Biggest regret buying/selling card(s)
r00kies101
Posts: 263 ✭✭
As long time collectors, I'm sure we all have our stories of biggest regrets when buying/selling card(s).
BUYING or not buying in my case:
1986 Fleer Jordan PSA 10 on eBay. I think the card was avg'ing ~$9K at that time with price dropping steadily, figured it was going to continue to drop...that particular auction ended @ ~$7k.
SELLING: Purchased 2 football cards from 4sharpcorners back in the day: 1986 Topps Steve Young PSA 10 RC and 1985 Topps Warren Moon PSA 10 RC - total for both cards $400. A few years later, sold the Moon for $500 and Young for $2000. Thought I made a killing. 
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Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention
Buying:
Many cases of not buying. The 1 that hurts the most was a beautiful SGC 5 '48 Jackie Robinson at a local card show 3-4 years ago. $2000 was the final cash price. I withdraw the money, and reluctantly didn't return to finish the deal...decided to put the extra $2k on the mortgage instead.
Selling:
In 2009, bought a raw, beautifully centered '54 Aaron. Subbed it to Beckett at a Philly show, returned a 4.5.
3-4 years later, sold it for $600 to get the Jeep fixed. Figured I'd easily upgrade to a PSA 5 or 6 in the $1200 range eventually.
oh my the memories
i went after this exact card 5 years ago and came up short...
...had i known this was going to happen i would have tried a little harder
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
When I was 20 (25 years ago) I sold my Jordan signed press photo for $300 when I couldn't find work. Like to have that one back.
I sold a 2009 bowman draft blue refractor auto of Mike Trout .... for $80
i used to go to shows back in the 70's. could have bought mantle's for $40 or less, as many as i wanted from 1954 up. could have bought 1000 of packs of 1980 basketball. i only bought packs until i got the magic bird card. i still have it in a bvg 7.5 holder. bought a 1970 football set for $12, 1972 football (entire set including high #'s) for $15. both from larry fritsch. put them in rubber bands.
I might as well chime in. When I was 14 years old back around 1989 I had a complete set of 1986 Fleer basketball. I told myself that I will never get rid of it because it had the Michael Jordan rookie in it. I had an uncle at the time that was into cards and he called me and offered me about $200 to $300 worth of baseball cards in a trade. Well of course I couldn't turn that down! I regretted it soon afterward and regret it to this day.
However I did purchase a PSA 8 Jordan rookie back 2 years ago for $1,600. Now they are going for nearly $5,000 so I didn't do too bad.
Shane
Lol the good ole rubber band packs. Proud to say I had them too
I guess we weren't as concerned with edges back then
Buying: In my defense, I’m a baseball guy. In 2003, I was offered a case of Upper Deck Exquisite basketball for $1300. What did I want with basketball, right? I bought a couple of cases of 2003 Bowman Draft. Delmon Young was on fire!
Oh, one more buying. The pit.com was moving a lot of stuff for some reason. Anyway, they had some 2001 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols PSA 9 autos for $250. Instead, I bought some Topps Tiffany Jason Giambi PSA 10 rookies because I knew he was just going to kill it in NY!
Selling: Check out this sub.
Total Items: 15
Date Received: 12/4/2019
Date Shipped: 12/20/2019
Line # Item # Cert # Grade Description Type
1 1 45550621 GEM MINT 10 2018 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs RJ Reggie Jackson Red Ink Card
2 1 45550622 GEM MINT 10 2017 Bowman's Best Best of 2017 Autograph B17ra Ronald Acuna Card
3 1 45550623 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 2016 Topps Transcendent 65th Anniversary Party 1953 Mike Trout Autograph Card
4 1 45550624 GEM MINT 10 2018 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs MT Mike Trout Card
5 1 45550625 MINT 9 1993 Topps Gold 98 Derek Jeter Card
6 1 45550626 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1991 Topps Tiffany 333 Chipper Jones Card
7 1 45550627 MINT 9 1991 Topps Tiffany 333 Chipper Jones Card
8 1 45550628 GEM MINT 10 2000 Bowman Chrome 236 Tom Brady Card
9 1 45550629 GEM MINT 10 2000 Bowman Chrome 236 Tom Brady Card
10 1 45550630 MINT 9 2000 Bowman Chrome 236 Tom Brady Card
11 1. N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 2000 Bowman Chrome 236 Tom Brady Card
12 1 45550632 GEM MINT 10 2000 Bowman Chrome 236 Tom Brady Card
13 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 2003 Topps Chrome 111 LeBron James Card
14 1 45550634 MINT 9 1996 Topps Chrome 138 Kobe Bryant Card
15 1 45550635 MINT 9 1996 Topps Chrome 138 Kobe Bryant Card
Sold all the PSA 10 Brady’s for around $2100 a piece about two months ago and the PSA 9 for $750. Still turned a decent profit but DAMN!
These stories make me feel so much better about my regrets. I only have 2 that stand out:
buying- I was about to buy a PSA 3 1933 Lou Gehrig #160 at the Wilmington show years ago for $1400. I passed at the time and instead bout a AFA graded sealed Chewbacca 12 back star wars figure for $1,000 and used the other $400 to save up for my next big purchase. The Gehrig is out of my price range now and the Chewbacca is worth about $1200.
selling- I sold my complete 1988 Fleer basketball set for $40 years ago because I wasn't too into basketball and figured I would never look through it. Wish I still had it now.
I have had some doozies I would love to have back. Namath rookie - PSA 7. Aaron rookie SGC 8. Way too many to count.
i keep killing that bug you have as an avatar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_from_Panama
Buying : probably the Carew rookie contract in an auction
Selling ; I dont sell that much but a CArew 1967 PSA 8 for $500
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_from_Panama
I pulled a 2017 Prestige Patrick Mahomes rookie on card auto red ink out of a pack. At the time, Mahomes was a backup who hadn’t taken a snap and I really liked Leonard Fournette. I also wasn’t aware at the time that the red ink had a print run of 25. I traded my Mahomes auto for a Fournette auto. Today that Fournette auto is worth like $10. The Mahomes auto sells for hundreds of dollars. Here is the Mahomes I traded:
And here’s the Fournette I got in return:
D’oh!!
Yaz Master Set
#1 Gino Cappelletti master set
#1 John Hannah master set
Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, Dwight Evans, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox
Regret selling my self-submitted Jerry Rice roookie PSA 10. I did sell for good money at the time (around $3000). But just saw a recent one sell for over $24,000 !!!
My biggest regret in a long time was not buying a 2000 Bowman Chrome Brady PSA 10 for $2200 at the Philly Show just a few months ago. I offered $1900 and decided not to buy at his $2200 asking price. They were going for $1800-1900 at the time. Well now they are selling $6-8K.........
PSA HOF Baseball Postwar Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 80.51% Complete)
PSA Pro Football HOF Rookie Players Set Registry- (Currently 19.80% Complete)
PSA Basketball HOF Players Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 6.02% Complete)
I
It's always a bitter pill over-paying at a show; ebay as well.
Unfortunately we end up on a thread like this when we dont
Scored a local horde of 1990 Fleer basketball wax boxes and sold them all last spring for $25 each
ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240
I'll tell you what I regret, I regret all the cards that got away because I was worried what my wife would think about me spending so much. Yes, I said it! Life is too short, and if she wants me to choose between her and Joe Louis, then she's not going to like my choice, because Joe and me will be together until the bitter end!!
My biggest regret is passing on a 1963 Topps PSA 9 Bob Lilly rookie for $3,750 in late 2014 right after I got back into the hobby. I foolishly thought "I'll see another". There are no PSA 10's, it's a pop 9 and I haven't seen one since. Sigh.
The Doomsday Collection
Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor | All-Time Dallas Cowboys | Bob Lilly Master | Pro Football HOF Dallas Cowboys
I sold a 2012 Topps Mike Trout Autograph insert card for about $100.00 3 years ago on eBay. I'm not sure exactly what kind of insert it was and prefer to keep it that way.
My sophomore year of college, over winter break, I sold an album of mostly star cards from the 70s and early 80s for about $300 to help pay for books for the up coming semester. The album had almost every major card from the those years including rookies, except those of Bradshaw and Payton. It even included a complete run of Staubach cards!
How I wish I would have found another way to pay for those books.
Haven't sold much since!
My only regrets as a buyer have been a few bogus packs that I've had the unfortunate luck of opening.
Buying - many. A few that come to mind are the 1952 packs Mark Murphy was selling at the 1996 National for $1500 each or two for $2500. I also remember about 20 years ago an eBay seller was selling a raw high grade 1956 Mantle and a 1956 Killebrew. Both were gorgeous. I won the Killebrew but lost the Mantle. The Killebrew graded 8 and I eventually got it bumped to 8.5. I emailed the Mantle winner (back in that day, eBay didn’t shield the bidder info). He said he submitted it to GAI who graded it 8.5. I bought a handful of 1971 rack packs from a local coin dealer. He had posted a photo on these forums asking about Hostess box tops saying he didn’t know much about cards and was asking if they had value. The 71 racks in the background were what caught everyone’s attention. After chasing him for a few weeks, I finally got hold of him and drove up to his coin shop. I bought every rack he had. Unfortunately, he had just sold a rack with Pete Rose showing on the back and he didn’t even disclose it in his eBay listing which only showed the front of the pack. I can’t complain though since my racks did include one with Munson on the front and one with Blyleven on the back.
Selling - about 20 years ago I bought a run of 1972-1976 wax boxes for $6k. The run included a regular size 1975 box which are selling for close to $20k when you can find them these days. I ended up opening a few packs from each box, kept a few with stars showing that I eventually got graded and sold off the rest. I wish I had those back.
Buying:
Was offered 4 Jordan RC PSA 9's for $1k each and I was firm on my ceiling being $900 each if I bought all 4. Seller was firm as well...
Selling:
Amassed from self picking packs at shows, ebay, etc (20+) 1988 Fleer Basketball Wax Packs with Jordan Sticker Backs. Had PSA 8's and PSA 9's. Sold all of them for average of $200 each and made 75-100% profit on my investment about 30 days prior to the documentary hype...
Each pack is now being bid at auction continuously for $500-750...lol