How many times has this happened to you?

[matty6]

You start talking about your baseball card hobby in mixed company or at a party and somebody tells you about the thousands of cards they have. Saying how they have all these hall of famers and they have rookies. Then they say they want you to look at them. So you go and look at them and they're 1990-1993 Fleer, Donruss and Topps. Ugh.

[3-2-count]

99.9% percent of the time. So true.

[vintagetoppsguy]

QUALIFY them. It's that simple. Ask them qualifying questions and you'll never run into this problem. I've heard of this happening to many people, but in my 26 years of collecting, I have never once had it happen to me.

[matty6]

I tried that. He told me had two Nolan Ryan rookies. I'm at a party at his house right now....I saw plenty of 1990-1993 shit but he "couldn't find" the Ryan rookies.

[z28jd]

Someone once told me they had an old collection with players like Yogi Berra in it so I went to their house to check it out and the cards were mostly from 1987-90 and the Berra was from a set made by Circle K around 1985. They had a handful of the 33 cards so I showed them that the set sold for $4 including shipping on ebay and those were for mint condition ones. They didn't believe me that the old looking Berra with dinged corners might be worth 50 cents if they could find the right buyer. So I told them the collection was worth about $20 and they said well then I should just throw them out so they don't take up room...they lived in a three story house and it was their vacation house at the shore and the cards fit in a shoebox. Really? Take up too much room?

[Wymers Auction]

I like when they want to give you the old. I have one million baseball cards even if you sold them for a penny a piece that is 10,000 dollars. I am only wanting half that. I am talking about collections that I would not give $75 for the whole truckload.

[ctownboy]

This is one of the things I am going to do when I win the lottery and am a multi-millionaire. I am going to first buy an industrial strength paper shredder. Then, I am going to go around and buy these overproduced cards and take them home and shred them. I am then going to donate the shredded cardboard to a local church for their paper drives.

This way, in maybe 20 years, I will have destroyed enough of these things that they MIGHT be worth something....

David

[sycks22]

I had one buddy told me he collected a lot in the '70's so I thought maybe something decent. He also had he had some nice graded cards, those turned out to be PSA 9 Griffey Donruss / Topps traded rookies that he picked up late one night on QVC. I felt bad giving him all back and telling them they're pretty much worthless so I shot him $40 and he was happy. There are some Ryan's / Brett's in there, but nothing over $10.

[novakjr]

My wife's stepfather did this to me once. Told me about all these cards he had and how much he thought they'd be worth someday. One holiday he pulled 'em out to show me. I really didn't have the heart to tell him that they were all worthless...Even by late 80's-early 90's standards, they were worthless. Even if I had told him they were worthless, he probably wouldn't have listened to me. So I just let him keep afloat in fantasy land...

[rp12367]

Havn't had it happen with cards. But with comics, we were at a party and my wife mentioned that I collected comics, I had/still have a ton of silver age. So a guy claimed he had big collection, went over there a few weeks later and he had a ton of late 80's, early-mid 90's junk, a key apperance here or there but overall not worth cover price.

[zljones]

I had the same thing happen with a girl at my work that collected when she was a kid. She hyped up like she had some badass cards, then she brought them to work and they were all 1992 Topps, Donruss and other crap that was not even in great condition, creases, rounded corners, etc.... Of course I told her those cards were worth squat.

The problem is, these people that think they have these great cards they collected in the late 80s early 90s think their stuff is still hot, even though they haven't watched the market in nearly 20 years. When they see my collection they are blown away, but realisically my collection is great but compared to many other collectors, my collection is no comparison. My most valuable card is worth $1,500.

I also noticed that many people say cards are not worth anything anymore, then I correct them saying only those newer cards from before or during the baseball card bubble are the ones worth squat, but prewar is going up.

[sandmountainslim]

I had a customer who owns alot of rental property tell me "You should SEE the cards I found in on of my renter houses a few years ago" then he started to tell me how old they were and how many baseball stars were represented. Of course I asked to see them. He brought the cards by and they were all mid 80's Topps and Fleer. I told him they didn't interest me and his reply was he will give them to his grandson because they will be worth a fortune in a few years.....I just let him think that.

[kcohen]

I worked part-time at a local card shop for a number of years. There was a period where several calls a week came in with people expressing interest in selling their "old" cards, especially with the downturn in the economy. Many knew that they weren't worth much and just wanted to make room in their houses or just get anything they could. However, there was a small segment who thought that the cards were going to put their kids through college with the proceeds.

If they were located any distance from the shop, we told them not to even bother since the proceeds, if any, wouldn't cover the gas for the trip. Oh well. Unlike some other investments or speculations, at least with this one you cannot lose more than 100%.

[teetwoohsix]

This is one of the things I am going to do when I win the lottery and am a multi-millionaire. I am going to first buy an industrial strength paper shredder. Then, I am going to go around and buy these overproduced cards and take them home and shred them. I am then going to donate the shredded cardboard to a local church for their paper drives.

This way, in maybe 20 years, I will have destroyed enough of these things that they MIGHT be worth something....

David

This is a wonderful idea !! :D

It made me laugh because I've had a stack of late 80's cards sitting on my dresser for around 3 weeks now- I put them there to remind myself to throw them away.........I don't know what my problem is, I just can't seem to do it :o

Sincerely, Clayton

[Tomman1961]

I had it happen once. A girl told me she had hundreds of old cards. Some even black and white. I'm hoping for Playballs. It was one of those Topps Turn Back the Clock Cards? She did not believe me when I too, told her the shoebox was worth $20. I recently took about 10,000 1987-1990 Topps commons to Salvation Army.

[steve B]

The flip side is a friend of mine teling me he wanted to give his nephew his cards but wanted me to check them out first in case any were worth anything. Total collection? 5 cards. 2 71s 2 72s and a Schmidt rookie. I think he still has the Schmidt, I should have told him to sell it then.

Steve B

[carrigansghost]

It happens, but I still will take a look. On the flip side, how many times has it turned out to be a good find? I'm still making a few bucks off a shoebox full of 50's cards that I bought in 1982 for $20.

Rawn

[sycks22]

The other thing is when people actually have some decent stuff they look in beckett and think they should get 60% of book even though there are 4 creases and the bottom left hand part of the card is missing. I had a guy today offer me his '52 Topps Bill Dickey ($1,800 high book) for $800 saying it was in good condition, but with creases. I told him that's a $200 card and he wasn't having it.

[David W]

I went to a local card show last Saturday, and one weekend warrior still had boxes of individual cards of Sosa/McGwire/Thomas/Gwynn/et al, not to mention the Kenny Lofton rookies and Juan Guzman rookies in his dollar boxes.

That was it, everything he had was from about 1983 to 1993.

90 Donruss Sosa's were 50% off his "list" price of $12.00.

I wondered why he was wasting a perfectly good Saturday.

[pariah1107]

This story isn't about disappointment... In the early 80s, I used to buy 70's football/baseball cards at a local bookstore (Old Fool's) for 1 penny apiece. Compiled an entire '76 football set that way, without the Payton Rookie. Found my first "vintage" card there, not pre-war but a 1960 Hoyt Wilhelm was a nice find for a penny.

Fast forward to 2008, went to a yard sale sale in town where there were boxes and boxes of books. The owner of Old Fool's was selling his collection. I asked him about all the cards he used to have, and he pointed me to some shelves in the back of his garage "You can have them all for $50". There must have been 40 file boxes of cards! I told him my wife would kill me if I brought them all home regardless of the price.

So I sat down, and rifled through some boxes to check cards and condition, just like when I was young. Felt that joy of collecting/searching again, and said to myself, this is too much fun... paid him the $50 and loaded up my truck. Got home and hid them in the rafters of our garage. Over the past few years I've gone out to "work on the car" just to spread all those cards on the hood and search through them. The best $50 I ever spent.

[kllrbee]

Yeah, people tell me all the time about their big collection of cards in their shoebox. "I had a alot of cards when I was a kid, but I grew out of it" is usually what they say.
Sometimes for fun, I tell them Im looking for 1990 Upper Deck cards only.....Haha. "Ill check to see what I have" they say proudly....like they are really helping me out and supporting my worthless hobby....hahaha.

Fwiw, I still have all my Topps sets from the 80's and 90's (actually I have all sets from 1969-present). I know they arent worth sqaut, but i dont care. I didnt pay much for them when I collected them back in the day. I consider them part of my baseball card collecting history and that is important to me.
I remember how excited I used to get to find an Olympic Mcgwire, or Bonds, or even some guys that no one cared about but me, like Thad Bosley (great pinch hitter). Its all part of the hobby....it shouldnt be all about money right?

[skelly]

One thing I do see a lot with less experienced collectors is they think the "rookie all star cards" ( 1964 rose, 1969 bench ) are the true rookie cards. I'll also say this, I remember how hot some of those mid-seventies cards were back when I first collected in the 80's. Now, really anything newer than 1975 is pretty dead, unless your talking a mint 75 brett, etc...

[Jantz]

I've had this happen to me about a dozen times now. As recent as two weeks ago, but on two occasions it was worth it.

I was having a casual conversation one time with my ex's cousin and he mentioned that he needed money for college. He told me that he had no interest anymore in his baseball cards and would be willing to part them. I went with the assumption that they were going to be 80s & 90s cards because of his age. Turns out that he had some nice rookie cards from the 70s & 80s. We both walked away happy with the sale.

The other occasion was when one of my father's co-workers ( & friend ) asked if I would take a look at some baseball cards and give him a dollar value for all of them. So I get the cards from my father & a few days later call him up with a price. My father then informs me that it was all a joke and the co-worker wanted me to have all of the cards. There were around 100 cards from 1940 Play Ball to 1968 Topps.



Jantz

[jefferyepayne]

Same here. Usually looking at people's "collections" has been a waste of time but I did snag some good cards on three different occasions.

A co-worker of my father-in-law had some cards he wanted to get rid of. They were late 50's / early 60's with a 1960 Yogi Berra and a few other HOF'ers as well.

A friend sold me his cards from the '60s that included a Brian Piccolo rookie card for 1 cent each in the 80's.

A friend of my father-in-law wanted to get rid of his kids old cards that included a Terry Bradshaw rookie.

The best card find story I've experienced first hand came from an older co-worker about ten years ago. When his mother died they cleaned out her attic. He didn't know it but she had taken all of his late 40's / early 50's baseball cards and put them in a large tupperware container where they had sat for 50 years. They were all in NM condition and he had a lot of stars/HOFers. He brought them to work and showed them to me and, as much as I wanted those cards, knew I could never give him a fair offer for them as I didn't have the $$$ at the time. He ended up selling them through an auction and made more money from those cards than the family got for ALL of the rest of his mother's possessions. What a great Mom!

jeff

[theseeker]

I'm sure it's only me, but I not only buy the "shinny junk," I wish it had come along a generation sooner so that my childhood era cards could be had at easily affordable prices and also be of FAR superior quality.
It's a sad irony that at the hobbies height of popularity (late eighties thru early nineties), an investment mentality prevailed and most child-aged collectors were planning on financing their college education with the cards that are now refurred to as "worthless, shinny junk." Equally ironic is how the suddenly huge industry of manufacturers and dealers act of fueling this investment hype with promo cards, endless insert sets, premium grade, and super premium grade cards sealed then own fate when the bubble inevitably burst. With all the cases of cards being bought and the proliferation of supplies to protect these over-produced "investments," I'm still shocked at how many adults fell for this obviously manipulated market by all involved, including MLB with it's ridiculously liberal use of licensing.
No doubt in my mind that it is the disappointment with how these "shinny cards" did as investments that is the root cause of all the present resentment towards them.
Is it any wonder that the hobby is now largely viewed as a baby boomers activity? I fall into the tail end of that and I am part of the last generation where it was a true collector's activity. As a result, I see the cards from this era for what they really are.......plentiful, affordable, and vastly superior products to anything that came before them. Yet, perhaps because they were the first cards to be targeted to an adult market, utterly lacking in any visceral attachment.
As to the owners who still beleive there is any value in them.........................

[bbcard1]

Happens absolutely all the time. The way I look at it is that the folks invited me into their home and it's not their fault they are ignorant of what they have. It make the good ones finds more interesting though.

[HexsHeroes]

.

. . . imagine how impressed (or stunned !!!) all those folks you talked to at social events (who claim to have vintage cards) will be when they come to your home and see what amazing and vintage cards truly are. YOU might find yourself (and your collection) the topic of conversation at later gatherings.

[7nohitter]

I have a neighbor across the street who is 97, his wife is 95. They are both in incredible health...I've always fantasized about the day the topic of BB cards comes up and he asks me if i'd be interested in seeing his cards from the '20's and earlier!!!!! Just a pipe dream

[Kalineman]

We've all heard the stories about people at parties having old cards and then seeing all those 90s cards. But for every 19 times that happens, the 20th time is gold. So I never say no. Two years ago a guy at a party was telling me about old cards he had in a plastic bag. So the next day I drove out to take a look at them and BAM, a bag full of Kahns baseball cards from the 60s.

[dstraate]

And on a brighter note, you don't have to worry about reprints when collecting 80s junk.

[edhans]

I may have one of the saddest stories of all time. I Had an uncle who was born in 1902. After has passed away in the early 90's, my aunt asked me to look at some baseball cards he had put away. Visions of caramel and tobacco cards danced through my head for a week before I was able to get to her house. You might imagine how crestfallen I was when she brought out a 1989 Topps factory set, sorted by team and in ex condition.

[tachyonbb]

For my 20th anniversary at work I received a T206 Mordecai Brown card. Right after that one of the other teachers told me she had a bunch of "little cards" that her brother had given her when he moved.

I went with high expectations to look at her collection. Turned out to be 2002 Topps T206 cards. She did have one of the "buy back" real T206's and a Joe Mauer autograph card but the rest was a disappointment.

[Iwantmorecards77]

I've had people tell me they have old cards stashed away - or cards their grandfather had - but I never get to see them.

As for me - I have a small vintage collection. Some 19th century...early 1900's...a couple cards from the 30's and 40's...and some key rookies from the 50's. It's small...I'm on a budget...but I enjoy them.

As for newer stuff...I have some...I buy a couple boxes a year, but not much. Mostly hockey for the newer stuff though.

...and for the 1980's and early 1990's "junk"....I like it. Overproduced? Sure. But I grew up in that era. I collect all the key rookie cards from the 80's and 90's. If anyone has any Henderson, Ripken, Sandberg, Boggs, Gwynn, Strawberry, Mattingly, Clemens, Puckett, Griffey, Jeter, Piazza and Rivera junk rookies they wanna' throw out - send them this way! lol

Just last year, I sold off much of my modern baseball "inserts" and "game-used" cards on ebay. Made several hundred dollars - put it all towards 1980's-1990's rookie cards. Why? Because I wanted to! I find them more important to me (more valuable to me) than the modern shiny inserts, parallels, and game-used cards I had (not that I hate them - I just wanted something else!) That's what's great about a hobby.

[MikeGarcia]

What is your mailing address and how big is your basement ?

[Jewish-collector]

A stupid question, but what the hell, I'll ask it anyway: At what year & up, are the cards worthless junk 1986 ? 1987 ? How about early 1980's ?

[ScottFandango]

earliest 80's have value in high end condition, but only for the rookie cards

85 86 87 it gets dicey...the 90's were the WORST and after that is all junk until 2001

89 UD griffey in mint is worth $$

Mattingly 84D Gem Mint rookies are worth $500

[4815162342]

1980 is considered the beginning of mass production, I think. But 1986+ make good kindling.

[skelly]

I actually hashed out this topic with a local dealer at a show a few months back. He comes across 3200 & 5000 count boxes and throws them out at a dime a piece. You'll find semi-stars, team cards, etc... Once in a while a real gem. Basically he said that for baseball its really 1978 and earlier that will get a look. For whatever reason, he felt that football went to about 1982, and that generally his football 10 cent boxes from the 70's get a little more juice than the baseball that he throws out. He said that for both sports he really can't do anything with stuff from about 83 & up. Certainly this is just the opinion of one dealer, but figured I'd share.