Don't you hate estate sales that......

ElToroLoco · April 2, 2010 1:17PM

post on Craiglist they have old baseball cards,some from the 60's.....and the first thing you see when you walk in the door is a stack of 1990 Topps and Pro Set....and a couple(yes two) poor 60's and 70's cards......AND when you ask if they have more(hoping for vintage), they break out the shoe box of wood grain 1987 Topps..........45 minutes of driving.....there.........the next estate sale on the route had antiques.....old furniture......old postcards....buffalo nickels(looking good for vintage!)..and an album full of OLD 1988 Topps stickers...yeah!!!....

Sabrgeek · April 2, 2010 1:24PM

There was an estate sale here in Dallas I went to that the lady running it had five boxes of the "overproduced crap" era.

She had each box out at $40; I offered $20 for everything and was overpaying at that level but just wanted to have fun. Needless to say; the look on the estate's lady face was priceless and I left without cards.

Rich

waxpack · April 2, 2010 1:31PM

I hate all estate listings.

Nothing but BS.

bobbyw8469 · April 2, 2010 1:49PM

I do too....my definition of vintage is different than most of those estate peoples...however, if I should kick the bucket, everyone would have a field day with my stuff, because I DO have raw vintage, 50's and a few older, just sitting in boxes.....

ElToroLoco · April 2, 2010 2:43PM

<< I do too....my definition of vintage is different than most of those estate peoples...however, if I should kick the bucket, everyone would have a field day with my stuff, because I DO have raw vintage, 50's and a few older, just sitting in boxes..... >>

You don't happen to live in California or Missouri, do you? I can wait....

I'd hate to see my PSA 10 Favre RC AU go for $50....I'll make sure my boys know what to auction......

Kneel · April 2, 2010 2:45PM

Did you ask them if they already sold their vintage cards?

italianstallionyankees · April 6, 2010 4:46AM

<< 

<< I do too....my definition of vintage is different than most of those estate peoples...however, if I should kick the bucket, everyone would have a field day with my stuff, because I DO have raw vintage, 50's and a few older, just sitting in boxes..... >>

You don't happen to live in California or Missouri, do you? I can wait....

I'd hate to see my PSA 10 Favre RC AU go for $50....I'll make sure my boys know what to auction...... >>

lol Teach them how to buy and sell on ebay

Ryan

larryallen73 · April 6, 2010 4:59AM

People who don't collect have no clue what this crap is worth. I am well connected with a couple of estate liquidators. They have called me a few times with previews and they always want FULL "mint" price guide value for a bunch of beat up cards. They have no clue and you only offend when you explain that the price guide might say the card is worth $500 in mint but this example is worth $25 (at most). They think you are pulling a fast one on them.

italianstallionyankees · April 6, 2010 5:04AM

Larry I feel ya... This seems always the case and it is very hard to get deals on cards because of this .... It might help a bit when you show them a Beckett graded card investor magazine that has a price guide for a Vg/ex up to mint prices. This will help explain the situation a bit more!

Ryan

matthewbschultz83 · April 6, 2010 5:13AM

<< There was an estate sale here in Dallas I went to that the lady running it had five boxes of the "overproduced crap" era.

She had each box out at $40; I offered $20 for everything and was overpaying at that level but just wanted to have fun. Needless to say; the look on the estate's lady face was priceless and I left without cards.

Rich >>

You live in Dallas and you're a Pujols fan? Shame on you.

72skywalker · April 6, 2010 6:14AM

I went to an estate sale once and there were piles of 1987 and 1988 tops cards all broken down into team sets. He probable had 3 sets of each year. Each team set was fifty cents. I grabbed 2 1987 Pirates team sets with Barry Bonds in them figuring everything else was garbage. The Barry Bonds cards are pretty much garbage but I figure it was worth $1.00 for 2 rookie cards of his.

italianstallionyankees · April 6, 2010 9:02AM

I went to a yard sale last october and a dude had over 300,000 cards or more in monster boxes ( rough estimate) cards in his garage all in order with 1981 Topps to maybe 1992 Topps and Donruss , fleer, and late scores all in separate boxes... All star cards and major rookies were pulled with the semi stars and common players all in order. I picked up a tony llama belt buckle and two 5,000 count monster boxes full of 1981 Topps baseball with the ryans and hendersons pulled out I paid $20 bucks for it all. I then listed the belt buckle on ebay the following week and got $24 for it lol The dude said he has well over 500,000 cards and I think that he may be close to a million total lol

The guy was cool and really was organized, he enjoyed selling cards to kids and even went as far as making team sets of every team from the topps run of 1981-1992 and was selling them all day long for $0.50 or under to kids. He said he will be having another sell pretty soon. This was a pretty cool experience and never went to a yard sale like this before he was pretty good in his prices and all boxes were marked under $20 bucks.

Ryan

Sabrgeek · April 6, 2010 9:06AM

<< 

<< There was an estate sale here in Dallas I went to that the lady running it had five boxes of the "overproduced crap" era.

She had each box out at $40; I offered $20 for everything and was overpaying at that level but just wanted to have fun. Needless to say; the look on the estate's lady face was priceless and I left without cards.

Rich >>

You live in Dallas and you're a Pujols fan? Shame on you. >>

Actually I loved the avatar -- my two teams are the Yankees and the Astros (and I do go to about 6 Rough Riders games a year) so that's why I have a Pujols avatar. Get me a Rangers avatar and I'll switch

Rich

matthewbschultz83 · April 6, 2010 10:15AM

<< 

<< 

<< There was an estate sale here in Dallas I went to that the lady running it had five boxes of the "overproduced crap" era.

She had each box out at $40; I offered $20 for everything and was overpaying at that level but just wanted to have fun. Needless to say; the look on the estate's lady face was priceless and I left without cards.

Rich >>

You live in Dallas and you're a Pujols fan? Shame on you. >>

Actually I loved the avatar -- my two teams are the Yankees and the Astros (and I do go to about 6 Rough Riders games a year) so that's why I have a Pujols avatar. Get me a Rangers avatar and I'll switch

Rich >>

I was just giving you a hard time....I don't like helping out Dis-astros or Yankees fans.

TheHun · April 6, 2010 12:04PM

I was traveling through one of the hokeyest little towns in florida - I stopped by a ramshackle parking lot where a few people were selling junk out of their cards.

I found 3 1960's Tonka trucks and ....

a 1905 pewter golf tankard won by a prominent Philadelphia golfer. It also had the medalion of one of the oldest golf clubs in America - Merion Cricket Club.

I will probably put that in one of the big sports auctions.

Ya never know what you'll find and where.

mtcards · April 6, 2010 3:26PM

I went to an estate auction that had listed "1970 Topps Baseball Cards" as part of the auction list in the local newspaper. Now, dont get me wrong, I didnt expect 1970 Topps, but figured it was worth a shot. I got there and there was 15, yes FIFTEEEN!! 1979 Topps baseball cards that if graded would be at best a PSA 1..yes thats ONE!!. To make things funnier, there were no stars in that 15 all commons. And the final hammer price of this beautiful "collection" was $17.50. YES, thats SEVENTEEN DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS. I wanted to say something so bad, but figured why ruin the guy who bought it's day, he already paid $17.49 too much anyway

stevek · April 6, 2010 3:53PM

<< I went to an estate auction that had listed "1970 Topps Baseball Cards" as part of the auction list in the local newspaper. Now, dont get me wrong, I didnt expect 1970 Topps, but figured it was worth a shot. I got there and there was 15, yes FIFTEEEN!! 1979 Topps baseball cards that if graded would be at best a PSA 1..yes thats ONE!!. To make things funnier, there were no stars in that 15 all commons. And the final hammer price of this beautiful "collection" was $17.50. YES, thats SEVENTEEN DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS. I wanted to say something so bad, but figured why ruin the guy who bought it's day, he already paid $17.49 too much anyway >>

It was likely a shill who bought it - most if not all of these type of auctions have a number of shills in the audience. Technically, an auctioneer doesn't even need a shill - they can create their own bids just by making up the bids as if they saw a bid, just to generate a herd mentality in the crowd, to suck in one real bid to sell the item.

onefasttalon · April 6, 2010 11:10PM

Hmmmm.... well, I can't promise much at MY eventual estate auction. BUT.... if anyone goes grave digging and un-earth's me,
they'll be PO'd when they find the collection I'll be resting with!

stevek · April 6, 2010 11:27PM

<< Hmmmm.... well, I can't promise much at MY eventual estate auction. BUT.... if anyone goes grave digging and un-earth's me,
they'll be PO'd when they find the collection I'll be resting with! >>

I agree with that - I'm taking my cards with me...I figure maybe 50 million years from my burial, some anthropologist will discover my fossilized bones along with my fossilized PSA cards - my bones they'll leave there as worthless, but the cards they'll take from the gravesite, probably list them on ebay. LOL

alnavman · April 7, 2010 11:24PM

for the most part I can agree with all the stories....overpriced 80's and 90 cards at garage sales...in fact I am going to one tomorrow to see what is available....however I did one time find 70 thru 76 topps cards at a sale in a two row card box that I bought for $20. most of the cards were beat but at least the stars were there in beat condition also.....made my money back just selling the star cards for a buck a piece....probably still have the box in my basement somewhere buried with the beat up commons still in it...

RipublicaninMass · April 8, 2010 12:33AM

I waited in line with the "true pickers" at 630 for a 7 am opening that stated "baseball cards and sports mem." I just missed a BC Eagles auto'd team football from Fluties' pass, Vinitari auto'd cleats, but I did manage to get a bunch of wax. The Vintari looked good, but I really have no business with auto'd cleats etc. Also there were some auto'd balls (mostly red sox) but no prices and people where just grabbing stuff to figure it out later. I did grab a box of newer cards, but they wanted like 20 bucks and kept sayin it had the good cards, mostly shiny stuff so I passed and bought

UNopened
07 topps hobby box
08 topps heritage hobby box
08 topps chrome hobby box
92 leaf set series 2 unopened box
Scarface 25th anniv edition 2 cd set with lobby cards

all for 50 bucks. It gave me a buzz for a few weeks and I went to some more yard sales, etc. Nothing panned out and I am back to my negative feelings about the "finds"..lol

72skywalker · April 8, 2010 12:34AM

I hit the jackpot at one tag sale. This old lady had a box of old baseball cards for $4.00. There were probably 500 cards in it. I almost passed on thinking it was just junk but as i opened it they were all from the 50's and 60's. I pulled 2 Pete Rose Rookie cards, the complete 1959 Fleer Ted Willaims set, a 1969 Topps nolan Ryan, The copmplete set of 1964 Topps coins, 5 different Mantle cards and while the rest were minor stars and commons they were all were in excellent condition. i will try to scan some pictures when i get home from work.

DeutscherGeist · April 8, 2010 12:50AM

Garage sales, swap meets, flea markets....

I see a box of baseball cards, but they are all beat up 80s stuff. The seller sees me looking at them and tells me he has more and can offer a good deal. In my mind, I am thinking: Are you kidding me?

I can't explain to them that its all worthless because they will get offended or think I am pulling a fast one.

mtcards · April 8, 2010 1:54AM

<< 

<< I went to an estate auction that had listed "1970 Topps Baseball Cards" as part of the auction list in the local newspaper. Now, dont get me wrong, I didnt expect 1970 Topps, but figured it was worth a shot. I got there and there was 15, yes FIFTEEEN!! 1979 Topps baseball cards that if graded would be at best a PSA 1..yes thats ONE!!. To make things funnier, there were no stars in that 15 all commons. And the final hammer price of this beautiful "collection" was $17.50. YES, thats SEVENTEEN DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS. I wanted to say something so bad, but figured why ruin the guy who bought it's day, he already paid $17.49 too much anyway >>

It was likely a shill who bought it - most if not all of these type of auctions have a number of shills in the audience. Technically, an auctioneer doesn't even need a shill - they can create their own bids just by making up the bids as if they saw a bid, just to generate a herd mentality in the crowd, to suck in one real bid to sell the item. >>

No, no shill, there were two guys bidding on it. It was one of the last things being sold, there were about 8 of us standing around a table with the auctioneer and the two guys bidding were bidding against each other without the help of the auctioneer at all. I've been to auctions and know that the shilling goes on, but in this case it was just two stupid people.

eagles33 · April 8, 2010 5:39AM

about 15 years ago.. my cousin got a huge box full of 1986 topps football for 5 bucks.. i was so jealous at the time.. he pulled 3 rice rookies.. and completed 1 set. I actually traded a 89 score aikman for one of the rice rookies.. its the only one i own today.. and it graded a psa 8..

Don't you hate estate sales that......

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