Topic: Look for advice on Beta and Revised Cards

Hello,  I am brand new to this Forum, so I hope that I am not breaking any of the rules.  Complete newb here.

Anyway, my kids recently moved out of the house and I decided to clean out my garage.  I found my old magic cards from the early 90's.  I stopped playing after Ice Age because I had kids and money was tight.  I looked some up on eBay and was shocked to see that they had some value.  No, I do not have a Black Lotus Beta; never did have one.  I do have a Mox Ruby. 

I introduced myself to a local MTG dealer and he wants to buy them from me but at much less than what seems like market value.

eBay charges at least 20% of the selling price as a fee!

Do you guys thinks this is the best place to sell them?  What about Craigslist?  Or is there another thread here that I should read. 

Thank you,

Willben

Re: Look for advice on Beta and Revised Cards

Are you looking to get cash as fast as possible or are you trying to as much money as possible? If you're just trying to get quick money for the cards, the easiest way is to go to your local game shop, but they'll probably only pay you like 40% of what the cards are worth.

If you're interested in getting the most money out of your cards, it's going to be a lot more work, but selling higher end cards individually will net you a significantly larger amount of money than just selling them in bulk to a store. There are some high-end mtg facebook groups that you could post in for cards that are worth over $50. You could upload your inventory on here and sell cards individually as well as on eBay. I wouldn't recommend craigslist.

Re: Look for advice on Beta and Revised Cards

I just went and checked your inventory and holy crap if that's what you actually found I HIGHLY recommend selling them individually. That Beta timetwister itself is worth several thousand dollars.

If you don't need cash right now, I would say to hold on for a few more years. Cards from that era have been skyrocketing in value over the last few years. Just look at the timetwister's value over the last ~12 months:

https://www.mtgstocks.com/prints/16315

I'm not joking when i say what you found could be worth 10's of thousands of dollars in the next few years.

Re: Look for advice on Beta and Revised Cards

Are you sure you are marking cards as from the correct set?
Birds of Paradise has been printed in many sets and actually has some that look just like beta in art and similar border. Check out all the varieties here to get an idea: https://scryfall.com/search?q=%21%E2%80 … r=released.

Once you got the card and the edition down, then you have to grade the cards. The grading guide here by cardkingdom is good https://www.cardkingdom.com/purchasing/how_to_sell. It is important to grade the cards accurately to sell at a good price but also not make your buyers angry and have them return it. This is a tough part for new sellers.

Also eBay doesn't take 20%. They take about 11% total considering eBay fees and Paypal fees together. For alternatives you can try selling on here or on local or worldwide Facebook groups.

Re: Look for advice on Beta and Revised Cards

have the most expensive and better conditions cards graded with BGS, it's relatively cheap when you have a few, if you get a 9 or 10 you can ask for a big premium.

The other cards can be sold easily at 30% market on facebook groups or ebay, depending on conditions, just don't expect the prices you see advertised online as you're nor a store nor a mtg "influencer"

Pack anything of lesser values in lots and sell on craigslist or ebay. Feel free to send some cards to the people who helped you on this forum tongue

Re: Look for advice on Beta and Revised Cards

Deckbox is obviously not a bad place to sell, assuming again you have identified and graded the cards appropriately.

I've personally found grading to be a challenge.  One way to solve this is to purchase cards from a "known" site that you trust.  Select a cheap card, and then purchase 1 of each grading.  That at least will give you a set "standard" for each grade that you can use as a guide.  There are however some tricks which I use.

One is the "arm" test.  Simply hold the card in decent light at arms length.  If you can see ANY dents, markings, bends, or especially white on the border (assuming it's a black border cards) then it's NOT NM.  That at least gives you a good guide for NM.

As a guide for PERFECT cards, just obviously open a pack fresh card, make sure it's PERFECT in every way, and then seal it up good and tight (I'd suggest if you are going to buy sample cards to also seal them in a hard case as well.  We've all open packs, we all know what pack fresh SHOULD look like.

As for selling, if you're a social person, facebook can be a great resource for the pricey cards.  I personally have found that I simply prefer to sell here, or buylist to CardKingdom for credit, OR (and I might get flamed for this) "buylist" to pucatrade.  I was really skeptical and still am of pucatrade, but since I have a VERY large want list of relatively cheap cards, I don't mind trading down and I do like being able to get good "prices" (better than CardKingdom) while still buylisting.

Obviously, selling in person is the way to guarantee you get the most money.  But still expect not to get 100%... I find face to face at best you'll get 90% TCG unless the buyer is very motivated.

Re: Look for advice on Beta and Revised Cards

On old cards like this condition makes a big impact on their price.  If you decide to sell the cards individually, the best thing you can do is take good pictures.  These are high value cards and people will want to see the front and back and probably a couple closeups of any damage.  This makes eBay a good platform for selling, but if you don't have an established eBay account with a history of good feedback you'll want to start with the lower end cards to build up your reputation. Getting the cards professionally graded is not worth it unless you have cards that are perfectly centered and you cannot find a single flaw on them (looks like they came straight out of a pack).  Grading the cards is a slow process and only really adds a premium if you get on the highest end of the scale. 

Alternatively you could start playing the game again.  wink

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Re: Look for advice on Beta and Revised Cards

Yo homie, whats goin on with those Scryb Sprites and that Craw Wurm?