Scavenge of the week June 15-21, 2025

This was prime time for scavenging for me last year, likely because the National Sports Collectors Convention is in late July, so all the big eBay card sellers are clearing out inventory (most of which is consigned to them) ahead of that. Basically, everyone in the card flipping world, from big sellers to small, is looking to make a little extra pocket change. It works out great for someone like me whose whole business model is skulking eBay for deals.

This week, my purchases for my own card consignment business were way beyond my expectations, as has been the case for most of this year. The $2 to $5 buying range is what I like best, and this week I picked up a fun mix of items for those prices.

This 1888 General Irvin McDowell Duke’s cigarettes card will do well in a live auction even in its rough condition because it’s a booklet, which is a card style that is still popular today (usually for cards with large/multi memorabilia pieces or cut signatures).

Another good pickup was this jumbo 5″x7″ Ken Griffey Jr. 2016 Topps Tribute style card #01/49 from an online-only release in 2016 (a decade ago…jeez, time flies). Griffey still has a huge collector base, cards with a serial number #01 usually fetch a slight premium and the jumbo size will make it stand out in a live auction.

Here’s another throwback, this Barry Sanders photo set from Topps Vault was from an online-only release in 1999 (!!!), which means online-only releases are officially vintage. From the era of dial up! Topps Vault cards do great in live auctions, which is fascinating to me since they’ve been neglected by collectors for two decades. But I can’t send this to the consignment company I use because they don’t support Topps Vault “multi-item items, even with a COA.” So I will have to put it up in my eBay store. Going to price it high and be patient.

I have been buying a lot of lower cost graded cards recently, since my consignment company is doing a crazy promo of free graded card submissions through July 11th. Not sure what they are thinking with free, but I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to pivot for a few weeks to take fullest advantage. If you want an idea of what a low cost graded card looks like, here’s a 2006 Mickey Mantle Topps card SGC 9.5 gem mint which cost me $4. This is a modern base card which someone got graded because they heard graded + famous player = $$$$, and their card even came back at basically the highest grade. But the card still isn’t worth much because it’s a modern base card. Not a vintage Mantle from the 50s or 60s. Not an ultra modern serial numbered insert with an intricate design, or a memorabilia card, or an autograph, or even a shortprint variation. Just a regular old base card, with thousands and thousands made. Grading cards like this is a win for the grading companies and a flipper like myself. But it’s a loss for whoever originally got the card graded and whoever sent the card in for consignment, and a double loss if that was the same person.

All that said, this card will go for $10 to $20 in a live auction because it’s a gem Mantle, and it has to be worth something, if not now then maybe in a year or two? It still won’t be, but at free submission fees it was a great buy for me at $4. At the standard submission rate of a buck and change for a graded card? Not sure I would have bought the card. But this will be a good test case for what my buy prices for run of the mill graded cards of star players (or nice cards of average players) should be. If I can buy at $5 to $10 at standard auction, then submit a card to consignment live auction for a couple more bucks, and consistently sell $15 to $25+, that might be the new buying model as long as live auctions remain a golden goose. Just buy and sell a few hundred graded cards a month, sounds like a pretty sweet gig.

I really think live auctions are here to stay. Not everyone has a reseller’s mindset or know-how, but lots of people give it a try. The social aspect of live auctions is pretty fun. eBay’s put a big push into promoting them. I stick with the one consignment community that I like, but I see more and more streams popping up on the eBay live main page every day, in all sorts of different niches. Not just cards. Clothes, comic books, coins, luxury bags. Kind of a fascinating little world.

In non-card purchases, I added another signed pickguard, this one by Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention, to the pile that I’m gonna list soon, I swear. At $10, how could I not? I love all kinds of music, so I’m really enjoying handling items like this.

This football signed by Seattle Seahawks coach Mike MacDonald should be an easy flip once we get closer to football season. $15 for a signature of an active coach on a team logo football is always a buy, that’s a $50 sale if the team does well and an easy low-margin item if they don’t. Buying that signed football off the team’s website or at a local show would be closer to $100, easy. Why pay that when you can get a good deal on ebay!

What did you find this week?