deals like that in the past two months.

 

[Mack]

Bulk, favoured trading and kids are best.

A friend of mine has a little guy that I bought a box of score and he loved it. I give him some cards here and there. Mostly Oilers but he loves it.

Look through you group of friends and if any of them have kids maybe give them some cards, a binder and pages.

 

[quincy]

Another thing you can do is simply list the bulk lot as a lot on eBay, and take whatever price you get.

 

[antoine38]

Another idea is host a contest of some kind here on the forum, but Id just post em cheap as a group for auction

 

[Orca Pod]

I have been selling mine to Ameet (99goals).

The dude is a cheap SOB, and you will definitely feel 'broomsticked' after dealing with him, but sometimes anything is better than nothing.



There are also a few younger kids on the street that I give dime-a-dozen jerseys to. They love it.

 

[99goals]

I have been selling mine to Ameet (99goals).

The dude is a cheap SOB, and you will definitely feel 'broomsticked' after dealing with him, but sometimes anything is better than nothing.



There are also a few younger kids on the street that I give dime-a-dozen jerseys to. They love it.

LOLOLOLOL.nice one Old yeller.
Randy, I was giving you a seniors discount. Didn't you know that!! LOLOLOLOL.. It's not called "cheap" its called "economical"..

Sorry to derail the thread and a free bump. I concur with Wayne, we don't always pay bottom end prices for everything. I buy on average of 7 to 8 lots every 2 weeks and I average out the prices just like Wayne said. I can tell you that there are TONNES of people who still collect sets and buy the lower end inserts, auto and game used from me quite a bit.

I agree with Quincy, put it up on eBay and take the best offer. There was a member on here, I can't rem his name, but he offered me a lot of bulk inserts if he could not sell them on eBay. Lo and behold, he got 4 bills for all of his inserts. That's not a bad chunk of change for lower end stuff.

You can always reach out to myself, Wayne, Darren (Bulk Buyer), Malks9 and a few others on here who buy in bulk. I can't remember everyone's names on here.

There also a lot of traders too, Spooner9ball to name one, does a lot of trading and he is very fair with trading. Danny, great8 is another. I'd say just be patient and tread the waters and get the best deal you can.

I forgot to add that you can trade and keep trading to get what you want. There are several on here that do that well. Just have to know who wants what.

Pardon the long read. I hope it works out for ya!

 

[itsonlycardboard]

like Orca said. I give any jersey cards to the kids in the shop or show, unless I know someone that needs it for their collection. The base and inserts, I just started giving to the local shop here that he uses for grab bags for the kids. I think he puts 40-50 diff cards in for a buck.

 

[pacadie]

Thanks for the input, guys! Very appreciate.

My son is ten months old right now. Maybe I should keep some of these unwanted cards for him once he will get older.

He already have a card (or what is left of it). A very precious Brad Stuart OPC base. He have some fun trying to rip it appart!

Thanks again for your input. I'll weight my options in the next couple of days. I already try to sell here at very low prices, without success. I didn't have much luck on eBay either, where I got only peanuts for rare Patrice Bergeron stuff (a few weeks after the Bruins won the Cup, for god's sake!).

 

[thegenerel]

a lot of smaller stuff I give away on SCF and here, primarily to other Americans as its easy to mail. many people cant afford to spend even a few dollars on a low end GU or Auto so Id rather make them happy than let it collect dust.