Long time lurker finally joined. Howdy.
 

Just taking a chance to introduce myself (hope this is the right place) My name is Scott Russell and I own Aquarian Sports Cards (on ebay as aquarian1) Anyway, I have used this forum as a reference a lot, especially when it comes to researching relative scarceness of t205 backs! I'm not a hobby heavyweight who can just buy until the cows come home but I do treat people fairly.

My big projects right now are finishing a t220 silver border PSA set and a 1939 Play Ball PSA set.

I'm also interested in trying to find a member here. I met him at the last Valley Forge show and he was wearing a Net54 t-shirt which got us talking. If this sounds familiar drop me a line, I have a question!

Thanks,

Scott

Welcome to the board, Scott!

Plenty of knowledge here, and some thought provoking content (especially of late)

Post away!

Welcome to the fray, Scott. We have put out around 300-400 T shirts so finding the person wearing one could be difficult. Good luck and happy collecting.

Hey Scott - nice to see you here!

I have made numerous successful purchases from Scott on eBay over the past couple years and he has become my favorite eBay seller to buy from.

HEY! Didn't know you were a member here! You coming to the show at the Lancaster Host Resort on the 25th?

Welcome aboard, Scott.

Hey Scott, it's Luke and we chat at some of the local shows and auctions in the Lehigh Valley and Hershey area. Welcome aboard and enjoy the wealth of knowledge!

OK so apparently I already know a bunch of people here! Should have joined long ago.

Welcome to the forum. This is a fun group.

Nice name Scott :D and welcome to the board.

Always good to have another Scott !!!!!!!

T220 Silver Boarders are a fun but tough set. Had a few in my "boxing" collecting days....

Got a Coburn without man (don't think it exists) or a Donovan (oh my !!) ????!!!!!

Fun stuff, Scott :rolleyes:

Scott, I wasn't aware of the show on the 25th until you just mentioned it. I think I can make that one, I will let you know for sure.

Hi Scott! Where do you stand on card soaking, Probstein auctions, SGC vs PSA, HOF RC price manipulation and a guy named Adrian? Just kidding! Enjoy

I prefer getting soaked myself. Seriously it's a tough question. It's not like any schmoe can just start soaking cards and voila they suddenly have a bunch of PSA 9's. Is it different than using pantyhose to remove a wax stain? I've done that. Does that make me evil for "doctoring" a card? If it's undetectable to the major grading companies aren't we pissing up a rope even worrying about it? If it is detectable then they shouldn't be grading them. Is that ambiguous enough of an answer?

Hmm, I am acquaintances with Rick's dad and I've done business with him once (selling autographs which I know very little about) he treated me fairly, albeit it was an incredibly slow process and communications were not his strong suit. If there's an issue with him in general I am unaware of it, but my lurking these boards was usually researching something specific, not just general reading on what's what and who's who in the business. Frankly I am more curious about PWCC as it dumbfounds me how they can sell graded cards on ebay for more than anyone else selling the same exact cards in the exact same grade. It just makes no sense. But I certainly can't accuse them of anything. OK I'm jealous, I admit it.

At the level I am at it's a bit of a moot point. I started in grading as a PSA guy so through inertia I have stayed there. I, like everyone else in the world, am occasionally disappointed by a grade, but I've never had any qualms. I know there are people who want to storm the castle over the Wagner, but in that rarefied air it doesn't affect me directly (OK big things affect EVERYONE in the hobby I know) and I get better prices for their stuff over SGC stuff.

That being said, I have a ton of respect for SGC and trust their material as well, and happily deal in it. They have been courting me at some of the shows I've been doing, offering me pre-grading and better rates, so I could well become a convert.

Again, kind of out of my rent district, the market will self-correct and I hope that the manipulators can't do enough damage to the hobby to permanently affect things. Luckily most of it seems tied to high grade flips and I tend to buy raw when I'm buying for resale and get it graded myself. Haven't had a bunch of people refusing to sell to me recently because I'm too cheap so I guess I'm OK. I probably benefited from it recently buying a raw Banks rookie, getting a PSA 5.5 on it (brutal grade lol, thought 6 at the worst outside shot at a 7, dead center which is so hard to find on this card. ) and getting double SMR. Of course that was still a good chunk less than PWCC got on a 5 so...

Dantley was seriously underrated, and if he had been on a championship team and not bounced around so much we'd be talking about him in the same breath as Dr J.

Now you tell me...

And way to dive right in. Seems like you are learning to swim quickly. It is somewhat familiar waters to you, so it seems.

Hi Scott, welcome.

Donato

One thing to mention while welcoming one of our newest members (hi Scott), it is always refreshing when someone has their name by their posts to start with on the forum. I had contacted Scott about it and he was quite receptive..." my name....no problem". Good attitude, imo. It's one thing that separates this forum from many others, imo. Thanks again....and welcome once more, Scott.

I guess a little background on me is pertinent also. I started setting up at shows at the ripe old age of 14 back in the late 80's. Like all the other idiots I was basically cracking wax and selling the cards, and thought I was a genius.

I was lucky in two ways. First I was always drawn to older stuff, so while I was cracking 1987 Topps and 1989 Donruss I was using the profits to buy 1960's, which for me seemed ancient.

Second the collapse coincided with my college years. My last big unopened purchase was 1989 Upper Deck. I did the occasional show home from college in the summers, I remember the 1990 Fleer Kevin Maas craze lol, but I wasn't rolling tons of money into the stuff, and I was blowing out the Cansecos, Bo Jacksons, Greg Jeffries, and all the other cards we speculated on, so I pretty much escaped unscathed.

For a long time I did the occasional show including the Philly show when it was in Reading (where I was living after attending college there) but I was a pretty early ebay guy.

Ebay did some great stuff for me. selling at a better margin than at a show, but also introducing me to pre war cards, which you almost never saw at small shows. It demystified them and made me want to learn more about them. From there my fate was sealed. I remained an occasional seller on ebay almost strictly in auction format until about 3 years ago.

I decided to give a store a try, and once again had my eyes opened. Why someone is willing to pay more for my store listing than they're willing to bid on my auction listing is beyond me, but it has definitely been my experience.

Recently I left my job and got into selling full-time. This includes doing more shows. It's cool that some of the people who already knew me on here are from shows and some are from ebay, but generally they have the same things to say about me!

Anyway I'm honest to a fault, and that occasionally rubs people the wrong way. But it's cool after years of using net54 as a research reference to actually delve into a community that seems to be as passionate and knowledgeable about cards as anyone could wish.

Hope to meet as many of you as possible on the journey!