The Fish that Got Away...tell us about

Stone193

something that you wished you had purchased but didn't for some reason...

Mine is a 52T wax pack - fresh from 8 pack cellos that Mark Murphy had picked up.

And second, a friend had picked up a bunch of Ruth checks from a dealer in NJ and wanted to let me have one at cost - woulda been around a grand - try getting one of those for grand today?!

mike

airjoedan

How 'bout some recent history....... I bought several Tony Romo cards the week he took over for Drew Bledsoe. I paid $60 each for his Sp Authentic and Playoff Contenders rookies. During the same time, I had the opportunity to pick up another of each for the same $60 price tag--I figured it was too risky and passed. Now, just one month later, the same cards are selling for over $300. This reminds me of the time I ALMOST bought lots of Tom Brady stuff when he took over for Drew Bledsoe...we all know how far those cards went up, so you can imagine how much I still kick myself for not picking them up. Anyways, Romo is the real deal and I'll have to settle for the few cards that I did purchase. In terms of vintage, here is a copy and paste of one of my posts from over a year ago....


One day at work I was walking down to the garden center area to give back a return when I overheard this older gentleman speaking to an employee about baseball cards. I jumped in and said "what about baseball cards?" ....well, the old guy had one helluva story. The man claimed that his older sister gave him a bunch of cards when he was ten years old or so, and that he still had the cards in a box in his house. I looked at the man and it quickly clicked that he must be eighty or ninety years old!.....meaning that if he's not full of crap, he might have some very valuable tobacco cards! Well, I shook his hand after the story and told him to bring me in some cards to look at when he finds them.

....two weeks later, he came back. He told me how he looked around his house and couldn't find the cards, that he thought his son-in-law or someone took them. At the end of his story, he took out his wallet and slowly unfolded this tiny discolored piece of paper. Inside the piece of paper were four T206 tobacco cards. As I nearly crapped myself, he said, "I managed to find four mixed in with some old papers." I couldn't believe it.....T206, the Wagner set! I looked through the cards (in EX or better condition) with unbelievable excitement....but they were all commons. I told him they were worth between $80-$120 dollars, depending on the market and the buyer.......and I told him that he could have thousands of dollars worth of other cards, depending on the particular card and condition.

I didn't expect to ever see him again, but out of the blue, a month or so later, he came in with four more cards. This time he had two commons, a Frank Chance, and........an E93 Ty Cobb. The Cobb, by the way, would probably have graded a PSA 5 or so. I told the old man what his cards were worth and he didn't even seem remotely phased. He spoke to me about how much real estate he owns, so he obviously is worth quite a lot of money. He also spoke to me about how he now found ALL of the cards.....around 150 according to him. I told him I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least try to get some of his cards for my collection......I even offered to give an appraisal and help him sell his cards. He laughed and said he appreciates my honesty, but isn't ready to sell the cards yet, says he might even pass them on. The guy said he'd come back to show me some more cards in a few weeks....ten months have went by and I haven't seen him since. By the way, the guy was ninety-two years old and was constantly telling me about his health issues during our conversations....there's no telling what happened to him. The last time I saw him I wrote down my name and phone number and had a good hour conversation with him, about his life, family, and his cards. Everytime I see a T206 I get a sick feeling in my stomach, wondering what could have been in this guy's collection. A month or so ago on ebay I almost bid on a E93 Cobb, but was drawn away by the hope that I might one day see this man again. The cards were beautiful and the story remains one of my best...... a collection of endless dreams and hopeless possibilities.



By the way, great story yourself Mike, a Ruth check like that would have been incredible. It sure does hurt to think back.


- Joe

XanaduNow

Those are tough Mike. I don't have anything that high-dollar but one that personally chaps my backside. I had been watching a 1922 Sporting Champions Jack Dempsey RC that was raw and looked to be a blazer ... possible 8 material. Instead of setting up a snipe I decided to do it manually since I was going to be online anyway. With about a minute-and-a-half left I got an IM that led to a pretty important conversation and by the time I checked back the auction had ended for 1/4 of what my bid was.

I've picked up the card in much worse condition since then but I still feel the burn a little when I see one pop up for auction.

Arthur

Southerncards

I remember some nerdy guys in a garage making some type of big calculator. Kept talking about apples......I dont know. I dont think they ever really made anything of themselves.

RipublicaninMass

A dealer friend of mine bought a MINT 52 Mantle
....which ended up grading a PSA 10..I am not kidding!
Laugh and call me a liar but it is true, I believe a Jackie Robinson from the same dealer to the same buyer graded a nine. The buyer paid about twice book value back then and then dealer thought he had found a sucker!! This was before graded cards of course!

stown

7 years ago, my uncle, who knew I collected 50s material, needed some cash. Told me that he would sell his '52 and '53 sets for $9,500. Since I really wasn't into collecting at this time, I passed. He came back at $8,500 and told me that was the best he would do. Pondered it overnight and again passed.

I had forgotten about it until this past Thanksgiving. He recently built a new home in the country and showed me his storage space (old coke signs, records, comic books, and such). I told him that I was only a Clemente away from finishing my '55 and wondered what happened to his cards.

He sold them for $9,500 to some "sucker".

On average, they were 5s with some better and some worse. Being the collector pack rat that he is, the key cards were in great shape. Honestly, it makes me think what they would grade out to...

I didn't tell him who the real sucker was.

spazzy

Stone, My fish that got away was in my possession for a few years. During the National in Cleveland 1996 I traded a rack case of 1979 topps football and 1980 rack case of Topps baseball. I received 1000.00 for the pair and proceded to purchase a wonderful 500 club poster
with the then living members of the 500 hr club. (most of you may know where Im going with this) I framed it and proudly hung it in my den.Only a few years later was it discovered the person I purchased it was from Wayne Bray and the Mantle and Williams are probably the work of the Angelo M and his crew. I always wonder if the other signatures were good and they just added the M and M boys or were they all fake. I still look at that picture and wonder if it was legit. I dont tell many people about the trade and what happened because my friends faces still light up when they see it and conversation about the good old days of baseball follows. It has to be worth something in memories. I also wonder what psa 10s of Henderson or 1979 football came about. Many people did not care about unopened stuff as much back then. I wish I could take it back and buy a real legit 500 club poster. Who would have thought that the Cleveland National would let in such crooks. Im buying Operation Bullpen for X-mas just to keep it as a memory.....Spazzy

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

A 89 Fleer Bill Ripken Whiteout. I have one but this one would grade higher than mine. My bid was retracted in last minute(s) by seller. I used my alt id and he said I have changed it too many times (4) Said it was suspicious ??

stevek

At the Philly area flea markets there were thousands of t-206 and t-205 cards that flea market operators displayed in the mid 1970s. Some vendors who were not even card dealers, had many hundreds of them loose in boxes. They were usually listed at a buck apiece and you could of course have bought them cheaper in a lot. If memory serves me right they were mostly in good to very good condition. Not many were poor and not many were excellent. Some were star players I had heard of but I can't remember specific player's names. None were Cobb - I do remember that. I remember looking through them and I would have bought a Ty Cobb card. I didn't buy any because a buck apiece seemed way too high - certainly wished I had bought them all. But at the time it seemed these "pieces of junk" still wouldn't be worth a buck, thirty years later. LOL

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

That reminds me of a card show in the mall a few years back. They had Mother Cookies cards from 1954 I think it was. He must of had 100. I bought 2 Ca. teams. The S.F. Seals and another, The Los Angeles Angel's I think it was. They graded a 7 and a 4 thru some no name company. I wish I bought more,and kept the ones I bought. Cool cards for $1.

jayhawke

Mid to late 80's I walked into a show and the first dealer had hundreds of t-206 cards including HOF'ers. They were sharp, maybe PSA 7 and 8 quality. They were priced at $5 across the board. I think the guy was from North Carolina. He wouldn't budge on the price even if I bought 10 or more cards. Ha Ha. Anyway, I hate buying the first thing I see at a show, so I walked in and looked around. I ended up spending a few hundred on 84 and 85 topps and fleer wax boxes. When I walked out the guy still had a ton of cards. That could have been a nice house or retirement fund.

zenlaw007

At one point I had a 1953 Satchell Paige Topps PSA 1. I had to sell it. I regret that one. Not a huge financial loss, but still stings.

What does feel good, is when I sold it, I got more then one of 707s current auctions for the same card:
1953 Topps PSA 1

julen23

every time i place my max bid on e-bay, an annonymous board member around here consistently outbids me and wins certain annonymous auctions on even more annonymous cards...

ho hum

julen

mj23kg21

There are many deals that I either wish I would have done or not done through the year's but 3 come to mind. In 1980 (I was in 6th grade) I had a chance to buy 25 Hartland statues from my neighbor for $10.00 each and didn't. In 1986 I was buying lots of wax and our local candy wholesaler called me up and wanted to sell me his remaining inventory of 1986 Fleer Basketball (4 cases) at $120.00 per case. Since I had 8 wax boxes and around 50 sets I passed. I still have nightmares about that one. The last one that comes to mind is I had a chance to buy an unlimited (thousands) amount of the 1997/99 Masters Golf sets for $7.00 each. I only bought 30 and later sold them for a little over $300.00 each but it could have been much better. Numerous other good and bad stories too but I think about these more than the others.