My visit to the travelling "Antiques Treasure Hunt" today, I'm sick at my stomach
corvette1340
Posts: 3,384 ✭✭✭
So I'm coming from going to the bank earlier today and I get a call from my dad saying that he and my stepmom went to this travelling antique road show thing at one of the local hotel conference centers. They are going to be there all week and they appraise people's valuables and try to buy them. My dad was just going mainly to look and see what it was about but took a bunch of silver dollars just to see what they would offer for them. They offered $3 each, lol. He called me and told me about that and that there was an old couple with a couple of boxes of older looking baseball cards.
Since the hotel was only a few minutes away I decided to stop in. When I walked in the old couple was sitting at one of the tables by themselves with all of their cards and the guy at the table had stepped outside to make some calls to dealers and find out what the cards were worth, etc...I asked the couple if those were their cards and they said "yes, are you interested". They had all '56's all in top loaders and 2 huge boxes with 4 rows each. Easily 2000 cards. I said of course I was and I'd no doubt give them more than the company would. About that time, a girl that works for the company asked me if I had any items to sell. I said that I was just looking and she told me that I'd have to leave and couldn't undercut any deal they had working. I said, no problem, I wasn't trying to step on anyone's toes. She told her boss that I wanted to buy the couple's cards and I said that I just wanted to have a chance to look at them and possibly buy them from the company if they bought them. They then told me that they didn't sell anything and the cards would be shipped out immediately if they bought them.
So I left and went to my car outside of the hotel. I called my dad and told him what happened. Shortly thereafter, the couple comes out and I talked to them for a long time. Long story short, the company told them that most of their cards weren't in mint condition, raw cards weren't worth anything since the grading thing came along, and there weren't many stars. The only cards the lady knew of that were in there was 2 '56 Hank Aaron's. So, they sold over 2000 '56's and god knows what stars were in there for $500!! Make me absolutely sick.
Since the hotel was only a few minutes away I decided to stop in. When I walked in the old couple was sitting at one of the tables by themselves with all of their cards and the guy at the table had stepped outside to make some calls to dealers and find out what the cards were worth, etc...I asked the couple if those were their cards and they said "yes, are you interested". They had all '56's all in top loaders and 2 huge boxes with 4 rows each. Easily 2000 cards. I said of course I was and I'd no doubt give them more than the company would. About that time, a girl that works for the company asked me if I had any items to sell. I said that I was just looking and she told me that I'd have to leave and couldn't undercut any deal they had working. I said, no problem, I wasn't trying to step on anyone's toes. She told her boss that I wanted to buy the couple's cards and I said that I just wanted to have a chance to look at them and possibly buy them from the company if they bought them. They then told me that they didn't sell anything and the cards would be shipped out immediately if they bought them.
So I left and went to my car outside of the hotel. I called my dad and told him what happened. Shortly thereafter, the couple comes out and I talked to them for a long time. Long story short, the company told them that most of their cards weren't in mint condition, raw cards weren't worth anything since the grading thing came along, and there weren't many stars. The only cards the lady knew of that were in there was 2 '56 Hank Aaron's. So, they sold over 2000 '56's and god knows what stars were in there for $500!! Make me absolutely sick.
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it is a shame you didnt get a chance to talk to them longer inside...
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Nothing that bad, but I've seen dealers grape older folks like this at shows who just walk in the door.
Buying Vintage, all sports.
Buying Woody Hayes, Les Horvath, Vic Janowicz, and Jesse Owens autographed items
<< <i>Well...did you at least have a chance to tell the people they got hosed, and you would have offered them $5,000?!?!?! >>
That would be classless
That reminds me of one episode on American Pickers where they bought a saddle from an old guy for $75 knowing full well it was worth thousands. Turns out it was worth approximately $6000.
I have been in this situation before and needless to say I ended up buying the items in question. Had the event people call the local police and the local police told them I wasn't doing anything wrong since I was waiting outside on a public street.
Its their own fault. They should have figured cards that are 55 years old are worth more than 25 cents each....
It would be different story if they were ugly strip cards or oddball cards not thought to have value, but 1950s Topps cards are very well known to have some value (most non-collectors over value them though).
<< <i>We've all seen some of corvette's offers. The old folks did better with the roadshow. >>
yeah, but he's infinitely more charming.
they missed out on a memorable human experience.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
<< <i>
<< <i>We've all seen some of corvette's offers. The old folks did better with the roadshow. >>
yeah, but he's infinitely more charming.
they missed out on a memorable human experience. >>
"memorable experience" meaning these old folks avoided an awkward conversation with the bank teller after trying to deposit a bunch of benjamins with Tommy's racing stripes all over them.