What was your worst sports card investment?
BaltimoreYankee
Posts: 3,039 ✭✭✭✭✭
Back in 1987 and 1988, I bought about 130 Topps baseball factory sets, mostly from Alan Rosen for $28 each. Yikes!! Those sets took up a lot of closet space for a long time. Eventually, I broke 'em all open and sold the "valuable" cards as lots and trashed the rest. Took a huge bath on the whole thing.
Daniel
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i was a 10 year old kid, and the candy store owner charged me $10 for the whole box. 30 years later, i am still addicted to this crap
WTB: PSA 1 - PSA 3 Centered, High Eye Appeal 1950's Mantle
If anyone wants to trade for it, send me a PM. Believe me, I wouldn't be asking for much.
-CDs Nuts, 1/20/14
*1956 Topps baseball- 97.4% complete, 7.24 GPA
*Clemente basic set: 85.0% complete, 7.89 GPA
Biggest percent loss was I purchased a 1922 Exhibit for $77 and got a nice one a few years later and put it up on a .99 auction and it closed at $8.16, that was the end of my listing nice tough to find cards on ebay for .99 auctions. The only cards I now list at .99 are cards I just want to move and I am ok taking a loss or those that have lots of demand and come to market often. The rest start with opening bids I am ok selling at, if they fail to sell they go into my store.
1990 Leaf Kevin Maas
1990 Leaf David Justice
paid 100.00 for the first year Finest basketball Larry Bird refractor.
These are just a few that stand out in my head.
Working on the following: 1970 Baseball PSA, 1970-1976 Raw, World Series Subsets PSA, 1969 Expansion Teams PSA, Fleer World Series Sets, Texas Rangers Topps Run 1972-1989
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Successful deals to date: thedudeabides,gameusedhoop,golfcollector,tigerdean,treetop,bkritz, CapeMOGuy,WeekendHacker,jeff8877,backbidder,Salinas,milbroco,bbuckner22,VitoCo1972,ddfamf,gemint,K,fatty macs,waltersobchak,dboneesq
On the other hand, I did very well with a 100 card lot of 1985 Fleer Kirby Puckett.
a bunch of Cory Snyder, Eric Davis, Todd Worrell rookies in the late 80's.
<< <i>My worst investment was spending most of my paper route money on 1988 Topps cards.
My worst investment was NOT spending my lawn mowing money on 69-71 vending boxes back in the day.
Working on the following: 1970 Baseball PSA, 1970-1976 Raw, World Series Subsets PSA, 1969 Expansion Teams PSA, Fleer World Series Sets, Texas Rangers Topps Run 1972-1989
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Successful deals to date: thedudeabides,gameusedhoop,golfcollector,tigerdean,treetop,bkritz, CapeMOGuy,WeekendHacker,jeff8877,backbidder,Salinas,milbroco,bbuckner22,VitoCo1972,ddfamf,gemint,K,fatty macs,waltersobchak,dboneesq
-In 1992/93 (as a 14 year old), I got the brilliant idea of selling/trading all of my good cards (Cal Ripken rookie, Griffey, Steve Yzerman, etc)....about $2,000 worth of stuff, and essentially trading it in for Star cards (which were red hot at the time).
-Paid $350 for a 1984 star bird.
-Paid $450 for Olajuwon rookie bag.
-Paid $500 (cash) for an 86 Ewing bag.
LOL, I almost went further. The 85 Gatorade Barkley (sp) was one of the hottest cards in the hobby. I almost bought cards like that for $450 (now worth about $30).
Other purchases that come mind.
-Piecing together a '91 Leaf gold set in 1991 or 92 for $150. Pretty hard before the internet, just going to card shows and random purchases.
Other infamous purchases,
1991 OPC Premier baseball. Remember, it was going to be as hot as hockey OPC premier?
Back in the late 80s I bought a bunch of 1987 Kevin Elster and 1988 Kevin Mass cards. I think I still have most of them here somewhere.
James
I always bought and sold cards I enjoyed. Never took a beating, and have made a decent amount
of money over the years.
I did get stuck with a few fakes that set me back just a little, so if that counts as an "investment", then I guess that's it.
But I didn't invest in them, I just bought them because I liked them.
nothing !
<< <i>1991 OPC Premier baseball. Remember, it was going to be as hot as hockey OPC premier? >>
Boy, do I ever.
In the same era we bought about 8 or 9 1981 Topps Rickey Hendersons for $30 apiece and 7 or 8 '81 Fleer Hendersons for $20 each. Those were the days when second-year cards were supposedly the way to go after a player's rookie card peaked.
Others that come to mind--
-late 80s/early 90s errors-- '89 Murphy, '90 Donruss Ryans, '90 Ben McDonald, etc
-1990-91 SkyBox basketball boxes
-1990-91 Score hockey boxes
<< <i>
<< <i>1991 OPC Premier baseball. Remember, it was going to be as hot as hockey OPC premier? >>
Boy, do I ever.
In the same era we bought about 8 or 9 1981 Topps Rickey Hendersons for $30 apiece and 7 or 8 '81 Fleer Hendersons for $20 each. Those were the days when second-year cards were supposedly the way to go after a player's rookie card peaked.
Others that come to mind--
-late 80s/early 90s errors-- '89 Murphy, '90 Donruss Ryans, '90 Ben McDonald, etc
-1990-91 SkyBox basketball boxes
-1990-91 Score hockey boxes >>
What...a couple of hundred buck????.....try over 100 grand. chaz
<< <i>I traded half a dozen or so 1955 Topps All American cards including Grange and the 4 Horsemen for
a bunch of Cory Snyder, Eric Davis, Todd Worrell rookies in the late 80's. >>
ouch
<< <i>Piecing together a '91 Leaf gold set in 1991 or 92 for $150. Pretty hard before the internet, just going to card shows and random purchases.
Other infamous purchases,
1991 OPC Premier baseball. Remember, it was going to be as hot as hockey OPC premier? >>
Both of those sound familiar
and to relive old memories, I am currently working on an all-PSA 10 self submitted set of 91 leaf gold rookies
I think I am only 4 cards short now
I now buy boxes of the stuff for $8 apiece
Back in 91 they were as high as $8 a pack
I still think of the time in 1987 when I bought box after box of 1987 Topps baseball when the hobby shop had $5/box 1986 Fleer basketball and $5/box 1986 Topps hockey.
Looking at my collection now, I worry than in 10 years I will have lots of new stories to share but we shall see.
-Nathanael
-Remember the "card shark" ads in tuff stuff and a few other magazines? They had a picture of a shark at the top, this was 1991, 92, 93. I think they were from Texas.
They use to have 1990 Eric Dickersons for $40, Cody Risen SP's, etc. Remember the 1990 pro set Santa Clause cards? You could have blown a lot of money on those.
-Did anyone ever buy raw cards from Brigandi Coin Company in New York? They use to have a lot of raw 50's and 60's cards (before grading). I wonder how those turned out. For the time, they sounded pretty good. Like a "mint" 1952 Topps mays for $2,500.
The 91 leaf gold rookies were a cool set. You had the rookie craze + plus the fact that it was an insert (and inserts were hot), + leaf in its second year. People thought 91 would be as hot as 90. It had a good mix of rookies (todd van poppel?), and ryan, henderson. The gold leaf was very hard to find mint.
It would have taken years to get a mint set at the time, on a kids salary.
Two real boners that come to mind - now these were purchases and not investments.
1. 65T Steve Carlton - paid 500 bucks - and it turned out to be recolored - what the hell was I thinking? 1992. Even if not colored - there's nothing like buying high and watch it drop!
2. T3 Wallace - trimmed - again 1993 - didn't even notice the card was not even square! Paid 7 or 800$? This one was from Superior - which became Legacy and then Greg Bussineau went on his own.
I live in Orlando and Ryan Klesko hit a legendary bomb in Tinker Field that was easily a 500 foot ++++ homer. The stadium backs up to the Citrus Bowl which is a long vacant football stadium and the ball hit up at least five decks.
This blast was insane!!!
His card was the one that I liked the most and bought it for $3 and it surged to $15 and I was so pumped.
The card dealers were insistent these were the best cards to buy and of course we did. This was the first premium insert set I remember and I had the whole set and thought I was rich
The Ryan Klesko, Jeff Bagwell and a few others were key cards and of course the Nolan Ryan and Rickey Henderson.
I bet toilet paper is worth more at this point.
<< <i>I still think of the time in 1987 when I bought box after box of 1987 Topps baseball when the hobby shop had $5/box 1986 Fleer basketball and $5/box 1986 Topps hockey.Nathanael >>
HAHA ... I too passed up on those '86 Fleer Basketball cards. In 1988 I had the choice of paying $15.00 per BOX for 1986 Fleer Basketball or $20.00 per wax box/set for 1988 Donruss and Fleer Baseball. Hey, don't try to pull one over on me ... I was smart enough to spend about $2,000.00 on the Baseball cards. Still have about half of 'em in my basement.
Let's see ... if I put Two Grand into the basketball, I could have purchased 133 wax boxes. Even if they were Ten Grand each, that would be $1.3 MILLION! DAMN!
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Brian
1935 National Chicle
1961 Golden Press
1962 Bell Brand Dodgers
Top 200 cards in the hobby
Top 250 cards in the hobby
All time lakers
All time Dodgers
1957 Disney Characters
1965 Donruss Disneyland
1966 Get Smart
Brian
I lost heavily in the past few years on my search for an Andre The Giant in Mint condition and still don't have one!!
A few minutes into the show, my brother comes over with a huge smile and tells me he sold the 3 Jordans for $10. I got my Bo Jackson....with a dinged corner.....as mint ones were well above my $15 budget. We both left happy.
A few months later, the 1st Basketball Beckett comes out. I remember as vividly as if it happened yesterday.....my brother literally sobbing as he realized those Jordans were worth $50 EACH!
I too felt like an idiot.....I could have gotten $150 worth of Jordans for $15......instead of a dinged '87 Fleer Bo.
Now, im certain that this wasnt my "worst" sports card investment decision.....but its the one I recall most fondly.
i was going to list this as mine, but i paid $500. i too still have mine. i cannot bear to open it either.
in building my 1966 set i have seen many a card plummet, but that is the gamble you take when building a vintage set. wait for the price to drop and you may never see another copy soon, or overpay and hope another one does not appear any time soon.
i did get out of 1986 fleer basketball at the right time and helped recouped some losses.
overall i am sure i am behind but collecting for anything but fun is a risk. i used to go to las vegas a lot and i quit doing that when i started collecting. i would rather have a card that lost 40% than the empty pockets that i can back with on too may occasions.
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