How to Recyle Your Sports Cards

In a day where only autographed and game-used cards are the heart of the sports card collecting hobby, the classical yet plain non insert cards, known as the "base card" is quickly losing its value. If you are not a base set collector, more likely than not these base cards have become space eaters and you are know not what to do with them. Often times, throwing these sports cards away might seem like the only option, but throwing away sports cards are quite wasteful. Here are some ways you can make good use of your unwanted sports cards and either make some money or have some fun in the process!

1. Reward your birds - If you own a pet bird of any kind, with the exception of finches, birds love to chew on sports cards. Feel free to string a sport card up on the bird's cage and watch them peck at your least favorite athlete. Your birds will have a blast and you will free up some space for your inventory. Sports cards are not recommended as toys for any other types of pets, as they might eat or swallow the cards.

2. Have a garage sale -Having a garage sale is one of the best ways to get rid of your base cards, especially if your neighborhood is filled with kids. You can sell singles of superstar base cards for 25 cents each while dividing the rest of your cards into team lots and sell 100 cards for 3-5$. It's a great way to make some petty cash while getting rid of your unwanted sports cards at the same time. If you are successful, you can host these garage sales / mini card shows more often! It's a great way to get to know the sports fans in your neighborhood as well!

3. Selling in bulk on eBay - While many local sports cards shop might buy your bulk lot of cards for minimal cash, more often then not, they usually will not give you any money for the sports cards. One idea is to obtain flat rate boxes from the post office and sell your base cards in lots of about 3000 cards for about $20. You might get more or less depending on the quality of your base cards. While $20 is not much, it's much better than the sports cards taking up space in your home.

4. Decoration - Sports cards usually have some great action photos, and the base can be scrapbooked or used for decorating gift boxes, sports themed rooms, and even parties. It's also a fun activity for the kids to cut out the athletes to play with them or to make a collage.

5. Halloween - A great treat to give to kids on Halloween instead of candy are sports cards. Simply take a bunch of base cards and give them out on Halloween. Most kids, especially boys, loves them; they're much healthier and might even spark a collecting interest in some of the kids! You can't go wrong here.

6. Start a strange collection - Collecting base is actually kind of fun and inexpensive as compare to the rest of the sports card hobby in it's current state. One way to collect base cards is to collect themes. For example, I have a collection of basketball cards of "white guys with mustaches". Starting a theme collecting will give you an excuse to go through piles and piles of your old sports cards that you haven't flipped through in years. In addition, theme collecting of base cards seem to bring some of the innocence and joy of card collecting back in an age where the whole hobby is driven by money.

7. Be a good samaritan - Speaking of money and the joy of collecting. While your base cards might not bring much pleasure or joy to you, they can bring joy and happiness to many others. Try donating your sports cards to places like a children's hospital. Most kids love these sports cards and you can bring some real joy and happiness into their lives.

These are just some of the ways you can make use of your useless base sports cards. Be creative and have fun!