cards! get your cards here!

December 28, 2008 10:07 AM

What do I do with thousands upon thousands of collectible trading card game cards? (Mostly from the Star Trek TCG.)

(Boy that's an awkward use of the word "card"...)

So I inherited six or seven very large boxes that each hold thousands of cards from several collectible trading card games, most of them being Stark Trek, and also a some boxes of a few other games I've never heard of (WARS, The Spoils, and another one I can't remember). Since I'm actually a Trek fan I got together some buddies and we gave it a shot, but gave up halfway through skimming the manual, and it turned into Calvinball-style card playing for a little while before we decided we did have better things to do in life. So much for that.

Now I have to figure out what to do with all these cards. Does anyone actually still play with these anymore? Is there a market for it? (My geekiness is in video games, not card games.) From what I can tell the Star Trek cards are first edition and apparently they're on second edition now, and the rules are completely different, but does anyone still want/play first edition?

I can probably just sell the whole thing, but I don't know where to start, and I'd prefer to sell or give it to someone who can actually use it, not just a reseller. I can probably sell pieces of it myself via ebay or whatever, but that takes time I don't have. I can probably use them in some kind of magnificent art project; anyone have any ideas? or anyone have an art project in dire need of some nerdy cards?

As far as selling goes, I think it would be fun to take these to a local comic book convention (or similar) and set up my own table for a couple of days. Anyone try this before?

posted by lou to sports, hobbies, & recreation (4 comments total)

1. Cover one wall of one room in your house with the cards.
2. Use them as the "tiles" in a mosaic of Shatner's face?
posted by DWRoelands at 11:03 AM on December 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

If you have a card shop nearby you could ask them to sell for you and let them take a cut. They would/should know how much to sell them for. But really, any money made is profit since you don't seem to have much of a use for them.
posted by theichibun at 11:58 AM on December 28, 2008

What kind of Star Trek cards are they? There are a few games. Do they look like this? I would guess those are the only ones that might have any real value.

Even then, with the exception of a few cards, they're not going to be worth much. This was the most expensive STCCG card back in the day, fetching around $75 - 100 according to the pricing magazines of the time. It's on Buy it Now on eBay for 30 bucks now, so that should give you an idea of the current interest.

If you have the Enterprise or any of the bridge crew/other major characters/alternate versions of bridge crew you might be able to get a little for them. The others are mulch, best used for art projects, one bulk lot on eBay, or someone else you know who might enjoy the game.
posted by yellowbinder at 2:28 PM on December 28, 2008

Either use em or chuck em, they have no money value. I said bye to all my Star Wars CCG cards that way, including a Darth Vader that I had traded a Magic card for (the Magic card would sell for $50 today...).
posted by Vindaloo at 1:54 PM on January 6