What a Difference 5 Years Makes!!!!
FB
Posts: 1,684 ✭✭
I was just reviewing emails on an old computer that I was planning on wiping and it went back to before I started collecting cards AGAIN in the early part of 1999. I had made a decision to work on the 72 set and to build the NICEST possible set that I could. I had researched eBay and found that I could buy "MINT" sets for around $1000 and was having trouble figuring out what the heck NM-MT was...
I bought 4 nice 72 sets over the first few months and upgraded my set and broke up the leftover sets and sold them off to maximize my return. I was a pain, but it kept my costs down. One of the sets that I bought had a PSA 8 Frank Robinson and a PSA 8 Joe Morgan. First time that I had ever seen graded cards...
Now, these were the nicest Robinson and Morgan that I had, otherwise I would have kept the better ones and sold these on eBay. And it bugged me that I now had 785 cards in a binder and 2 that wouldn't fit!!!! So, I started doing eBay searches on 1972 PSA and started watching auctions. Pretty soon, I had thoughts about getting an Aaron and maybe a Pete Rose in graded form! I started buying on eBay - Hall of Famers at first, then League Leaders, Team cards - just about anything except commons because WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS WOULD BUY A GRADED COMMON!?!?!?!?!?!
I started to clash with the same eBay ID's over and over again... rugrats, carkim(Carlos), scivic(Castaldi) and carwashair(Eric Jarvi). It wasn't long before I got an email from rugrats (Neil Downey) asking about 72's to trade. He was doing the same thing I was - complete raw set with a few graded thrown in - plus, we only lived about 16 miles apart. So, we arranged a meeting.... neutral ground... a McDonald's on the Garden State Parkway (in case he was a psycho-killer or something...) This first lunch meeting spawned a series of deals that stretched on for 3 years and sometimes included Ray B Shotz (just so we could talk 69's!) Neil had found a fertile stash of 72's from a dealer in California and had hammered out ridiculous prices on some of the most beautiful 72's in PSA 8 holders that you'd ever want to see. Finally, I was able to find out Steve Pekovich's name and evetually strike my own deals. But, these McDonald deals would sometimes go on for hours - just talking cards.
We decided that to have all of the Hall of Famers in graded form would be a great achievement. At one meeting, I was told by Neil and Ray that it had been decided that if we had 100 graded cards in the set that it was a MONSTER set!
We had no concept of low pop... everything was low pop at the time...
We never considered building an entire set in graded form - that was just ridiculous!!!
We just kept building and gathering and upgrading.... Pretty soon 100 became 150 and then 200, then 400 then 787. It was easier to complete a set back then... Not as much competition... Not as much distinction between the tough cards and the easy ones... We started submitting on our own and upgrading and selling in order to gather more money to buy more cards to submit and then upgrade and sell some more!!! I look back now and found an old invoice where I sent in 2 - 1972 Gerry Grote's and both came back as PSA 8's. At the time - they were 2 of the 3 graded 8. Little did I know that they would be 2 of the 6 graded to today. I would send in 2 copies of each card - this way I could sell off the 8 and keep the 9 for myself. And I had a number of invoices where it pretty much worked out that way!
But, here we are 5 years later - I still can't believe what this hobby has done to me...
I bought 4 nice 72 sets over the first few months and upgraded my set and broke up the leftover sets and sold them off to maximize my return. I was a pain, but it kept my costs down. One of the sets that I bought had a PSA 8 Frank Robinson and a PSA 8 Joe Morgan. First time that I had ever seen graded cards...
Now, these were the nicest Robinson and Morgan that I had, otherwise I would have kept the better ones and sold these on eBay. And it bugged me that I now had 785 cards in a binder and 2 that wouldn't fit!!!! So, I started doing eBay searches on 1972 PSA and started watching auctions. Pretty soon, I had thoughts about getting an Aaron and maybe a Pete Rose in graded form! I started buying on eBay - Hall of Famers at first, then League Leaders, Team cards - just about anything except commons because WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS WOULD BUY A GRADED COMMON!?!?!?!?!?!
I started to clash with the same eBay ID's over and over again... rugrats, carkim(Carlos), scivic(Castaldi) and carwashair(Eric Jarvi). It wasn't long before I got an email from rugrats (Neil Downey) asking about 72's to trade. He was doing the same thing I was - complete raw set with a few graded thrown in - plus, we only lived about 16 miles apart. So, we arranged a meeting.... neutral ground... a McDonald's on the Garden State Parkway (in case he was a psycho-killer or something...) This first lunch meeting spawned a series of deals that stretched on for 3 years and sometimes included Ray B Shotz (just so we could talk 69's!) Neil had found a fertile stash of 72's from a dealer in California and had hammered out ridiculous prices on some of the most beautiful 72's in PSA 8 holders that you'd ever want to see. Finally, I was able to find out Steve Pekovich's name and evetually strike my own deals. But, these McDonald deals would sometimes go on for hours - just talking cards.
We decided that to have all of the Hall of Famers in graded form would be a great achievement. At one meeting, I was told by Neil and Ray that it had been decided that if we had 100 graded cards in the set that it was a MONSTER set!
We had no concept of low pop... everything was low pop at the time...
We never considered building an entire set in graded form - that was just ridiculous!!!
We just kept building and gathering and upgrading.... Pretty soon 100 became 150 and then 200, then 400 then 787. It was easier to complete a set back then... Not as much competition... Not as much distinction between the tough cards and the easy ones... We started submitting on our own and upgrading and selling in order to gather more money to buy more cards to submit and then upgrade and sell some more!!! I look back now and found an old invoice where I sent in 2 - 1972 Gerry Grote's and both came back as PSA 8's. At the time - they were 2 of the 3 graded 8. Little did I know that they would be 2 of the 6 graded to today. I would send in 2 copies of each card - this way I could sell off the 8 and keep the 9 for myself. And I had a number of invoices where it pretty much worked out that way!
But, here we are 5 years later - I still can't believe what this hobby has done to me...
Frank Bakka
Sets - 1970, 1971 and 1972
Always looking for 1972 O-PEE-CHEE Baseball in PSA 9 or 10!
lynnfrank@earthlink.net
outerbankyank on eBay!
Sets - 1970, 1971 and 1972
Always looking for 1972 O-PEE-CHEE Baseball in PSA 9 or 10!
lynnfrank@earthlink.net
outerbankyank on eBay!
0
Comments
I just celebrated my 2 Year Anniversary on this board and it has been a wonderful experience. I have learned more about this hobby in the past 2 years than I had in the previous 20 years. Not to mention the wonderful collectors that I have met via email, threads, many transactions, etc. The guys (you guys) not only have impressive collections but many of you are very successful in your professional life...levels that this 32 year old accountant from Ohio could only hope to achieve.
I am truly looking forward to meeting you gentlemen this year at the National in Cleveland.
Thanks to all of you for the inspiration.
John Basilone
edited: typo
I too found some old invoices last month (for some beautiful Mint raw Bowmans) I sold a few years ago on eBay ... before I got into graded cards. I remember being so excited because they did so well, and got so many bids. I also remember wondering at the time, "What are these guys thinking..... paying 3 times Beckett price for these cards?" Of course, they are probably worth 20 times Beckett today.
Another funny thing is, I also got back into the hobby about 3 1/2 years ago and started out by buying sets from the 70's in nm+ condition. I had marked on the outside of each box what year and condition the cards were in, and those sets have been stacked up in a corner of my basement ever since. So last months grading special finally caught my eye, and I figured I'd take advantage of it and go dig out all of those NM/MT+ Hall of Famers I've been sitting on for the last 4 years and get some PSA 9's for my HOF set. (They have to be NM/MT+... cause I had written it on the boxes!).
I almost fell out of my chair laughing (or crying) when I started looking through the oldest boxes on the bottom of the pile that were marked NM/MT+. The condition is probably EX/MT at best and some of the cards are creased, etc.
It was a great "snapshot in time" of my learning curve. The boxes on top (which are about a year old) are fairly accurate on grades, but as I dig down through each layer of the past 4 years of my collection... it is painfully obvious that I didn't have a clue what Mint condition was back then.
It makes me wonder... What will I think 5 years from now, about the buys I'm making today?
Mike
<< <i> just about anything except commons because WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS WOULD BUY A GRADED COMMON!?!?!?!?!?! >>
I still believe that - unless one has lots of money to throw at cards.
Great story Frank...
I remember, clearly, the time I recoginized all the "Big Guns" on the '72 set...
Maybe some day for me...
Larry
email....emards4457@msn.com
CHEERS!!
<< <i>FB...
Great story Frank...
I remember, clearly, the time I recoginized all the "Big Guns" on the '72 set...
Maybe some day for me...
Larry >>
come on now larry, join us on this persuit. The 72 topps set is a work in progress. I decided to find the harder ones in 9 first and work towards the easy hall of famers as someone suggested a few days ago. I am already 4k into mine and just getting started. Once you have 10 PERCENT of any set, I think your a gone-ur for needing to go on to try and complete it.
looking for N-184's to complete my set.
I hit the mother load on a 44 card submission of 72's once, when I landed something like 25 9's, including some very low pops at the time. After some sweat, tears, and good will, Frank and I were able to consumate the mother of all trades as many 72' 9's made there way into Franks set and some very nice HOF'ers (I otherwise wouldnt have been able to afford) and other 69's as well, became my proudly acquired possessions. I dont think it would be overstating the deal to say there were 40 total cards or more that changed hands.
So, thanks again Frank! It's been a fun ride so far and I even think now that it might be possible to finish my beloved 69' set soon!...and at least within the next five years.
RayB69Topps
Gee.....I don't know.........
Sounds like a lot of effort to complete that one....
Larry
email....emards4457@msn.com
CHEERS!!
Frank,
Great story!!!!
Vic
<< <i>
<< <i> just about anything except commons because WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS WOULD BUY A GRADED COMMON!?!?!?!?!?! >>
I still believe that - unless one has lots of money to throw at cards. >>
The growth in interest and demand of graded commons is quite natural as I see it. Assembling complete sets has always been the backbone of the sports card hobby, and I actually perceived the gradual building of interest in complete graded sets way back when card grading first started. It was almost a foregone conclusion. The next thing we'll see are dealers (and collectors too) crying about how they sold off all their excess raw NM-MT and MINT commons before this trend developed. Many still don't recognize it.
As for needing "lots of money" -- well, one could say pretty much the same thing for collectors of RAW 1950's cards, let alone graded ones from the 1950's, 1960's, or 1970's, right? These little pieces of cardboard, especially in really nice condition, are expensive. Granted, grading makes them MORE expensive, but in the end its all relative anyway. What is "lots of money" to one person will always be "chump change" to another.
Scott
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i> just about anything except commons because WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS WOULD BUY A GRADED COMMON!?!?!?!?!?! >>
I still believe that - unless one has lots of money to throw at cards. >>
The growth in interest and demand of graded commons is quite natural as I see it. Assembling complete sets has always been the backbone of the sports card hobby, and I actually perceived the gradual building of interest in complete graded sets way back when card grading first started. It was almost a foregone conclusion. The next thing we'll see are dealers (and collectors too) crying about how they sold off all their excess raw NM-MT and MINT commons before this trend developed. Many still don't recognize it.
As for needing "lots of money" -- well, one could say pretty much the same thing for collectors of RAW 1950's cards, let alone graded ones from the 1950's, 1960's, or 1970's, right? These little pieces of cardboard, especially in really nice condition, are expensive. Granted, grading makes them MORE expensive, but in the end its all relative anyway. What is "lots of money" to one person will always be "chump change" to another.
Scott >>
Thanks scott, that's the best explanation I have seen yet.
To this day... Our trade for 72's for 69's is still the one that beats all others in my book!!! Each time I would receive an email - I would alternately walk away from the PC saying "IS HE INSANE?????? SURE THEY'RE LOW POP BUT THEY'RE NOT GOLD!!!!" and "well.... if I can get him down to 2/3 of what he's asking I guess that it isn't COMPLETELY outrageous and I DO WANT THOSE CARDS!!!!
You're one heck of a negotiator my friend!
And hey! if you find another mother-load I can even be convinced to move Mantle and Jackson for 72's!
Sets - 1970, 1971 and 1972
Always looking for 1972 O-PEE-CHEE Baseball in PSA 9 or 10!
lynnfrank@earthlink.net
outerbankyank on eBay!
I'll work on it!
Ray