I used to deal in baseball cards, and some memorabilia in the mid to late 1980’s. Through an old client I had the opportunity to sell a very rare piece of baseball lore. The piece that I was fondest of was a rare document signed by Harry Wright. A founding father of the game. The document was a contract of some player that was signed by Harry Wright, the manager, circa 1870. It was written on Cincinnati Red Stocking’s letterhead.
Or if sports are your hobby, you can monetize it on or off the Net. You might want to give golf lessons or write a short eBook about shaving 6 points off of your short game. Or maybe you can baseball memorabilia on eBay and build a profitable business that way.
I grew up in an old urban (blue collar) neighborhood where there certainly WERE ‘bad’ kids. There was one boy a Vintage baseball cards few doors down the street who had lost an eye in a gang fight and did not attend school. When we saw him coming, we’d cross the street. There was another guy who, although about the same age as my friends and I, was nearly two feet taller and could pass for an adult by the time he was twelve. He was often drunk on his front stoop along with his mother. We said “Hi” to him but didn’t hang out there. There was a local Police station, but it seemed more a place that dispatched Policemen when they were needed (or just to supervise street crossings near schools in the morning) than it did a place where kids in trouble were taken to.
The children can place the pictures and words wherever they feel is right. They do not have to understand why they have decided to use a particular picture. I have used several pictures that were mysterious to me, my gut told me to use these pictures. An intuitive approach truly works best here. What’s neat is that through time, the purpose of these pictures will be revealed.
Make sure they have a set policy for customer service. This includes how they interact with you, as well as how they conduct business with buyers, auction winners, and other consignee clients. Since buyers cannot touch or feel items they are bidding on, they look for exceptional customer service to make them feel comfortable with their purchases. You want a Trading Assistant who, through customer service, will obtain the highest selling price for your items.
Now, the first step is to find your baseball bats. You can use vintage buying baseball cards Tampa bats that you have collected for this project or even new baseball bats. You can find great baseball bats at Wal-Mart, Target, and almost any sporting goods store. I find them from as little as $5 of the cheap ones all the way to $50 for the collector’s addition.
The major factor that you can control is take care of your cards. Using top loader protectors and or page protectors at the minimum is what you need to do to help you keep the value up on cards. Let me explain the major factor why you should practice this. The difference between a gem mint rookie card with a 10 grade and a near mint rookie card with a grade 9 can be hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollar difference. Lots of times not taking care of your cards cost you money because of neglect.
First and foremost, I think we’re going to continue to do what we’ve been doing. It’s what people have come to expect. The internet is all about content and we’ve posted close to 4,000 stories or links to stories in three years. It’s a great library of information for collectors, industry people or someone who just wants to learn more. I’m always open to expanding some of the partnerships we have and generate more revenue. I’d like to publish even more content and maybe start a newsletter.
