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Old 04-29-2022, 07:29 AM
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ParisianJohn ParisianJohn is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Boston, MA, USA
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Not at any garage sales, but at some estate sales.

I went to one about a decade ago where they had a table with about 100 raw T206s that were selling for half the going market rate. There were a few HOFs, though not big names like Johnson, Young, Cobb, etc. I imagine some family member of the recently deceased homeowner knew enough to pull any pricier cards/bigger names (had their been any) and left the rest to be unloaded. I did pick up a decent condition Clark Griffith.

I also went to another estate sale with my wife and infant daughter where someone had gotten there a bit before we arrived and bought a ball autographed by the entire 1952 Yankees. Ouch! That one still stings to have missed out on, and we didn't get there when it first opened because our daughter was extra fussy that morning. Those kids will cost you!

At one garage sale we went to that was hosted by a woman in her mid-30s a few blocks from us, I saw she had a framed photograph of the Boston Beaneaters from 1892. In the picture there were like five Hall of Famers (Kelly, Duffy, Nichols, Clarkson, McCarthy) and a few others seated at a table. Whoa.

This woman ignored me repeatedly at her own garage sale when I tried to ask her about it, which isn't the best tactic for a salesperson. My wife (who was born in Japan but lived most of her life in the US) and I had arrived within 30 seconds of each other and she didn't know we were together and she was all over my wife and complimenting her clothing in an almost Asian fetishist way. It was really weird...

Anyway! Eventually she begrudgingly spoke to me and told me it was an original. I asked if I could please open the back of the frame to verify and it turned out to be a reprint from the early 1970s. I made some comment about how it was too bad because otherwise it'd be worth something. She rolled her eyes at me and said, "No, it wouldn't!". She the berated me and said old baseball memorabilia is worthless. Every time I pass her house on a walk now I want to throw a baseball through her windows.
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