Have these card buyers invaded your area??

[whiteymet]

Just saw a large three column ad in today's Philadelphia Daily News and another in the Philadelphia Inquirer advertising to buy cards.

It is from an outfit called baseballcardroadshows.com

See their website here:

http://baseballcardroadshows.com/

Have they come to your area? If so what insights can you offer.

Thanks,

Fred

[bnorth]

I see they were close to me a month ago but I had no idea about it. I wonder what % they pay. Has to be better than the insanely low ball offer just plastered all over the BST section.

[Cowboy Fan]

I think one of the guys that used to work at SGC is with them. Not sure what they pay either.

[ctownboy]

If it is anything like the guys who go around buying silver, gold and old coins, then it is not going to be very much.

My Mother had a silver ring she didn't wear and wanted to see how much these jokers advertising they bought valuables would pay her for it. She went to the hotel hall where they were set up and waited a half an hour to be seen. When they looked at her ring, they offered her $18 dollar for it.

We then went to a local jewelry store where they offered to buy gold, silver and old coins and they paid her $47 dollars for the same ring.

I say all of these people who travel around the country advertising to buy stuff is just looking to rip as many people off as possible.....

David

[ZiggerZagger]

I can offer a little insight, knowing one of the principals through this site. Many of you know him as well, and I have a lot of respect for him through our past and ongoing interactions.

By his description, there are two long-time hobby enthusiasts running this enterprise -- he and another partner. Their main selling point is that they pay cash on the spot for cards of really any value, graded or raw. The partner I know better says that they travel with 250k+ cash and security staff. I'm not going to 'out' their percentage paid of market in case that was shared in confidence, but I thought it was quite fair. In particular, fair when you look at the alternative ways to sell and the associated Auction House or Ebay fees, etc.

If I were personally looking to liquidate my collection at the moment, I would seriously consider speaking with them as an alternative to the AH route. Lastly, this long-time hobby figure involved left a high-profile job to pursue this enterprise out of passion for the hobby, and he's not the sort looking to cynically 'rip people off', in my opinion. Just my 2 cents.

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by ctownboy

If it is anything like the guys who go around buying silver, gold and old coins, then it is not going to be very much.

My Mother had a silver ring she didn't wear and wanted to see how much these jokers advertising they bought valuables would pay her for it. She went to the hotel hall where they were set up and waited a half an hour to be seen. When they looked at her ring, they offered her $18 dollar for it.

We then went to a local jewelry store where they offered to buy gold, silver and old coins and they paid her $47 dollars for the same ring.

I say all of these people who travel around the country advertising to buy stuff is just looking to rip as many people off as possible.....

David

Couldn't agree more. Would almost like to see some of these people cold and play stupid to what I have and see what the offer actually is. I fully expect it would be attempted highway robbery.
Not referring to anyone in particular, just these traveling roadshows generally.

[CrackaJackKid]

I forget their names but a couple of guys out of KC were advertising they wanted collections and individual cards they'd pay 25% off of what the card VCP for.

[packs]

There have been several ads run in the NY Post lately. Same MO set up in some hotel somewhere. Not sure who if anyone goes or what they bring.

[Rookiemonster]

I have seen more consignment adds going on. Live about 20mins from Newark and also Never heard about it. I went to a card show last Sunday that I go to often. They had to different flyers for consignments. I can't recall ever seeing one.

I have had one interaction with attempting to sell jewelry at one of those hotel things. They told me everything was fake. I also had gold coins guess what they were not worth anything because they were not US coins. Aaaaaa I was young but not dumb enough for that one.

[whiteymet]

The website ID's the primary guy as Gary Leavitt based in Minneapolis.

[Leon]

I don't see any harm in trying to market oneself to acquire cards or collectibles. Everything seems transparent and it is a given what his mission is, so I would keep that in mind, but that is all. Not much different than some spiels I have heard recently from certain AH's.
I see ads for collectible appraisals all of time, in the Dallas Morning News and other places, around town. I imagine they work or they wouldn't keep doing them?

Originally Posted by whiteymet

Just saw a large three column ad in today's Philadelphia Daily News and another in the Philadelphia Inquirer advertising to buy cards.

It is from an outfit called baseballcardroadshows.com

See their website here:

http://baseballcardroadshows.com/

Have they come to your area? If so what insights can you offer.

Thanks,

Fred

[T205 GB]

Originally Posted by ctownboy

If it is anything like the guys who go around buying silver, gold and old coins, then it is not going to be very much.

My Mother had a silver ring she didn't wear and wanted to see how much these jokers advertising they bought valuables would pay her for it. She went to the hotel hall where they were set up and waited a half an hour to be seen. When they looked at her ring, they offered her $18 dollar for it.

We then went to a local jewelry store where they offered to buy gold, silver and old coins and they paid her $47 dollars for the same ring.

I say all of these people who travel around the country advertising to buy stuff is just looking to rip as many people off as possible.....

David

David by the time you pay for lodging, fuel, advertisements, staff, ect do you really think they are going to pay you 80% or more of VCP values? They probably make offers based on the hope they can turn a buck or two and keep it going just like dealers at card shows. Just wait till someone like this make a massive find and brings it to the hobby. People will be lined up to buy those cards.

[T205 GB]

Originally Posted by whiteymet

The website ID's the primary guy as Gary Leavitt based in Minneapolis.

That is weird he has not hit this area at all for any buying. I have also found this area sucks for buying vintage IMO. Or anything other than Twins and Vikings stuff which is nearly worthless

[obcmac]

I spoke with them about selling off a piece of my collection. I found them to be knowledgeable and respectable. We didn't get into heavy negotiations as I wasn't quite ready to part with the cards, but I will continue to consider them if I move forward.

Mac Wubben

[111gecko]

Hey guys, Gary Leavitt here.
Thanks for the kind words earlier. I have completed many transactions on this site with members. I travel around the Midwest and northeast buying collections. Yes, I spend a ton on the ads but have some fun doing it. Without going too far into it, I have a fairly substantial collection. I have been upgrading for years and hope to acquire higher end material. I pay generally about 70% VCP but will change that based on if I really want something. I sell off the balance of what I purchase. And yes, I sometime lose money at my events as the costs are very high..
For those of you that don't me I am a forensic accountant focusing on fraud examination and anti-money laundering. As you can imagine; it is quite stressful and very complicated so this is my "therapy"..I am a crappy golfer so this is what I do for fun. Since I have daughters who don't care about the cards, I suppose one day I will just sell them off.
Thanks for reading and feel free to contact me if you have questions or just want to talk about a collection.
Gary.

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by ctownboy

I say all of these people who travel around the country advertising to buy stuff is just looking to rip as many people off as possible.....

+1

[parkerj33]

Thanks Gary. I don't know how others feel, but paying 70% vcp certainly doesn't seem to me to be ripping people off! Anyone selling is going to pay 20% fees to ebay, paypal, or whatever other venue they are going to sell through.

[bbcard1]

Can you imagine all the 1990 Donruss cards the see?

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by parkerj33

Thanks Gary. I don't know how others feel, but paying 70% vcp certainly doesn't seem to me to be ripping people off! Anyone selling is going to pay 20% fees to ebay, paypal, or whatever other venue they are going to sell through.

Yep,

I feel there are a ton of people that think any less than 110% is ripping them off, but knowing the overhead and risk that people take on this I think 70 is 10% more than I expect. It's like watching those pawn shows and seeing an appraisal of 2k and the seller asks for 2500.

I would need a good overhead just to cover all the time I constantly wasted explaining that an 1989 Donruss John Candelaria is not worth 200 bucks.

[nolemmings]

I had good experiences as a buyer with Gary, back when I collected T213s and he lived in AZ. He met with me personally and let me keep some cards awhile why I pondered what to buy. Haven't spoken to him since he moved to God's Country though.

[ctownboy]

I don't know anything about the card buyers being talked about and the 70 percent of VCP that came up after my post. However, I DO know that the jewelry store that my Mom sold her ring to ALSO has expenses and overhead to pay and they STILL paid her almost three times what the buyers at the hotel offered to buy her ring for.

I ALSO know that most of the people that I saw at the hotel that day were OLDER people. So I imagine these older folks were sitting around reading their paper and saw an ad saying that buyers were coming to town to buy gold, silver and old coins. This got them to thinking about what they own and how they could use some extra cash. So they went, were made offers and some probably sold their items for far less than what they were worth and these older folks were probably happy to get the cash. Not knowing they had been ripped off....

David

[rocketman]

I saw an add in the NY Post about 2 weeks ago. Claimed to offer better prices than "dealers". I had quite a bit of low grade pre war stuff and I was looking for cash to up grade current collection. I called them up and they seemed very friendly. Agreed to meet in NYC hotel on Derby Saturday.

First impression - two very friendly brothers. Safe location.

Naturally I did not get what I was hoping but they were reasonable enough and gave me 20 Mr. Franklins - I was hoping for 25. No ebay, no pay pal no waiting no running my own auction.

And they were swamped - phone was ringing off the hook and they had appointments every hour all weekend. They did tell me they see a lot of junk but they also uncovered some great vintage collections. And they are for real - if you have the stuff they had the cash. They had several $20-$30k deals working.