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05-20-2004, 09:47 AM

Posted By: J Levine  Hello all. Had an interesting and exciting experience this past weekend in Las Vegas and it actually occured with baseball cards. I was in town for a meeting of fellow collectors from a group I belong to. Saturday morning, most of the group went golfing, I however don't golf, so I went to a local Mall card show. Very little in the way of Vintage cards (only one card pre-1950). As I was looking at some '61 Fleer (that I later bought at a decent price), an older man brought out a binder and tried to sell the dealer some cards. The dealer said he might be intersted but went back to talking to his friend and essentially ignored the older gentleman and his cards. I soon found out why. The older man turned to me and asked if I was interested. I said I would take a look. In the front of the binder was some newer sets that included things like a Donruss coke set, etc. I said I was mostly interested in old cards. He said to turn towards the back and that the newer stuff, he collected for his favorite current players. The guy had collected cards for nearly 70 years!! He had given most away or sold some but I flip to the back and see a bunch of pages of 1941 Playballs. 8 pages full. As I am talking to him about Forbes field and growing up in Pittsburgh I finally ask how much. He says how much do you have. I tell him I can only give him three hundred out of my atm but the cards are probably worth thousands. He said he thought three hundred was fair since he paid a penny a pack in 1941 for them! He also liked the fact that I am a teacher and that I collect for the fun, not the profit. I ended up buying a complete set in vg+ condition of 1941 Playball for $300!! Yes, the whole set including the Williams (vg-ex), Dimaggio (vg) and Reese (vg+). I never imagined I would own a '41 Playball set in this kind of condition. Heck, I never imagined I would own a '41 Playball set! So, my question to the gang is, what is your best purchase ever? Still flying high knowing MY 1941 Playball set resides in my safety deposit box. -Joshua

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05-20-2004, 09:53 AM

Posted By: HalleygatorI once made $100 profit by selling a 1941 Play Ball REPRINT set (worn and aged so as to appear authentic) to an older gentlemen from Pittsburgh who was moving to Las Vegas. I threw in a Donruss Coke set for good measure. Best money I ever made off of a $5 reprint set. <img src="/images/wink.gif" height=14 width=14>

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05-20-2004, 11:02 AM

Posted By: hankronI won at minimum bid (even though my max was much higher) an extremley rare and desirable modern photograph by a noted photographer because the seller mispelled the name and, apparently, no else noticed it. After I got the photo, I asked the seller how he aquired it as I'd never seen another offered for sale and the seller specialized in antique furnature. He said the photographer skipped the country leaving behind his stuff in his unpaid for appartment. To recoup the back rent, the photographer's effects were auctioned off. The seller frequented these types of auctions and won the lot.

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05-20-2004, 11:20 AM

Posted By: hankronFrom a merely return per buck, I once bought a lot of 30 identifical Phantom World Series three-ticket panels in a Mastro auction several years back. I put the first one on eBay and it sold for about 25% more than I paid for the entire lot! I think I made a thousands percent return on that those tickets.

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05-20-2004, 12:06 PM

Posted By: NickinvegasJ, I have been either setting up or attending that crappy show for the last 14 years and I have come home virtually empty handed every time. But, I still go every time! The show you went to was the exception as I was on vacation for the first time in three years. One of the other dealers in town called me about the now infamous "Play Ball Buy" and I told him he was full of Crapola! Guess not. So, the long and the short of it is...I earned that set! Please send it to my home in Vegas. <img src="/images/wink.gif" height=14 width=14> Nick

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05-20-2004, 12:32 PM

Posted By: J LevineNick, I rarely find anything reasonable at a show (esp. a mall show) but found some bargains other than that playball set. I got a few '55 Redmans (incl. Spahn w/ Tab), '63 Exhibit Stat back, a couple of '71 supers and a few Topps cards from the '50s for $25. I also managed a few Bell Brand and Post for about $3 each. Being from L.A. where Bell Brands are super expensive I was very happy with that. Plus they were very nice condition. Keep the hope alive Nick...you are in a prime area for retirees looking to sell their childhood collections... As an aside, Haley...funny story...The first thing I thought was that the set was reprinted. But his story, his age, and the cards themselves all screamed orginal. I saw some other stuff he had incl. some '50s and '60s programs, some early baseball digests, etc. He even had an article from his hometown paper from the late forties talking about him collecting cards. Very interesting man. The cards are original (I had several dealers there look at them, and several advanced collectors as well before I even left Vegas). Not to mention I do own several '41 Playballs already and am pretty confident in my spotting fakes as well. Joshua

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05-20-2004, 12:36 PM

Posted By: HalleygatorI know you know that I was just kidding ... because I am so jealous of your luck. Nice find!

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05-20-2004, 12:59 PM

Posted By: BenCongratulations Joshua on the magnificent 'find'. For those of you who were reading the board a few years ago, you might remember the best deal I ever had. I managed to "BIN" a decent w514 Joe Jackson on ebay for a mere $150. The card is long gone now, but it was quite a thrill at the time.

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05-20-2004, 01:24 PM

Posted By: warshawlawSee, good stuff still surfaces... I'm not even going to count the good stuff I got for nothing in the 1970's... My best deal was in around 2000. I met a "vest-pocket" dealer at a local show in LA. He had a box of pristine early 1950's cards and a Beckett's vintage magazine and he was adamant on full low book for his stuff. I bought a few for all the cash I had, and got his #. Over the next months I gradually bought all the really nice 1954 Topps cards he had. I happily paid the low book because the cards were all coming back 8 and 9 from PSA (the only game in town at the time). Formed the bedrock of my 1954 Topps set. Another deal I really loved was when PSA screwed up a massive order of mine (returned it late) and had to comp me like 50 or 60 free submissions (they messed up a lot of orders and soon changed their turn time guarantee). Not exactly a deal but I just loved sticking it to 'em.

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05-20-2004, 01:47 PM

Posted By: john(z28jd)Best deal i ever got was getting a bat used in the original Babe Ruth movie for free.I got it from a relative of William Bendix who my dad was doing work for.They saw i had cards,and a ball,glove,hat and thought i might like it,and of course like every 8 year old kid,Babe Ruth was one of my favorite players. If i only knew now what i knew then i shouldve been greedy and asked for more memorabilia from that movie if she had any.Ah to be young and innocent,of course i was happy with just having the bat.Thank the baseball gods i never used it to hit with!

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05-20-2004, 01:57 PM

Posted By: leonI will just reiterate (cut and paste) for those that weren't around here 6-8 months ago.....this was, and will probably be my best, find: I believe I have seen the last small group of inherited cards from the gentleman in Northern California. It was a very informative situation in that I got to see a nice PCL collection untainted by modern collectors/dealers. It looks like almost all of the cards have been put into a scrapbook at one time as a majority exhibit strong corners and back damage, though many backs were spared too....... It was neat to see how they were really collected and in what type of numbers, relative to each other. I believe the only cards I missed out on were all 159 of the Colgans, Red Borders, and Tin Tops (if any), and about 5-7 M101-1/2's....Nothing I could do...they just got sold.......The total for all of the cards I got was about 732'ish. I will probably only sell these through ebay or to a large auction house. I am keeping everything I have an interest in, as utmost and foremost, I am still a collector. Including what I had posted before the grand total breakout is/was (several cards have been sold already to happy board/ebay members): D310 (12) w/weaver fr....overall gd-vg D311 (61) all different pr-ex E90-1 (18) w/Jackson (pr-sold), Joss..overall pr-fr E90-2 (1) Wagner - nice SGC 20....2 moderate creases E90-3 (2) common and pr- E101 (9) w/Evers, Jennings pr-fr....major back damage.. E136 Zeenut '11 (113) w/Weaver in fr...others vg'ish E136 Zeenut '12 (36) gd-vg+/ex E136 HR Kisses (2) gd E136 Zeenut '13 (6) all with coupon E136 Zeenut '14 (23) 6 with coupon 17 without coupon E137 Zeenut '15 (67) 24 with coupon w/McMullen 43 w/o coup.w/Risberg, Lefty Williams E137 Zeenut '16 (1) with coupon E224 Texas Tommy (5) w/Marsans, w/uncatalogued E-Unc Big Eater (3) w/ horizontal ex, 1 in gd-vg, 1 pr H-unc Western Playground (40) complete set vg+ T4 Obak- (2) still unidentified but not Weaver. T206 Old Mill- (23) w/Cobb, Evers, Chance, Willis.pr-fr T206 Sweet Caporal ?(1) Cobb 350-460 series...pr. T212-1 Obak (47) nice mix of framed/frameless T212-2 Obak (116) about 25 different slogans.. pr-ex-mt T212-3 Obak (131) w/Weaver pr-nrmt/mt T217 Mono (8) 3 that don't have back damage......pr-gd T222 Fatima- (7) all common, 1 high number in fr, 2 cut in half, pr.... wish I could find more of these "finds"...but will just go back to whittling away like I have been for the past several years...... regards all

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05-20-2004, 01:59 PM

Posted By: jay behrensI didn't get to buy it, but the coolest thing I ever saw was shown to me by a lady that was interested in how much cabinet photo of Kid Nicohols was worth. I was a great portrait picture of him in uniform with a love letter written on the back and signed by Nichols. The lady said that her great great grandmother used to date him. Best actual pick up 6 Firesides, Plank, Baker, Bender, Collins, Mack and Barry, for $100 back in the early 80s. Boy, do I regret selling those cards. At the same show I picked up a run of Minnepolis Miller and St Paul Saints team photos from 1936-1960 that had Ted Williams, Ray Gandridge, Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda and Yaz on the teams for $20 and a Cobb decal bat for $50 that I immdeately turned around and sold for $250 before leaving the show. And Ben, that Jackson was supposed to be mine :-p Jay

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05-20-2004, 02:41 PM

Posted By: Andy BaranI bought my 1869 Peck & Snyder Reds card a couple of years ago when the card was offered on ebay, and didn't sell. The seller put a $20K starting bid on the item, and got no bids. I negotiated with him after the auction ended, and secured the card for about 25% of his original asking price. My card is very similar to the P&S that just sold for $16K in the Robert Edward Auction, with the following exceptions: The RE card had clipped corners - mine doesn't The RE card had a crease - mine doesn't The RE card was blank backed - mine has Peck & Snyder advertising The RE card had nice photo quality - mine has exceptional photo quality, most likely the best of any P&S out there If I ever sell this card, I'm guessing that I will do okay on the transaction <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14> I'll have to if I hope to make up for all of the cards that I have overpaid for!

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05-20-2004, 04:49 PM

Posted By: t-206collectorA couple of years ago, I bought my first graded T-206 cards in a lot on ebay for $611. In that lot, I received 11 cards, including a PSA 6 Chase Pink portrait, PSA 5 Waddell Portrait, PSA 5 Waddell Throwing, PSA 4 Clarke Portrait, PSA 3 Griffith Portrait, as well as PSA 5's and 4's of six common players (Jones, Meyers, Seymour, etc.). While I didn't exactly make a killing, it was still my best vintage card deal, with the value of the Chase and Waddell's covering the cost of the other 8 cards. $500 for a PSA 5 Mathewson white cap and a PSA 4 Bender portrait wasn't a bad deal either.

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05-20-2004, 05:05 PM

Posted By: tbobwas voted "best smile of the week" by me. Funny <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14>

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05-20-2004, 05:46 PM

Posted By: BillAbout 25 years ago, an antique dealer that I knew found 4 old baseball cards in a book and wondered if I would be interested. He showed them to me, but I did not know anything about them. The cards had no creases, but the corners looked like they were trimmed a little. I offered him $10 each and he accepted. After doing some research, I found out that they were Kalamazoo Bats. I sold them about 10 years later for $300 each. I didn't feel bad about paying only $40 for the cards, because I figured he had been cheating old ladies out of their priceless antiques for years. My passion is T206's. My best find was on ebay about 5 years ago. I won a lot of all 48 Southern Leaguers ($1825). All the cards looked pretty nice in the scans, but you still wonder about them being trimmed. When I received them I couldn't believe how nice they were. I decided to send them into SGC to be graded. When I got the cards back from SGC there was 1-88, 4-86, 1-84, 7-80, 15-70, 12-60. Not a bad deal. Check out my website to see some of my T206's. <a href="http://www.freewebs.com/bb5714/index.htm" target=_new>http://www.freewebs.com/bb5714/index.htm</a>

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05-20-2004, 07:30 PM

Posted By: Julie Vognarbackwards "J" on the back, cost me 4 dollars. The lady asked me "What do you want HIM for?" I said "We Chicagoans are all quite proud of our accomplishments." A bit lame. Obviously, this happened years ago! I've made a lot of trades lately..I'll let you know in 5 years how they came out!

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05-20-2004, 07:43 PM

Posted By: hrbakerSeveral years ago I paid $600 for an E95 Cobb that graded out as a PSA7 and $80 for an E96 Lajoie that pulled an SGC84. Of course nothing could match the "steal" I got on some 50 count lots of Gregg Jefferies rookies in the late 80's. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14>

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05-20-2004, 08:04 PM

Posted By: danThis is a great score! congrats! one thing seems odd though, you told him you could only give him $300 but that they were worth THOUSANDS? And then he took the $300 ???? Seems strange for a gentleman who carrys the binder to a show looking to sell, "why take thousands when I can score this $300". Oh well, great for you!

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05-20-2004, 09:35 PM

Posted By: brian pDang! I was in Vegas last weekend. I guess instead of losing money at the craps table I should have been checking out the local crappy card show. I think it is cool that this older gentleman wanted to reward a fellow collector--when you get to a certain age, what does money mean? This gentleman spotted someone with a passion for the hobby, and gladly was willing to pass along the torch. If the recipient had instead been someone with a greedy glint in his eye, my guess is that he would have not received such a bargain. I had a similiar experience with an older gentleman who was collecting the 1925 Zeenut set because, as a kid, he had attended PCL games in LA. I had previously helped him obtain one of the few cards he needed to complete the set, and lo and behold, when we met again a couple of years later he offered me any card I wanted from the set at a fraction of its normal price, because he felt it was time to pass along his stash and understood and appreciated the dedication of an obviously dedicated fellow collector. I was able to help out my collection and a couple of other collectors as well. Brian

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05-20-2004, 09:48 PM

Posted By: PaulI picked up the Bill McGowan postcard, issued by his umpiring school, for $9.99, along with the other two cards from the set. This was on ebay, and no one else bid on the set. A few months later, the McGowan alone sold for $500 on ebay, which is the price now listed in the Standard Catalog. I've never seen a third McGowan, and have never seen any of the other two cards from the set again at all. Since I'm trying to collect one card of every HOFer, this deal is particularly special to me.

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05-20-2004, 10:23 PM

Posted By: Dunerthere was a whole thread about this '41 purchase on the registry board. needless to say, it didnt even take a week for it to become legendary. congratulations.

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05-21-2004, 08:32 AM

Posted By: Mike ErnstMy purchase 1100 T-205's and T-206's in 1971, when I had to force the owner (who had had them since he was a kid in 1908-1912) to take $20 still is my best purchase. A year later had opportunity to purchase Plow's Candy lot for very reasonable, but didn't know what they were worth, and didn't have any money (in last year of putting myself through 9 years of college) and passed on them. Also have a wife who still says "I told you to" when I passed on a $600 T-206 Wagner (good condition) because in 1973 that was two months' salary. Win a few,lose a few!

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05-21-2004, 02:44 PM

Posted By: warshawlawI found a bunch of 1950-56 Callahon HOFers in a $1 box at a show. I bought them all for $20. They were so pretty that I sent 13 of them to SGC for grading. Got (5) 8's (including Grove, Speaker, Young), (4) 8.5's and (4) 9's (Terry, Sisler, Waner, Frisch). Around 1992 I bought a collection of 1970 boxing football and hockey from the original owner. He opened the packs as a kid, put them away, and forgot about them for 20 years. I could tell he opened one box of basketball 2nd series, 4 boxes of football and 3 boxes of hockey, because he came over to my house with the cards in some of the original boxes. He was so thrilled with the $1500 I offered him that he threw in the original boxes (those unfortunately bit it in the Northridge earthquake in '94 when my entertainment center collapsed on them). One of my best lucky finds was a misdescribed auction lot from a major house. They offered a huge collection of boxing cards as group of assorted cards. The counts of the assorted lots from each of the sets led me to suspect that they were in fact complete sets, so I bought the lot. They were full sets, allright, and many of the T cards graded very high too (several 6, 7, 7.5 from SGC). Best of all, the 1948 Leaf Sharkey was actually a 1932 US Caramel worth like ten times as much. Recently, I bought a big collection of exhibit boxing cards including many 1930's rarities for $5 a card. Worth at least five times as much. Not quite a card but still a great deal: I found an auction with an unintelligible description of the item and no photo but it sounded like it was a vintage Benny Leonard autographed PC. I contacted the seller and found out what it was, lodged a bid at the last minute with a sniper service and walked off with a $300 autographed RPPC for $50.

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05-21-2004, 03:31 PM

Posted By: BOTNThis was 1998. I had a partner at the time and we came to a table of a dealer he knew from Northern California. He had 3 showcases set up. In two of them were more than 100 different Mantle cards, including various Stahl Meyers, a Dan Dee, a Berk Ross, a 59 Bazooka and other regional issues. We asked to see the Dan Dee and proceeded to ask how much. He quoted us a price, which was very fair. I then jokingly said how much for both showcases? He thought for a moment and said $2,000. I turned to my partner in disbelief. The dealer said you have 60 seconds to decide and then the deal is off. We assumed that the cards were either altered or stolen. Neither was the case. We said we would do it as I reached into my pocket to hand him the cash. The dealer then said I have more. Take these cards for another $300. It was another stack of 25 or so cards and included some late 60's Mantles and almost every leader card Mantle was on. By the time we were done we had walked away with virtually every Mantle card that had been issued with the exception of the 1951 Bowman and 1952 Topps. The majority of the 125+ cards were at least NM, with the exception of the Stahl Meyers and the 59 Bazooka. We graded most of the cards, which were 7's and 8's. The dealer apparently had purchased the collection at a local garage sale and had sold the 52 Topps and 51 Bowman Mantle cards and was well out of the deal and wanted to throw us a bone. Still exciting to think back on it.

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05-21-2004, 04:06 PM

Posted By: tomboy25ill make this short im on disability and can only afford $50 to $100 a month on pre war cards but i have been able to get a few .i collect m-116 .last night i saw a 1911 sporting life fred payne psa 7 buy now for $115 thats about half book and this morning while i was in my neighbor hood park i found a wallet with $100. in it it could of meant that i got a $200 card for free but after holding that wallet for 3 hours i decided that i can wait till next time

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05-21-2004, 04:36 PM

Posted By: warshawlawI finally got my dang pre-WWI wagner. A Pinkerton PC of the type we discussed in a prior thread, under $175. I'm so happy I can finally stop chasing a honus card for my Hofers collection. Trying to justify that 1936 R313 as my wagner card was getting really old...

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05-21-2004, 05:28 PM

Posted By: AndrewGot it for $4 from a shop owner I did not like, it later graded a PSA 5. Certainly not even close to a "find", but I keep that card just for that reason.

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05-21-2004, 09:03 PM

Posted By: 823dekIn a James Maxwell auction... who knows backs...uh Gandil w/ a Red Hindu back solid vgx 28$ and a Mcgraw portrait cap vg Lenox back 39$. Sadly for Mr. Maxwell(great guy) MISLABLED them as Gandil being piedmont and the McGraw as Sweet Cap ! I called him when I recieved them and spoke of his error and of course , he was in shock period ! Traded the Gandil to Dave Foreman at the last Cleveland show with a Joe Wood nm 1915 cj and a Walter Johnson cj for 2 LaJoies t-3's and a Cy Young Turkey red and 150.00 for me! Another one over well over a decade ago...like Maxwell's ,Sportworld out of Boston , 2 Cobbs an e95 in vgex and a Cobb bat off good 290.00 Thanks from Dan Koteles