Where to start. Perhaps it was back in 1993, when I sold 5 3200 count boxes for a penny a card. All of it was 1987-1993 baseball commons. Sure, there could have been a few Sammy Sosa's in there.
As for pick-ups, my BVG 8.5 Beliveau rookie started out as a GAI 8. There was a bunch of risk involved there in cracking and crossing, but it is a sweet card no matter the holder.
In recent years, the card has collected me in many cases, to borrow a phrase from Steve.
Just made a $45 dvld purchase on ebay for a 1948 Leaf #56 Bob Folsom card and it arrived this morning. It has a legitimate shot at a PSA 6 (it's getting a holiday trip to Newport Beach and will go in my set upon return). That may not sound like much, but there are none graded higher than PSA 6 and would be in the $600-800 range. On a really, really bad day, it's a PSA 5 and still a C-note... It's one of the toughest cards in the set to find centered and one of the few that I haven't been able to find an upgrade for in the past couple of years..
I also bought a companion that should be a PSA 5 for $17 and change. Here's hoping they come back PSA 5 and PSA 6, then I can sell the PSA 5 which will pay for everything and have a PSA 6 for my set (with none graded higher).
Came to a local card show about ten years ago and found an older guy selling off his media guide collection that stretched back decades and was only asking a quarter each or 5 for a dollar. One person said they'd buy all the hockey before they even looked through it all. I was being selective or else I should have bought all the basketball. Instead, I cherrypicked what I wanted and got some old UCLA guides with Lew Alcindor, a 1980 US Hockey team exhibition program (sold for $70 right after Herb Brooks died), Michael Jordan rookie year media guide (I later found a rookie year schedule, ticket order form and other forms stuffed inside), and signed Shaquille O'Neal rookie year program and some others. I passed on a Larry Bird rookie year one too that was in rough shape but still should have been bought but even with what I bought I still made back at least 20 times what I paid.
One unopened pack find I had about 10 years ago involved several 1950-1970s unopened wax packs. Several had stars showing . But those were mainly on all the cellos and racks. Along with the deal there were 4 1972 Topps Football wax packs. When I got home to check which series they were. I noticed on the first pack Roger Staubachs rookie card was showing and I was thrilled. But the thing was all 4 had rogers rookie cards showing on the back. Made my day. Sold them to BBCexchange. and I think he still has one left. One of my favorite finds.
I bought a 1965 Topps Willie Brown rc off E-bay for $100 had it graded and hit a PSA 9 (it was a pop 3 at the time I think). I sold it for over $3k.
The worst screwjob was in 1998 when I had 4 tickets to the Miami - Denver MNF game (which included 2 extra tickets) in Miami in week 16. The Broncos headed into the previous week 13-0 when they traveled to New York to play the 5-8 Giants. If the Broncos won, they would arrive in Miami 14-0 and the Dolphins were primed to defend the 72 team's status as the only undefeated team. There was speculation that ticket prices would top $500 to $1000 per. The Giants won on a last second touchdown from Kent Graham to Amani Toomer and the Broncos arrived into Miami 13-1. Needless to say, I sold the 2 extra tickets for face value...
Rgs,
Greg M.
Collecting vintage auto'd fb cards and Dan Marino cards!!
there was a show in Charlotte, North Carolina we did in the early 90's at the convention center and it was horribly attended, one of those shows where you hope to buy your way out.....Sunday afternoon we were starting to pack up the showcases after maybe a couple grand worth of sales, certainly not enough to cover plane fare and 2 nights a hotel for 3 people and we had purchased a few cards of value, but 5pm was about 15 minutes away and this farmer dude in overalls walks up to our table with his oversized A-to-Z Hall-Of-Famer notebook and asks if we would be interested in buying the whole thing, he was tired of dealers picking and choosing and nobody had any money, so he'd sold maybe 5 cards.
so we took a peek.
started with Aaron, of course, rookie card all the up, almost every card ever issued through the early 70's and then it just went on and on, the book was literally overstuffed with pages and the rings were barely hanging on, Berra, Clemente, page after page of Mantle cards, etc, etc.....all the way up to Yaz and everything in between, Topps, Fleers, Bazookas, inserts, some nice, some beaters, plenty to go around for $500 cash and you should have seen the ear-to-ear grin on this guy's face, he couldn't wait to unload that heavy book.
we actually had to stick around past closing time to look through the book and close the deal and the promoters kicked us out and then we almost missed our flight home.....the flight that was paid for by oh, i dunno, page 4 and 5?? maybe page 6 paid for the hotel and food, and then page 7 on up was just gravy, gravy.
about 5 hours on that plane home, we never put that book down.
Wanted to add to my game used collection so off to ebay I go. I try to do alot of research on the type of gloves, wristbands etc the players actually used during any time. So I see a game used wrist band from nick Swisher. Starting bid .99.
I do a quick google & see that this is indeed a gamer that Nick would have worn. Past sales & current prices on a couple of internet sites have it going for 150-200 dollars. I put in my high bid & hit the rack for the night. The next morning I wake up to see that I got this thing for.....you guessed it....... .99 cents.
Not that I plan in selling in the near future but you cant go wrong for .99 cents. I may even let my little guy wear this one during Little League
Bad Deal!! about 17 years ago I was working for Texaco and they were giving away Maxx racing packs as a promotional deal with every fill up. The sales reps were cleaning house and gave me a couple hundred packs. After opening a few I really didn't think there was anything worth keeping them for (Before I started collecting) so I gave most of them away and not knowing I kept a few maybe 5 or so. About 8 years ago after getting back into collecting had a bunch of late 80's garb I wanted to get rid of so me and a friend went to a flea market to try and sell some of it off. Didn't sell much if anything so we started busting some of it to pass the time. I had 2 packs of the Maxx left and as joke sold them to my friend to bust for 25 cents. Of course he pulled a Davey Allison autograph card. Not sure what he sold it for on Ebay at the time but he did give me $50.
couple years back from one of the auction houses - packaged arrived on Friday with 68' mantle bazooka psa 8 and a 62' mantle canadian post - believe it was a psa 5 mk grade. won both in one lot for approx $1300. had them on ebay saturday morning and by sunday morning sold the bazooka for $2200 and the post for $550. was not a bad turn in less than 48 hours
This is now in a PSA 8 case and was sold in mile highs auction this year. I didnt get it in the 8 case but was the best deal I made so far as of this year. Also this card was bought raw by me along with several others from 1952-1957 but this was the best card in the deal
Worst deal I ever made was I sent 8,000.00 in 2000 for a PSA 8 1953 Topps Mantle and the card never came. And I never got a dime of my money. I was 20 at the time but luckly I made several deals around that time. 2000-2002 was the best time in my opinion to buy and sell sports cards for me. But that 8k killed.
Bought a raw set of 1965 Topps Embossed on ebay about 3 years ago for around $45. The seller had it totally mistitled...called it a World Series set or something like that, with no year, and I found it by random luck searching for other things. The one pic of the cards was small and blurry and I wasn't even sure it was a complete set, but it stated 72 cards so I figured probably it was. For $45 I figured I'd just take a chance on the condition...and yes it was the complete set, and oh my gosh...no 9's, but certainly some 8's and loads of 7's...the Mantle is a lock 7. Tough to find these in high grades. I'm just gonna keep it raw, as I have no interest in ever selling it.
Can't let this die, so... back in about 2003 I bought a raw '72 Topps Tony Perez and it came back a PSA 9. I think I sold it for about $90-$100. Not a bad return.
Comments
As for pick-ups, my BVG 8.5 Beliveau rookie started out as a GAI 8. There was a bunch of risk involved there in cracking and crossing, but it is a sweet card no matter the holder.
In recent years, the card has collected me in many cases, to borrow a phrase from Steve.
-FC
I also bought a companion that should be a PSA 5 for $17 and change. Here's hoping they come back PSA 5 and PSA 6, then I can sell the PSA 5 which will pay for everything and have a PSA 6 for my set (with none graded higher).
One of my favorite finds.
The worst screwjob was in 1998 when I had 4 tickets to the Miami - Denver MNF game (which included 2 extra tickets) in Miami in week 16. The Broncos headed into the previous week 13-0 when they traveled to New York to play the 5-8 Giants. If the Broncos won, they would arrive in Miami 14-0 and the Dolphins were primed to defend the 72 team's status as the only undefeated team. There was speculation that ticket prices would top $500 to $1000 per. The Giants won on a last second touchdown from Kent Graham to Amani Toomer and the Broncos arrived into Miami 13-1. Needless to say, I sold the 2 extra tickets for face value...
Rgs,
Greg M.
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E-Bay id: greg_n_meg
so we took a peek.
started with Aaron, of course, rookie card all the up, almost every card ever issued through the early 70's and then it just went on and on, the book was literally overstuffed with pages and the rings were barely hanging on, Berra, Clemente, page after page of Mantle cards, etc, etc.....all the way up to Yaz and everything in between, Topps, Fleers, Bazookas, inserts, some nice, some beaters, plenty to go around for $500 cash and you should have seen the ear-to-ear grin on this guy's face, he couldn't wait to unload that heavy book.
we actually had to stick around past closing time to look through the book and close the deal and the promoters kicked us out and then we almost missed our flight home.....the flight that was paid for by oh, i dunno, page 4 and 5?? maybe page 6 paid for the hotel and food, and then page 7 on up was just gravy, gravy.
about 5 hours on that plane home, we never put that book down.
Just got a good deal yesterday.
Wanted to add to my game used collection so off to ebay I go. I try to do alot of research on the type of gloves, wristbands etc the players actually used during any time. So I see a game used wrist band from nick Swisher. Starting bid .99.
I do a quick google & see that this is indeed a gamer that Nick would have worn. Past sales & current prices on a couple of internet sites have it going for 150-200 dollars. I put in my high bid & hit the rack for the night. The next morning I wake up to see that I got this thing for.....you guessed it....... .99 cents.
Not that I plan in selling in the near future but you cant go wrong for .99 cents. I may even let my little guy wear this one during Little League
Keep Em coming guys the stories are great.
couple years back from one of the auction houses - packaged arrived on Friday with 68' mantle bazooka psa 8 and a 62' mantle canadian post - believe it was a psa 5 mk grade. won both in one lot for approx $1300. had them on ebay saturday morning and by sunday morning sold the bazooka for $2200 and the post for $550. was not a bad turn in less than 48 hours
Worst deal I ever made was I sent 8,000.00 in 2000 for a PSA 8 1953 Topps Mantle and the card never came. And I never got a dime of my money. I was 20 at the time but luckly I made several deals around that time. 2000-2002 was the best time in my opinion to buy and sell sports cards for me. But that 8k killed.
This one was like 40 bucks from Superior - it was raw - purchased around 1992 before he was an HOF'er:
And 450$ for this one back in 1994 - Greg Manning Auctions
This one was 67$ - it was buried in an auction with tons of autos - thought it was were worth the money:
And - this one - from Rotman Auctions for 30 bucks - raw: