State Of The Collective Part 3: Distributions And ... Sales?

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.

PWE = Pretty Wacky Experiences

Chugging along with the Database entries and more trades.  Most of them are PWEs like I mentioned before.  Got another one that arrived completely intact, but looked like it had been shot with a shrink ray.

Those are standard size card pockets, but no, the cards are supposed to be that way.  Those are the Topps Micro versions from each of the three years they were made ~ 1991 thru 1993.  These just about complete all my player collections except maybe Carlton Fisk.

Also last week, I got a return envelope from somewhere I've never sent cards before. 

This was the inside wrapping around the plastic page that held the cards.  The envelope actually had a return address of New York, NY, but I sent to Israel.  That was pretty cool.  Only cost me a bit over $3 for First Class International.

Then Friday, I got a major mailday:

One bubble mailer and four PWEs.  You can see the different postage on each one.  The butterfly stamps are equal to one regular first class stamp plus the extra ounce / non-machinable extra charge.  The bunnies are the extra oz./non-mach by itself.  So if you have a two ounce envelope that is rigid - it's one of each.

After depackaging, this is what I ended up with.

Here's a sampling of what was in those trades.

My last base (SP) from the latest Ginter set.  The Ohtani is a duplicate, because I didn't have any of the Banner Seasons on my want list.  I think I missed updating the database after buying a bunch of '22 Ginter at Chantilly.  That's the downside of keeping two sets of wantlists.

Love all the special Cal Ripken sets and subsets.  Though I figured no one will be trading things like this, so I ended up buying this on and one of the Skybox E-Motion ones too.  This one's got an issue with the foilage, as you can see it's a different shade in the left section.  Hopefully the one I bought is consistent.  This one is available cheap when that one gets here.

Some "A-list" retro stuff from a couple different trades.  The Aaron is from the '94 Archive set, and Abreu is one of three '07 Heritage SPs that I knocked off.

I picked this 2020 Archives Robles just to add to the random cards of his I occasionally pick up that generally get added to sets of the same year and not a player collection.  I actually ended up with two of these - the database will repeat a match between two traders for some reason and I didn't catch it.  Mostly because I don't analyze my trades that closely since my main goal is to move out as much stuff as possible.  I know it makes people feel better if they have a couple more to match up when I'm sending twice as many.  Not sure that was the case here, but either way I have one available...

A couple that look like pure Overproduction era commons, but upon closer inspection, you'll realize that the '90 Donruss checklist is the factory version with a different range of numbers, and the '91 Comstock is the Mariners version (vs. the Cubs version which is blue bordered.) I had a notation about lines in the bottom right corner being extended, but I can't find the reference to it, so I crossed it off since it definitely isn't the Cubs version.

Down to Pat Benetar for my series 2 set of ProSet MusiCards!  Metal horns up! I'm not building the entire set, just the hard rock acts and a few awesome females.

Some foil-stamped football from various years.  These are 1997 Upper Deck and 2015 Prestige.  I think the Prestige card's scan stretched at the end.  The extra glossy (and usually shiny) ones tend to do that in my scanner.  I've also been getting a lot for my builds of '97 Stadium Club and this set...

...from two years before.  There's a lot of rainbow foil on these.  The logos for the first season's of NFL in Carolina and Jacksonville are cool.  The foil doesn't scan well, of course.

And finally, one of my favorite products to get in trade (or find cheap for sale) is Fleer Action Football.  These killed off half my 1986 wants.  I also got one of the two Washington stickers from this set, but odd size stuff won't feed through my scanner.

The First Mile

At some point I promise I'll get back to posting things like the Heritage pairs ('59T/'08Her), trade maildays, and other aspects of my collecting.  But for now, I'm immersed in data entry.  

Tonight, I finished my first full monster box.  I started with a three row with everything from '97 Pinnacle Zenith through '98, '99, and 2000 that you've seen before.  

This five-row box holds the end of Upper Deck 2000 thru 2003 Stadium Club (which is between SP Authentic and SP Legendary Cuts because it fits in the end of the row.)

So here's everything I've entered so far in baseball.

Well, it's probably closer to two full monster boxes, but the rest of it is chunks of sets from several different places, some special stuff, and some football.  Also including a handful of singles I added on to some trades, and a group of oversized cards that have to be stored separately.  And I did enter my box of 2015 Score / 2018 Illusions football.

As you can see, there aren't many big chunks of sets in this box.  Only maybe 2002 UD Vintage (4th row) and 2003 SP Authentic at the very end.  This one probably took around 20 hours total to enter.  That was spread over about six days last week up to tonight.  I took Thursday thru Saturday off.  It sped up Sunday, because I installed the Brave browser and now use it for database work.  I had never heard of it before, but it is based on Chrome and blocks all ads and trackers.  And it's free.  Such a relief to get rid of the pesky ad banner that pops up from the bottom of the TCDB page every time it refreshes or moves to a different page!

The view via Firefox (my default) with the ad you can't deflect...

The same page in Brave - no ads anywhere!

I'm also stopping every now and then to scan a card I'm entering that doesn't have an image in the database site.  It's a very quick process unless it's a shiny card, then that takes some editing.  According to my Recently Added history, I've put up right about 200 images (fronts & backs count separately) since I started scanning things in earnest, beginning in late March.

Just a sampling of the more wacky stuff I have available.  

Only six or seven more five-rows to go in baseball, and nine football after that!  And then I'll go back and do everything before 1997!  

I really will try to post about other things in the meantime.  I just won't want to sit in front of this screen much more though.....

You've Got Mail ~ Just Barely...

Since I began my quest to enter all my trade bait into the Trading Card Database site in February, there have been 18 trades generated along the way.  Eleven of them have been completed just in April alone so far.  As many of you know, PWE (Plain White Envelope) trades are very popular on that site.

Everything has been going swimmingly, except for a couple deliveries that showed up a bit traumatized.  Nothing was lost or stolen, but the envelopes barely survived.  Addresses are obscured for internet security.

This one came in rather shredded, but the sender packaged everything in an inner cardboard sleeve, so no harm done.  I've had PWE's arrive in Post Office bags when they're this beat up, but this one hobbled in on it's own.  I imagine it must have happened in the delivery truck.

This next one was also dual packaged.  The inner sleeve was undamaged, but was exposed to the elements on the way somehow.  The end of the outer envelope was neatly sliced off.

I can't even guess how that happened.  Random inspection?  I know I've been getting a lot of envelopes lately, but is that suspicious?

This last one isn't a damage case, but was interesting to me because of the packaging overkill.  I'll never criticize someone for packing cards to withstand any disaster, but I felt bad that this guy spent so much to ship six cards.

There is an outer clasp envelope sealed with tape at both ends, an inner bubble mailer packet, and inside that, the one team bag of cards.

Again, I'm not saying this is a bad job.  Just this...

It was from the west coast, so it cost over five dollars!  I mean, it's not Canadian prices, but dang!

I've linked these before - These are the semi-rigid photo envelopes I get from Amazon - 400 at a time (17¢ each).  Or 75 for $17 (still less than a quarter each).  They have a strip across the adhesive so you don't have to lick them and they fit two card savers side by side.  I get up to about 8 or 10 cards in one packing them this way.  By that point, it's usually over the weight limit and I'm already using the additional ounce/non-machinable stamps as it is.  You can see them in action in this post.  

What's your preferred method of making someone's mailday?

The Tip Of The Iceberg

If you've noticed I kinda went quiet after announcing my foray into TCDB trading, you are correct.  From the feedback I received, it's apparent that right now is prime time to be trading on the Database site.  Commenters on here as well as my other trading group are all diving in on entering their stuff at the same time.  

Which is great, since that generates trades among avid collectors.  I will say that TCDB is doing a lot more than my COMC listings are this month, which is nothing....

But there's a slight problem.  I took several hours last weekend to enter my first box of available cards into the site.  (It was about 6-7 hours total spread over the two days.)  And it wasn't even a large box.

It was this three row thing that houses my dupes from the tail end of 1997 up through 2000 Topps.  That's all.  Now there are a lot of different sets/products in there, so it takes a lot of clicks to enter even a few cards.  The monster boxes are going to take a little longer than I expected, though some of them, especially on the football side, will go a bit quicker since they have big chunks of one set.

The rest of the week, I've been busy fielding TEN ~ count 'em ~ TEN trade offers I got from just that one box.  Most of them have been PWE size - a half dozen to ten cards on each side.  Though a few times, the offerer had a lot on their wantlists that I could fill, so I dug through the rest of my stock and filled out lopsided trades in their favor whenever I could.  That's my favorite way to trade - move a lot of stuff and still get a decent return for my collection - value and volume matching be damned.

I had previously entered two chunks of SP Top Prospects from the box after I found a trader that needed some.  Not sure who it was, but I figured instead of just putting in the few cards I was sending out, I'd check off the whole batch to try and move them, since at least to me, they are the least desirable of any brand I have.  There are a few star players among them, but the bulk is just no-name prospects that I wouldn't think would be in demand.  This was right before I decided to put everything in eventually.  I imagined I'd do the same thing to my football stock with stuff like SAGE HIT etc, but I'll probably just put it all in together now.  The card on the left is Donruss Collections - Leaf.  Those are shiny and popular so far too.

So anyway, I have the pictures, ideas etc. for three different posts at this point, but have spent the entire week pulling, packing, and posting all these trades.  And I got four more over the weekend.  The unfortunate part is when I get offers for the odd card I put on my trade list that is already spoken for.  Had to refuse a trade for that already.  I'm still getting the hang of the proper sequence to managing trades.  I'll send messages and then change status and it will prompt for a message again in some cases and not in others.  I've also accepted trades that I wanted to go back and edit after the fact, but just worked it out and changed my inventory manually.

On top of that, I went to a show yesterday (one of the pending posts you'll see later).  So now I have to cross off my website, and also take what I got off my want list on the database.  It wasn't a whole lot, but it is extra work.  Luckily I didn't buy anthing that I already had coming in trade.  More on that later.

I also decided to spice things up by entering some smaller batches of special cards I have separate from my bulk extras.  1976 SSPC, two Pacific Senior league sets, and some other unusual batches are now among my listings.  Haven't finished all you see here, but it will be soon.  There's even a few racing cards tucked in the back there.

If after I enter a couple more of the bigger boxes, I get even more offers at once, I'll have to suspend trades until I can get everything entered and don't spend time digging through people's huge want lists, I can just approve what matches up automatically. 

And this is just the beginning...

Assimilating Myself Into The Larger Collective

I have officially taken the plunge for the sake of trading.  I have decided that I will take the time and effort to enter my want lists and tradeable cards into the Trading Card Database.  

It's going to take a long time and probably reduce my useful eyesight by a couple years, but in the long run, I think it will increase the number and volume of trades.

That means that I will not only be entering the lists on the other tabs from this site.  (I will do the major sports first, and probably do the player collections later.)  It also means I will have to dig through all this:

and this:

and this:

and enter it into my For Sale / Trade list.  I did one box a couple weeks ago that had several big chunks of the same set, and it didn't take that long, so that gives me hope that it won't take me the rest of the year to get it all in.  

There are more efficient ways of entering cards onto your lists on the database.  A couple of them I just recently discovered, so I thought I might put up a bit of "how-to" on here to help out those of you among my few dozen readers that might want to know.  (I am tech support by profession, after all.)

When you're signed in and go to your Collection, (a specific collection, not All Collections), you can hit the green Add/Update button and then pick your sport, and browse by Sets (or names or teams).  Then go to the next set (I'm going by sets in this lesson) you want to enter.  You'll get a screen like this:

Your choices are Add/Update collection or Wantlist, or For Sale /Trade list.  Below that are more options for entering data in different ways.  Clicking on the link above the set name for "Collection Summary" brings you back to this page.  Then you can choose another method.

Selecting Add/Update any of the three lists will go to the checklist for that set with each card listing containing a check box.  There are other options under a pull-down arrow as well.

Checking the box will add the card to the particular list.  This is the best way if you only have a small number compared to the total set count.  This corresponds to the sets on my want lists that have names listed.  Each entry is saved as you go, so you can breeze right through the whole checklist.  Every time you click a box, a little wheel will appear with "Loading..." for a second.  This makes the screen jump around a bit.  It's a little annoying, but not a big deal.

Another method is to add by dropdown menu for each card.  This is useful if you need to enter multiple copies of a limited number of cards, for your For Sale/Trade list for example.  I don't see me using this too much.

A variation of this method is entering by text box.  I like this a lot better.

I found this much more useful for rapid entry of a larger number of listings.  Especially when I was adding a big chunk of a set to my Wantlist - like when you have the base set, but the back end is all shortprints or rookie autographs.  

There is an option to "Add all missing cards to Wantlist" while you're adding to your wantlist, but no option to add all the unchecked cards to your collection.  Therefore, I haven't been accurately cataloguing what I HAVE on a lot of these sets, but only what I NEED right now.  Those entries will convert to my collection if I get them in trades within the site, but I'd have to go back and enter everything else manually if I want my whole actual collection on the site.  I don't need all that extra work. 

So anyway, I found that entering a number (usually 1) into the text box, and then pressing the Tab key gets you to the next box.  That makes it quick and easy to do a whole page full of listings (1-Tab-1-Tab-1-Tab-1-Tab, etc.).  Keeps you from having to check a whole page and a half or more individually.  Just be sure you set the little gray box to the right list first!

Moving on, there is an even faster way to get a bulk list entered.

You can enter a text list of numbers into this box and it will check off each card with a valid number onto your list of choice.  Hopefully you have your bulk number lists electronically!

What I did is use Word to convert my website lists into the right layout and paste them into the above screen.  Here's how it works:

Copy your numbers from wherever they are...

Paste them into a blank Word document...

Delete any words (names etc.) between the numbers.  Replace the spaces in between the numbers with paragraph marks (under the Special button).  I always use two spaces on my website for readability...

That should give you a single column of numbers...

That you can copy and paste into the box.  I found that it only holds 102 numbers, so you might have to break up your "pastings" into a few pieces.  Clicking Check will take you to the checklist with each number entered.  

Note - if there are any variations noted by "a" and "b" by the card number, your entries will be invalid.  I had to go back and edit the Word list - deleting the good ones and adding "a" to each one that didn't get added.  (You could add the "b" listings at this point as well.)  Be sure to set that grey box to the right list as well!

The last choice is the "Single View", which I suppose is for when you want to visually confirm each card as you enter it.  

This screenshot also shows the color coding used by the site for the different lists.  In-Transaction are cards you have posted to trades, and In-Transit are cards that are in trades that have been set to Package Sent.

Hopefully that helps someone who has been struggling to enter their cardboard on the site, or encourages collectors who haven't jumped in to join the fun!  Look me up under LoQtus and see if we can match up.  (There's a function under each user's profile that does just that - matches your wants to their trade list and vice versa.)