You have a time machine.........

JHS5120

I'm bored at work and my mind started to wander..

You have a time machine and $5,000 in whatever period's currency may be. You can go back once and ONLY spend the money on sports items(including cards, event tickets, whatever).

Edited to add: You can take back as much as you can fit in your suitcase

What do you do?



I would take the time machine back to 1909 and buy up as many piedmont cigarette packs as I can. I'd bring them to a few games and see if I can get some crisp signatures. I think it would be a fun time.

or..

I would go back to 1952 and bribe someone from Topps to give me all those extra 1952 high number sheets they ended up dumping.

mesapsa

Buy as many 1986/87 Fleer Basketball cases as you can and put them away until 2020!!!!!!!!!

lawnmowerman

<< <i>I'm bored at work and my mind started to wander..

You have a time machine and $5,000 in whatever period's currency may be. You can go back once and ONLY spend the money on sports items(including cards, event tickets, whatever).

Edited to add: You can take back as much as you can fit in your suitcase

What do you do? >>



I'd bring more suitcases haha

digicat

When doing time-machine hypotheticals, you always have to take into account: what are you changing?


Obviously, someone who would have otherwise gotten a card will now NOT get a card. May be totally insignificant, but it could be huge.

Could lead to a chain reaction of events that lead up to your parents not getting together at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, and resulting in you deleting yourself from time.

This results in a universe destroying temporal paradox.

Or.... you may get a little frisky during your trip, and when you get back to the present, you may discover that you're your own grandfather!

Good job.

DanBessette

<< <i>Buy as many 1986/87 Fleer Basketball cases as you can and put them away until 2020!!!!!!!!! >>



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

itzagoner

go back to spring of '85 and put every last stinkin' penny on Villanova.

THEN, buy the '86 Fleer Basketball cases.

esquiresports

I think I'd go back to around 1923 and pick up as many game used/worn items from future HoF-ers as I could. There wasn't much demand for this stuff back then, so I think I could load up with bats and jerseys. A decent-sized trunk suitcase from back in the day would work. What an incredible display this would make!

Tabe

<< <i>Buy as many 1986/87 Fleer Basketball cases as you can and put them away until 2020!!!!!!!!! >>


Doubt you're getting very many into the suitcase

BobbyVCP

I would go straight to the printer of the product, either 1887 right to Goodwin
and get all the N172's or 1909 and load up on T206's. Get uncut sheet of
all.

miklia

go to the American Tobacco Company offices in 1909, get someone to backdoor me all the Wagners that they aren't using, and use the other $4995 to buy Curly Lambeau some uniforms and the right to the team.

lahmejoon

I'd go back to whatever date that the 206 Wagner could be purchased for $5,000 or less and bring it back.

edmundfitzgerald

Go back to 1980 and...........

1. Get tickets to the USA - Russia Olympic hockey game.

2. Buy a lot of 1979 opc wax hockey boxes left over from last year.

3. Buy a lot of 1980 Topps basketball boxes.

Buy as many Gretzky and Bird/Magic/Erving rookies in mint condition as I could.

digicat

Make sure you also get a safety deposit box to stash all of your stuff so it'll age properly by the time you get back to the present.

If you went back 100 years, got a bunch of game used equipment from that year, then brought it back to the present, it'd probably all get rejected as fakes, since it's physical age would now just be 1 year, instead of 100.

MrNearMint

Spend it all on unopened 52 Topps wax!

LarkinCollector

<< <i>go to the American Tobacco Company offices in 1909, get someone to backdoor me all the Wagners that they aren't using, and use the other $4995 to buy Curly Lambeau some uniforms and the right to the team. >>


Wouldn't that make the Wagner's just as common as all the others and lose significant value since there would be no rarity associated? I like the idea of buying one at $5000 after the rarity has been established.

mccardguy1

No doubt where I would go....

Five grand would go a long way here.

cpamike

I'd go back to the 1951 World Series and bet that the Yankees win in 6. While attending game 6, I'd offer to buy the game used uniforms of Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, and Mickey Mantle.

Once I collected my winnings, I'd visit with Sy Berger and put my winning into having two cases of every Topps sports product delivered to my prepaid warehouse. Then I would come home and rip open one case, but just the case.

digicat

<< <i>

<< <i>go to the American Tobacco Company offices in 1909, get someone to backdoor me all the Wagners that they aren't using, and use the other $4995 to buy Curly Lambeau some uniforms and the right to the team. >>


Wouldn't that make the Wagner's just as common as all the others and lose significant value since there would be no rarity associated? I like the idea of buying one at $5000 after the rarity has been established. >>



But what if rarity ha been established BECAUSE one of us went back in time and scooped up all the Wagners, and is now sitting on a box of them? Hmm....

lahmejoon

<< <i>Make sure you also get a safety deposit box to stash all of your stuff so it'll age properly by the time you get back to the present.

If you went back 100 years, got a bunch of game used equipment from that year, then brought it back to the present, it'd probably all get rejected as fakes, since it's physical age would now just be 1 year, instead of 100. >>


LOL - I too have given thought as to how I would stash stuff away so that it would age properly when you arrive back in present time and not be completely destroyed.

miklia

<< <i>

But what if rarity ha been established BECAUSE one of us went back in time and scooped up all the Wagners, and is now sitting on a box of them? Hmm.... >>



This. That said, since the other part of my fantasy buy would be worth about a billion bucks today, I think that I might not lose much sleep on the potential for the wagner to diminish in value.

Does this mean it's time for a Group Time Machine buy?

Stingray

<< <i>Buy as many 1986/87 Fleer Basketball cases as you can and put them away until 2020!!!!!!!!! >>



I'll take that one too!!

zep33

I'd go back to 1700 and invent every sport

lahmejoon

GRAYS....SPORTS....ALMANAC.

perkdog

<< <i>No doubt where I would go....

Five grand would go a long way here.

>>




This ^^^^^^^^^ would be my first choice I think, or possibly go back to 1934 and buy as many Goudy packs or better yet 1914 and buy up Cracker Jack cards?

billwaltonsbeard

<< <i>GRAYS....SPORTS....ALMANAC. >>



Why don't you make like a tree and get outta here!! Seriously though, that 52 Topps pic is still one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

cincyredlegs

How COOL would it be to go to a late 70's/early 80's National. Think of all the "Gems" you could have found. Also, I bet there were some nice wax available that hasn't seen the light of day for several decades.

I was lucky enough to starting going to shows as a kid in the early 80's and damn, I sure miss them. They were 1,000,000 times better than the early 90's card shows.

Mark

RipublicaninMass

'Buy' Manhattan island and lease it to the settlers

handyman

I'd go back to 1908 and pay Honus Wagner 4,900 to allow Sweet Caporal to keep him in the set.
Now everyone can afford this gem today. And have multiples.
I went back for everyone and not for myself.
You're welcome.
Oh but the extra Hundo Ill then buy all the Babe ruth rookies I can find.

TheCARDKid

I'd go back to 1933 and buy as many Goudey 1 cent packs as I could find. $5,000 divided by .01 cent each would be....500,000 packs!! 120 in a box? Something like 4,100 boxes.

That would be an unbelievable display.

Gemyanks10

I'd head back to the golden age of collecting....the magical year of 1988 and hoard every single Donruss, Score and Topps case I could possibly find.

bigdcards

<< <i>GRAYS....SPORTS....ALMANAC. >>


Lol


Id pick up a case of Mars Attacks.

PSASAP

I would shoot John Wilkes Booth before he got to Ford's Theater.

addicted2ebay

I'd go back and watch every game of the 1909 Detroit-Pittsburgh World Series and between games track down every pack of smokes I could get my hands on.

otwcards

Since $5K would go a long way. I'd go back to 1948 and load up on several boxes of Leaf Baseball, Leaf Football, find some Graziano '48 Leaf Boxing cards, hunt down some left over '33 Goudey and '35 Chicle Football wax and spend the balance of the remaining funds (probably most of it) on some minty fresh keys from the T206 Set (including Wagner which should've still been very inexpensive). And with the leftover change, I'd make certain to pick up a few packs of 1948 Bowman Baseball.

byronscott4ever

Easy...grab my sports almanac and go back 35 years and start betting. Of course, then start buying whatever looks good

ChiefsFan1st

<< <i>I'd head back to the golden age of collecting....the magical year of 1988 and hoard every single Donruss, Score and Topps case I could possibly find. >>



I was thinking this, only the opposite. Un-Buy all the junk wax I wasted my money on, then I would probably have closer
to $10,000 to spend on some older quality wax

MeteoriteGuy

Go back to September 11, 2001....create a bomb scare or something and prevent a small part of history. Break the cardinal time travel rule, and find myself, giving me the money, and advise, which would include among other things, the winter 2002 trip was not a good ideal, to buy a few Tom Brady Contenders, pick up more gold and silver then I was, and that I shouldn't waste money in a rocket project, competing against Paul Allen.

Allen

1909 to get the Wagners pulled from production, 1952 to offer Sy Berger $50 to let me pick through the 1952's Hi's that were ocean bound to pull the Mantles and Mathews (maybe others if there was room left in the suitcase).

digicat

<< <i>Break the cardinal time travel rule, and find myself >>



Time paradoxes are pretty serious folks, you create one and it's "so long universe."

CocoaBeachDodgers

If I had a time machine, I would go back to June 25th, 2014 at exactly 12:30AM PDT and not read this thread!

Fabfrank

I would go back to the early 1988. Went to a Walgreens with my cousin Rocco. We used to get a discount from the manager on Fleer and Donruss baseball cards. They would go for a premium over Topps and he would offer them to us at the same price. If we took bulk (which we usually did) he would give us another 30% discount. Well we went to see if the new baseball product came out and the manager was sweeping the floor in the candy aisle (thats where they stocked the cards). He was sweeping up packs of cards that had fallen off the shelves that he didn't want to re-stack and dumping them in the garbage. The boxes were on the top shelf and there was so many loose packs they kept sliding to the floor. The manager asked if we wanted to buy any boxes. My cousin said "Nah, we're here for baseball. We don't collect basketball"
That's when I learned about 86 Fleer basketball. He offered us the full boxes at $8 per box. Had some cases in the back room and said if we took it all, he would throw in all the loose packs for free. Rocco bought 2 packs for the fun of it, I bought nothing. I hate my cousin Rocco

72skywalker

If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious sh$%.

hammered

I'd make sure that my ex wife and I never met...

Baez578

For me it's Pittsburgh 55 to attend a Pirates home game and buy as many 55 packs as I can while I'm there