The Find that Turned out to be Real

[Archive]

Posted By: Todd Evans

Back in the summer of 1999, I was searching the classified ads that people post on the old baseball.com website, it may have been the same one that Peter mentioned in his post. Well, I see an ad that says they have 207 1933 Goudeys in EX to NM condition including (4) Ruth's, Gehrig, Dean and Bengough. It also list that there are 459 1939 Playball with (4) Williams and (4) DiMaggio's in the same condition. The asking price was $27,000. I email the poster and excitedly waited for the reply.

Two to three weeks go by and no response so I thought it was a scam. I go down to Atlanta to attend the National with some cards and items from another find that I made and will post later, (I have a good Mr. Mint story). I get back into town three or four days later and there is a reply in my email with his phone #. I call him up to have him send me some scans of the cards but he was an older gentleman and wasn't too computer literate and didn't have a scanner. So I told him to photo copy a couple of the cards and fax them to me. The next thing I know I get a list of each card and next to it what he thought the grade was as well as some photocopies of some of the cards. I'm thiking Wow this guy really has these so I arrange to meet him in Pittsburgh where he is located. I drive down from Louisville, KY to Pittsburgh, PA with cash and protection, if you know what I mean in a briefcase. We meet and there are two people there, a middle aged man who I had been communicating with and his father in his late 80's, who had originally purchased and collected the cards. We meet at the son's workplace and go into the conference room to start going though the cards.

The next thing you know he brings in some shoe boxes and out comes a load of 1933 Goudey's that are in VG to EX-MT condition. The hoard of 1933 Goudey's (224) turned out to be just 15 cards short of a complete set. Out comes another larger shoe box with a hoard of 1939 Playball cards. This box contained over 450 cards in better condition than the Goudeys. (4) Williams, (4) DiMaggio's, I was amazed. The guy had 3 complete low # sets and was just 11 cards short of a 4th.

Well, it gets down to the time to make the deal and he raises the price from $27k to $32k so I'm like hey what's going on here? So I ask them if they have anymore cards and he said he does. He brings in some more boxes and out comes a bunch of 1933 Goudey Sport Kings, some 1938 R42 Don't Let it Happen Over Here cards, a bunch of Goudey Indian cards and a large hoard of 1938 Horror's of War cards. These cards were all in comparable condition to the other cards. There were 40 out of a possible 48 for a complete set of 1933 Sport Kings (missing the Ruth, Cobb, Hubbell and Didrickson). The golfer cards (Hagen, Sarazen and Jones cards were real nice as well as several others like the Rockne and Hoppe.

In the end we come to a price of $32k for everything. I pay them cash and we're all happy and we part ways. I ended up consigning the cards to Mastro's where they had PSA grade some of the cards. The four 1939 Playball Williams' ended up grading out one 8, one 7 and 2 6's while the four DiMaggios greded out at three 7's and one 6. The rest of the Playballs graded ut well with the majority coming back 7's and 8's. The Sport Kings graded out well with the Hagen, Sarazen, Shore Rockne, Londos and Hoppe all came back PSA 8's while the Bobby Jones just missed coming back a PSA 7.

The collection was sold over two different auctions, the 1999 Millennium auction and following June 2000 auction. I did good, but I thought the 1939 Playballs were sold wrong as they should have been broken up and I would have realized a much higher price. The timinng also was an issue as this auction was right after the Halper sale so I'm sure some lots were effected. If I had it to do over again, I would have had more of them graded and just listed them over time on Ebay and would have more than likely made more money since the person that bought the 1939 Playball lot listed the 1939 Playball Ted Williams PSA 8 pn Ebay right after the Mastro auction and got over $8k for it.

It was once-in-a-lifetime deal that just happend to turn out to be real. I have another story that I will post later about a small find that could have been so much bigger than this but it turns out with a sad ending.

[Archive]

Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Great tale, Todd...

But wouldn't we go up to Pittsburgh from Louisville, not down? It is north, and it is up stream...

Gotta love shoe boxes! It's when the great collection comes out in a 1993 binder that you know you're about to be looking at Ken Griffy Jr cards, and the like. Old shoe boxes and cigar boxes give one hope.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

One summer day in 1990, I was travelling from garage sale to yard sale in my hometown. By late afternoon I was rather tired, having found very little to buy. None of the people had any cards or memorabilia. The last sale I pulled up to appeared to be the most dismal of the lot. A bunch of pure garbage was strewn about a series of folding tables. The host of the sale was truly "white trash" in attire, demeanor and odor. You know the type--flannel shirt with cut-off sleeves. Boozy, day-old halitosis emanating from a mouth that was this side of being declared a national state of emergency. I'm sure this guy's wife would have rather kissed a Three Mile Island smokestack. As previously stated, the day was drawing to a close, and "Larry the Cable Guy" was anxious to "git-r-done". With an asphalt-encrusted arm, he made a broad-swooping gesture, indicating I could haul away his assemblage of bric-a-brac for the princely sum of $50. "I need beer money!" Quelle surprise. I passed, but not without inquiring if he might have any old cards that I didn't see. "Well, I do have these, but they're kinda old and beat-up." From out of his cable guy flannel shirt pocket, Larry fished out a fistful of T206's and a few T205's. Yes, he would part with them, providing I also took away the grease-laden remnants of a not-so-proud yokel community. I asked Larry how much he was short in obtaining his case of Labatt's Blue. Without hesitation, he practically shouted "Four bucks!". I handed him two Canadian $2 bills in exchange for perhaps 75 cards!

[Archive]

Posted By: Rick McQuillan

Todd, Great story! I can't wait to hear the other one.

Rick

[Archive]

Posted By: Todd Evans

In 1999, prior to my Pittsburgh, PA deal I had purchased a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #181 from a gentleman in New Jersey. He listed the card as VG/EX but the scan was small and wasn't very clear. I had comunitcated with him by email and by phone concerning the card and I ended up being the winning bidder. Upon receiving the card I was very pleased as I thought it was undergraded by the seller as I thought it was actually EX+. I sent the card to PSA using the walk-through service and it ended up grading a PSA 6 so I was thrilled. I contacted the seller and asked him if had any other cards. He said he had some other items as he got the Ruth card and all the other items from his neighbor who's husand had passed away about three years earlier.

The person who had died was in his 80's and had been a collector since his childhood days. From what I understand, he attended games in the New York area starting as a kid back in the 1920's and would buy 2 or 3 programs from each game he attended. He would score one and put the others up and he kept them in file folders. He was way ahead of his time and saved and cared for everything like he knew someday they would be valuable. I was told the amount of items he had, programs, cards, pennants and what not was astonishing. He had box fulls of 1933 Goudey's, Sportkings, Exhbit cards.

Noe to the sad part, he had all these items stored in large copy paper boxes. I believe I was told that he had 5 boxes filled with these items. After he had passed his wife had the boxes moved to the basement of the home they were living in. At some point a pipe burst in the basement and soaked four of the boxes since they had been place right under the pipe. At some point after the accident the neighbor was given the boxes. He told me that there was stack after stack of 1933 Goudeys just stuck together and each time he would try to peel one off it wold just tear apart. He said there must bave been at least 50 Ruth cards not to mention all the Gehrig's and others. He said he estimated there must have been 4-5 thousand cards in there. The one box that was salvaged did have some very nice items in it. I ended up buying several old programs dating back to the 1920's all the way to the late 1950's. These programs were in tip top shape. I also purchased a set of 1933 Goudey Premium stand ups, several 1927-29 Postcard back Exhibits including several Ruth's and Walter Johnson's. I purchaed several R310 1934 Baby Ruth premiums with Ruth, Gehrig, Ott and Foxx. These items were all in just outstanding condition. I also purchased many of the cards that were salvaged but some had some mold spots where they had been exposed to the wet conditions of the basement. I ended up purchasing most everything that was salvageable but what had to be thrown away was heartbreaking.

I took some of the items down to the Atlanta National that year and had them in box. I walked up to Rosen's table and waited for him to finish talking to the person in front of me. I was just going to let him offer me some rediculous amount for the items and then just say no and walk away. I ended up walking away from the table when he was so rude abd cursing at the guy in front of me who I believe had some modern cards. He saw me walk away so I purposely went up to the table across the isle and pulled out some of the items like I was looking for something. I could see he was trying to see what all I had in the box as I made sure he saw the 1933 Goudey premiums with the Ruth right on top. I put the items back in the box and walked off so he called out and wanted me to come over to his table. I ignored him and he came running up to me as I walked away and asked me if he could see what all I had in the box as he had cash to pay for them. I told him to go screw himself and that if he wasn't such an ass he would know what was in the box. I ended up taking them over to the Mastro booth and consigning some of the items and at one point when I had the items laid out while I was talking to the Mastro guys I noticed that Rosen walked by a couple of times trying to see what I had.

[Archive]

Posted By: boxingcardman

"I told him to go screw himself and that if he wasn't such an ass he would know what was in the box. I ended up taking them over to the Mastro booth and consigning some of the items and at one point when I had the items laid out while I was talking to the Mastro guys I noticed that Rosen walked by a couple of times trying to see what I had."

If you don't treat people right, it will eventually come back to bite you...

Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc

[Archive]

Posted By: Sean

in defense, it sounds like Al was being quite the jerk to some poor soul who didnt know that he has worthless cards. I cant tell you how many times Ive seen that at a show. I know their are probably a lot of jerk customers as well but the jack ass dealers come out of the woodworks at shows like the national. If my son starts collecting Im gonna hafta watch his back at these shows since I remember as a youngster being treated like dirt by a LOT of dealers for no other reason than their assumption that I wouldnt have a lot of money.