What's your baseball pet peeve?
 

Is there something big or small about collecting that is like nails on a chalkboard to you?

For me, it's whenever I see a listing on ebay for a 52 Topps card past number 80, which is nevertheless promoted as being a red back. Oy.

Peeves
 

the term pack fresh and references to cards in their natural state as raw

Cards For Sale
 

"Listening to Offers" "Accepting Offers"

If I see no price, it's not for sale

also...........

"Undergraded" "Candidate for Re-Submission" and absolutely any reference to "Pop Reports"

"I'm not a card grader,but I would say this has to be a 9"

grandpa's attic or basement

"Limited Edition Collector's Item"

"slabbed" - first heard that and was like, what? Now it doesn't bother me and I say it...haha.

"passed down from grandfather" - yeah right

"blazer" - took me a while to figure that out...annoying

"rare" - sorry, I LOVE post war cards, but rare is a strong word when there are 5 pages of the item on ebay

"make offers" - couldn't agree more with earlier comment...no price means it's not for sale

"only 1.99!" .....but $10 shipping!

"it would be NrMT if it wasn't for the four creases, round corners and tear!!"

Another pet peeve...ebay sellers whose idea of a counteroffer is to knock off a buck and some change from the original price....you know who I'm talking about...

Shipping Prices
 

High shipping prices for small $$$ items.

Happened to me yesterday on a 64 Challenge Mantle PSA2
It had BIN for like 55..so i made a offer for 47...and find out this morning
they lowered the BIN to like 51..and guess it sold or something...CRAZY

Any time "T206" and "rare" are in the same phrase.

My thoughts
 

"This would be a wonderful addition to your collection"

"God Bless"

Oh, don't be a hater. ;)

Cards listed in the wrong category on Ebay. Especially reprints listed in with the rest of the cards.

Exactly...I HATE the God Bless crap....Great for Sunday mornings, but I don't need to see it in an auction for a Mel Ott auto!

Peeves
 

I mostly don't care whether they say God Bless or screw you in the descriptions, I get annoyed by stuff in the titles that are meant mostly to mess with and catch searches

"L@@k"

Pet Peeve # 3: when a seller describes a card with 80/20 L-R and 60/40 t-B alignment as having "great centering."

Andy,

Yes, I especially hate those Fleer world series cartoon cards that I have to scroll past endlessly. Seriously!

AndyH

Edited to add that I am referring to prewar searches.

Fleer World Series
 

Andy--my only pre war set is the 1923 Fleer set and I am only about half done with it. They do not come up much but a search for 1923 Fleer turns up many a Fleer World Series card....although I have to admit I have that set too :o

Scrolling thru 38 lines of disclaimers and "auction rules" to find a 1 line item description...

Al,

The 1923 Fleer set is crazy to try to complete! How many do you have already? Oh, I am not surprised that you have the world series set either. :D

1923 Fleer
 

Only have 23, but one is the Ruth.

I actually have 3 Fleer World Series sets, the blue backs ( 1903-1969), the black backs ( 1903-1977 and the logo backs ( 1940-1979). The last 4 cards of the 2nd set ( black backs - 74-77) are pretty scarce

+1 That drives me nuts!

There's nothing better than mail day and the excitement of seeing your cards in person for the first time.

There's nothing worse than top loaders wrapped in 6 layers of packaging tape.

+1

holy hell +1!!

"Free s/h" on lower priced singles (less than $10)...nothing like paying for s/h on each card when the intent is to purchase a large number of singles. Although, on the rare chance I may buy just one single, there is usually a good deal to be found with the free s/h cards..

I hate when they put a older looking reprint on ebay. I always click on it and then i finally see RP. Also including the new archives and remakes of the old card on the old cards page. When you filter it to lowest price, the first two pages are reprints and relics. Also when an ebay seller doesnt give a detailed description and says "see scan for condition". Can you just type a few words and tell me if theres any damage.

Psa 6 "from vending"..do we really need to know where it came from now that it is graded

Pet Peeves
 

My all-time pet peeve is when they picture 4 or 6 cards which APPEAR to be sold as a lot but what they are really selling is ONLY ONE of the cards in the group.

You don't know how many times I have almost pulled the trigger thinking its a great deal on a Mantle plus 3 commons only to find it's only Lou Klimchock in the top left corner that is being offered.

I hate it when people use BCCG and claim it's the same as regular grading. "BCCG 9 - Mint"

I hate that BCCG crap..i actually have a few of those TriStar pieces of junk.
They absolutely have very little value. What gives?? It is a Beckett product??
Right?? Couldt just pop it out and re-slab it elsewhere?? I dont know if anyone done this??

I hate "I am not sure if it's authentic so I am selling it as a reprint" and titles like "NOT PSA".

How about when the auction picture has a hair (usually a pube) in it? Clean your frickin' scanners, people!!!!!

I can honestly say I haven't seen that....but I will be looking now for sure! haha...

Mine is ...
 

... when you won't return my emails and PMs Brian!

Cheers,
Patrick

How about wash your hands!

Dont get him started with the sticky reside and scratches on the back.

Oh many I hate this one too, because invariably the one card of the four I would like to buy has already been bought.

Here's another:

When ebay sellers take angled photos of the card, so you can't clearly judge its centering.

While there are many deceptive sellers who intentionally take angled photos with the intent of deceiving a buyer in regards to the actual centering of a card, I recently had my scanner go down and used my digital camera to take photos of some PSA cards I was listing. When I took a picture straight on and not at a slight angle, the flash from my camera reflected off of parts of the card's case in the image rendering large portions unviewable. So I took multiple photos at different angles (to avoid the flash showing up in the image) in order to show that the cards were indeed centered. Thankfully my new scanner arrived within a few days

This thread has been inactive for a while, so I thought that I would add my 2 cents and stir things up a bit.

One of my card collecting pet peeves (I have many) is when a seller lists a player as "HOF", knowing full well that he isn't. I'm not talking about those sellers who erroneously assume players like Roger Maris or Gil Hodges are in the Hall. I'm talking about those douche bags who want to intentionally mislead their customers.

For example...... Right now there's a PSA 8 1950 Bowman Allie Reynolds on eBay auction. This card is listed as "HOF". I sent an eBay message to this seller informing him that Reynolds is NOT a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
This was his response: "He was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1986."
Really??? Are you F***ing kidding me??!!!
I replied with the following: "Then your ad should say so. Otherwise it's DECEPTIVE." That was three days ago, and I've yet to hear back from him. And, oh yes...... His "HOF" eBay ad remains unchanged.

Based on personal experience--it's likely nothing more than a cat hair. I don't even let my cats in the office and they still manage to get their hair on the scan bed. That being said--you're dead on. Just wipe the thing down with a microfiber cloth before scanning. It takes half a second!

Pack fresh ! That card has been out o the pack longer then I've been alive .

At card shows when nothing is priced. I call that the I'll make up a price when asked about it sales approach.

Working on a trade and the other party feels that they deserve the more then you . Reasons the card they have is in great shape ,the paid 30bucks to sit a table , you want that card (and they want what you have ) . You want to trade two cards for that one card so they deserve a premium lol . I believe in fair and even trades .

And yes when you receive a card without a loader and it's stuck between two slivers of cardboard and blue tape .

I can live with any stupid description or lame sales pitch of a card, (comes from a smoke-free home, original owner, untouched for 20 years, etc.) but it's the sellers who use crappy photos instead of scans that drive me absolutely bonkers!

If you want to sell a card over the internet, especially an ungraded card, is it too much to ask that you scan the front and back of the card? My scanner cost less than my iphone! I press one button, it scans the front. I turn the card over, press the same button, it scans the back. The images go right to my computer just like a photo would. This does not require a high level of intelligence or technical knowledge.

Pleeeeease!!!! No more photos of cards from 20 feet away, in the dark, tilted at 30 degree angles. I can't take it anymore!!!!

$200? Sure! I'll take it!
http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psesaymx5m.jpg

I agree times ∞ ...so frustrating. That is why I wear waders when I search eBay...to move through all of the...stuff. :D

For me it's gotta be "Dead centered". When you look it's not even close. :mad:

Peeved
 

We are such a peeved lot. Is anyone out there mellow about the hobby ? :)

I would have to agree that crappy / non-scanner pictures are a pet peeve for me, although they are generally tolerable for graded cards unless the seller is really rushing or just has no clue what they're doing with a phone camera. Also there are times when a picture misrepresents the color / brightness of a card - either for better or worse. ('59 Topps Mays I bought which looked ok in the scan, but duller than a bad penny in hand...)

Also not keen on folks who cannot post a scan of the back of a mid-grade card. What caused that EX looking card to get a PSA 2?


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I'm more mellow collecting mid-grade cards. If I only go for the higher-end stuff for too long, I find myself more concerned with centering, corners, and condition minutiae to the point where the hobby at some point becomes more about my paranoia and perceptions than it is about the fun of owning the cards. Towards the end of my pseudo-dealer days, this had become my mentality. Glad I put an end to that. Oh, and did anyone mention that PSA 5's are a lot more affordable than 8's?!? [emoji3]



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Oh...and if nobody has mentioned this one yet - when a seller lists a graded card while conveniently leaving out a qualifier in the title. PSA 8's that are really PSA 8 OC's, etc.


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I am very tired of "Please read entire description carefully" when what the guy is really saying is "Please read entire description carefully because I have deliberately given this a misleading title to attract eyeballs and buried somewhere below a disclaimer that the card is a reproduction."

I, stupidly, offered this guy $60 initially but stated it was a low bid only because there were no scans of the backs of the cards, and he had the wrong year listed for the Boomer card.

Our conversation went back and forth and he stated he owned a card store from 1988 to 2001, to which I replied, "So when people came in to purchase cards off of you, they didn't look at the backs of the cards"?

The whole thing reeks scam and the only reason I, stupidly, bid was the fact the card is in Ontario Canada, where I also live, so I thought I could save some money.

Anyways, he refused to post pics of the backs of the cards and this is what he wrote/updated in his ad. LOL :rolleyes:
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-art-collectib...ade/1101439704

I couldn't agree more! I found that trying to complete my '69 and '72 sets in high grade ended up not being very fun at all, so I'm all done with high grade stuff. Buying low grade cards is actually really fun because you can afford more, and you don't worry so much about getting scammed. As has been stated many times, it's just a picture on a piece of cardboard. It's the history of the cardboard I find interesting, not how sharp the corners are.

Very well put. Think about other collectibles and antiques, is anything held to quite such a standard as cards? Those guys on American Pickers are always buying "junk" that are really gems from people's barns and attics that are rarely in mint condition. I think our view of condition with cards that came out of the 1980's and into the era of professional grading was largely due to the influence of the coin hobby. If there are any collectibles that are more highly scrutinized than cards, coins win, I think. Bottom line, the fact that some cards are in fabulous condition and are incredibly attractive does not mean that those which aren't quite up to that standard aren't still very collectible and desirable and most of all...fun.

I thought of one more: When less than knowledgeable people refer to everything valuable as a "rookie card." A "T-206 Honus Wagner rookie card." (Or Ty Cobb). Just because something is valuable does not mean it has to be a rookie card. For pre-war that's always been a real stretch for me anyway...just seems wrong to call a tobacco card that when the term would not even come into vogue until like 70 years after they were made...

This pertains to modern cards, more than anything, but when I see this:

"Serial #18/100, the uniform number he wore in college. 1 of 1!!!!!!!"

Hey, you knucklehead, if you think that some randomly stamped gold number adds value to the card, be my guest. That's stupid, but go for it.

But every card with a serial number is a 1 of 1.
#1/100 is a 1 of 1
#2/100 is a 1 of 1
#99/100 is a 1 of 1

Get it?

A 1 of 1 is a card that is unique. But, then again, most people don't understand the concept of something being unique. That's another pet peeve, a grammatical one. When I see somebody say "it's the most unique...", my colon clenches, and my head wants to explode. Something is either unique, or it is not. There are no degrees of uniqueness.

Wow. What a jack@ss...



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Afraid I could go on and on here.

What about Auction Houses that hysterically scream "1 of 3" at this grade!!! with bated breath, because SGC has only three at that grade -- and they know full well that PSA has 9 at a BETTER GRADE. So 1 of 3, ultra rare, etc., etc. really is a little misleading. . . . .

Unique
 

Ok, I think I get unique = one of a kind. Now can you help with rare and scarce.

I'm not a fan of certain auction houses giving favoritism to their top consignors regardless of the value of the card. I've seen cards that should go for $3k+ be in a tiny corner of the magazine, but a Banks PSA 4 rookie having half of a page. Not all AH's, just a couple in the past.

not enough band-width to list.

don't wanna make the site crash...

Listing with no prices, just accepting offers. I don't really use blowout forums, but noticed they have a rule that any BST ad with no price will be removed. I would like to see that rule adopted here.

that easy to resolve just dont offer anything unless there is price listed

I usually don't unless I really want the card. It just seems to me there should be a starting point provided by someone listing a card for sale. I shouldn't have to come up with the price or negotiate against myself. One of a few pet peeves I suppose I have when it comes to collecting.

Another someone else mentioned I completely agree with is calling a card dead centered, or even well centered when it's clearly off. It's not that hard to tell if a card is centered or not people.

+1