Your Best Deal Ever (Going Back All The Way!)

[brianp-beme]

Holy Smokes...16 Sport Kings Babes, and in such nice condition! For $8. I just can't imagine it, and what a vintage card collecting dream not from 1980 or before, but so recently. And you could have gotten them for $7.

Amazing.

Brian

Originally Posted by Kzoo

Back in the spring of 2014 at a local flea market a seller was in the process of setting up for the show with a friend of his. I was the only potential buyer around and while strolling through his items for sale, I overheard the conversation with his friend about how his move to Florida was in the near future. Amongst a bunch of other stuff under a couple white tents, he had a small stack of cards on a table with a '33 Goudey Sport Kings Ellsworth Vines on top of the stack. As I picked up the stack of cards to begin looking through them, he mentioned that 'the cards were .50 cents each or if I wanted the whole stack of 28 cards he'd sell them to me for .25 cents each'.

My first thought was reprints? No, they were thicker and felt correct for the issue. I held one to my nose and it smelled correct. I asked him where he got the cards and he pointed to an old, wooden toybox that was painted black with artwork of roses/flower arrangements on the outside that was sitting under a table. The inside of the toybox was lined with newspaper from 1933, but I don't remember the city or newspaper name. He said the toybox was full of old toys that he also had for sale and the cards were just loosely laying on the bottom. He said the toybox came from a local 'storage unit' auction. As I was looking through the cards, my heart was beginning to beat through my chest and tunnel vision set in.

There were many duplicates of only a few different cards.....there were 5 Indian Gum cards of Kishkalwa, 2 Sea Raider cards of Charles Gibbs, 5 Sport Kings cards of Ellsworth Vines, 7 Sport Kings cards of Babe Didrickson, and 9 Babe Ruth Sport Kings cards.

A couple cards had minimal damage from sitting under the toys and they were all a bit dusty, but the majority were BEAUTIFUL. The colors popped, most of the corners were sharp, and they looked uncirculated. I made the mistake of trying to add up .25 cents x 28 in my mind and paid him $8 for the stack. In a blur, I headed about 200 yards for my car. I sat down, looked around, locked the doors and put each card in a top loader. I took some deep breaths and just tried to figure out what just happened. I texted my wife 'I think I just found some great cards'. I think I was in shock, my brain was mush and I headed home shortly afterwards.

I graded most of the cards at some point over a couple year span and have since sold most of them (a few years too early) except for 3 Ruth's (a PSA 6 and 7 & a SGC 6.5) and a nice 8.5 Didrickson (there were three 8.5 Didricksons). I cracked out a few for re-grading in some instances. A couple of the Vines cards graded 8, one Ruth with the best centering but creases graded 2.5. Two Ruth's graded 7, plus three 6's and three 5's. All of the Ruth's were off center towards the bottom except for the 2.5. IMO, the best Ruth graded a PSA 6, so I cracked it out and SGC graded it a 6.5 (I still think it's better than that). The posted picture is from late 2014 and is missing a Didrickson, as I cracked out a couple cards during a couple year span to regrade back when it didn't cost a small fortune. Also posted is the SGC 6.5 that I believe was the best Ruth.

I still don't understand why those were the only cards in that toybox with so many duplicates. I don't think these cards were ever issued in packs. Why no Sport King Cobb's or regular issue 1933 baseball cards? I'd love to know that story.

[ahmanfan]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Holy Smokes...16 Sport Kings Babes, and in such nice condition! For $8. I just can't imagine it, and what a vintage card collecting dream not from 1980 or before, but so recently. And you could have gotten them for $7.

Amazing.

Brian

This is the craziest one. Even if you know nothing about baseball, something old with Babe Ruth on it you would think would prompt a google search or some second glance. Especially from someone who is in the business of selling things!?

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Kzoo

Back in the spring of 2014 at a local flea market a seller was in the process of setting up for the show with a friend of his. I was the only potential buyer around and while strolling through his items for sale, I overheard the conversation with his friend about how his move to Florida was in the near future. Amongst a bunch of other stuff under a couple white tents, he had a small stack of cards on a table with a '33 Goudey Sport Kings Ellsworth Vines on top of the stack. As I picked up the stack of cards to begin looking through them, he mentioned that 'the cards were .50 cents each or if I wanted the whole stack of 28 cards he'd sell them to me for .25 cents each'.

My first thought was reprints? No, they were thicker and felt correct for the issue. I held one to my nose and it smelled correct. I asked him where he got the cards and he pointed to an old, wooden toybox that was painted black with artwork of roses/flower arrangements on the outside that was sitting under a table. The inside of the toybox was lined with newspaper from 1933, but I don't remember the city or newspaper name. He said the toybox was full of old toys that he also had for sale and the cards were just loosely laying on the bottom. He said the toybox came from a local 'storage unit' auction. As I was looking through the cards, my heart was beginning to beat through my chest and tunnel vision set in.

There were many duplicates of only a few different cards.....there were 5 Indian Gum cards of Kishkalwa, 2 Sea Raider cards of Charles Gibbs, 5 Sport Kings cards of Ellsworth Vines, 7 Sport Kings cards of Babe Didrickson, and 9 Babe Ruth Sport Kings cards.

A couple cards had minimal damage from sitting under the toys and they were all a bit dusty, but the majority were BEAUTIFUL. The colors popped, most of the corners were sharp, and they looked uncirculated. I made the mistake of trying to add up .25 cents x 28 in my mind and paid him $8 for the stack. In a blur, I headed about 200 yards for my car. I sat down, looked around, locked the doors and put each card in a top loader. I took some deep breaths and just tried to figure out what just happened. I texted my wife 'I think I just found some great cards'. I think I was in shock, my brain was mush and I headed home shortly afterwards.

I graded most of the cards at some point over a couple year span and have since sold most of them (a few years too early) except for 3 Ruth's (a PSA 6 and 7 & a SGC 6.5) and a nice 8.5 Didrickson (there were three 8.5 Didricksons). I cracked out a few for re-grading in some instances. A couple of the Vines cards graded 8, one Ruth with the best centering but creases graded 2.5. Two Ruth's graded 7, plus three 6's and three 5's. All of the Ruth's were off center towards the bottom except for the 2.5. IMO, the best Ruth graded a PSA 6, so I cracked it out and SGC graded it a 6.5 (I still think it's better than that). The posted picture is from late 2014 and is missing a Didrickson, as I cracked out a couple cards during a couple year span to regrade back when it didn't cost a small fortune. Also posted is the SGC 6.5 that I believe was the best Ruth.

I still don't understand why those were the only cards in that toybox with so many duplicates. I don't think these cards were ever issued in packs. Why no Sport King Cobb's or regular issue 1933 baseball cards? I'd love to know that story.

Have to say this one takes the cake!

[darwinbulldog]

I bought a group of about 100 "old tobacco cards" on eBay in 2005. There was just a picture of them strewn about on a table, and I noticed the corner of a Holland Creameries baseball card sticking out from underneath one of the others. Apparently no one else did, because I won the hundred cards for $11. That's maybe not the best deal I've ever gotten in terms of absolute dollars, but if you figure I was paying 11 cents per card and one of them was worth I think about $300 at the time, that was one of the most memorable.

[sonnyu2]

Originally Posted by Kzoo

Back in the spring of 2014 at a local flea market a seller was in the process of setting up for the show with a friend of his. I was the only potential buyer around and while strolling through his items for sale, I overheard the conversation with his friend about how his move to Florida was in the near future. Amongst a bunch of other stuff under a couple white tents, he had a small stack of cards on a table with a '33 Goudey Sport Kings Ellsworth Vines on top of the stack. As I picked up the stack of cards to begin looking through them, he mentioned that 'the cards were .50 cents each or if I wanted the whole stack of 28 cards he'd sell them to me for .25 cents each'.

My first thought was reprints? No, they were thicker and felt correct for the issue. I held one to my nose and it smelled correct. I asked him where he got the cards and he pointed to an old, wooden toybox that was painted black with artwork of roses/flower arrangements on the outside that was sitting under a table. The inside of the toybox was lined with newspaper from 1933, but I don't remember the city or newspaper name. He said the toybox was full of old toys that he also had for sale and the cards were just loosely laying on the bottom. He said the toybox came from a local 'storage unit' auction. As I was looking through the cards, my heart was beginning to beat through my chest and tunnel vision set in.

There were many duplicates of only a few different cards.....there were 5 Indian Gum cards of Kishkalwa, 2 Sea Raider cards of Charles Gibbs, 5 Sport Kings cards of Ellsworth Vines, 7 Sport Kings cards of Babe Didrickson, and 9 Babe Ruth Sport Kings cards.

A couple cards had minimal damage from sitting under the toys and they were all a bit dusty, but the majority were BEAUTIFUL. The colors popped, most of the corners were sharp, and they looked uncirculated. I made the mistake of trying to add up .25 cents x 28 in my mind and paid him $8 for the stack. In a blur, I headed about 200 yards for my car. I sat down, looked around, locked the doors and put each card in a top loader. I took some deep breaths and just tried to figure out what just happened. I texted my wife 'I think I just found some great cards'. I think I was in shock, my brain was mush and I headed home shortly afterwards.

I graded most of the cards at some point over a couple year span and have since sold most of them (a few years too early) except for 3 Ruth's (a PSA 6 and 7 & a SGC 6.5) and a nice 8.5 Didrickson (there were three 8.5 Didricksons). I cracked out a few for re-grading in some instances. A couple of the Vines cards graded 8, one Ruth with the best centering but creases graded 2.5. Two Ruth's graded 7, plus three 6's and three 5's. All of the Ruth's were off center towards the bottom except for the 2.5. IMO, the best Ruth graded a PSA 6, so I cracked it out and SGC graded it a 6.5 (I still think it's better than that). The posted picture is from late 2014 and is missing a Didrickson, as I cracked out a couple cards during a couple year span to regrade back when it didn't cost a small fortune. Also posted is the SGC 6.5 that I believe was the best Ruth.

I still don't understand why those were the only cards in that toybox with so many duplicates. I don't think these cards were ever issued in packs. Why no Sport King Cobb's or regular issue 1933 baseball cards? I'd love to know that story.

What an amazing find / story! Congratulations on a once in many lifetimes find!

You're not the only one who'd like to know the history of those cards. And also the information of who the flea market seller was and where they currently setup if they still do. Ha. Can you imagine what else passed through that person's hands and the price they sold it for if they didn't know an old Babe Ruth card might have value. Who knows, maybe there were more cards in the "collection" but the guy didn't think they were worth anything and threw them out. Just crazy!

[SyrNy1960]

Originally Posted by Kzoo

Back in the spring of 2014 at a local flea market a seller was in the process of setting up for the show with a friend of his. I was the only potential buyer around and while strolling through his items for sale, I overheard the conversation with his friend about how his move to Florida was in the near future. Amongst a bunch of other stuff under a couple white tents, he had a small stack of cards on a table with a '33 Goudey Sport Kings Ellsworth Vines on top of the stack. As I picked up the stack of cards to begin looking through them, he mentioned that 'the cards were .50 cents each or if I wanted the whole stack of 28 cards he'd sell them to me for .25 cents each'.

My first thought was reprints? No, they were thicker and felt correct for the issue. I held one to my nose and it smelled correct. I asked him where he got the cards and he pointed to an old, wooden toybox that was painted black with artwork of roses/flower arrangements on the outside that was sitting under a table. The inside of the toybox was lined with newspaper from 1933, but I don't remember the city or newspaper name. He said the toybox was full of old toys that he also had for sale and the cards were just loosely laying on the bottom. He said the toybox came from a local 'storage unit' auction. As I was looking through the cards, my heart was beginning to beat through my chest and tunnel vision set in.

There were many duplicates of only a few different cards.....there were 5 Indian Gum cards of Kishkalwa, 2 Sea Raider cards of Charles Gibbs, 5 Sport Kings cards of Ellsworth Vines, 7 Sport Kings cards of Babe Didrickson, and 9 Babe Ruth Sport Kings cards.

A couple cards had minimal damage from sitting under the toys and they were all a bit dusty, but the majority were BEAUTIFUL. The colors popped, most of the corners were sharp, and they looked uncirculated. I made the mistake of trying to add up .25 cents x 28 in my mind and paid him $8 for the stack. In a blur, I headed about 200 yards for my car. I sat down, looked around, locked the doors and put each card in a top loader. I took some deep breaths and just tried to figure out what just happened. I texted my wife 'I think I just found some great cards'. I think I was in shock, my brain was mush and I headed home shortly afterwards.

I graded most of the cards at some point over a couple year span and have since sold most of them (a few years too early) except for 3 Ruth's (a PSA 6 and 7 & a SGC 6.5) and a nice 8.5 Didrickson (there were three 8.5 Didricksons). I cracked out a few for re-grading in some instances. A couple of the Vines cards graded 8, one Ruth with the best centering but creases graded 2.5. Two Ruth's graded 7, plus three 6's and three 5's. All of the Ruth's were off center towards the bottom except for the 2.5. IMO, the best Ruth graded a PSA 6, so I cracked it out and SGC graded it a 6.5 (I still think it's better than that). The posted picture is from late 2014 and is missing a Didrickson, as I cracked out a couple cards during a couple year span to regrade back when it didn't cost a small fortune. Also posted is the SGC 6.5 that I believe was the best Ruth.

I still don't understand why those were the only cards in that toybox with so many duplicates. I don't think these cards were ever issued in packs. Why no Sport King Cobb's or regular issue 1933 baseball cards? I'd love to know that story.

Amazing story! As I was reading it, my heart was beating like I was actually going through it myself! Wow!!!

[joshleon]

Originally Posted by Kzoo

Back in the spring of 2014 at a local flea market a seller was in the process of setting up for the show with a friend of his. I was the only potential buyer around and while strolling through his items for sale, I overheard the conversation with his friend about how his move to Florida was in the near future. Amongst a bunch of other stuff under a couple white tents, he had a small stack of cards on a table with a '33 Goudey Sport Kings Ellsworth Vines on top of the stack. As I picked up the stack of cards to begin looking through them, he mentioned that 'the cards were .50 cents each or if I wanted the whole stack of 28 cards he'd sell them to me for .25 cents each'.

My first thought was reprints? No, they were thicker and felt correct for the issue. I held one to my nose and it smelled correct. I asked him where he got the cards and he pointed to an old, wooden toybox that was painted black with artwork of roses/flower arrangements on the outside that was sitting under a table. The inside of the toybox was lined with newspaper from 1933, but I don't remember the city or newspaper name. He said the toybox was full of old toys that he also had for sale and the cards were just loosely laying on the bottom. He said the toybox came from a local 'storage unit' auction. As I was looking through the cards, my heart was beginning to beat through my chest and tunnel vision set in.

There were many duplicates of only a few different cards.....there were 5 Indian Gum cards of Kishkalwa, 2 Sea Raider cards of Charles Gibbs, 5 Sport Kings cards of Ellsworth Vines, 7 Sport Kings cards of Babe Didrickson, and 9 Babe Ruth Sport Kings cards.

A couple cards had minimal damage from sitting under the toys and they were all a bit dusty, but the majority were BEAUTIFUL. The colors popped, most of the corners were sharp, and they looked uncirculated. I made the mistake of trying to add up .25 cents x 28 in my mind and paid him $8 for the stack. In a blur, I headed about 200 yards for my car. I sat down, looked around, locked the doors and put each card in a top loader. I took some deep breaths and just tried to figure out what just happened. I texted my wife 'I think I just found some great cards'. I think I was in shock, my brain was mush and I headed home shortly afterwards.

I graded most of the cards at some point over a couple year span and have since sold most of them (a few years too early) except for 3 Ruth's (a PSA 6 and 7 & a SGC 6.5) and a nice 8.5 Didrickson (there were three 8.5 Didricksons). I cracked out a few for re-grading in some instances. A couple of the Vines cards graded 8, one Ruth with the best centering but creases graded 2.5. Two Ruth's graded 7, plus three 6's and three 5's. All of the Ruth's were off center towards the bottom except for the 2.5. IMO, the best Ruth graded a PSA 6, so I cracked it out and SGC graded it a 6.5 (I still think it's better than that). The posted picture is from late 2014 and is missing a Didrickson, as I cracked out a couple cards during a couple year span to regrade back when it didn't cost a small fortune. Also posted is the SGC 6.5 that I believe was the best Ruth.

I still don't understand why those were the only cards in that toybox with so many duplicates. I don't think these cards were ever issued in packs. Why no Sport King Cobb's or regular issue 1933 baseball cards? I'd love to know that story.

This is absolutely amazing. In 2014 no less!

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

Well, I can't compete with most of these stories.

But mine is interesting in that it was pretty recent. In March 2020 I picked up this 1952 Bowman Minoso rookie on ebay for $8.95 with free shipping (there aren't any creases or marks, so probably a solid VG/EX to maybe EX). That was pretty cheap, but honestly not too much lower than what the average price was at the time. Anyone currently shopping for Minoso rookies knows this card would sell for 10x to 20x that today. He was very overlooked prior to his HOF induction.

Granted, that was literally right before the great baseball card price boom of 2020...but just goes to show you we don't have to time travel back to the 80's to get some good deals....there are probably thousands of overlooked cards sitting on eBay right now that likely won't be overlooked in a few years.

minoso.JPG

[atx840]

Purchased 100+ raw T206 Polar Bears @$25 a piece about 13 years ago. Most graded between 4-6s, several HOFs, two SGC 60 WaJo, SGC 50 Young and the O'Hara.

[Leon]

Then there was the infamous Trucker Boy Find...cut and pasted below... The seller had a -1 feedback on ebay (yes negative) when I bought the first card, an E90-1 Wags for 1000 bucks.....
He priced small cards at 50 each....and larger ones a little more.

I believe I have seen the last small group of inherited cards from the gentleman in Northern California. It was a very informative situation
in that I got to see a nice PCL collection untainted by modern collectors/dealers. It looks like almost all of the cards have been put into a scrapbook at one time as a majority exhibit strong corners and
back damage, though many backs were spared too....... It was neat to see how they were really collected and in what type of numbers, relative to each other. I believe the only cards I missed out on were all 159 of the Colgans, Red Borders, and Tin Tops (if any), and about 5-7 M101-1/2's....Nothing I could do...they just got sold.......The total for all of the cards I got was about 732'ish. I will probably only sell these through ebay or to a large auction house. I am keeping everything I have an interest in, as utmost and foremost, I am still a collector. Including what I had posted before the grand total breakout is/was (several cards have been sold already to happy board/ebay members):

D310 (12) w/weaver fr....overall gd-vg
D311 (61) all different pr-ex
E90-1 (18) w/Jackson (pr-sold), Joss..overall pr-fr
E90-2 (1) Wagner - nice SGC 20....2 moderate creases
E90-3 (2) common and pr-
E101 (9) w/Evers, Jennings pr-fr....major back damage..
E136 Zeenut '11 (113) w/Weaver in fr...others vg'ish
E136 Zeenut '12 (36) gd-vg+/ex
E136 HR Kisses (2) gd
E136 Zeenut '13 (6) all with coupon
E136 Zeenut '14 (23) 6 with coupon 17 without coupon
E137 Zeenut '15 (67) 24 with coupon w/McMullen 43 w/o coup.w/Risberg, Lefty Williams
E137 Zeenut '16 (1) with coupon
E224 Texas Tommy (5) w/Marsans, w/uncatalogued
E-Unc Big Eater (3) w/ horizontal ex, 1 in gd-vg, 1 pr
H-unc Western Playground (40) complete set vg+
T4 Obak- (2) still unidentified but not Weaver.
T206 Old Mill- (23) w/Cobb, Evers, Chance, Willis.pr-fr
T206 Sweet Caporal ?(1) Cobb 350-460 series...pr.
T212-1 Obak (47) nice mix of framed/frameless
T212-2 Obak (116) about 25 different slogans.. pr-ex-mt
T212-3 Obak (131) w/Weaver pr-nrmt/mt
T217 Mono (8) 3 that don't have back damage......pr-gd
T222 Fatima- (7) all common, 1 high number in fr, 2 cut in half, pr....

[Exhibitman]

I had a lot of fun with this one:

A few years ago, I went to a vintage paper fair. A seller had a case of miscellaneous sports cards from the 1930s to the 1990s. Mostly offbeat stuff like match covers and 'humorous' sets, but there was a lot of it. One card caught my eye in there, a 1958 Topps Jim Brown RC. It was in an old-school snap-tite holder (these were a thing around 1990) and looked completely roached. I couldn't even open the holder. I asked how much. The dealer barked at me (way too angry for 10:00 a.m., IMO) that it was $450 for the whole case, no cherry picking. Well, I could see enough value there that I was gonna make the deal anyway but I had to ask if he'd take less. Apparently, not a good question...someone needed a Starbucks I guess. Anyhow, I paid for the collection and he gave me a box to haul it all. The box had all sorts of packing detritus at the bottom, mostly moldy newspapers, which I left in there. I took the box to my car and went back to the show for a while. I then went to my office to look over the collection I'd bought.

One thing I've learned is never, ever throw out anything without checking it thoroughly first. I went through the newspapers carefully and this snapshot tumbled out:



Satchel Paige in 1949, shot by the team photographer, in the same sequence as the photo that became the TI that year in the picture pack. Needless to say, I was thrilled since I had no idea it was in there.

Oh, and the Jim Brown RC? Well, the holder was so old and brittle that when I tried to separate the halves it basically exploded. Shards of plastic everywhere; one even hit my glasses. The card itself:



That was a good day!

[JollyElm]

This is relatively small potatoes compared to some of the sick sh*t appearing in this thread, but I found this 1964 Topps #423 Aaron/Mays 'Tops in NL' floating around a bin of discounted (TAKE 40% OFF!!!) cards at a show out here. It looked gorgeous (and I frickin' love this card!!), so I negotiated with the seller and ended up taking it home for a measly $40...and it eventually came back as a PSA 8 through Bobby's group sub. The last two 8's on eBay sold for over a grand each, so it was a pretty good deal...

1964aaronmaystopsinnl423beforeafter.jpg

[Bobsbats]

As a kid, walking around the Willow Grove/Fort Washington card show, a dealer asked me if I knew who this was. As a 10 year old, I said I did. He said if you know who it is, you can have it for $90.00, to which I replied, it's Sam Wahoo Crawford and he played for Detroit, that's a W600 Sporting News....to which, the dealer smiled and said, it's yours for 90.00 if you want it.

Crawford W600 front.jpg

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by Bobsbats

As a kid, walking around the Willow Grove/Fort Washington card show, a dealer asked me if I knew who this was. As a 10 year old, I said I did. He said if you know who it is, you can have it for $90.00, to which I replied, it's Sam Wahoo Crawford and he played for Detroit, that's a W600 Sporting News....to which, the dealer smiled and said, it's yours for 90.00 if you want it.

Attachment 513018

Great story and nice dealer! I have a similar and less pleasant interaction with a dealer at a show when I was in my late teens/early 20's. I asked to see the stack of W517 cards in his case. He handed them to me and I was going through them looking for a Dazzy Vance card. I must have taken too long or he was just tired of this punk kid going through his merchandise, as he inquired, real aggressively, "you probably don't know what cards those are." I was kind of shocked, but I fairly quickly replied "1931 W517 strip cards." I had found the Vance I wanted and was about to make the purchase, but I slapped his stack of cards back on his display case and walked away.

Like I said, yours was a much nicer story. My story ends well though, as later a W517 Vance landed in my collection without the help of this grumpy seller.

Brian

[fisherboy7]

These deals all took place between 2000 and 2003, several were on ebay...

W514 Joe Jackson gd - $200 BIN

E90-2 Wagner fr/gd - $400ish

T206 Cobb Bat off w/American Beauty back g-vg $1200


The one(s) that got away....I remember passing on several E107 HOFers listed on ebay by Levi Bleam with very low BIN's (all well under 1k) including Lajoie, Bender, etc. I was a young college student and just didn't have the cash.

There were others, but these ones stood out.

[Kzoo]

Originally Posted by ahmanfan

This is the craziest one. Even if you know nothing about baseball, something old with Babe Ruth on it you would think would prompt a google search or some second glance. Especially from someone who is in the business of selling things!?

I can't remember the guy's face as I was in shock, but his general appearance resembled a cross between Kid Rock and Joe Dirt, including the wife beater and mullet. I didn't recall seeing him before and never saw him again. The crazy thing is, there were a couple other collectors canvasing the show that day and somehow I stumbled upon the cards first. I still can't believe it.

[justrun7]

Here are some of my more notable find at flea markets, antique stores, thrift shops, and even card shops over the last 8 years or so, with most being within the last 3 years.

Elston Howard game used bat - Paid $50 Sold $900
1996-97 Skybox E-X2000 Credentials Uncut Sheet - Paid $60 Sold $2500
Tracy McGrady Game Used Autographed Jersey - Paid $15 Sold $1500
Allen Iverson Game Used Autographed Jersey - Paid $15 Sold $1500
Mickey Cochrane Autographed 1934 Goudey - Paid $150 Sold $1700
Mike Trout 2011 Update Gold - Paid $3 Sold $2000
Tom Brady 2000 Bowman (2x) - Paid $100 for box of unsorted cards Sold $2000 (sold rest of box contents for $1000)

There are plenty of finds to still be found out there, you just have to be consistent in your search to find them.

[Bill77]

My best deal ever was my 41 Play Ball Arky Vaughan. One morning at work one of my coworkers told me he had something I would probably like and handed me the card. He got it from an older woman on his postal route years earlier and he gave it to me. I probably stopped by my desk at least once every 30 minutes that day to look at it. A year or two later I was able to get a 33 Goudey Vaughan for $6.00. I think they make a good pair.

[Collectorsince62]

Back in the 70's just before the price guides started appearing, I used to run an occasional ad in a local paper looking for cards. One day I received a call from an older gentleman who was moving. He said he had an old cheese box containing cards, and it was nailed shut but he couldn't remember exactly what was inside. I had no idea what a cheese box was, or why it would be nailed shut, but I was about to find out. I drove a short distance, met the man and he shows me a wooden box about half the size of a shoebox. He finds a hammer and pries open the box. Stacked neatly inside were about 200 1940 Play Ball cards, all in Ex-Ex+. One card however, was lying across the top face up. It was a '33 Goudey Ruth G-Vg. He wanted $125 for everything. I borrowed the money from my Dad who thought I was nuts. Around that same time an antique dealer responded to my ad and said she was setting up at a sidewalk sale that weekend and had a Babe Ruth card she would sell to me before the sale opened. I arrived early, she shows me a '33 Goudey and says "let's start the haggling at $5." She seemed a little disappointed when I handed her the money without bargaining. On the trading front, my favorite trade occurred in the mid 70's when '71 Topps in great condition were really hot and T206's were not. I traded a really nice extra complete '71 set to the owner of a local card shop. He had just returned from a buying trip to the tobacco states and had a bunch of T206's. In return for the '71 set I received a Mathewson, Johnson, Cy Young, Lajoie, Speaker, McGraw, Tinker, Evers, Chance (and Steinfeldt), Three Finger, Chesbro, Jennings, Merkle . . . and a type card from each different back he had. Years later I discovered one of the type cards was a one-of-one Drum. That one has since been auctioned off to a deserving home but the others have all stayed with me.

[jchcollins]

Probably about 20 years ago now, I bought a lower grade '59 Mantle off eBay. It was raw, but I'm thinking it probably would have been a PSA 2. It was around 50 bucks. When the card arrived, it looked different to me, so I flipped it over and noticed that it said "Hecho en Venezuela" at the bottom with the Topps copyright. LOL, a '59 Mantle Venny for 50 bucks. I sold it a year or so later - for nothing like what it would go for now, but still more than 10x what I paid.

[judsonhamlin]

Back in the early 90’s, Howard’s was an active dealer of cards - SCD ads and a bi-weekly mailer with everything from Old Judges through ‘70s Topps. Picked up a fair number of cards from them and was pleased with costs and grading. In 93-94, I was a 1L at U of Toledo and got a flier with what looked like a near set break of T206. That afternoon I drove down there and went through the set. The cards were priced solely based on condition, without regard for the backs. With a budget of 300, I was able to pick up a few Hindu Southern Leaguers and a couple of Carolina Brights but the grand prize was a Drum Sweeney for 18.00 that now resides in an SGC 40 slab.

[jingram058]

I love hearing these stories.

I miss those days tremendously. Yes, I know they are never coming back, but it sure is fun to see these stories and know they're being saved. This is a great forum!