What is the "best" deal you've had for a card/set?
gregm13
Posts: 5,798 ✭✭✭
I think that my top three are:
1. A box of 1000 exmt+ 1960's cards that I paid $300 for 10 years ago while I was in college from a guy who was a regular at the Hardee's where I was manager at (don't even ask because I don't still work there
. It was my first vintage card purchase and yielded 80 to 1000 1965 Topps including Kemp and Biletnikoff (no Namath), Sayers and Butkus rookies, and tons of 1966 Philly's, 1968 Topps and various other 60's cards.
2. I bought a binder of 1971 Topps football in NM/MT condition for $175 that was the whole set minus the Bradshaw which I already had. I was told that the set was put together from vending and I have just started getting the cards graded and have received 1 7, 8 8's and 1 9 (so far).
3. There are two. First, I bought a raw 1969 Topps Namath for $50 that was the nicest one I had ever seen. I submitted it years ago to PSA and it came back a 9 (I had one of the first 1969 PSA 9's). Second, I bought a 1957 Unitas rookie for $150 and when I submitted it for grading it came back a 7. Neither may be considered "great deals" but they have a lot of meaning to me since both are registed in my various sets (and always will be
As a side note, I recently bought a 1984 Marino/Barkowski League Leader that was given a raw grade of 9 by BGS for $3 that I just submitted to PSA and received a 10 on (only the 3'rd one). It's in my Marino master set.
Looking forward to other "victory" stories.
Regards,
Greg M.
1. A box of 1000 exmt+ 1960's cards that I paid $300 for 10 years ago while I was in college from a guy who was a regular at the Hardee's where I was manager at (don't even ask because I don't still work there
. It was my first vintage card purchase and yielded 80 to 1000 1965 Topps including Kemp and Biletnikoff (no Namath), Sayers and Butkus rookies, and tons of 1966 Philly's, 1968 Topps and various other 60's cards. 2. I bought a binder of 1971 Topps football in NM/MT condition for $175 that was the whole set minus the Bradshaw which I already had. I was told that the set was put together from vending and I have just started getting the cards graded and have received 1 7, 8 8's and 1 9 (so far).
3. There are two. First, I bought a raw 1969 Topps Namath for $50 that was the nicest one I had ever seen. I submitted it years ago to PSA and it came back a 9 (I had one of the first 1969 PSA 9's). Second, I bought a 1957 Unitas rookie for $150 and when I submitted it for grading it came back a 7. Neither may be considered "great deals" but they have a lot of meaning to me since both are registed in my various sets (and always will be
As a side note, I recently bought a 1984 Marino/Barkowski League Leader that was given a raw grade of 9 by BGS for $3 that I just submitted to PSA and received a 10 on (only the 3'rd one). It's in my Marino master set.
Looking forward to other "victory" stories.
Regards,
Greg M.
Collecting vintage auto'd fb cards and Dan Marino cards!!
References:
Onlychild, Ahmanfan, fabfrank, wufdude, jradke, Reese, Jasp, thenavarro
E-Bay id: greg_n_meg
References:
Onlychild, Ahmanfan, fabfrank, wufdude, jradke, Reese, Jasp, thenavarro
E-Bay id: greg_n_meg
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Comments
In March of 2000, I traded three Tiger Woods Masters PSA 7, one Giambi rookie PSA 9, and a Chipper Jones PSA 10 (these were my only modern cards) for a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #53 PSA 3.
to topping that one. What a great deal.
wpkoughan@yahoo.com
Collecting 1970-1979 PSA 9 & 10 Baseball Cards
<< <i>1420 sports is the winner so far. I can't even come close
to topping that one. What a great deal. >>
I'd like to know what was the person was thinking that traded the Ruth.
Greg M.
References:
Onlychild, Ahmanfan, fabfrank, wufdude, jradke, Reese, Jasp, thenavarro
E-Bay id: greg_n_meg
Sure, the cards weren't in great shape, but neither was my car, and I got to keep the cards.
1967and 1973 Topps baseball wantlists (any condition) welcome. Once had the #14 ATF 1967 set. Yet another collector like skylaneflyer, gimel1 who made it to the completion of 1967 only to need the money more than the company of 609 close friends.
Looking for oddball Norm Cash and Cleon Jones stuff, and 1956 team cards
Who paid for the gas?
So overall the decision to get out of modern before going into hibernation was one of my "best deals."
mrcardsniper, that is an incredible find. It's amazing that all those vintage cards stuffed into brown bags were still NM/MT or better.
bobsbbcards SGC Registry Sets
Nah never happened
but it is snowing out
Thanks,
Bob
email bcmiller7@comcast.net
if the title to this thread was "what was the biggest ripoff you ever made?" would the entries be the same?
I don't have anything wrong with getting a great buy, or ripping off another guy - I'm not condemning any of these posts, just thought it was interesting to see it from the other side of the hill.
card shop: 1/1 Gold Xfractor rookie of Steve Blake from '03/04 Topps Finest basketball in a dealer's dime box.
eBay: '59 Topps PSA 6 Dolan Nichols No Option Line variation (SMR $75) for less than $3 (including shipping) - PSA does not state on the label that the card is the tough variation.
special mention goes to the card show where I won 2 of the 3 big door prizes (a box of that year's (2002) Topps Baseball and a Kobe jersey card), to the card store last year that sold me their last 13 packs of Fleer GOTG basketball at $2.50 a pack, where the packs yielded autographs of Bob Knight, Kareem, and Mikan, and to the store closing sale from Time Out Collectibles last year, where by the end, even the supplies like ball holders and 9-pocket sheets were 80% off.
Nick
Reap the whirlwind.
Need to buy something for the wife or girlfriend? Check out Vintage Designer Clothing.
the rental car companies wanted him to be. So the gas was all him.
1967and 1973 Topps baseball wantlists (any condition) welcome. Once had the #14 ATF 1967 set. Yet another collector like skylaneflyer, gimel1 who made it to the completion of 1967 only to need the money more than the company of 609 close friends.
Looking for oddball Norm Cash and Cleon Jones stuff, and 1956 team cards
I am very friendly with a local dealer, who knows what sets I collect - and what type of cards I look for (high grade). He purchased a large collection from a dealer about 2 years ago, and part of it was a monster box of 1976/1977 baseball, and some 1975 basketball (all commons and very minor stars). Since it was a 5000 card box, he let me do what I usually do - take the box home, see what I need, and then bring him back the rest. This box was awesome, there were some EX-MT cards, but also many pristine, pack fresh cards. I pulled about 100 or so of the best, before deciding to just buy the whole box. My price - $200.00. The box yielded at least 20 PSA 10's from these sets, including some of which are still 1/1's. But, the best part was when I sold him back the remainder of the box a month later, a few hundred cards short - for $100.00.
Ironically my biggest missed opportunity was through this same connection. At the beginning of the 87 baseball season one of the store mangers had about 3 loose cases and 3 sealed cases of 86 Fleer basketball that wasn't selling. He wanted to clear his shelves to make room for the new baseball product and offered me the product and $5 a box
I passed on the deal and still get sick
<< <i>Wow - that gets my vote, reggie1! >>
huh? How can he beat out half a small card store for doing a good deed. Included to the best of my memory:
Baseball:
Every major set 77 - 91 (most subsets too)
88 - 91 Tiffany's w/ traded
Hundres of 50's, 60's & 70's hof'ers/stars (62 Yaz 8, 65 Aaron 8, 52 Duke, Mantles, Clementes yada, yada)
5 boxes of 80's/90's oddballs & multiple sets
signed baseballs - 71 St. Louis team, Koufax, Lefty Gomez, Williams, Mantle, DiMaggio
Football:
Sets (75, 84, 85 - 91, 3 - 90 scores)
Rookies - Payton, Piccollo, Montana
80's subsets and oddballs
Basketball:
Sets (75, 77, 87, 88 - 91)
Some subsets and oddballs
Autos - partial team 80's Lakers
Non-Sports:
Mostly 80's (batman, SW, Disney, Star Trek, Wolverine, 3 - Marvels)
Hockey:
Sets (87, 89-91, 3 OPC Premier)
singles - Orr, Howe, Gretzky's, PSA 8 Mario L. OPC rookie
Some oddballs
1 box of comics (unk but nothing major)
My best deal was a 1975 Topps baseball set on Ebay.
A friend of mine bought about $100,000 worth of vintage cards for $20 from a disgruntled divorcing wife back in 1990. There was about 15-20 Yaz RC's (some mint), mantles, complete sets, 800 vintage football including 30 Jim Brown's (6 RC's) mostly all close to mint, and TONS of other stuff. He dumped it all for good money to local shops. I explained to him about PSA nowadays and he "doesn't want to talk about it", lol.
many of you have already heard this true tale, but for those of you who have not, check this out.
this guy has an auction on ebay, i`ve been looking for a good raw 1974 topps johnny bench card to send in for grading. for my bench master set. he has auction listed as "1974 johnny bench" thats all.
so i say what the heck, the card pic starts loading up,,,,, and i think geez what is this. well i snipe in and win auction for $48.00
about a month or so later i send it in with some other bench cards,, here it is ,,,
true story,, lee
<< <i>Half of a small card store...all for free! Long story but it was a gift for doing a good deed. >>
Okay, now that you elaborated - I stand corrected.
Great stories.
I posted this in October, but it fits in right here. I have since sold several other cards from the lot, including 3 or 4 PSA 6s at ridiculous prices. The 6s I sold were replaced with 5s. I am now down to one card to complete the set and am waiting for the right Cobb/Crawford to catch my eye. The sales more than made up for the cost of the buy-it-now and left me a good portion of the $ needed for the Cobb.
Nick
Reap the whirlwind.
Need to buy something for the wife or girlfriend? Check out Vintage Designer Clothing.
<< <i>I ended up getting 9s on the Schmidt, Ryan, Aaron, Gossage, Garvey, Rose and F Robinson. >>
Great story. Do you still have the Gossage by any chance?
A couple of weeks later, I was near his house, and stopped by. I asked him if he would take any less. He said, "OK, you can have it for $1000." I wrote him a check right there. I got the album home, and little did I know that the 1953 Topps was just 7 cards shy of a complete set. Of course, it still needed the Mantle and Mays. I immediately started searching Ebay, and within a couple of weeks, I finished out the set for $700 more. I turned right around and listed it on Ebay. Sold for $3800! I more than doubled my money!
I wish I could do that about once a month!
Shane
Overall it was pretty interesting - but a bit anticlimatic. I visited him a couple of hours ago, greeted by a EX/MT Ryan rookie, and then a good number of GOOD to FAIR and some VG 60's star cards, about 40 in all, highlighted by the Ryan Rookie and a 66 Mantle that was EX. He had a Reggie Rookie and a few Clementes in the group, but they were pretty beat up (between POOR & VG).
He then showed me 3 big baseball binders including 1964-1969, probably 1000 cards in total, mostly VG+, give or take a grade or two. They got a bit nicer (but not too nice) as the years went on. These included some star cards, league leaders, and semi stars but mostly commons.
The coolest part was he pulled a small folder of really beat up 50's stuff, and in it were about 18 different '53 Glendale Meats cards. All were in PSA 1 condition I would suppose. I did not know much about them, but I thought they were tough and I was intrigued.
Oh, and there were about 600 really beat up 60's football with the standard regular mix of stars and commons - no real stud cards, but second year Namath, and nice cards like that in the mix. Again though, pretty beat up.
I tried to be as fair as I could, I made a big mistake though. I initially forgot totally about the football cards, and I struggled with what to offer. I finally said $850 for the lot, and he balked. As we were wrapping up, I remembered the football, and I told him I honestly did not include that in my offer. I told him with the football I could go $1200. He did not even counter offer. I think he thought they were all worth in the $10 grand range. Problem was, my honest oversight on the football cards probably made him think I was just trying to swindle him.
I encouraged him to check ebay, buy a price guide, and get an understanding of CONDITION. He was very nice, but I think he was insulted, which is too bad because I was really trying to be fair (heck I was probably overpaying which I have a tendency to do). Looking back, and doing some research on the '53 Glendale Hot Dog Cards, I probably would go as high as $1400. That way, I think I could get back most of my investment with the beat up stars, and add a good amount to my raw, mid grade 60's sets that I am working on, with possible Glendale Hot Dog set to start as well.
I will call him in a few days to see if he has an interest. If anything comes of it, I'll update you here.
1. 61F #46 - from Rotman auction for 30$ - now a PSA 9.
2. 48B Baugh PSA 8 - Greg Manning auction for 450$ in 94.
3. 32 US Caramel Cochrane PSA 8 - Greg Manning auction for 550$ in 94.
4. Stack of WS programs and stuff for 450$ - 2 55 WS Dodger programs, many others and some ticks - notably a 52 WS Yank and Dodger stub.
your friend
Mike