Comments on: Do Baseball Cards Belong in Your Net Worth?

By: Jaime

Jaime — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:03:54 +0000

I think it does belong in a net worth. It does seem like you have to be a savvy collector and be diligent about tracking them. I’m not a collector though it seems too involved. lol. But if someone wants to do it then good for them, to each his own. :)

By: J. Money

J. Money — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:40:35 +0000

ahahaha….. silly girl. definitely understand the “physical and psychological” build-up though – just more reason for me to stick with my new minimalist plan!

By: Donna Freedman

Donna Freedman — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:22:37 +0000

@J$: I probably should have been clearer. What I pitched were hundreds and hundreds of media guides and programs, most from small colleges in the 1980s and 1990s. Early on I had thought I’d use the Internet to find buyers. I even tried it for some of the stuff from bigger schools and a few major league teams. No luck. Finally I decided my life was too hectic to spend hours trying to make a $3 to $5 sale. I put some on Freecycle, outright gave some to a dealer who’d bought all the baseball cards I had, and threw the rest in the Dumpster.
Forgot to mention: This stuff was taking up physical and psychological room in my life. The boxes were stacked in my bedroom and I’d finally had enough.
Now if only I could get someone to buy the oil painting of the buckskin-clad mountain man with a dead animal on his head….. :-P

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:42:08 +0000

That’s a good way of doing it. I’ve sold two dead cars on eBay before. There’s always someone with the right parts (and amount of time/patience) to fix ’em up!

By: Erik

Erik — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:27:28 +0000

I include my two cars in my net worth calculation, but at a “gone in a day price”.

For example, both of them are worth about $1200 bluebook, but I have one listed at $600 and the other listed as $200 (because it can’t currently be driven) in my net worth calculation.

Including items in your calculation is fine, but increasing your net worth by the full value of your couch or TV is you just fooling yourself.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:55:35 +0000

@Dawn Allcot – Haha, luckily I know your pretty face so I know it’s not a sales pitch ;) And you totally reminded me of that stuff too – forgot companies did that! In fact, my dad and sister almost formed one after talking to a friend who does it. They were going to document everything you owned via photographs and notes, and then compile it all onto a CD for “just in case” needs. DEF a good idea. Thanks for sharing!
@Budgeting in the Fun Stuff – I think we’re joined by many on that one ;)

By: Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:41:42 +0000

“It’s a bitch to track” is my #1 reason that I only include our retirement accounts, our stocks, our cash, our house, and our cars… :-)

By: Dawn Allcot

Dawn Allcot — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:26:59 +0000

J-
GREAT, insightful post. I agree that taking an inventory is a b**** to track. But did you know that there are companies around that provide exactly that service?

As soon as I get my house in order (it’s kind of a mess since we moved in, stuff in boxes, in the attic, etc). we are going to call Hartman Inventory at http://www.hartmaninventory.com to inventory all our “stuff.”

There’s another very good reason for it besides just tracking your net worth. If anything happens (fire, flood, theft, etc.) and you have to make an insurance claim — if you think it’s hard to track while you’re looking at your stuff, imagine having to remember it all!

Using “blanket value” is fine until the insurance inspector starts nickel-and-diming you. For less than a fraction of the value of everything in your home (under $1000 or so, depending on the size of your house) you can get a professional inventory, on file, backed up remotely.

Then you can decide if you want to add it all to your net worth, or just be happy you finally have a list. ;)

I know this sounds kind of salesy, but I had never heard about home inventory until I met the Hartmans and I wanted to let your readers (and you) know it’s one choice if you do want to count up all your items and their value. Personally, I think it would be kind of cool to know and yes, it would make me feel better about that bottom line number. (Or at least tell me where the heck all my money goes! LOL)

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:32:16 +0000

Interesting responses guys. I like the idea of “if it’s insured, count it.” If I added in our diamonds our worth would be decently higher ;) The wife’s ring and my bling! haha… Also, I realized today that I’m sitting on a good $3k worth of cards myself, if not more. Including a Mickey Mantle and some other jems! Really want to add to my net worth now, haha… doubt I will though.

Oh, and I’ll have to give a thumbs up to those who mentioned:

1) Valuing your cards’ worth by the “ebay price”
and 2) Putting down your value of all this other stuff at $10,000 or some other round number. That way you don’t have to track all the time, and odds are if you got rid of it all you’d at least make that amount back (if you have a house-full like some of us).

Your responses await:

@Money Beagle – I hear the car thing too all the time…. I kinda do get it, but at the same time it’s hard to have $XXX debt on one side and not the asset it’s attached to on the other, ya know?
@Andrew – Oooh now that’s a way to do it. I can dig that.
@Sarah Fowler – a) Love Mint! b) Yeah, you know –
@Jonathan – Yeah, kinda boring too tracking things that don’t really fluctuate much. Although that may be personal preference, haha…
@Leigh – Yep, very hard to find the true “value” until the day you go to sell it!
@Kevin @ Thousandaire.com – Haha… cuz you’re OLD!! I say you go out and buy a couple shiney new packs of Upper Deck ;)
@Mike Choi – Haha, that’s for damn sure. I still have on of my Micky Mantle’s actually (traded like 100 good cards for it back in the day when I realized these oldies are probably the best investments, if you can call ’em that)
@Jake – Yep!
@Kasey – True :) Just like if you have a crystal ball!
@Michael Senchuk – For sure – $4k brand new tv ain’t worth it once you start using it!
@Kevin I – Doesn’t that suck though? that they can be valued at $X amount but you can never (usually) get that $ for it? Oh well. Hope you at least enjoy the stories ;)
@Craig – Yep! Gotta be conservative in those valuations.
@Grant – well, we don’t really know *how* the emailer came to $3,000. It’s possible it’s valued at $10k and he lowered it when thinking to include in his net worth. But yeah, I get what you’re saying. Crazy tha dealer doesn’t look after ’71! Kinda makes sense though…. good thing I saved all my oldies ;)
@Jane Sanders – Yeah, probably.
@Evan – You don’t understand cars? What if you had an Escalade and owed $30k on it? Would you only add the debt and not the value of, say, kbb or something? you’ve piqued my interest, sir ;)
@Josh – Nice! Def. conservative there.
@Lazy Man and Money – Also nice! I can totally rock to that… adding it to the things to consider ;) Thx opposite-of-lazy!
@Donna Freedman – Much better chance now w/ the age of the internet than before ;)
@retirebyforty – U.S. dollars aren’t worth much in the long run either! (bah-dum-ching)
@Barb Friedberg – Haha, I would. If someone came and gave me like $5k I’d give them all my furniture and go minimalist! haha… except for my computer desk, that would be hardcore ;) Thx for posting about it! I like our husband already.

By: Barb Friedberg

Barb Friedberg — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:06:36 +0000

Hi J, I had to read this and stick it in my roundup tomorrow as my husband collects baseball cards :) We have fantasies of selling them in a side business during retirement. In the mean time, they aren’t in our net worth now as we like to be conservative and focus mainly on financial and real estate assets. After all, I don’t think I would sell our furniture to increase our cash balance!