I tell people outside the hobby that I’m going to a card show, and sometimes they’ll tell me “good luck.” They think I’m at a table selling cards.

I’ve never done this. I’ve never set up a table because I haven’t had any cards to sell. And I think it’s also because of my horror story as a 13-year-old at the local card show, where I was cussed out trying to sell some of my own cards to them.

However, I’m slowly starting to want to part with certain cards. The easy answer to what I’m wanting to get rid of are bankers boxes of junk wax crap – but it seems like you can’t even give those away if you really wanted to.

Junk wax star cards in a box? Yawn. A waste of my muscular constriction.

So I had to think about what’s actually working in the hobby that I actually have, and those vintage cards might be the answer.

I don’t have mint stuff. I don’t have graded stuff. I have what I consider “starter” cards: a 1970 Topps card of Hoyt Wilhelm for $1. Somehow I wound up with two 1962 Topps cards of Orlando Cepeda, and I only need one, so $2 for the other. The conditions are 1s, 2s and 3s – 4 at best – so I figure why not market them to those who may not have one, and make just a little off of it?

The cards I have aren’t going to be big money makers. I probably paid $1 for them and plan to sell for $2. “Old cards” I think can make any young collector’s box of cards interesting a little.

All I would need is one single table. All of the cards that I make $1 or more to be put in hard plastic then penny sleeves and lined up across 3/5ths of the table. I figure to have no cards more than $5 asking price on the entire table.

1950s and 1960s commons for $0.50. All penny sleeved and spread in small stacks on 1/5th of the table.

1970s “lesser” hall of famers for $0.50. All penny sleeved and spread in small stacks on that same 1/5th of the table with the other $0.50 cards.

1970s semistars/minor stars for $0.25. All penny sleeved and spread in small stacks on the remaining 1/5th of the table.

My stacks aren’t going to be that large.

This is what the table would look like:

Who does this market to? Young collectors, collectors who are starting out, really really novice collectors. I’m not wanting to attract the gung-ho slab pilers and those who carry around a microscope.

The big problem I’ll have going for me is table cost. It costs money to have a table at shows. So I don’t know if my small selection is going to cut it.

But what if … I do this table on my front porch and call it a baseball card open house? It’ll be a real small one, and the marketing would have to be specific.

I do have cards set aside for sale. I just need to get a good camera to make a video of these piles.