Lessons learned

MajorDanby

When i came back to the hobby, i had no understanding of graded cards. I was naive...as i was back when i first started collecting cards as a child. Hence, i bought a lot of raw vintage cards from ebay. Thankfully, a lot of them were not pricey....as ive mentioned already here in these boards, a lot of these cards were advertised as NM! and SUPER SHARP! but i get creased up crap in return.

But, as with many newbie collectors trying to enter the vintage arena, i got screwed. hosed. swindled. bamboozled.

The cost of this lesson: $150.

I bought a 1954 Bowman willie mays for that price. Advertised as NM from a guy who sells car parts. Yes, car parts.

Now, the card i received was (surprise, surprise) not NM. However, it wasnt all that bad. Worn corners and edges, but not incredibly so. Very good surface and nice centering for the mays.

But, i was a bit anxious over the card because i felt it was altered....trimmed on the bottom. Being a newbie, i didnt know how to figure whether or not a card was trimmed. So, a few months passed by and i finally had the gumption to send the card to a grading service (not PSA).

Came back trimmed.

Lesson learned: Don't buy raw vintage cards on ebay unless you know the dealer is reputable. Otherwise, stick with the graded if you want NM cards...especially when it comes to high priced, high demand cards like the 54 bowman mays.

I emailed the fella, but he didnt respond. I waited too long to get the card graded, so i doubt he will give a refund. He states in his auction that all sales final after a certain period. Plus, i couldnt neg him because i already gave him a glowing positive.

So, what has been the most expensive lesson youve learned in this hobby?

RipublicaninMass

GEM 9 Banks, and GEM 10 Kaline, 400 bucks! Figured even if they graded PSA 6-7's I was doing good! BOy was I wrong, evidtrim. Also, had a bunch of 1952,53,54 topps stolen from me, and sold for no money. Ended up in court, I had no receipts when I bought the cards, so it was hearsay. Plus his attorney uncle has an office next to the court.

stormsurge

Back in 1985-88 my father and I dealt in a big way with a baseball card dealer. We bought quite a large collection of vintage cards from him. Now that I've become interested in the hobby once again and have conducted much more research than I'd done as a 16 year old I've discovered that the dealer really sold us a bunch of cards whose conditions were almost without exception not in the condition represented. Of course I also fault myself for not understanding better about centering, miscuts, and trimming issues. I was certainly far to trusting. The biggest loss was paying big bucks (around $800) for one card in particular that PSA wouldn't grade becuase it was miscut.

Stone193

<< <i>So, what has been the most expensive lesson youve learned in this hobby? >>


Make sure my wife doesn't see the American Express statement!

Stone

WinPitcher

Same as what Mike said for me lol

TMc

My biggest blunder.....Buying resealed (unknown to me) cellos from the 50s and 60s, before grading came along. Later, I sent 50 to GAI and 15 came back bad. I popped open the 15, and 10-12 were crap. Stained cards on the inside, worn corners, obvious reseals. They miss-called about 4 or 5 and I found some stud stuff inside, but the dozen or so cost me around 4k. Lesson....I won't buy anything in wax or cello that is not graded. Once they told me what to look for, the reseals are now pretty obvious. But not to the rookie 5 years ago.