Monthly Collective Buying Venture - Chicagoland

Nathaniel1960

I’m new to the boards, but have had this idea for a while now. I’m looking for a group of four to five collectors in the Chicago area to join me for a monthly collective buying venture.

The set up is pretty basic. Every few weeks, one person in the group (the buyer) is charged with making an e-bay or auction house purchase of a lot of vintage cards. The lot can be anything pre-1979, any sport, any manufacturer, any grade, but the lot has to be large enough to split amongst group members. Each member will contribute $100 to the pool of funds, so that the buyer has some latitude in his/her buying and can go up to $500 or so if necessary.

Once the cards are delivered, the group gets together, has a few drinks, some light petting (JK) and sorts and reviews the cards and then selects based on a pre-selected order (snake fantasy draft style). If there is more than one or two high dollar cards (i.e. a 1960 Topps lot of 300 cards containing two Micks and the rest scrubs), the order and number of picks can be adjusted. The buyer for that month always gets first pick. The other members can suggest auctions or ideas, but that week's buyer has final say.

Here’s an example of what may have been a fun lot:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1964-TOPPS-BASEBALL-PARTIAL-SET-67-COMPLETE-OVERALL-EX_W0QQitemZ310138832775QQihZ021QQcategoryZ26364QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This would have resulted, with shipping, to about $105 pp. Basically I’m seeing advantages to buying vintage in large lots. And this would be a fun way to exploit that and make new collecting friends.

Any interest? I suppose I should also ask, is anyone doing this now?

NAT

MBMiller25

I wish I lived in Chicago, I would at the very least give it a shot and see how it worked out. Worst case scenerio, you meet some guys with similar interests and drink so beer and talk sports and sports cards. Thats worth $100 to me there.