Favorite Card / "The One That Got Away" thread

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Posted By: shammus

I got this idea from an earlier post and thought I'd go ahead and start a thread on this in the interest of coming up with new, positive things to discuss. One of my favorite cards is a w555 Wagner that I bought off of Ebay for a little over $300. The card looked really good in the scan but when it showed up, I was impressed enough with its condition that I sent it in to SGC figuring it would grade a 60 or 70. It actually came back as a 60 (wow, SGC agreed with me!) Turned out to be a really nice acquisition.

For "The one that got away", I had a financial "emergency" come up a couple of months back that pretty much prevented me from spending anything on the hobby for a while. A week after this "emergency" cropped up, the card that was at the top of my want list, a T204 Ramly Walter Johnson was placed on Ebay by rbcraik. I had to sit back and helplessly watch as the card went to another buyer thanks to my financial obligations. Just in case anyone has this card in any condition, it's still at the top of my want list

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Posted By: jay behrens

My version of the one that got away was having to make a decision between buying a car, which meant I could have a social life with women, or buy a complete set of t206s, less the Big 3, in Ex+ condition. I opted for the car and a social life, but some times I wonder just how different things would be if I had bought the set.

Jay

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Posted By: Joe P.

Build a happy social life Jay, and the cards will come.
Build it Jay.
Build it and the cards will definitely come.

By the way Jay, you say that the set was only missing the big three.

Are you saying that you already own The Elusive One?

Joe

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Posted By: Hankron

The one(s) I just missed out on were the color separation proofs for the George Brett 1975 Hostess Rookie Card that was never issued. They weren't expensive, but I contacted the owner too late.

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Posted By: jay behrens

At the time this happened the Doyle variation wasn't known to exist.

Jay

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Posted By: Brian C Daniels

and how much was the set? and how long ago?

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Posted By: Joe P.

That the Magie name spelling error is called an error, and some call The Slow Joe Doyle league designation error a variation?

Joe P.

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Posted By: OldOriole

For me, this is an easy question to answer. I went into an antique store several years ago looking for old baseball equipment, I found a Baltimore News Babe Ruth card (I can still remember how blue it was). The owner said he had had it for years and just put it on display. I left to get my money and brother for his input. When I came back, he had sold it...for $250! Again, this was probably 10 years ago, but it still kills me.

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Originally, my sad tale involved a T204 Jesse Burkett. A dealer had offered me one back in the late 1990s for a couple hundred bucks, but I turned it down because it had a crease and I had just committed to buy something else. It wasn't until I actually started looking for one that I realized how hard they were to come by and how bad my decision had been. Over six years passed, but a comment I made to a board member paid off. Scott Brockleman came across one, knew I was looking and brokered a deal for me. Sweet!

My new "got away" tale is about a common N172. I'm trying to get an Old Judge card (if one is available) of every 19th century player rated in Bill James' Historical Baseball Abstract. A friend had an Orator Shaffer that he had said he'd hold for me because I didn't have funds at the time. Evidently money talked because he decided to sell it instead. That was three years ago and I haven't seen another one since.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

A few years ago there was an auction of a lot of Zeenuts glued down into a magazine. There were several scans with the auction and I spotted a Thorpe in one of them. I was a little tight at the time financially and I let the lot go when it reached around $800.

Also, a Pet Cigarettes (T229) John L. Sullivan.

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Posted By: Chris (the illini)

About 10 years ago, Larry Fritsch had a 1915 Zeenut Fred McMullin -- for 75 dollars. I was in college and limited in funds, so I bought a 1917 zeenut Frank Chance in about fair condition for the same price because he was a HOF'er.

I still get sick thinking about it

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Posted By: jay behrens

The year was 1985 and the price was $4,000. Some of the Southern Leaguers were a on the VG side, but all the key cards were Ex or better. As for the backs, I have no clue. Didn't even bother to look at that since back then Drum and Uzits were aboutt eh only backs that really commanded a premium.

Jay

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Posted By: Aaron Michiel

Gather around and I shall tell ye a tale...

About a year and a half ago, my wife and I were reining in our spending in order to save for a down payment on our first house. That meant a steep decrease in the amount of money I had to spend on sports memorabilia.

Like clockwork, during this time of fiscal responsibility, one of my most sought after items appears on E-Bay: an authentic 1957 "Keep The Dodgers In Brooklyn" pin. Reproductions abound of this pin, genuine ones are virtually impossible to find. This was the first one offered since I'd returned to collecting.

I sat back responsibly, maturely, helplessly, watching the end of the auction live, until it finally sold for the bargain price of around $600. I would have been willing to bid considerably more if money weren't tight.

So, I let it go.

About a year later, it's time for the Atlantic City National. The down payment long-since serving its purpose, my wife and I living in our house for almost a year, financially things had returned to normal. So, it was time to do some serious spending (relative to our incomes, of course).

My wife and I took a trip to New York with the plan of renting a car for a day and driving out to Atlantic City for the National. (Don't feel too sorry for the wife--she got a day of shopping on Madison Avenue.)

I had been looking forward to this trip for months (I had a great experience the previous year at the Chicago National), only to arrive at the convention hall and find row after row of "manufactured collectibles" (those ridiculous autographed lithographs, repro jerseys and the like), modern junk and non-sports material (like the dreaded beanie baby). It was laughably bad.

Finally, in one of the glass cases, I hit pay dirt: a beautiful "Keep The Dodgers In Brooklyn" pin magnificently displayed. The heart rate quickened, I was already fumbling for my wallet...only to learn that the item was not for sale, but was to be offered at auction more than a month later by Inside The Park Collectibles.

I ended up leaving the National completely empty-handed (not a good thing for having traveled 3,000 miles) and saved my dough for the summer auction season in August. My eyes fixed on the ITPC auction at the end of the month and getting that pin.

I wait patiently, checking the site frequently believing that the pin won't go for much higher than the $750 minimum bid. Of course, finally on auction day, the pin has topped $1,100 by the time I'm ready to bid just before closing to initial bidders. I'm already worried and kicking myself that I could have had the pin for half the cost if I hadn't let my rational brain overpower my crazed collector a year earlier...

In order to top the existing max bid, I bid more than $1,300 and request the call back service. Yes, I say to myself, I've spent alot of money, but this was something I REALLY wanted (that's a convincing argument to us collectors that requires no further elaboration). Confident in the certainty of my new aquisition, the wife and I go to the music store, the auction having entered its extended period hours earlier...

My mind at ease (no one was crazy enough to bid $1,500 for a lousy pin were they???), I was already picturing where in my display the pin was going to go... Then the cell phone rang. I'd been topped. Someone had just bid close to $1,500. I would have to bid $1,700 to top him.

Did I want to bid?

I had to pause and step back. Yeah, I REALLY wanted the pin, but the price was just too high. I'd already bid well past my imaginary "absolute" limit and this would border on idiocy (plus I was already calculating how many pair of shoes the wife was going to want if I told her how much I spent on "a pin").

A wave of calm swept over me. I let it go.

Later, it occurred to me: This beautiful little pin had just sold for $1,500, I had bid more than $1,300 (and wanted to bid higher). All this trouble and planning, and I could have had the damn pin a year earlier for probably no more than $700. Why, oh why, did we have to buy a house right then??? Couldn't it have waited until I'd completed my collection?? I didn't mind renting, dammit!!

So, it's not the pin I lost during the ITPC auction that makes me wince. It's the one from E-Bay... the one I watched slip away for a song... (cue S&G music from the end of "Mrs. Robinson"...)

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Posted By: Julie

and (it was about 10:00P.M.) we didn't have a fax, so I biked up to the all-night fax place, and faxed Fritsch that I wanted it. It was gone...

But I once got a ex Cracker Jack Jackson for $150 from Fritsch. (I had to sell it in this family's "crash" of '89), but I sure remember thinking, Fritsch may know all about Colgan's Chips, but there sure are some things he doesn't know...

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Posted By: Julie

pin would be very popular in Northern California!

I have actively disliked them since they dropped Mullen's bum (except for Kirk Gibson's home run...)
(and Koufax)
(and some others...)

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Posted By: Paul

About 8-10 years ago, I passed up a Just So Clarkson. I dropped out when it hit $750, which I think was the final selling price. If I'm not mistaken, I lost out to Dennis Purdy. Around the same time, I passed up an E107 Delahanty with a medium vertical crease that went for $550. It had a crease, so I thought I'd wait for another, or an Old Judge, because after all they're pretty common. I also passed up a W600 Delahanty because I thought they were issued in 1910, several years after he died. I can't remember the price, but it was pretty cheap.

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Posted By: TBob

I was at a card show in Kansas City featuring Joe DiMaggio (might have been an early National, come to think about it) and my young daughter who was 9. After meeting Joe D. and having him sign a ball for my daughter and a print for me (and my daughter and Joe D. were photographed together in a picture which appeared on the front page of the KC paper for any of you old timers who remember that!) I settled in and began touring the floor buying my new found passion, T206 cards. I remember buying a Tinker batting in EXMT from a guy by the name of Bill Mastro, our first meeting, and by the end of the day had bought a lot of cards. On the way out a guy came up to me and told me he had some cards for sale. He held out his hand and there were about 50-60 T205s in what looked like EXMT condition. Matty was on the top of the stack. As I recall, he wanted $300 for the whole lot but I was in to T206s and didn't want to start collecting another set. He said $200 as I was walking away, and then said, "Tell you what, the whole stack for $125 I just want to sell them, I'm not in to cards anymore." Like an idiot, I said no. I have always regretted that (duh).
My more recent "ones that got away" can be found almost weekly on ebay. My latest heart stomper was the gold E94 Cicotte that Wayne got me on as we both sniped at the same time and he barely outbid me. Sigh....

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Posted By: jay behrens

I think most likely goes back to the days of Burdick and the original collectors. They weren't so hung up on symantecs, so error and variation essentially meant the same thing. Technically, the card is a variation, but from the time I got into the hobby in 1980, it was always called an error.

Jay

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Posted By: Aaron Michiel

Not that I have any particular dislike for the Dodgers (only indifference). I just always appreciated the doomed sense of irony that pin represented...

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Posted By: runscott

If an error is discovered and the problem is corrected, then the original issue is an error.

A variation is when multiple versions of the same card exist, and none are incorrect. This isn't a matter of semantics, but rather a use of the correct descriptors.

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Posted By: Joe P

Fellow collectors, the original question on this thread has merit and interest. ..... It was my bad.
Because of that, I will continue the Error vs Variation question on a seperate thread.
Thank you.
Joe P.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I got onto the "big fish" story vein and forgot to answer the question about the favorite card.

My sentimental favorite is my 1952 Topps Walt Dropo. It was the first vintage card I ever got (I was probably in fourth or fifth grade) and I'd never seen anything so beautiful in my life. The colors, the team logo, the composition, it was just so captivating. Got me hooked on collecting old cards. Another favorite is my T206 Johnson ready to pitch, which I bought at a show when I was 12 for 12 bucks.

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

I should have spent all the money I had in 1982 show that Bill Mastro was at. He bought a tavble brought 2 briefcase. I did buy one card, my first T202 but I should have spent all my monwy on his stuff.

Lee

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Posted By: Rich Klein

I owned several 1962 Post Cereal cards with that familiar Buck Barker scrawl on the back. As I have continued to build my hobby library as the history is important -- I would sure like to get a card with Buck's name on the back again (and no it does not have to be a 1962 Post card)

Regards,
Rich