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Posted By: David Smith

Ok, let's see what I can remember before I get tooo depressed.

1) Late 1970's at the Louisville flea market. Dealer had some 1960's and early 1970's star cards for sale. I looked at them and he asked if I wanted to see some older cards. Sure. So he brought out a folder that he kept post cards in to sell. Inside was the post cards AND 11 1933 Goudey's including a Ruth, Gehrig and another HOF, I think Foxx, but not sure. The Goudeys were in probably VG shape but for a 12 year-old... I asked the price but he really didn't want to sell just the old cards. He did say he would sell all of his cards, about 10,000 of the 1960's and early 1970's plus the Goudeys for $1,000. My dad said absolutely not. End of story.

2) Same flea market a few years later, probably 1984 or 1985. I was at the flea market with a friend of mine and was at a dealer's table when an old woman came up and asked if the dealer was interested in old cards. He said yes and she brought out this cardboard box about 5 inches tall and 5 inches wide. The box was full of small, rectangular cards in two stackes. I don't know if they were tobacco, candy or caramel cards but they were all from the early 1900's. I don't know if the dealer bought them or not because my friend drove that day, a Saturday, and he wanted to get back home soon because he had a date that night, ugh.

3) About 10 years ago in a small Indiana town. A person listed sports cards for sale in a newspaper and my Grandmother called and told me about them. I went to see them but they were early 1980's stuff. He did, however, know of somebody who had OLD cards. I called and went to see the guy later that day. The man and his family were living in a rented house that dated from the 1800's and it was full of old furniture and other items. The man said that when his 96 year-old Grandmother had died years earlier, she left him and his brothers the house and contents. Out in back of her old house was s hed with a leaking roof. Inside the shed was a 3 foot tall mound of wet paper items. He had no idea what was in there but he and his brothers shoveled the stuff out and took it to the dump. Back in the shed, there was stuff on the shelves which remained dry. In a box on one of those shelves he found over 1,100 tobacco cards from the 1800's. That night, he brought the box out and showed me. There were fish, bird, parasol drill, World's Smokers, World's Dudes and hold to light playing cards. There were also Indians, actresses and sports cards; boxers (John L Sullivan), wrestlers, oarsmen, billiards players, shooters (Annie Oakley) and three baseball players-Clarkson, Keefe and Carruthers (N28). I didn't know if they were originals or reprints, so I told a collector/slash dealer in Indianapolis about them. The c/d bought everything except for 100+ Indian cards (the seller liked the Old West and Native American items) for $3,500. He ended up getting a couple complete sets of the birds and the fish series plus some near sets of the Dudes, Smokers and Parasol Drill series. He ended up selling everything for a profit AND he kept the 3 baseball player cards for his collection. The 3 had minor flaking along the edges and the corners were a little dinged.

There, three horror stories that I can recall for right now. Oops, just remembered another one.

4) Another small town in Indiana, about 1996. I had put an ad in the paper looking for old ball cards and 2 different people called me. I drove to the small town and one young guy had Red Man baseball cards from the 1950's that his dad had given him and 20+ W502 (he didn't know what they were and I didn't either until later when I looked them up in the big Krause price guide) including the Ruth, Gehrig and a couple of other HOF'ers (no Cobb) that his Grandfather had given him. The guy wanted more than book price for the Redman cards but only $400 for the older cards. I passed at that time because I still wanted to see what the other person had (15 B18 blankets which I bought) and also because I didn't know what the cards were. Later, after I found out the little cards were W502's, the young guy didn't want to sell them anymore. I guess he thought I had found out what they were and thought I was going to rip him off. Oh well.