General Forum

Anyone else ever do this?

This was probably around 2002-2003. I was at a card show in a mall (remember those?), and I came across a racing card set I wanted. I had only recently decided that this was a set I wanted to pursue and here it was. The seller wanted $20, which I thought was too high, so I passed. I thought, 'Well, I found that set so easily, it'll be easy to find it again down the road, and for a cheaper price, right?'

Nearly 20 years later, I have never seen that set for sale again. I'd jump at the chance to buy it at $20 today.

How about leaving the hobby in 2001 and selling everything off to include a bunch of Brady rookies and some nice 70s sets that, while I have again, are not in the same condition as the ones I had

In the last couple years, have done thew same thing, passed on sets or singles thinking they'd come around again. Yeah, about that...

My best friend used to collect and trade with me as I kid, Lost track of him after High School but recently met up again and we were talking about how I am back into it, I asked him what happened to all his cards. He told me that when he moved out his mom said take them or she is throwing them out.... You can guess the rest. 

I dumped a Trout rookie for dirt back in 2012. Oof 

That is still the biggest collecting blunder I've made. It was a duplicate that I was trading for commons to fill out my set. The other one I had graded as a 10 though despite me opening it and handling it multiple times as a 13 year old, so I guess I can't complain but so much. 

I sold an EX-2000 Star Date 2000 Kobe rookie on ebay for $13 back in 2013 and it's now going for $1,000-$2,000 (and even more graded). I also decided to sell a bunch of my 53 Topps cards like 6 years ago and now I'm working on a set and would really love to have the Mays that i sold...

In 2019 I was going to start collecting PSA 8-10s of players from youth; stars of the 80s and 90s.  Then I got transferred, moved, quit, moved and then COVID shut evrything down and prices exploded.  Could have been sitting on a goldmine and perhaps be able to keep up with house prices.

I collected from 1988-2000 and then stopped when I went university and got married. I gave all my cards away. So many sets. Some are with my Dad but I don't have the heart to ask for them back bc they are part of his collection now. Others who knows where. When I jumped back into collecting again about 8 years or so ago I re-collected all the sets I had gotten rid of. I wish I had kept them. I don't know why I stepped away from the hobby. I guess I had other things to focus on but I should have never gotten rid of those cards.

If I go back far enough, there are a bunch:

• Not buying a Near Mint-Mint 1952 Mantle from Al Rosen (aka Mr. Mint) for $5K in 1986. That was A LOT of money then.
• Not buying a Babe Ruth autographed ball for $1000 in 1987. That was also A LOT of money then.
• Passing on an ExMt Clemente rookie for $100 in 1987. Too much money for me at the time.
• Passing on 4 boxes of 1986-87 Fleer basketball for $6 a box in 1989. 'Basketball will never be worth anything!'
• Passing on an unopened box of 1978 Topps Football for $400 in 2008.
• Passing on 30 packs of unopened 1977 Topps Baseball for $300 in 2012.

Bad mistakes, I've made a few....

at age 8-9, My best friend collected basketball i collected baseball so whenever we hit the gas stations or stores together he would buy 86-87 fleer basketball, while i would load up on topps baseball.  

Dang it, that was starting into my prime collecting time.  

DocOso, you hit the nail on the head.  In '86 the wife and I were in a TG&Y in Oklahoma.  We got ready to check out and she said "look at this".  It was a table packed full of '86-'87 Fleer basketball cards they were selling for 10 cents a pack.  I told her no, I didn't want any because I don't collect basketball.  There must have been at least 40 boxes there.  I ended up buying one pack of those cards at a 7-11 just to see what they looked like.  We ended up moving to Indonesia and when the movers came in I gave the pack to one of the guys...which of course had the Jordan rookie in it.