Focusing on fewer sites: 301 or only link

[tagmug]

So lets say I don't want to sell some of my old sites, but I neither plan on putting any substansial work on them in the future. These sites are not generating any type of huge income, but they get decent amount of SE traffic and have some good backlinks.

So SEO-wise is my best move to somehow re-direct these full sites to the sites I plan on working on in the future or should I just link from them with text like "For up-to-date information see XXX"?

Can doing the first one cause problems?

Ideally I would obviously like to move the content from these sites I dont plan on working on the new sites and re-direct each page to that new site's similiar page. .. As long as this doesnt cause any problems with the SE's and actually has some benefit over just having link on those sites and letting them age.

[tagmug]

f meant to post to SEO, but i guess it can be here as well