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Best "almost got rich story"

easydoesiteasydoesit Posts: 547
in Trading Cards & Memorabilia Forum
Just a fun link here... What is your best almost got rich story in cards. Ill share two quick ones. IT was 1996 and my buddy insisted that I should run out immediately to buy all I could of 96-97 chrome basketball when it hit Walmart. I listened and bought all 14 boxes that Fayetteville NC had to offer at walmart. I stopped on my way home at Books a Million and saw they had literally hundreds of boxes stacked up in a display. I figured at that point how rare could it be??? I brought back my 14 boxes to my shop. I let them sit two weeks and sold hardly 5 packs. I packaged them up on Prodigy baseball card board and sold them for a whopping $5 profit per box and was glad to get my money back. Three months later they are $1000+ per box. I had 14 in hand and easily could have had 100+ boxes, probably more like 300 were really at Books a Million. Oh well...

Story two in 1997 I knew nothing about psa or grading. I was moving from NC to NY and didnt feel the need to keep all my cards. So I whole saled all my amazing 63 topps about 3200 of them plus 4 vending boxes of 73 topps high numbers to a guy in Seattle. I bet I didnt average 50 cents a card. The 63s were amazing even with that poor card stock. The 73s had been handled exactly once, to collate them. Again Oh Well...

What's your ALMOST story?
"I put my pants on just like you... One leg at a time. The differences is when I put them on, I make gold records."

Comments

  • 1989FleerBillRipkencollector1989FleerBillRipkencollector Posts: 4,590
    I dont have any good ones but did you hear about he guy in FL. who bought a lottery ticket and thought he won 500K when the number matched ( 1) but it scanned a loser and Lottery said ticket was a typo (the 3 was missing apparently). Needless to say he has a lawyer.
    imageimageimage
  • JJinsJJins Posts: 23
    Thats actually a heartbreaking story.
  • BigslickBigslick Posts: 72
    I don't doubt your story, product winds up in the oddest places. I know quite a bit about that product. My company had a business connection with the company that commissioned Chrome. Anderson News had Topps make it for Walmart. It was a Retail only issue. I used to know the exact number of boxes, but I do recall it was very small, for the time.
    I bought a 40 box Master Case, and ended up giving away over 1/2 of it to some client's children. Still have that ugly pink case, and about 5/6 boxes. I do remember some boxes came with 1 card from Series 1, and 3 from the 2nd Series(RCs), or the other way around. I think I paid about $45 per box. It did take about 1 year for it to catch on, and the next year it became a Hobby and Retail Product.
  • itzagoneritzagoner Posts: 8,753 ✭✭
    it's a Work in Progress

    now and forever
  • easydoesiteasydoesit Posts: 547
    $45 a box is correct. That is exactly what I paid and sold I think for $52 per box delivered after about a month of selling none.
    "I put my pants on just like you... One leg at a time. The differences is when I put them on, I make gold records."
  • dalewdalew Posts: 491
    Well, it's interesting.

    During the 60's I had complete sets of Topps 1959, 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 and 74.

    Lots of Post Cereal cut outs.

    Many mid 50's cards, including about 1000 57 Topps Cards.

    I quit buying after 74, cause I thought the 75 set was the ugliest card I had ever seen.

    In the 70's I had a paper route and had thousands and thousands of 72 Topps cards, with a boat load of high end cards. They were all put into plastic sleeves.

    In 1975 I put an ad in the paper asking to buy baseball cards.

    An old couple had about 20,000 61 baseball cards. I can remember having up to 10 duplicates of the high end All Star Cards, etc. I think I paid $500 for the entire lot.

    Well, 1983 came about and I was going to get married, so I thought I would need money for the wedding.

    So, I sold everything for $1,000.

    After the checks and cash was counted after the wedding, we received in excess of $3,000, so I didn't need to sell the cards to get married.

    So, what did I do with that extra $1,000?

    I bought a new VCR for $700. That's what they cost in 83.

    I could kick myself in the rear for that one.

    I wish I could go back and do some things over again.

    Dale
    1st Finest Set - 1981 Baseball Fleer Basic - Retired
    1st Finest Set - 1981 Baseball Fleer Master - Retired
    1st Finest Set - 1955 Baseball Golden Stamps - Cleveland Indians - Retired
    1st Finest Set - Mel Harder Baseball Master - Active
    Mel Harder Showcase Set - Active
    #15 on Current Set Registry - 1972 Topps Baseball - Retired
    #23 on All Time Set Registry - 1972 Topps Baseball - Retired
  • RipublicaninMassRipublicaninMass Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭
    During the 60's I had complete sets of Topps 1959, 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 and 74.

    How did you have cards from the 70's in the 60's?
  • dalewdalew Posts: 491
    During the 60's, I had the 60's cards.

    During the 70's, I had the 70's cards.

    I meant to say that in early 80's I had amassed what I said that I had.

    Dale
    1st Finest Set - 1981 Baseball Fleer Basic - Retired
    1st Finest Set - 1981 Baseball Fleer Master - Retired
    1st Finest Set - 1955 Baseball Golden Stamps - Cleveland Indians - Retired
    1st Finest Set - Mel Harder Baseball Master - Active
    Mel Harder Showcase Set - Active
    #15 on Current Set Registry - 1972 Topps Baseball - Retired
    #23 on All Time Set Registry - 1972 Topps Baseball - Retired
  • BobaFett72BobaFett72 Posts: 7,304
    My Mom collected comic books as a kid (she was born in 1930) She started collecting when she was 8 or 9. Her favorites were Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman...action comics, detective comics, she had hundreds, maybe thousands of them, apparently keeping them in pretty decent shape. When the family moved from a double decker house to our current home (single family) My grandmother threw all her comics into the trash. (this was 1960) sigh.

    I started collecting when I was in high school and thats when my mom told me about her "collection" i showed her the price guide, she almost had a stroke! Oh well. If everyone had saved them they wouldnt be worth what they are today.
  • easydoesiteasydoesit Posts: 547
    I didnt need to sell mine either. The money gained proved insignificant when compared to the load we took out to buy our current home. I thought I could make a dent by selling it all. doah!
    "I put my pants on just like you... One leg at a time. The differences is when I put them on, I make gold records."
  • BigslickBigslick Posts: 72
    Just pulled out the 96/97 Chrome Basketball. I think one of my kids might have needed some extra cash. There are 42 loose packs, and no sealed boxes. Anyone have an opinion on grading the packs? I'm only in them for about $2 each. I do know some shops I go to used to sell them for $50, the one that still has them, can't move them at $25. As I recall the centering wasn't great, so breaking might not be an option. Wish I hadn't looked.
  • airjoedanairjoedan Posts: 776 ✭✭✭
    bigslick I'd be interested in the chrome packs if you are looking to move them, please private message me if interested. Thanks and great stories guys!


    - Joe
  • YazTedandPedfanYazTedandPedfan Posts: 15
    Man... I love the "parents' collection" stories. I got into cards back in the mid 80's when I was a kid, and then started figuring out they were worth something in my early teens. That led to a conversation with my mom, uncle and their parents at Christmas one year. I was poking through a guide and my mom saw the Mantle on the cover and said 'hey, I had a bunch of those' which led to some reminiscing between them. My uncle is about 4-5 years younger apparently only collected the old Mickey Mouse and Disney comics - the old Carl Barks stuff apparently - but my mom.... well... she was a little bit of an oddball. Though she lived near Boston, she was a Yankees fan, and her favoritest player was...the Mick. She was born in late 39, so was about 11-12 when his key cards were hitting the market... and she would trade away all her Sox for Mickey Mantle cards. To the point that she had an entire dresser drawer full of his cards - specifically, when I showed some pictures, she was pointing out the 52 through 55 at least. They got tossed sometime later either while she was at college or right after. This was about 88 or so and they would have been worth a ton then...
    Hoarder, Collector, always looking to upgrade
  • rbdjr1rbdjr1 Posts: 4,474 ✭✭

    During the first, or was it the second year of the Florida Lotto?

    Grand prize money was up to 53 million dollars!

    This Lottery prize was one of the largest, if not the largest lotto prizes ever, for that time!

    Well, to make a long story short, I had 5 out of 6 numbers,

    and I won a few thousand bucks, was pretty exciting!

    Well kinda, but I was just one number away from winning "mega bucks",

    and the "what if" and I "almost won" thoughts started sinking in!

    Funny how one's life could change forever, just by adding a single number like 28!

    Still throw away five bucks a week, like a tool, for the past 10 years.

    Never came close again!

    So, that is my "almost got mega rich overnight" story!

    rd


    Quicksilver Messenger Service - Smokestack Lightning (Live) 1968

    Quicksilver Messenger Service - The Hat (Live) 1971
  • BigslickBigslick Posts: 72
    I thought this was only about sports cards, these all begin to sound like poker "bad beat" stories. I've collected SCs for 50 consecutive years, so I've got many. I started in the investment business when the Dow Jones was 650. While I've made a good living, I've got lots of what ifs. In the late 70s we bought a small company called WMT. Paid about $.04 per share, based upon today's splits. Several years later we sold it, paid off the house, and put away enough to put 2 kids thru college. Well it went to $60+. It would have been a ton of cash, more than Topps earns in 10 years. Yuck!
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