General Forum

I believe it waaround 1995 or 96.  I went to an auction that had advertised "old baseball cards".  Knowing that it could be everything from really old to more recent, I went without a lot of hope.  When I got there, it turned out that it was all 1958-1962 cards, mostly 1959 and 1961, some 1962 Topps and some 1962 Post. The cards included many stars including Aaron, Maris and the like (no Mantles other than subsets).  They were all stacked at the auctioneers desk. So I waited for them to come up for sale.  After the auctioneer finished with all the small stuff on tables, he started selling furniture.  On and on it went with the crowd thinning out as time went by.  By the time he finished selling the furniture, the crowd dminnished to about four of us.  When the auctioneer announces that the auction was over, two fo us cried out for the ball cards and the other two cried out for the old camera equipment.  It turned ot that the auctioneer had comletely forgotten about those items.  So he sold the camera equipment of next and two more bidders left leaving myself and another guy for the cards.

So the auctioneer picks up about half of the 1959 cards and we start the bidding.  The bid starts at $10, then  $20 and up by $10 each bid.  I get to $50 and the other guy stops bidding.  I can't believe it. On to the other half of the 1959 cards and the same scenario plays out - $50, my bid.  The other guy is disgusted and mutters that if I am going to pay that much for the cards, he's leaving and out he goes.  Now there  is the auctioneer and myself with half the cards still to sell.  He asks what I would pay for them.  I replied thatwhat was left was about the same amount as what I had already bought so $100 for the rest.  He sold them to me!  After taxes, it was $230!  Turns out, it was about 10% of the BV!

It was the start of my focussing on the vinatge cards versus the modern cards.

A college friend was so convinced Shaq would be awesome, he let me have any 3 cards from his collection for the UD Shaquille O'Neal rookie redemption card I had just opened. I got an Ozzie Smith RC, Andre Dawson RC, and I think a 1974 Schmidt. Well, it turns out Shaq was just as awesome as the guy anticipated, maybe better, but 1992-93 basketball isn't exactly at the level of 1970s baseball, so I say I came out ahead.

Best deal was a 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Series I wrapper and several (4 or 5) unused (Mint) All-Star stamps. Got all of them together on EBay for a Buy it now price of $8. BV$150-200? Yes I knew what I was buying, but the antiques dealer didn't know what he was selling. 

I do have to mention "the best deal that never was" however.  It was likely the spring or summer of 1980 and the local Shoppers Drug Mart was selling boxes of 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee hockey (Gretzky rookie) for $5.  They had stacks of boxes. Man I wish I picked up a few, but as a kid you didn't have that kind of money. I could only afford a few packs at a time and was always jealous of the kids who's parents bought them a whole box of cards. Not sure on the $BV of a box these days, say $10,000+, quite the return on investment, if only....

I just paid $15 for a box of autographed cards mostly all pack inserted from a yard sale site on face book. there were about 60 cards mostly prospects and a 1961 topps Sandy Koufax autographed in pen. I put a pic of it on the major baseball card facebook sies and all think its real and should get it graded. Even had an offer for $50.

February 1987.  I was at my local Thrift Drugs store and I saw a box of 86-87 Fleer basketball cards.  Box was full, 36 packs at 50 cents each.   They were marked down to a quarter a pack.  So I got the whole box for $9.   At the time, did not know they would sky rocket in value.   Great collation,  was able to make almost 3 complete sets.    Got 3 Jordan RCs and 3 Jordan stickers.

Around '91 or '92, already having been burned when buying early '80s football wax packs at card shows by sellers who re-waxed the packs and provided me with every punter in the NFL, I chose to give wax one more try. This time it was a small shop in town where I decided I'd open the packs in front of the owner and was prepared to fight for my money if I was stuck with any more punters. 

I forget how much I paid for three 1986 Topps football packs, but it was reasonable. I got myself not one, but two Jerry Rice RCs. I flipped one of the Rice rookies for a combo of 1965 Philly Don Meredith, 1966 Bob Hayes RC, and some Astros commons. 

Coram Deo,

Joshua 

Oops. This was supposed to be quoting someone, not a reply.

That's funny to me. I still have a Shaq RC card (#1) and HAD the Shaq "Trade Upper Deck" redemption card (#1A) until I traded that one several years ago. Plus I have an Ozzie Smith Topps RC now. Back in 1993, I would have easily agreed to trade both of the Shaq cards for just the Ozzie RC!!! That was a great score.

The rest of you that posted after him, those were great scores too!

I think I've told the story of my biggest find. This last March I responded to a classified ad where a lady was selling a collection. Was just sitting in the corner of her garage. Maybe 200,000 cards. Some in 3200 and 5000 ct boxes and some in smaller boxes. She listed it as a baseball collection. In reality only 5% or so was baseball. The highlight for baseball was some 1994 upper deck minor league cards. At the time I was really only getting back into collecting baseball so I considered passing on it.  

As I scanned I started to think there may be decent value and I ended up buying the whole thing. Still working on sorting it all out but included numerous 80+ complete or near complete basketball sets ranging primarily from 94-95 to 03-04. Also had some nice 1998 football sets. Got a few Peyton Manning rookies, the thing that really convinced me to buy it. Lots of Kobe rookies and some other gems as well. Well worth the price paid. $160 altogether. Of course it has taken me all year to try and organize and sort it out. My goal is to have it all listed here by the end of 2017.

More recently I went to a garage sale and saw a couple of binders of cards listed for $10 each. They looked to be 2008-2013ish baseball cards. I ended up seeing Posey, Darvish, Prince Fielder and a few other RCs I got excited about and bought them. Turned out the best card in the bunch I hadn't even noticed. It wasn't until a month later when I pulled one of the binders out that I noticed the 2011 Topps Update Trout.

How about the "almost" biggest collecting score?

I was doing a show, really slow rainy day, in the early 90s in NJ. So slow that the vendors were busy buying instead of selling....I watched 1 vendor open box after box, keeping inserts throwing everything else in the big trash barrel put right next to his table. Bet alot of value cards landed in the dumpster. As tables were closing down, a grungy man in a raincoat and hat carrying a huge cardbox, approached table #1, then worked his way down to the table next to me....so far everybody just ignored him, the fellow next to  me at least looked. Most cards were "rubber banded", not NRMT shape, but still not bad. The cards were mostly 50s and 60s.....Aarons, Musials, Mantles, Mays and on, dozens of each. I'm already counting my money, as my neighbor declined....asking $250, as grungy was moving to me "would you take $150 bellowed my neighbor" SHIT! grungy turned around said "sure". DAMN.

~BOB~