what is the best card that was ever stolen from you?

MachoMuchacho

hopefully not many people will have an answer, but unfortunately you probably do.

One of my "friends" growing up stole a Mike Piazza Flair Waves of the Future card. He ended up trading it to our local shop. I thought he had done so, and I happened to be at the shop a few days later and there was my card. I asked if Anthony - my "friend" who stole it - had traded it, and the guy who owned the shop said yeah, just a couple of days ago. Anyways, I ended up shooting Anthony with a BB gun later because of something else. I was about 14, what can I say?

neenish

1959 Topps Yogi Berra. My friend slept over my house when we were kids because we were going to the Kenrich Co. baseball card store in Arcadia, CA the following day. I saw the card a week later on his desk. Of course, I took the card back when I confronted him. I knew it was my card because it had a weird ding on the upper right corner of the card, sort of like an indentation when I originally dropped the card. This was over 28 years ago.

yankeeno7

I had a SWEET partial 1967 Set stolen from me at a show. It was a dealer who I had known for YEARS who was set up next to me. This was back in the early 90s when people brought loads of stuff to shows...what was I going to do? Rummage through all those boxes? And maybe he had brought it to his car. I know he was the one that took it cuz he could have been the only one. I had JUST purchased it about 1/2 hour before and had it behind my table. Man, I still burn about that one.

BobaFett72

In ten years as a card show / flea market dealer i had ONE thing stolen from me.... a 1990 Upper Deck baseball hi series set. some punk kids grabbed it when some of their other friends caused a commotion at the end of my booth, i saw something out of the corner of my eye and when i looked the set was gone (snagged off a shelf) The kids scattered, i ran after one of them (alerting a neighboring vendor to keep an eye out) but the kid i caught up with didnt have it.

The other kids ran out the door to the flea market and into the parking lot... i was, um, not very gentle with the punk i caught up with...so at least he got the message I figure I lost $5 on the deal.

p.s.
if you want a 1990 UD hi series, i still have 20 of them! lol. worthless crap!!

dizzle

I had a 1989 upper deck griffey and a charles barkely 86 fleer stolen from me in junior high not sure who took them but it was during a b-day party!!! I didn't notice till after everyone had left..what a great gift..

Carew29

2nd year Topps Pete Rose from a show about 20 years ago. It was a beaut!! Probably sitting in a 9 holder somewhere by now!!

jimq112

55T ted williams and 53T yogi berra stolen from on my desk at work. Caught the guy trying to sell them, possession is 9/10 of the law and I had to buy them to get them back. Paid $200 to get them back. The berra is a psa 5, never sent the williams but it's about the same shape.

The thief was later killed in a drive-by after selling some drywall dust as drugs. That was before ebay, he would have made a great scammer.

digicat

<< <i>I had a 1989 upper deck griffey and a charles barkely 86 fleer stolen from me in junior high >>



Heh, I had a pair of 89 UD Griffey rookies stolen from me as well back in Jr. High. During lunch time, the card geeks would get together to pass binders around for trading. I made two mistakes.
1) I let my binder leave my sight.
2) I didn't do a quick inventory check once it got back.

When I got home, I found that I was short 2 Griffeys. Grr. I never made that mistake again.

mtcards

Two major steals (at least at the time)

First time, my 1970 Nolan Ryan was stolen and pawned at a local card store. Got it back for the $50 he pawned it for.

Second, back when I had a showcase of cards in my store, I had the local Senior Class President come into the store and when I was busy with another customer, snag a Strawberry 84 Donruss RC ($50 at the time) and a 91 Donruss Elite (Canseco maybe?, booked for $100 at the time). Of course the little punk went to school the next day showing them off along with the story "I got the Elite out of a pack". I had posted a reward of $100 for the return of the cards and of course, someone ratted on him (glad to say) and had the local police question him at school and had him come in and told him I wouldnt press charges if he paid the reward money, which he did.

psafan

T206 Wagner PSA 9

DeutscherGeist

It really sucks when a friend steals the cards instead of some stranger, although neither is excusable.

A stranger will steal things at a card shop or show. A friend has earned enough trust to be at your home and have access to a lot of things if you are non-suspecting, which usually is the case.

I had garbage pail kids stolen, 70s baseball cards, ... a few dollars worth of stuff at the time. Yes, by friends, of course.

Handing over the binder full of cards was something I did not do much of for the same reason as someone above mentioned. If you cannot keep your eyes on the binder at all times, you risk losing some cards. When I did bring the binder in at junior high, I was lucky that the friends I showed it to were trustworthy.

Its funny, of all the petty things that kids do, it still haunts us in a way. I sure do not associate with people who have done me wrong in the past. If I do have to associate with them, I am very guarded. It also works the other way around, too, in that whoever you treated well in the past never forgets you!

HeritageAddict

My worse loss by theft was in college when my small (but sentimental) vintage collection was stolen. I don't even remember what all got swiped, there were probably 100 commons from 52-56, a 58 Mantle AS, 61 Mantle MVP, 53 Ford, 57-64 Koufax, and various other stars. He also swiped about a half dozen auto'd balls, of which I've managed to replace all but one, the one I haven't replaced was the Mantle. I suspected one of my roommates and got verification of that about three months after he moved out, never could track him down and still haven't managed to replace all of those cards.

Brian48

A '58-59 Bobby Hull rookie in NM condition. This, along with a slew of other expensive, high-end cards were stolen when my house was broken into back in 1997.

I wonder where it is today. No doubt in a PSA holder somewhere.

RipublicaninMass

In 1993 had about 500 1952 topps baseball (many hi#'s) and 1953 topps baseball commons stolen and sold. I should have just bought them back (sold for $750) as possession is 9/10 of the law. They were sold to J.J. Teaparty in Boston then to sports writer for the Boston globe Clark Booth

stown

My brother swiped a ton of early '50s baseball and football many, many moons ago. All the big names (Mantle, Koufax, Mays, Unitas, etc) went *poof*, regardless of condition.

He has since apologized, after years of denial, and that's that, I suppose

shagrotn77

A 1984 Donruss Mattingly rookie sometime around '88 or '89 when that card was a big deal as was its price. It just flat out disappeared. One of my brother's old friends remains a strong "person of interest".

DeutscherGeist

what does this phrase mean:

I should have just bought them back (sold for $750) as possession is 9/10 of the law.



I don't understand it as it might be idiomatic.

CDsNuts

When I was in high school and worked at a local card shop, this adult guy who would always come in wanted to get together and make some personal trades (since I couldn't hock my own wares at the shop) and we ended up hanging out a few times, going to card shows and stuff. He basically pretended to be my friend so he would have an opportunity to steal a bunch of my cards- an ex/mt 56 Jackie Robinson my grandmother bought me as a present was the big card, but he also nabbed a bunch of nice rookies such as 89 Score Sanders and Aikman RCs. If I saw him today I would beat the living hell out of him. Don Gibson is his name if anybody ever runs into him at a show in the MD area.

nam812

<< <i>When I was in high school and worked at a local card shop, this adult guy who would always come in wanted to get together....... >>



That was more than enough for me, and I stopped reading at that point.

jimq112

<< <i>what does this phrase mean:

I should have just bought them back (sold for $750) as possession is 9/10 of the law.



I don't understand it as it might be idiomatic. >>



I think what he means is he should have paid the $750 to get them back. The problem with raw sportscards is you can't prove they were yours, even if you catch the bastige that stole them.



I did catch the guy who stole mine, I was at a card shop when he brought them in to sell them. The shop owner had been watching for them, he called the police and they came. The cop suggested in the future that if I'm worried that they might get stolen I should WRITE MY NAME ON THEM to be able to prove they were mine.

I ended up just paying the jerk the money he was asking after the cop left.

This is the ted williams that was stolen, I paid $200 to get this back and a 53 topps yogi berra that I believe is overgraded at psa 5

tombo

I had a small safe stolen from my house last year. Among the cards in there were an ungraded Ryan rookie (6?) a 1969 Mantle PSA 8 and a Fleer Jordan rookie PSA 8.

Stingray

<< <i>

<< <i>When I was in high school and worked at a local card shop, this adult guy who would always come in wanted to get together....... >>



That was more than enough for me, and I stopped reading at that point. >>

NBAFan

An Emmitt Smith 1/1

I also had some hasbro wrestlers stolen including Andre the Giant.

thehallmark

Hanging out with friends in sixth grade (1990). Friend-A's dad had "THE BINDER" which contained every major card from 1954-1969 with no exceptions. I have no clue about the condition of any of those cards, but knowing the guy collecting them, I'm sure they would've gotten good grades when grading blew up.

So we're all hopped up on sugar and adrenaline, playing football. Friend-B leaves the football game to go inside Friend-A's house and go to the bathroom...or so we thought. We find out later that Friend-B emptied out the first page of The Binder and snuck the cards out by wedging them around his waist between his body and the elastic waistband of his underwear. He even played football for a few minutes more before he went home to look at his new cards.

Of the 9 cards he took, I distinctly remember there being one Rose Rookie, one Mantle (not sure which year), and one 1962 Mays.

Thinking about that binder and those cards in the kid's underwear always makes me vomit a little bit.

RedHeart54

<< <i>A 1984 Donruss Mattingly rookie sometime around '88 or '89 when that card was a big deal as was its price. It just flat out disappeared. One of my brother's old friends remains a strong "person of interest". >>



Funny, I also had the same card stolen around that time frame. Kid came over to trade. Notice a day or so later I'm missing a Mattingly. Turns out kid was also stealing from my other friends as well. He'd also been kicked out of a local shop for same crime. I turned the cops on him and got back at least what I paid for it ($50). Turns out the kid was such a mess that when my mother called his parents they more or less invited us to call the cops because even they couldn't control the little fu****. (Of course that woudn't happen these days whatwith kids doing NO wrong in the eyes of their parents. WE would have been sued for HARASSMENT.)

goye

At my very first show....a counterfeit jordan rookie.......

CDsNuts

nam- the worst part was when the police man made me show him on the doll where the guy touched me.

nam812

Officer, that bad man touched me right on my Heinie Manush, and then he grabbed my Dick Pole in front of everyone.

Morgoth

I had about 1000 86 topps football cards and 300 84 topps stolen. I didn't think FB cards were worth much in 90 and 91 and had a friend come over to look at them and about 1 week later I noticed they were gone. I was senior in HS and was going to start college early so I just let it go (worthless FB right). I never sorted the cards but I know there was at lease 3 Rices and 1 Elway and Marino in the lot.

markj111

In the days before grading, I won a Clemente rookie, a Koufax rookie, and a Yaz rookie in an SCD auction; all were advertised as mint (for what that was worth). As it turned out I never received them, but all three appeared in my local card shop. I was able to get the Yaz from him, but the other two had already been sold. They were insured, so I got my money back. I still have the Yaz-it graded PSA 8 several years later. I sure wish I had the others.

DeutscherGeist

Jimq112,

Thanks for answering my post. I guess you are right about raw cards. They are hard to trace unless maybe if you have a scanned copy and the card is rare--maybe there is a chance to match scan with raw card, but even that is not perfect.

By writing your name on it, I think the police implied that a graded card would be easy to prove who possessed it. You have the PSA submission form & serial number of card on reciept, which provide an exact match if card is ever recovered. I had someone from these boards submit my cards for me, so I guess I should scan them and save that to my hard drive. If they are ever stolen, then recovered, I can prove they were mine with those scans.

As far as purchasing your cards back. Did you do that for sentimental reasons or was the money you paid just a small fraction of the true value of those cards and probably the best way to settle the case? In other words, are those cards worth a lot more than what you had to pay? If that is the case, then I think it makes sense to buy them back just to cut the losses and prevent a total loss. Sorry the crook cashed in on his non-integrity.

I think we all had our losses, whether in sports cards, unethical contractors or used car salesman. I use to feel horrible about getting ripped off as if I was not cunning or smart enough to have the foresight to prevent all this, but now I am realizing that part of life is how well we can recover from said incident and move on. Do the best you can to protect yourself and others you hold dear and when a loss does occur, cut it short as much as possible and begin moving on. Dwelling on it seems to do no one good.

Bottom9th

I think the worst was a Marino Rookie from my shop.
I do remember catching my first shoplifter. He was about 7 and I couldn't get in touch with his parents so I called the cops.
They came and put him in handcuffs. I don't know who was more scared, me or the kid. I think the cop eventually took him home.
I would guess he learned his lessson!

Piman58

About 4 years ago, someone broke into my house and took a 1972 Topps Ryan, a 1982 Topps Ripken, a 1967 Topps Mantle, two 1979 Topps Murrays, and a Homoginized Bond Bread Jackie Robinson. Police said that the probably used a four-wheeler since my TV and other large items were untouched. I may have lost more if they had not spent a great deal of time using my own crowbar and hammer to open a large floor safe that was completely empty to their surprise.

PasadenaMudSlide

PasadenaMudSlide

I shared this story before. My dad had a complete Topps baseball set run from 1952-59, plus a ton of other good stuff. My dad was, and is today, meticulous regarding his cards. I am 39 and only recently allowed to handle these cards.

We had a real poverty case, Bobby Ugstad, who lived down the street. Mom was an alcoholic, four siblings, four different daddies, a real charity case. You get the picture. Anyway, Bobby Ugstad was really interested in baseball cards. So I, like an idiot, showed him where my dad kept his collection. Bad idea. First, while we were away, Bobby Ugstad broke in and helped himself to a bunch of star cards. Must have sat down and cherry-picked HOF cards. Among the missing were a '52 Mays and high-number Bill Dickey. But Bobby Ugstad was not satisfied with the first heist. Next theft Bobby Ugstad simply chose to remove pages of plastic sheets filled with cards. Thankfully, I think my dad was able to collect about $20,000 total for these robberies through insurance.

So, if you're ever in the Twin Cities of MPLS and St. Paul and run across a real waste-of-skin-loser named Bobby Ugstad, please do all collectors a favor and part his hair with an aluminum baseball bat.

TheCARDKid

i think the only cards I've ever had stolen were Garbage Pail Kid cards.

For some crazy reason, I brought all my sets with me to class in 6th grade, and put them in my desk. Complete sets from about series 3 to 12. Then with recess and lunch...by the end of the day, they were gone. Like alot of schools, the teachers dont really care about your welfare. So, what are you going to do?

Another funny story is, I was into coin collecting for a few years, around 89, 90. I only had a few coins, old silver dollars mostly. I had one in my shirt pocket on a trip to San Francisco. It was a family trip, and I think I was waving to my parents on the end of the bridge (north side), and the coin the fell out of my pocket and fell over the bridge. We went down to the dirt below and never found it.

If I went to the Golden Gate Bridge again, I could tell you where I dropped it.

Those are the only things I remember losing though. After 6th, 7th, 8th grade, I didnt tell many people about my card collection.

You know in class how they'd ask you what your most expensive card is or something like that?

I went to a run down highschool, and there I really didnt trust anybody. I think I only made a few trades in highschool, but the old "expensive card" question or looking through Beckett to see what you have, no thanks bro.

Rogermnj

Not stolen but I remember sending $750 for a griffey psa 10 UD rookie to a woman I spoke on the phone with from cali..

# disconnected no card..

Oh well.

ArnyVee

I had an Al Kaline '54 Rookie. Probably in PSA 6 shape, but it was my most valuable card at the time. I'm about 99% sure that it was an Uncle of mine (only a few years older than me) that was the culprit. Sucks.

PasadenaMudSlide

I'm about 99% sure that it was an Uncle of mine

This is sad, ArnyVee.

jfkheat

One of my ex brother-in-laws stole several things from me about 5 years ago. Some of the items are an 86 Fleer basketball set with stickers, a 70 Baseball set minus the stars(set was in a pages and I put the star cards in top loaders), 96 Chrome Kobe Bryant rookie and a handful of 50s and 60s singles. I figure the total was around $5000. Both ex BILs collected cards. One sells a lot on Ebay so I figure he is the culprit. I don't know how long the cards were missing before I noticed and I can't prove that one of the 2 stole them so there was nothing I could do. Neither has been back in my house since it happened.
James

fiveniner

In about 1991 I had a 1956 Mays,1957 F Robinson & 1959 Koufax from my Hobby Room.It has always been thought it was a friend of my son who was showing off my collection. the Koufax and Mays were nrmt or better.

baseballfan

montana rookie (raw) along with some other stuff out of my parents house when i was in college.

thedutymon

Good day,
My Brother stole my first Comic Book collection and Non Sports collection while I was in the Army in Germany in 1973-76, Had over 10,000 Golden Age Comics and at least three complete sets of 1962 Mars Attacks Cards, 2 sets 1964 Outer Limits and about 1000 other Non Sport. When I got out I kicked his ass and Reposessed what was left. Most of the Comics were still there but he had cherry picked and sold all of the top dollar items, such as the Amazing Fantasy 15 first Spiderman, Fantastic Four run #1-100, Thousands of original 1930-1940 Flash, Captan Marvel, Batman, Superman incuding a #1, Hundreds of other Golden Age and Silver age, in todays market value probably $250K-$500K worth. All of the Non Sport Cards were gone.
Because of this and some other things we haven't spoken in 20+ years although I do interact with my Nephews.
Neil

Morgoth

Neil man that is grand theft larceny right there, complaining about a 89UD griffey is one thing an Amazing Fantasy 15 is in a whole other world. I collect comics as well and that hurts to hear those great comics probably found their way to Mile High

benderbroeth

a Hank Aaron rookie...along with an ernie banks rookie

thedutymon

Good day,
Yeah I agree, but life is about circumstances. Right after I joind in 73 my Father was killed, I came home for awhile them went back to Germany. So what was I supposed to do go to the Police, turn in my Brother, with my Widowed Mother with 5 kids age 8-18. Nah, I bit the bullet took some satisfaction in a little hide and basically wrote of the piece of White Trash Crap off. I still had to deal with him for awhile until he went off into the Navy while I was in Germany and fortunitly that was pretty much when I last had to do the family Holiday thing with him involved, ect. My Mom of couse knows all about what happened, is on my side, but he is still her son. End of Story.

So in the 80's I built up my Second Great Comic Collection. Not quite as great as the first, but close. Then I went through a Divorce and needless to say I don't have the comics anymore.........But that's a whole different story !!!!!!!!

Ya gotta just keep chuggin' on Day After Day !!!!!

Neil

vintagetoppsguy

About a year ago, I got an idea to look on Craigslist for baseball cards (bad idea). I did a local (Houston) search for T206s and came across a listing where this guy had his home broken into and all of his T206s stolen (despite an alarm and dogs) and was offering a reward. From what I remember they were all pretty high grade (like 7's or better) and I think he provided a link to the set registry to provide pictures and serial numbers for identification. Does anybody know this guy or know what I am talking about?

jay0791

I had a $2000.00 card lot stolen from me by the post office. One was the most perfect 85 M cGwire RC that all who saw it agreed it was a 10. I pulled it from a pack that I carefully opened and placed in a cardsaver directly. This was about 8 months before he broke Roger Maris' single season and a 10 was worth many many $1000's. A 2nd year jordan was the same way....plus many of my very best vintage. Probably $10,000 of graded card value. Despite being fully insured (all cards were identified on insurance form) and having all paperwork...I had to hire a lawyer to get just my 2K book value back.

On ebay I bought a 1954 bowman blanda psa 8 and 1951 bowman Leo Nomellini psa 8 for $500 from Will Hayes of ebay id Sandiegowill from San Diego. Never recieved them. They said they put in an insurance claim....and gave me the big run around for months. His employee said they would have a check in the mail by that friday (yes we have all heard that one !!!!!) Being a big dealer I didn't expect to be lied to and cheated....so I didn't start an ebay fraud claim in time. Being 3000 miles away what can one do? I'm sure the San Diego police dept. would jump all over that one...as well as the attorney generals office. Bottom line. They stole $500 from me.....I had bought several times before from him...all positive transactions. Finnaly I felt I wa peeing into the wind and dropped the case....but will always remember. AND of course....never buy again!!!!!!!!

DeutscherGeist

Thedutymon,

That is one sad story you shared. Everyone has lost, got ripped or stolen from to some extent. However, you were put in such a tight spot having a life savings worth of stuff stolen and then having it be someone you really could not touch, a brother. You are right, what could you have done? This was your mother's son....that really puts things in a bind. Your mother understands the story, but her son is her son. Just remember that it was not you who did anything wrong.

I guess the best thing to do is simply rent a storage unit that is climate controlled and leave the stuff that's of value, both sentimental and monetary, in there especially when being away for a long period. With so many siblings, I think that storage rental really does make sense. I know its made the life of many collectors much more stress free by having a nice clean storage facility--that way, nothing can happen to the items, including the honest oooops I'm sorry, I spilled juice on the cards or whatever (accidents are also a major cause of damage and grief, not just cold calculated theft).

You do not have your collection anymore because of a divorce? Would it have helped you if you had inventoried all your collection with photos and video and kept reciepts wherever possible before marriage? I wonder if that makes a difference. However, without trust, its hard to even properly have the mindset of getting married. Preparing all this documentation and paperwork might sound logical as one needs to approach life like a lawyer: approach everything as if it will one day become a lawsuit. While I cannot agree that a true marriage should be looked upon with all this in mind, but I think is in everyone's interest to do some documentation, picture, and video because other things happen in life where we need this information. I live in California right now where we have a serious fire problem. If one had records of their belongings, it would be much easier to collect insurance money. If something is documented, it is much easier to track if it get stolen or if there is any dispute (like someone accuses you of stealing his Mantle rookie but you can always show records that you owned for so and so years). So, while this record keeping will help in a divorce case too, just view as protecting yourself for other disasters where you need to file a claim. Plus, having an inventory of everything is great because you are then organized and know exactly what you have and don't have.



edit sentence structure

jay0791

Mr. duty I really feel for ya.......I am feeling so ripped off by a complete stranger(s) and you have to live with the fact that blood was involved. And while serving one's country...is even worse. Nobody is ever 100% protected. I can't speak for everyone but even if lost and insurance provided a claim....how can that replace what you have. Good luck on collecton #3...........

lawnmowerman

People dont steal cards from me.

I know Randy and he is my friend.