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It's getting almost impossible to collect........

........just about any vintage football set, in ungraded form. I say this because I just went to our local "mall show", where, believe it or not, I usually find a few dealers with some nice vintage, ungraded cards. In fact there are usually 2 regular dealers I visit first. The first one had the same stock as before (nothing new), so I didn't spend anything there, and the other one told me as soon as I walked up to his table "I sold out!".

What he meant was that he'd taken all his stock of, clean, 50's and 60's football (I'm willing to bet that whoever bought his stock will be making a nice-sized shipment to PSA!) to the national and sold them to a dealer there. That really sux because he had some sweet stuff, and he always had new stuff to show me every show. Now he said he is more than likely going to stay with baseball only. Again, that sux!

I left his table trying to be pleasant, but had a hard time with it. I know it's his business and he needs to do what he needs to do, but that sux!

I did, however, find another dealer thee that specialized in vintage items of all-sports (he had some really wierd and off-the-wall, tobacco baseball items).

He said that nice vintage football doesn't come around often, but he tries to pick it up when it does. We'll see about that. I did manage to upgrade about 20 cards in my 68 Topps set fro mhim. Also, picked up almost every 1968 Topps mini-poster I needed to complete that set. Just 2 short now. In all though, it was nearly a waste of my time.

I see the end of the ungraded football collecting era coming for me. I may have to break down and try to complete my sets with graded cards. The only problem I see is that I probably won't be able to afford to stick with the same condition of cards at the same prices I'm use to buying in ungraded form. I'll either have to up the prices I'm willing to pay or settle for lesser condition cards for the same prices. Decisions, decisions.

Oh yeah, di dI mention..............this sux!
n
Football collector 1948-1995, Rams oddball cards & memorabilia, Diamond match.
Cataloging all those pesky, unlisted 1963 Topps football color variations Updated 2/13/05
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Comments

  • jrdolanjrdolan Posts: 2,549 ✭✭
    It doesn't suck for people who bought their nice-condition vintage FB while it was cheap! image

    Some feel it's STILL cheap compared to vintage BB and has room to increase in value, but I'm not sure how much room. I've been working on the HOF quarterbacks, and they seem pretty expensive to me. There is much, much less vintage FB out there than baseball ... I guess time will tell if the demand keeps increasing or if it's hit the wall.
  • Believe it or not, there was a time not too long ago when most card dealers wouldn't touch any sport besides baseball. If you went in with 10,000 or so mixed vintage cards in pristine condition, they would pick out the baseball, make an offer on those, and send you home with the rest............
  • jrdolan - Yep, I'm one of those. I've made my share of deals on ungraded FB cards over the years. It's just that working on 50+ sets at one time, well let's just say I've run out of time to finish all of them ungraded. Well, it was fun while it lasted, an dof course I'll continue to be on the lookout for those one-in-a-million opp's.


    baseballfanatic - I just wish I'd started collecting FB while I was younger. One card shop in particular I use to frequent was like you said. They only dealt in baseball, unless other sports were part of the purchase deals they made. In such cases, they'd usually box the stuff up and basically sell it by the pound. This was back in the early 80's, so there is no telling what might have been in some of those boxes that even I snubbed.
    Football collector 1948-1995, Rams oddball cards & memorabilia, Diamond match.
    Cataloging all those pesky, unlisted 1963 Topps football color variations Updated 2/13/05
    image
  • Bowdowntome,

    What vintage football are you looking for? I know someone here who always seems to have some nice vintage football selection (60's and 70's mostly I haven't paid real close attention as I mainly collect baseball but do notice nice cards that are from other sports when I see them). I would be glad to contact him if I know what you are looking for. He usually gives me a special price and is a real nice guy. What kind of off the wall tobacco baseball did you encounter today? May be right up my alley. Shoot me an e-mail. damiananderson7@hotmail.com. Would love to help you out if anything.

    Damian
  • BoopottsBoopotts Posts: 6,784 ✭✭
    I think the days of PSA 8 quality vintage unslabbed is basically a thing of the past. This hit home for me last year when I went to the Toronto show and couldn't find a thing worth grading that was issued pre-1975. And this is hockey we're talking about. Lately at the Gibraltar shows I've seen the same thing-- lots of VG-EX star cards from the 50's with dealer's asking NM prices. Blah. The word seems to be out about grading commons, and as we all know it's hard to stuff the cat back in the bag.
  • BoopottsBoopotts Posts: 6,784 ✭✭
    Let me amend that last post. I did find about 25 cards worth grading, and one of them was a 1967 hockey common that graded a 9 and netted me over $300. So it wasn't a complete waste of time. Still, I think I only made about $500 from the cards I bought, which hardly justifies the trip.
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