The best tip (or the ''best'' tip) you've ever had on a card

Futureman

OK, this thread is to share the best tip you've ever received, where someone might have told you in '86 that the kid from UNC is going to be a star guard for the Bulls; buy all his Fleer cards. Or, like I'll share in my story, the "best" tip you've received. Here's what I mean.

At summer camp in '93 one of my counselors was in a rotisserie baseball league. It was a keeper league, so he would try to keep up on prospects to know which young guys he should have on his team. 1993 was also the first year that SP came out. I would talk to the guy about baseball and his fantasy team. He clued me in on a hot young Yankees' prospect that would be the cornerstone of the franchise for years to come. He played on the left side of the infield and was sure to be a superstar. When I got back from camp, I went to the card shop to buy the '93 SP rookie card of ...

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Wait for it.


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Russ Davis.

Sure am glad I didn't go after any of the other Yankees that had RCs in that set.

70chip

Back around the same time, maybe a year earlier, the name Mon-dessi was being thrown around in my local card store as the next can't miss OF prospect, next Mantle, next great one, next HOF'er, etc, etc, etc!!! It was probably his uncle or cousin......O'well, got to go back to looking at my Kevin Maas collection LOL

SoFLPhillyFan

In my last serious foray into the hobby, 1992, I bought packs to collect Shaq rookies.
At the time Classic was the one to get, while everyone waited for the Upper Deck Shaq.
Had about six Classics, only two left now, and we know what they are worth!
Still have a number of Classic Draft Picks including a Sprewell and Laetner I would unload in a trade.

The worst part of this story is the Upper Deck Shaq. You'll remember that UD had a redemption card for the #1 Draft Pick card from that year. Pulled one of the redemption cards - great. Never sent it in - ouch.

Sure the Shaq isn't really pricey but it would be nice to have that one instead of the Trade Upper Deck card. It's in pretty good condition. I understand that UD sent the card back with the Shaq rookie and stamped or punched the card - of course I would not know first hand.

If anyone would like it as a novelty I will gladly get rid of it.

Keith

helionaut

Funny you mention Raul Mondesi. At the start of the '94 season I was in a shop and the guys behind the counter were talking about that year's rookies. When one guy asked the other who the NL ROY would be, he smiled and said "Rawl Mondoosi!" It sounded funny at the time, and I think he just liked his name, but of course he was right.

Most of the decent hobby tips I get are about comics. Card tips usually come from people who happen to have those very cards to sell me. I did make out pretty well when someone told me that Javier Vasquez's Bowman Chrome RC was unlisted in Beckett while his regular Bowman card was $3. I tracked down a few of those at 50 cents or so before Beckett raised the price to $10. And I probably wouldn't have noticed Alexis Rios's Elite RC selling at $150 a couple months ago if not for reading this board, so I wouldn't have picked it up for half that when I did (and sold it for $138).

jrdolan

Back in the late '80s when I was new to the "investing" aspect of our hobby, someone told me about a hot Mets prospect who would make me a fortune if I jumped on his rookie cards early. So I did. Anybody remember Gregg Jefferies?

The same person talked me into buying a lot of 87 Fleer and Donruss Barry Bonds. That's the good news. The bad news is I sold most of them before setting cards aside about 12 years ago.



The best tip I got upon re-entering the hobby earlier this year: All card graders are NOT the same. Don't buy PRO! OK, so it's not a player tip, but it is the best advice I've received this time around.

uniship

I own hundreds upon hundreds of 1987 Ruben Sierra cards.

Stone193

<< <i>Still have a number of Classic Draft Picks including a Sprewell and Laetner I would unload in a trade. >>


Keith
I hear you on that one! If anyone wants a complete set of 100 including the Shaq, pm me and I'll send it to ya for 5$, in a nice plastic case, to cover shipping.




<< <i>The best tip (or the ''best'' tip) you've ever had on a card >>


Not the very best tip but in 1992 or 3, I was meeting with some collector buddies who felt, at the time McGwire, Sosa and Bonds were underappreciated. Bought an 85T vending case from BBCKid for 600$ and bought an 800 ct. 87T Bonds lot for 480$ and ran out of $ on Sosa - at the time his 90UD was like 10-20 cents and his 90 Leaf was like a buck - that woulda been a good one too. But as they say, you can't win them all. BTW, I also bought a 250 RC lot of 90B Thomas for 125$ the next year. But I also have a 50 ct. lot of Cal Eldred, 250 card lot of Pete Incaviglia and a 200 RC lot of Jay Buhner! So I don't want to sound like a big shot or anything. And believe me, when I go to cataloging this summer, I'm going to find a lot MORE crap I bought and will regret!
Mike

Golfcollector

Can you all say Dan Gladden?????

grendel33

Gary Scott or Wayne Cunningham

ydsotter

I remember looking through rack packs at KAYBEE toys in 1980...
I was 9 years old.
some older guy... 30's or 40's...
told me to get all the ricky henderson rookies I could...

I did this for a couple years... I traded and bought and accumulated a nice thick stack of henderson rookies...

at some point a few years later I learned they were worth around $40 each... I had a stack a few inches thick...
Brought them down to the mall and traded them to a card show dealer for a lot of 1950's and 1960's hall of famers. In retrospect, it was a horrible deal because back in those days, I thought nothing of condition unless a card was written on, creased or missing a corner. so many of the great cards I traded for were vg-ex at best.
except the 55 ted williams, I didn't mind that it was missing a corner.

the next big tip I got was the 1984 darryl strawberry topps card.

honorable mentions ;-(
ben mcdonald, kevin maas, gregg jeffries, danny tartabull, ron kittle, billy ripken, kevin seitzer etc...

DeutscherGeist

Jim Abbott-- I bought all I could find in the early 90's!

I still think he is a class guy even though his career did not pan out like Tom Glavine's. I also have a whole mess of Tom Glavine rookies, but those are not in vain as you all know.

joelwalter

About 3 years ago, a friend and I thought it would be good to buy more of the less collected Bonds Rookies. So I searched on ebay and found a guy who had 80 sealed sets of 1987 Fleer Hottest Stars. I got all of them for a mere 60 bucks, which included shipping.

It's safe to say, I made back all my money on just selling the stars like Clemens, Brett and Canseco..

Hockeybonkers99

Hmmm...

Todd Van Poppel,Alexander Daigle....

mrc32

I still have hope for Van Poppel. He starts for my Reds today.

If anyone needs Reggie Sanders cards (they called him the next Eric Davis), I'm your man.

fins2left00

Washington Redskins Running Back Ricky Ervins. Still have plenty if anyone wants them.

Hockeybonkers99

Blair Thomas, Andre Ware...list goes on..

ZodiacMindwarp

Jerry Dybzinski

Jerry Dybzinski Statistics

metsfan

I bought 100 1988 Donruss Cameron Drew's. Drew was a can't miss prospect out of the University of Bridgeport. Drafted by the Astros, Drew was having a great spring training, and then... he busted his knee. Never played again. At least they only cost 25 cents each.

70chip

Heath Shuler, Mike Mussina and of course Pat Falloon

Sorry, I guess this should go under the "bust" category or best tip from my "not" best friend.

mrc32

Not sure how you could call Mike Mussina a bust!

70chip

Technically, maybe not a bust, but most definately a major disappointment in regards to his expectations when he came up with the O's and his HOF potential. His value from a card perspective is no where near what it was projected to be, thats why I mentioned him. He is 36 and nearing the end of his career so maybe he finishes up with 240 victories versus 150 losses, doesn't get into Cooperstown and his card prices stay down. Not exactly what we were expecting back in 92 when he was the next great pitcher....

DeutscherGeist

Is Mike Mussina better than David Cone?

The top 50 pitchers all-time according to Bill James are almost all in the HOF. I think Mussina will surpass Cone and will get elected. Cone represents this imaginary border between who is likely in and who is more likely out.



Guys like Brien Taylor and Kevin Maas are busts. Guys like Van Poppel and Ruben Sierra were at least able to stay in the game. Sierra is actually a contributor, just not a HOFer.....well, unless he takes lessons from Franco about health and fitness and then perhaps he can stick around another 10 years and get to some real milestones.

EagleEyeKid

Ron Kittle, Shawn Abner, Sam Horn, Gregg Jeffries, Jim Abbott.....I don't listen to tips or jump on the wagon anymore but would rather see what players do within the first 2 years to make any accessment on whether or not to buy their cards.

envoy98

Jerome Walton, Dwight Smith & Tom Gordon... Ugh! I had a lot of Jose Canseco cards too. I think about the only ones I ever panned out on were Emmitt Smith, Randy Moss and maybe a little on Mike Piazza. Oh yeah, and thanks a lot Brien Taylor. I traded half my collection away to get to Topps Gold rookies of his. I traded a stack of 87T McGwire RC's for them. Oops. I did get a tip to collect Ripken in the late 80's too, I made out well with those. I guess this thread more or less turned into a "who's the biggest bust your friends told you to collect" thread. Ah well, still fun!

80sToyguy

I remeber back in 87 the Habs had just won the cup the previous year with a rookie netminder in net. They also had a big rookie up front who was scoring alot of points. So I went down to a newly opened card shop and asked if he had any unsorted 86-87 OPC hockey. Pulled 11 Kjell Dahlin rookie cards for $1.00 each. Pretty gross, I know. Luckily I also pulled the Roy's at .60 cents each, 8 of them. I remember before opening the box asking the guy if there were any Roy's in the box--he asked me if that was spelled with an R or a W?
The next year I remember in his showcase picking up 87 Fleer cards of Devon White for $2.50 each, and of course Donruss Bobby Bonilla's for $3.00 each. Seems funny now, but at the exact same those cards were priced like that, Mario Lemieux's OPC RC was $7.50--I remember at one point he had a small stack in the showcase (about 15 of them), just thinking how expensive that was and what a waste of money that was. I mean for only the same price I could pick up 2 Will Clark Topps RC's!
To only go back for an hour, the changes I would make...
Jay

helionaut

I always liked Mike Mussina. He's steady and consistently good, but he's unspectacular so he gets overlooked in the hobby. I remember when 1992 Ultra came out, it sold for $5. Now it sells for about 15 cents. Even though his RCs were overproduced, including the Ultra Update and Gold Leaf, there's been no appreciation similar to a contemporary like Pedro. I think this is because he's never had a 25-win, 1.80 ERA kind of year (or even one 20-win year). He's finished in the top 5 voting for Cy Young six times, but never won. This year's not looking very good so far, but I am pretty sure it's not the beginning of the end (his last 2 games were good). I don't see him as a bust, I think he's going to the Hall. I don't see him as part of that Blyleven/Morris/John/Kaat group of good-but-not-good-enough pitchers. He just came around at the time when production peaked and so there's no real blue chip RC.

You want a tip, here's a tip. Craig Biggio. News that he's up to 2500 hits put him on the map. He's 38, but he's still playing very well. Interest seems to be picking up, though maybe that's just locally (I'm in Texas). Remember when 1988 Score Roberto Alomars were $60? Three thousand is still a ways off, but there could be a decent payoff for minimal investment now. And buy a few Tom Glavine cards while you're at it.

jparchitectus

Being a huge Met fan..I know it is tough....but in the late 80's I did anything to find all the Darryl Strawberry's I could It is a shame he got all wacky on all those drugs...He coulda been great!

bill7549

1985 Topps - Dwight Gooden, Billy not-so-Swift. 1985 Topps Traded Odbe McDowell, Vince Coleman. Wanna have a card-burning party?

goodriddance189

i grew up right down the street from Kerry Wood. his mom said something to the effect of "he might make a good college pitcher." guess she was wrong, since he never went to college, but good advice nonetheless

NickM

In late 1987, I got great deals on some lesser rookies from '87 Fleer baseball that I had heard good things about. As things turned out, if I had sold the cards off in 1990 or 1991, I would have made a nice profit, as almost half the cards were Doug Drabek and Bobby Thigpen rookies. Well, at least I didn't lose my investment by holding them all this time.

Nick

Predsfan1

I remember in 1984 getting a bunch of Ron Kittle rookies. I can sell them to anybody for a real good price.