Big Props to a Good Dealer
Love of the Game
Posts: 250 ✭✭
Although I mentioned this in another thread, I thought I'd give this its own topic since I think it's worth it.
At the Fort Washington show today, I met Tony from Cooperstown Sports Cards. I've been working on a 1953 set, and went to today's show hoping to complete my set, or at least come close. I usually buy raw and have 'em graded myself, so I started down that path when I first arrived at the show. I set myself up at a dealer's table who had several stacks of raw '53s, and after going through them all, found two high number commons in decent enough shape to buy. The dealer wanted $200 for them, even though one of them was a DP.
I was surprised at the price, and discouraged since I can get them so much cheaper on Ebay. I wandered the show for another hour or so, picking up a handful of other raw '53s before I got to the Cooperstown table.
At the Cooperstown table, I found a '53 Berra and Irvin in PSA 5. When I inquired about them, Tony asked if I was working on a '53 set. When I told him I was, he asked what grade - I told him "6", and he pulled out a monster box of hundreds of PSA-6 '53s for me to root through.
I pulled out six or seven low numbers and paid him slightly below SMR for them, and left. But then an hour later I went back and went nuts, purchasing about 25 high number PSA-6 commons, plus the Berra and a very nice PSA-5 Willie Mays.
I paid a lot of money (by my standards) for those cards, but I also found Tony to be an extremely helpful dealer, very knowledgeable about the '53 set. I also found that his raw cards seemed to be very accurately graded (by him). I've gotten fairly good at telling how a raw '53 will grade, and his assessments seemed dead on in every case. For all those cards combined, I paid considerably less than SMR, and when I got home and entered my new cards into my registry set, I found I jumped from #38 to #26. Plus I'm down to 15 cards needed to complete the set.
Anyway, I thought I'd throw a compliment Tony's way, and recommend that anyone looking for 1950s - 1960s cards get in touch with him. He's an honest guy, a good dealer, and seems to have a reasonably large inventory - particularly of 1953s.
-Al
At the Fort Washington show today, I met Tony from Cooperstown Sports Cards. I've been working on a 1953 set, and went to today's show hoping to complete my set, or at least come close. I usually buy raw and have 'em graded myself, so I started down that path when I first arrived at the show. I set myself up at a dealer's table who had several stacks of raw '53s, and after going through them all, found two high number commons in decent enough shape to buy. The dealer wanted $200 for them, even though one of them was a DP.
I was surprised at the price, and discouraged since I can get them so much cheaper on Ebay. I wandered the show for another hour or so, picking up a handful of other raw '53s before I got to the Cooperstown table.
At the Cooperstown table, I found a '53 Berra and Irvin in PSA 5. When I inquired about them, Tony asked if I was working on a '53 set. When I told him I was, he asked what grade - I told him "6", and he pulled out a monster box of hundreds of PSA-6 '53s for me to root through.
I pulled out six or seven low numbers and paid him slightly below SMR for them, and left. But then an hour later I went back and went nuts, purchasing about 25 high number PSA-6 commons, plus the Berra and a very nice PSA-5 Willie Mays.
I paid a lot of money (by my standards) for those cards, but I also found Tony to be an extremely helpful dealer, very knowledgeable about the '53 set. I also found that his raw cards seemed to be very accurately graded (by him). I've gotten fairly good at telling how a raw '53 will grade, and his assessments seemed dead on in every case. For all those cards combined, I paid considerably less than SMR, and when I got home and entered my new cards into my registry set, I found I jumped from #38 to #26. Plus I'm down to 15 cards needed to complete the set.
Anyway, I thought I'd throw a compliment Tony's way, and recommend that anyone looking for 1950s - 1960s cards get in touch with him. He's an honest guy, a good dealer, and seems to have a reasonably large inventory - particularly of 1953s.
-Al
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Comments
Al - Which section was Tony in ?
You'll know him because he's about eight feet tall.
-Al
If so, here is a link to them on-line.
your friend
Mike
-Al
Out of curiosity, of the 15 cards you need....is one of them an eddie mathews?
-Al