After hitting up the Branham Flea Market on Saturday, I made a pitstop over at my buddy Ben's house. He asked me if I wanted to buy the rest of the low-end baseball rookies, inserts, and parallels. I honestly did not. I'm still sorting through the stuff I bought off of him back in September and October.
But this was one of those "too good to pass up" cases. I haven't done an exact count, but I'd estimate that there are 3,500 to 4,000 cards here and I paid $100 for the four boxes. That breaks things down to less than 3¢ per card. In terms of value, it's a great deal. But when you factor in how much time I'll need to sit down and sort... the deal loses its luster.
I spent three hours on Saturday going through this stuff... and three more hours yesterday removing these cards from the penny sleeves. I'm sure I've mentioned my OCD before on this blog. But if I haven't, I'll just say that I have a thing about using old or dirty card supplies. Anyways... I'm only about halfway through the penny sleeve removal process. I'll try and wrap things up this afternoon when I get home from work.
Until then, here is today's question of the day...
If you bought some cards that came in old or dirty penny sleeves, would you keep them in there or swap them out?
I'd say 90% of these cards will be put into one of the new 5,000ct. boxes I picked up two weekends ago without the use of a penny sleeve. The nicer and more valuable cards will be definitely be re-sleeved.
Well that's it for today.
Happy Monday and sayonara!
24 comments:
I'm with you all the way Fuji! I've been known to remove older, dirty penny sleeves and replace them with new ones. I know it could be considered wasteful to some, but I just can't help myself, especially when a nice new one costs just a penny (less if you buy them in bulk)...
I generally toss penny sleeves from cards I buy at shows, so I'd definitely be trashing old ones. I have so many on hand that I probably won't ever have to buy any again, and I don't penny sleeve every card in my collection anyway.
I'm excited to see what you ended up with!
I'd probably leave them in there unless they were "good" cards...and my good cards usually end up in binders anyway.
"That breaks things down to less than 3¢ per card. In terms of value, it's a great deal. But when you factor in how much time I'll need to sit down and sort... the deal loses its luster."
No way! The time spent sorting would be part of the draw to me. I'm still waiting for my chance to come across a find like this. Hope you come across some good stuff.
If they go in a boxed set or a binder, they get unsleeved. Very rarely do I store anything long term in a top loader (and sleeve) unless it's an auto or GU. Some sleeves tend to dry rot in my dupes box, so they generally come off. I do save the clean ones for use later too.
Aw c'mon, the sorting is the best part! ;)
You're a better man than I, Fuji, as there is no way that I would've taken on something like this.
I think I'd keep them in the sleeves until I either traded them away or figured out where they'd go in my collection. Any surprise cards in those boxes?
If they were going into a binder I would unsleeve them. If the card was just going into one of my Red Sox boxes (because that particular team set isn't close to completion) I would leave the dirty sleeve on it.
I only re-sleeve cards of the more prominent players.If they are commons I generally won't waste a new sleeve on them.
In most cases, I immediately remove cards from the sleeves they came in unless I can tell they’re already in brand new sleeves. I think the process of re-sorting and re-sleeving cards is what’s makes acquiring such a big lot of cards so fun.
I definitely discard old penny sleeves, and I'm in the process of replacing my older penny sleeves/9-pocket pages/binders. My wife things I have OCD because I prefer the cleanest supplies possible and I hate mixing sizes/brands within the same box or album.
I'm sure there's more than your money's worth in those boxes and I hope you dont fall too far behind with your organization goal as a result. Perhaps you could get a table at these flea markets and sell a dime box or two with the singles you don't need?
I would put new sleeves on the cards that I intended to keep. I try not to through away sleeves though, can always find a use for them at some point.
Yuck, who keeps old dirty sleeves??? I've got a zillion spare penny sleeves floating around the house. It's nothing to replace it, and it would keep me from sleepless nights knowing that someone's old crap on a sleeve was still on my card!
I've bought quite a few lots over the years (not as big as that, but maybe 100-200 cards or something at most) which came in old penny sleeves. I can't stand them so I always throw them out and put the raw cards in boxes.
Actually I do that even with clean penny sleeves. They have this way of making it slightly difficult to fit cards into an 800 card box, which I find really annoying.
I find the act of removing piles of cards from penny sleeves to be among the most annoying in my hobby life. Its like the seller spent time putting them in there one by one, and now spending my time to pull them out one by one. We both just ended up wasting each other's time!
Can't stand them, dirty or new. Unless it is the key RC.
I don’t go to shows, none in my area, so my purchases come from online. I probably keep about 50% of the supplies sellers use on the cards I buy.
Maybe, it depends on if I will keep them. I always wondered how they become so nasty and dirty. Like they were used for floor hockey. I am all about supply reuse too.
I already have about 10,000 more penny sleeves than I know what to do with -- dirty ones definitely go into the trash. A good portion of my post-card show/flea market/etc. time is spent taking my purchases out of sleeves and/or toploaders. Hence, why my closet is full of 'em.
Definitely replace. And speaking of, I need to do a purge of sticky top loaders from tape.
Toss 'em. I do the same thing with top loaders that I get in the mail. Even if it just has tape on it.
I keep the sleeves until I'm ready to binder but then I replace.
You're right that the calculation on a "good deal" can change once you start looking into the time to sort, collate, enter into computer, etc. I just passed on a "good deal" I saw on Facebook because I knew that I hadn't even finished fully processing the last "great deal" I bought. Accumulation has to be done at the right time, right place, and I'm not ready for that yet.
I absolutely feel the need to swap out penny sleeves for new ones, no matter the card. It's more for me than for the card itself.
I'm sure you have more cards to organize right now then you know what to do with, buy buying and sorting 4 ~4,000-count boxes sounds like a blast to me.
shoeboxlegends - i agree... it's definitely wasteful. but my ocd just won't allow me to touch dirty penny sleeves. it's like you said.. they're cheap enough to replace.
dennis - there were enough spare sleeves to last years here, but i ended up tossing them. as for resleeving these cards, i only did it to a little over 300 of them. although i may go back and resleeve the inserts too one day
brett alan & trevor p - nothing too special. lots of newer inserts and parallels... with some newer rookies. i think i'll have to wait a few years to see how good or bad this purchase is.
gca - i used to enjoy sorting, but i've lost that loving feeling
jon - i honestly shouldn't have. can't believe my buddy accepted my offer
gregory - nothing that will allow me to retire. lots and lots and lots of 2016 to 2019 topps and panini inserts and rookie cards. the big rookies like bellinger, judge, acuna, ohtani, soto, tatis, and guerrero were pulled. but there are a lot of prospect and 1st bowman cards. this is one of those wait and see purchases
adame - i'm a little different. i prefer no sleeve to a dirty sleeve. but that's my ocd talking ;)
big tone - i only resleeved a little over 300 cards. mostly first bowman parallels and mid-level rookie cards of guys i think will have a decent career. the rest went into the new 5000ct boxes unsleeved
jayp - a year ago, i would have been looking forward to the sorting process. i'm just a little burnt out right now and after coming home from conferences during the week, the last thing i wanted to do is sit down and sort
chris - i definitely need to set up with dime boxes at a show or flea market. maybe one of these days
the snorting bull - i think i threw away 10lbs worth of sleeves. these ones were pretty icky. if they were cleaner, i would have saved them for care packages or for my classroom
night owl - lol. yup. i agree
sean - as i was unsleeving these, i kept thinking why the heck would anyone put this card in a penny sleeve. but every collector has their own system. in this case... like you stated... it wasted both of our time.
johnnys trading spot - yeah, i only resleeved a little over 300 cards and they were all rookies or colored parallels of rookies
corky - that's pretty good. i hate to admit this, but i pretty much replace every supply even if they look brand new. that being said... i do reuse them for care packages and for cards i bring into the classroom.
sumomenkoman - part of the problem with these is that they were very fragile. some of these sleeves crumbled as i removed the card from them. i think they were in the sun at some point.
nick - i donate excess supplies to other collectors. gave a ton to brady (st. louis cardinals' cardboard) last year and to one of my friends at the card show. but i keep a nice stash for care packages.
the lost collector - i used to keep sticky top loaders. now they immediately go into the trash. although... i might collect them and see if my students can create a way to reuse them for their board games or something
jeff laws - me too
nick vossbrink - these were pretty dirty. i'd be surprised if anyone would want to keep them ;)
josh d - you took the words right off of my keyboard. right time, right place is the perfect way to phrase things
henry blanchette - it 100% for me instead of the card. i wish i could say it was more fun. it felt like more of a job to me. but that's just because of where i'm at right now.
Post a Comment