I briefly mentioned at the end of my last post that I have been trying to move two large batches of cards out of HiveMind Headquarters.
The first was documented here and the major revenue has come from a COMC shipment, including a $350 graded Michael Jordan PSA 7, and a few unopened box and set sales. There are still some sets left (of early 90's Classic 4-Sport and mid-90's basketball series) and a lot of bulk singles (a little baseball and football and a whole lot of basketball, all through the 90's decade).
That pile is on the second floor of my house.
The second is a stockpile of complete sets - factory and hand collated, and including traded/update sets in many cases - of baseball, primarily from 1988 thru 1990, with a few older single sets, plus Topps football sets from '87 thru '89. The itemized list is below
1984 Topps set - verified and sold.
1985 Topps - no Gooden. I have an agent hunting that one down.
1986 Topps - 2 hand collated sets, unverified.
1987 Donruss set - factory sealed.
1987 Fleer set - factory seal broken but set intact.
1987 Topps set - hand collated, unverified.
1988 Donruss - 10 sets, selling well
1988 Fleer - 10 sets and 10 Updates, selling well
1988 Score - 6 cases (8 sets each)! 10 Rookie & Traded sets
1988 Topps - 10 hand collated, 10 Traded sets, and 2 unopened wax boxes
1989 Bowman - 10 hand collated sets
1989 Donruss - 10 factory sets, 10 Traded sets
1989 Fleer - 10 factory sealed sets, 10 Update sets
1989 Score - 10 factory sealed sets, 9 Update sets
1989 Topps - 10 hand collated sets, 10 Traded sets, and 4 wax boxes
1989 Upper Deck factory sealed sets - sold first
1990 Donruss - 10 factory sets
1990 Fleer - 6 factory sets
1990 Score - 10 factory sets
1990 Topps - 9 hand collated sets
1987 Topps football - 10 hand collated sets
1988 Topps football - 10 hand collated sets
1989 Topps football - 9 factory sealed sets - sold in one purchase
Not everything is currently listed, but you can see what I have available by searching for my seller name qaplagca (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fss=1&_saslop=1&_sasl=qaplagca&LH_SpecificSeller=1)
Those are all still stacked in my living room on the ground floor as they were when they arrived. My house is now officially full of cardboard, since my collection and tradeables fill the middle floor and these two hoards occupy the other two.
I'm amazed that sales have been so steady since I started listing things after New Year's. 1988 sets are the most popular so far - especially Fleer and Donruss. I would have never though that was possible. Not sure what the draw is except that I think I'm about the only seller that pairs the Fleer base set with the Update. Plus, I assess what each item has actually sold for and set my prices accordingly. A lot of these are bringing less than $10 each after eBay fees and me paying for shipping. But it all adds up. The original owner said just get what you can for them, and the revenue is already approaching what I thought the whole shebang would go for.
It's a lot of work though. Every day or two, a couple more sets sell. So then I pull them from the boxes, and cut a bubble envelope flat and wrap it around the set. Then I cover that in brown bag paper and print the label sticker. I've had a couple orders of multiple sets - one was all nine '89 football sets, and another was three '88 Donruss sets. Had to find the right size boxes for those.
Most sets are listed individually, but I did also offer a couple bundles of all the sets for a particular year. I will probably do the same for the Traded/Updates.
I'm just glad the stuff is moving. I was afraid I had burdened myself with a whole pile of unmovable merchandise for the next ten years. Though at some point, I will take what's left of both batches to the local dealers I know to get rid of them.
For the longest time, I thought the worst thing I could try to do was sell something, even if it is cards that I know so much about. The one time I set up at a show, I didn't sell a damn thing. So this has been a revelation.
I'm also doing halfway decent in my COMC sales as well. Half of my total revenue was from the first batch above, but I had sent two submissions of my own stuff before that (and took back a portion of the first one that didn't sell). Here's my progress:
Excluding the graded card sale, I'm averaging around $4 a sale. And they're constantly trickling in all the time. I put up 20% discounts on Thursdays that run through the next two weekends every few weeks. The best part is I've exchanged 186 extra cards for 672 cards that I wanted for myself. I had $400 store credit at one point until I put in another order. (I paid the owner of the basketball stuff from my own fundage.)
I'm going to take a week off from work since I didn't really get a break during the holidays. That way I can catch up on managing all this, plus my TCDB trades, and clearing off all the incoming singles I have for my sets and other collections. And maybe thin out some of my total collection to make room for the stuff I don't have boxes or space for .
But that about wraps it up for what's happening at HiveMind Headquarters. Stay tuned for the previous 200+ card COMC order, and other recent activities.
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