Your most expensive accident

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Posted By: <b>George Dreher</b><p>The dumbest thing I ever did was to receive an S74 colored silk of Walter Johnson in the mail from a seller and then I pulled on the top of it to remove it from the top loader it was sent in. Tore it completely in half. I screamed out loud.

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Posted By: <b>Bob</b><p>George- I feel your pain. I once bought an exmt looking raw E94 Evers card. I wanted to take it out of the hard holder and place it in a sheet and in the course of doing so "snagged" the corner and a large fleck of color disappeared. Arrrggghhhh! From exmt to g/vg in a heartbeat. It may me wonder if the card had perhaps been doctored in some way that made the fleck come off so easily, but since the seller was reputable and I was all thumbs in doing this and not careful, I chalked it up to my ineptitude in card removal and I sold it for a loss. This should not be confused with another raw E94 (Jennings) I bought several years ago, again from a reputable seller, which "exploded" when I removed it from the holder. This time I strongly suspected something fishy but it now resides in an SGC authentic slab and it was a tough color variation so I kept it.<br />I now am very, very careful when removing caramel cards from hard holders and have them slabbed immediately.<br />Those E94s are fairly fragile for some reason.<br />tbob

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Posted By: <b>Joann</b><p>No losses, but one close call with a spilled glass of OJ one morning with a few cards spread on the kitchen counter. <br /><br />I removed them all in about 5-10 seconds, and thought later it was interesting how I was just instantly prioritizing about 6 or 8 cards. Based on some combination of proximity to the OJ, slab v top loader, and value of the card I just snapped them up from different spots in seconds instead of just starting at one end and going to the other. <br /><br />Joann<br /><br />Oh - tbob. Awhile ago I sent six cards to PSA and they called me to report that one of the cards was damaged - part of the print on the front came off. Interesting, because when I talked to the PSA rep he used that exact term "exploded". He said it just sort of exploded and some of the front image came off. I bet it was a similar condition.

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Posted By: <b>Anthony</b><p>I once cracked out a Tango Eggs Bescher and scraped the back in the process. Took an 8oc to a 5. Could've been worse.<br /> I've had 2 cards get bent during grading- a CJ Lajoie and a '58 Bell Brand Cimoli. That always bites. I"m not sure card savers are the best thing for raw cards on thin stock.

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Posted By: <b>peter ullman</b><p>I received this jack johnson card a few months ago, opened the envelope with a pair of scissors...thereby de-cornering the top right. A $100 f-up...I was most pissed because the card is kinda scarce and "was" in great shape! Now the corner is taped on!!!<br /><br />pete ullman in mn<br /><br /><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i176/ullmandds/febnewcards.jpg">

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Posted By: <b>Mike</b><p>I have two<br /><br />1) Along with old cardboard, I collect original newsphotos, and wire photos (huge difference by the way). I purchased an original "negative" from SC gaynor auctions. It was Foxx in a close up in full swing at the plate. Gorgeous. I put it some where for safe keeping. Well, 5 or 6 years later, I cannot locate it anywhere. I have tore my office apart too many times to recall. I fear it is lost forever. I'm dumb.<br /><br />2) I purchased a rare poster of Foxx.( uncataloged) It arrived safely. When I opened the package, it was encased in a large plastic sleeve. when I was sliding it out of the sleeve, some scotch tape, which it had been sealed in, came out of my hand, got on the poster, and ripped the crap out of it, as I was sliding it out. Bummer. I just stood there in shock. I have hidden it away ever since, not wanting to be reminded of my brainlessness. I have never seen another like it. I'm dumb<br /><br />One more. A friend was attempting to split apart a slab which contained a 51 Mantle bowman. He thought he would resubmit, as he felt it was unfairly graded. The box cutter he was gently useing, slipped between the two sides and cut the card in half. bummer. he's dumb<br /><br />

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Posted By: <b>Bruce MacPherson</b><p>Mine is more an act that I regret. I took a Ramly out of an SGC holder (I think it was a 50) and the card came apart when I was putting in a card saver. The card was literally in two pieces. So if anyone is looking for an elusive blank back or blank front Ramly, I now have one of each:)

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Posted By: <b>boxingcardman</b><p>Not easy to do, but I am proud to say I did it. The same set in similar condition sold last year for $2,000. Maybe it'll turn up one of these days...

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Posted By: <b>Bob</b><p>I've got an SGC 50 Fatima Chicago White Sox team card which I have lost and can not be found. Amazing how something like that can just disappear <img src="/images/sad.gif" height=14 width=14>

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Posted By: <b>Anonymous</b><p>I squeezed a zit with a wagner.

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Posted By: <b>Judge Dred (Fred)</b><p>One time I received an OJ and it fell into my waste basket. I couldn't find it for a while then it dawned on me to look in the waste basket. Thank goodness, I was about to empty it...<br /><br />Another time I received a nice T222 and I cracked a corner off when I was removing it from the holder. So much for the EX/MT card, it turned into a G/VG card in an instant...<br /><br />

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Posted By: <b>Steve M.</b><p>Put one of my McGuire N172's into one of those little T206 size hard top loaders. Tried to get it out and pulled the corner completly off. I have since thrown all of those holders into the circular file.

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Posted By: <b>Bill Todd</b><p>I put a small group of near-mint 52 Topps into penny sleeves. I knew at the time they were a tight fit, but it wasn't until I went to take them out later that I saw I had put a light crease in every one.<br /><br />Sadder but wiser,<br /><br />Bill

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Posted By: <b>Rich Klein</b><p>I once destroyed a very tough 1989 Topps Traded Tiffany Ken Griffey Jr card while putting it in a card holder. Went from $50 to $5 just like that<br /><br />

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Posted By: <b>Ron</b><p>George,<br />I have been collecting silks for awhile now. And when you told your story<br />I had to laugh. I thought I was the only one that had done it. So now i cut them out of what ever holder they come in.(very carefully). <br><br><img src="http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o105/rsst206/front.jpg"> <img src="http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o105/rsst206/meyers.jpg">

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Posted By: <b>only_child</b><p>hummm...where to start there have been far too MANY.<br /><br />My worst; I completely dissolved a 48 Ted Williams. Just vaporized.

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Posted By: <b>Dave</b><p>I know this isn't card related, but I once stuck an envelope with $120 into my shredder. It took me an hour to pick out all of the pieces and another 2 hours to tape it together into this condition.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1174433719.JPG">

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Posted By: <b>Mike</b><p>Along with the previously mentioned lost negative, and ripped poster, about 12 or 13 years ago, I was in an antique book store in DT Minneapolis. the store had just purchased a ton of "attic" things. Tons of original photos, and art, prints, of course books. One neat thing I bought for 50.00 and just recently sold for $650.00 was an original signed picture of Frank Gotch. The worlds wrestling champion back in the teens or so. Back when wrestling was real. Anyway...I also found an original print of a woman holding a baseball and a baseball bat. It was from France, and it was from 1858. I have misplaced it and have been looking for it for all these years. When I inquired to the book store owner how much did he want for the "baseball" picture? He asked "What baseball Picture?" I pointed at it? And he kind of smirked and then sort of chuckled. "thats Not baseball, they didn't play baseball in the 1850's". I heard him and a co worker laugh at my rediculous question. When I walked out of there, I was the one smiling. Now I wish I could find it and resume smiling.I would love to show everyone here. Colored, and beautiful. Like Tommy Boy said "God, I'm an idiot".

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Posted By: <b>Bob Pomilla</b><p>Once cracked out of a PSA holder, a t207 Bergen in "good" condition. Stupidly let the card slip before I had completely separated the halves of the slab, which caught the card, leaving a nice crease. More painful, because the card was very obviously much better than a good, until I got through with it.<br /><br />Great question, but why do I start gnashing my teeth everytime I return to this thread?

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Posted By: <b>Silver King</b><p>I took my Silver King cabinet card out of the sleeve in order to take a picture of it with my digital camera. While trying to get the image just right, I dropped the camera and the corner of the camera landed right in the middle of the photo and dented it. When you flip the card over it looks like it almost went all the way through but not quite. Damn, now I scan my cards. <br><br>robert shaw

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Posted By: <b>Rob Dewolf</b><p>Back in the day (God, I sound like I'm 100 years old) when screw-down holders were a new-fangled thing (around the late '70s or early '80s), they were akin to trying to put two pieces of glass together and expecting a tight fit. You had to make sure the holes were aligned the same way as when you removed the two pieces, and you ususally had to use the same screws in the sames holes they previously were in, or else you had little chance of getting the thing back together and having it look decent, let along while securing your card.<br /><br />One day after school I was trying to negotiate this work of the devil while an ex-mt 1915 CJ of Vin Campbell was between the sheets, so to speak. As I went to insert the first screw, Campbell made his break to an edge of the holder. With impeccable timing rarely seen on even the best executed hit-and-run, the screw put the neatest little hole in the upper-right corner of the fiery red background, just as Campbell was completing his ill-fated slide. (Now I feel like I'm writing an auction catalog.)

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Posted By: <b>Dylan</b><p>I had a NM Kiner Berk Ross a few months ago I put between cardboard to ship out. Well I threw the cardboard away(w/card inside) in one of my hurried office cleanings... didnt realize it until it was too late, smooth!

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Posted By: <b>Judson Hamlin</b><p>I bought a nice E90 Oakes from Mike Wheat after he picked up Lew's inventory and when the card showed up, I moved the card around a bit and the top got stuck to a tiny part of the bar code strip Mike uses to seal the card in. The best I can say is that the glove sticking through the top of the frame wasn't involved in the subsequent paper loss...

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Posted By: <b>Ed</b><p>Trusting an art dealer to frame T3s. They agreed not to use any adhesives. Thirty years later, I open to find black tape with a rubber cement like adhesive on top of them. It was only on a small portion of the top of the card, but it made me want to puke. I changed my login name to Merkle for this reason.

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Posted By: <b>T E</b><p>Leaving my window unlocked back in about 1980 in NYC. It was off the fire escape, meaning to get into window, you had to step out into space onto ledge, 4 stories. Oops, junkies will do anything for a fix.<br /><br />About 125 (loaded w HOFs) T206s went out of my apartment that day along with strong group of Bowman 1948 RCs

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Posted By: <b>Steve Clark</b><p>Not an accident in the tradition sense but a costly mistake. I was at the Cincinnati show in 1988 and went to talk with Lew Lipset about a change of address for my Old Judge subscription. It was at the time I was getting very interested in 19th century cards and he had a binder with a few pages of Allen&Ginters. I have seen pictures of these before and they were what I were specifically interested in because I thought they were the most beautiful cards created (I still believe that). I didn't have a lot of money with me but I did have about $400 which could have bought four of them. I looked at them but I had more immediate goals at the time. I turned away from his table and bought $200 worth of 1988 Topps Big boxes and a few other new boxes and sets. I wished I hadn't done that.

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Posted By: <b>George Dreher</b><p>I feel a little sick. I just now accidentally put a crease through a photo signed by Johnny Weissmuller. Dropped a heavy box on it and didn't realize it was sitting there.<br /><br />Two other accidents that this brings to mind. Years ago, I accidentally bent a mint unused ticket to the Dempsey vs. Willard fight trying to fit it into a plastic sleeve. And once accidentally got a piece of tape stuck to a near mint early 1940s Captain Marvel comic book. A piece of the cover came off with the tape.<br /><br />I handle so many collectibles during the course of a day, I guess this stuff is bound to happen, but it still gives me a headache and an upset stomach. My wife had to massage my shoulders to keep me from going berserk.<br /><br />&lt;edited for spelling&gt;

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Posted By: <b>David Vargha</b><p><font color=blue>Double Post</font><br /><br />DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: <b>David Vargha</b><p><font color=blue>I had an uncut sheet of 1949 Bowmans that I kept stored between two pieces of cardboard for "safekeeping". To this day, all I can guess about what happened to them is that they went in the recycle bin by accident as I haven't seen them since.</font><br><br>DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: <b>George Dreher</b><p>Can definitely empathize with you. That Bowman sheet would have looked nice in a big frame on the wall.

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Posted By: <b>sean</b><p>I bought a Johnny evers t3 on ebay. As I opened the package I realized he put the card between two peices of cardboard and taped the cardboard together with electric tape. Apparently the card got pushed to the side in deliverey. When I went to peel the tape off to get to the card, I realized the tape was ON THE CARD. Made about a 2 inch peel on the corner. I contacted the seller and said:<br />Congratulations. thanks to your careless packaging, you just ripped a 95 year old card. BRILLIANT! He did give me some money back on the card but I sold it cause I couldnt bare to see what had happened.<br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t85/milkit1/evers.jpg">

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Posted By: <b>George Dreher</b><p>I know just how you feel......gets you right in the pit of the stomach. I got a headache almost immediately after seeing what I'd done to the Weissmuller photo.

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Posted By: <b>Max Weder</b><p>I can't easily find an internet link, and it's a little OT, but I read in the paper this morning that a janitorial firm accidently tossed into the garbage of $1.5 million of Beatles memorabila. I understand there is a lawsuit...<br /><br />Max

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Posted By: <b>George Dreher</b><p>You would expect someone to steal it rather than be careless enough to throw the memorabilia away. The janitorial firm probably employed illegal aliens who didn't know the Beatles from Adam Ant.

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Posted By: <b>Bob Pomilla</b><p>Re the packaging job on the T3 Evers, I've had 1 or 2 accidents due to the lousy packaging job done by sellers. Not necessarily "expensive" but avoidable if the seller had done the packing correctly. Had one card come sandwiched between two stapled together pieces of cardboard. Naively assumed the card would be in a top loader, so pulled apart the cardboards to find the sport only placed the card in a penny wrapper. Wound up with a nifty crease. I could have been more careful, but geez, you can't spring for a top loader?

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Posted By: <b>Jeff Mohler</b><p>I read this thread the other day and vowed to be more careful in opening up my cards. Today I received a really nice 1921 exhibit packed in a penny sleeve between two pieces of cardboard which pretty closely matched the dimensions of the card. <br /><br />You guessed it. I put a tiny slice in the card with my knife!!! GRRRRRRR. I figure it went from an SGC 60 to a 40. Fortunately I got a good deal on the card so I think the value is still there. On the other hand, I like nice cards and hate to see something like this happen.<br /><br />Jeff