Festivus - Airing of Grievances
 

For Seinfeld fans, December 23rd is the holiday of Festivus. Here is more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus

One part of Festivus is the Airing of Grievances:

The "Airing of Grievances" takes place immediately after the Festivus dinner has been served. In the television episode, Frank Costanza began it with the phrase, "I got a lotta problems with you people, and now you're going to hear about it!" It consists of each person lashing out at others and the world about how they have been disappointed in the past year.

Anyone have any card-related grievances for 2021? Air them out!

PSA taking a year to grade my cards.

Me too :(

I had hoped for a Festivus miracle, but no such luck.

Serenity now, serenity now.

Ha great thread. Looking forward to seeing where this one goes.

I haven't grown my hair back.

.

I am irritated when toilet paper sticks to the bottom of my shoe and no one tells me about it.....

It chaffs me...... :rolleyes:

I have given up on that and now embrace the bald head o' mine. ;-)

But you are beloved by the forum members. Surely that is better than flowing locks. Isn't it? Hmm.

That SGC has stopped grading T206 errors and blanks....PSA slabs just don't present as nice IMO. :mad:

https://i.imgur.com/R7IdwON.png

Prices aren't falling on the cards I want to buy. :mad:

I haven't found the 1934 Goudey Gehrig, 1941 Play Ball DiMaggio and Williams, and 1958 Topps Mantle cards I foolishly sold years ago when I was desperate for money. Sold them, and others, for $200! I have replacements of them now, but for WAY MORE than $200 clams, I can tell you!

To add on to that, I hate when I can't get a new roll of toilet paper started and I end up tearing through three layers of it because I can't get that starter tab unstuck.

Tired of investors and flippers.

Kicking myself that I didn't buy a Trout rookie before the boom.

Upset that I wasn't born in 1935, could've gotten all the cards I wanted on the cheap, a Nice house too! :D

Festivus
 

Wife put my Dan Brouthers in the Penske File!!

Pensky: Where's Tuttle?
George: He's on vacation.
Pensky: He was on vacation the last time I dropped by. Give me my file. [looks through the file] Looks like you put a lot of work into this.
George: Well, you know in college they used to call me the little bulldog.
Pensky: Hey, you are Pensky material. Would you ever consider coming to work directly for me?

Laziness in the Industry

Amen to THAT! :p

Card sellers that don't show backs of cards. I can think of a few :D

leaf-blower
 

Someone working a gas powered leaf-blower for more than 30 minutes...Jerry

A bit miffed that time-travel hasn't come to pass...

Would love to go back to, say, 1911 or so, and get a hoard of all the cards folks go all gaga over today, and then jump back to now. But then, when I post 'em here or try to sell 'em, they'll say they're fake.

Amen!

As a comic I love Festivus because the airing of grievances allows for a free form complaint fest. I'm probably going to regret it but here are grievances I air around this time of the year when I do stand-up:

Handicapped people correcting me to say "disabled": stop bitching, you already have the good parking. Now I can't even say handicapped? That's retarded.

Costco food samplers laying all sorts of rules on me. You're handing out junk food in a warehouse not saving the manatees. Just put the food in the cup and STFU.

The sign at the Y's pool that warns people with active diarrhea to stay out of the pool: who goes swimming with the trots?

Guys who post on social media about their " lovely bride": you know, "At dinner with my lovely bride. Twenty years and still as madly in love as ever." Besides the fact that I throw up a little in my mouth whenever I read something like that, you're trying too hard. Those are the guys we have to worry about. If we don't see the lovely bride for a few weeks odds are her head is in a bowling bag and he's eating her liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

A guest dropping a dookie in my office or house. Be a decent person and hold it in until you get to your own toilet. What do you want next, sex with my wife?

White people using black slang: if I hear one more white woman saying she's woke I am going to hit someone.

People who say don’t speak ill of the dead. Why, do jackholes get better with age? And if that's the rule, why don't we hear nice things about Hitler?

Couples who say they are best friends. Yeah, because they suck at making friends.

CVS's mile long receipt. I'm just trying to buy a battery for my car key fob, not wallpaper my bathroom. And what's worse now that I'm in my fifties is that the offers are insulting. 20 years ago, it was offers for tequila and condoms, now it is stool softener and mouthwash.

People who say I forgot to eat. I have forgotten my keys. I have forgotten my wallet. I've even forgotten the baby bucket on the roof of the car. I have never, ever forgotten to eat. Anyone who says that they forgot to eat should be forced to fast for two weeks. Won't forget that again.

People who give gift cards from fast food places. Yeah, when you want to show just how little you care.

My wife complaining about my taking a dump.
"Oh my god, what are you doing in there?"
"Masturbating. What do you think I'm doing? Leave me alone."

Religious nuts who praise God for saving them from the tornado that wrecked their town. "Jesus loves us he saved us from the tornado!" Maybe but he sure hates your neighbors.

Pregnant women who expect me to congratulate them.
If you want congratulations for a pregnancy come back in twenty years and we will see how the kid turned out, Mrs. Hitler. Be a hell of s thing to get on the train to the death camp thinking "damn, I congratulated his mother."

Whoever invented truck nuts.
When I look at a truck I never think "say, that would look great with balls."

Scented markers. We tell kids "Don't huff glue" but it is Ok to smell these?

As much as I appreciate the extra leg room on flights how about some extra ass room? Not everyone is built like a 14 year old Asian girl.

Thanks, you've been a great crowd. Enjoy Twisted Sister.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...edy%20Fest.jpg

The key is to find a safe place to stash them in 1911 that remains standing and unrenovated in 2021. That way they’ll naturally age, but stay in top condition.

Easier said than done. :)

Many sellers or traders selling on BST but not including photos of what they are selling. But they put selling prices for them for big dollars and say “ email me”

Sometimes there are no prices, either.

THREAD WINNER!!!!!!

Thank you for the laughs….

my grievance is "puffery," I'm not a fan!

To add, auctions with starting prices higher than eBay BINs. Bumping their overprices auctions daily and multiple times a day on occasion. Relisting the same auction over and over that don't sell because of the WAY too high starting price. Luckily it is only a couple people.

eBay winning bidder doesn’t pay and has zero communication

I can always appreciate a misanthropic point of view- well stated and enjoyable to read.

Phil aka Tere1071

eBay sellers that are open to offers, but then bitch and moan when you actually do.

Great stuff. I admire anyone who can stand up and try live comedy.
Thanks for sharing...

Toilet paper put on rolls backwards, where it drops down from the back.

Also, incessant emails from AH's in the last 48 hours. Look, I just viewed your auction but have not found anything that fits my needs. Perhaps email me if I actually bid on something, but that's it.

BST Threads! Put FS, WTB, WTTF etc in the title - AND please edit the title once the item is SOLD.

Oh boy. Healthy to air these out...

1. These new jacks on social media who randomly ask you what you think their shit is worth. Like Tommy Lee said to Harrison Ford at that waterfall: I DON'T CARE.

2. The self-anointed, gauche, wannabe Gordon Gekko gurus who've sprung up in the last year or two like some kind of hobby fungus— these guys act like someone made them mayors of the hobby. The Gary V's etc.— along with their audience. I don't see what credentials they have, that would ever make me prostrate myself before them. And almost all of the time, the crap they're spewing is solely designed to put money in their pockets. Some of these guys are just brazen wannabe Wall Street Turks who are all about cash cash cash, oblivious to how crass and obnoxious they look. But the sneakily more odious variant are the ones who try and cloak and gild themselves in some form of genuine card-lover, passionate collector schtick.

3. New jacks who put something up for sale without a price tag. If you're selling it, tell me the number you want. This is a business transaction not a flirtation.

4. These guys on social media who try and flaunt high grade cards that have middling at best eye appeal, but just cost a bundle. Cards that anyone with money can just immediately get at the next auction. Try finding and sharing a standout example of a card that is always found blurry or tilted or off-centered, or a piece that is really scarce or rare, something not seen every day. If I see another of these Tom Brady ticket cards I'm gonna barf.

5. Fixed price listings, be it on eBay, PWCC vault, anywhere, that are just wholly untethered to any reality or pricing data in this dimension.

The above need to make like an un-doctored vintage card and get bent. Okay, exorcised now. Off to hit leg day and burn off all that Xmas food.

So you come here often? :D

Well played, sir. Well played :D

This ⬆️… big time.

People not honoring their word
 

I was recently dealing with a member who sells a lot here on BST and whom I had purchased from before.

He was selling an item he was not sure what the value was. He wrote:

"If I can get some responses on pricing you'll have first shot".

He then replied:

"just had another member offer me, get this, $1500. I had no idea. I don't know where that puts you but that's WAY more than I thought".

It was way more than I thought too. But I replied:

"Gulp! Me too. I was thinking much less than that. But since you gave me first shot and I really want it I'll swallow REAL HARD and match the offer."

His reply:

"as I was responding to you the other guy said he'd like to up the offer to $1800. I'm not going to start a bidding war but if you want to put in one last offer please feel free".

Needless to say I felt really put off. Not knowing anyone who would up their offer before a reply to their first. I replied

"I'm feeling jerked around a bit here.

I am hoping you will keep the promise you gave me and honor the $1500 for me".

I assume you can guess what happened.

Maybe it's just me. Wonder how others feel

Well, Fred since we all deal with the devil because stuff trumps all else, I wouldn't get too bunged up when a seller makes it all about money...because at this stage, it is all about the money.

A big one for me is AH’s not responding to emails about a current auction lot, specifically just requesting a back scan of a card I wish to bid on.

When anybody says: "It's called The Hall of Fame, not the Hall of (insert irrelevant word or phrase here)".

That sends me into the Hulk Smash zone. :mad:

So true Brian! If you are only accepting a 3 or 4% reduction of the asking price and get mad when someone offers 10 or 15% less, just stick to BIN selling!

Card is in the mail.:D Just not to you.:(

I hope the seller was playing games, trying to get more money, and is now stuck with the card.

If they come back to you with some BS story about the buyer backing out...tell them, "sorry, best I can do is $1,200."

Um, guys, the OP said CARD-related grievances. Here are mine:

- Facebook morons. The number of losers on these Facebook card groups is staggering! These guys ask stupid questions daily like "how much is my card worth? Should I send this in for grading? Is this ungraded rookie card real? Is SGC good?" In short, these guys don't know shit and they don't have shit. You have to go through 500 of these morons to find one good collector over there.

- Basement grading companies. Lots of new card grading companies were created during the pandemic and guess what? Most of them are slabbing YOUR cards in their parents' basements! Why would anyone choose to submit their cards to KKK grading instead of PSA or SGC or Beckett? Because they are taking too long? Give me break, seriously! Oh, and one more thing: getting your cards slabbed by these basement grading companies adds zero value to your cards!

- Gary Vaynerchuk. This guy had the hobby by the balls for a while and how he managed to do that is beyond me! This is somebody - unheard of before the pandemic - that could post a $200 dollar card on his Twitter account and a few weeks later it would be trading at fifty-thousand! Like seriously, wtf?? Are people really that stupid? Can they not just buy the stuff that THEY like?

- NFTs. I still don't know what they are and how they can make the hobby a better place. When I read about NFTs, it's like trying to read and understand Arabic.

- Flippers who pose as collectors. Now, there is nothing wrong with flipping cards, but posing as a collector (when your intention is to do a quick-flip) is just wrong.

- Guys who want Q1 prices for their cards Yep, go on eBay, and nearly all the cards listed their are at Q1 prices! Oh, and they don't care that card prices dropped quite a bit since then. Nope, cause' it's still January baby, so just pay up and shut up! Yee-ha!

My house! hasn't had much major work since right around 1910. Which is both the good news and the bad news....

I've been all over it, even in the very hard to reach places. Nothing. Oh, a very dirty nylon Cowboys mini football I suspect the tennants kid lost, and a lobster trap. The carriage house still has some horse feed in the bins, and some very old tire chains in a cupboard.

To clarify, when we looked at the place the owner was renting it out. It's single family.
Those tenants did leave us a cat who was pretty cool once he got used to people wo weren't A-holes. Seriously, who moves and just sticks the cat outside and leaves?

Considering what his graded "artwork" sold for...

I'll take, "they're freakin' idiots" for a thousand, Alex.

When my wife and I lived in an apartment complex, there was a cat suddenly wandering around the courtyard one day. It was the first of the month, and this cat's former family did exactly that.

We shared 12 wonderful years together. He crossed the rainbow bridge in 2017. We still miss him dearly.

That's how we got our current cat, Walter White and Black.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...alter%20CU.JPG

My wife's co-worker said that a family abandoned him and my cat had died several months before, so the timing was perfect.

1 - Any and all things eBay customer service.
2 - Sellers who list cards as EX-MT which arrive with creases in them or who say "no, there are no creases on this card" after specifically being asked if there are any creases, but then the card shows up with 4 obvious creases that couldn't be seen in the photos.

1. People on this site who ask for tough high-grade cards in order to get dibs on them. "Hi, I am looking for a high-grade well-centered 67T Brooks Robinson for a reasonable price." Aren't we all, dude.

2. People who pay $201 for a low-grade 52T Pafko.

3. People who show pictures of their cats on a baseball card forum.

4. Scrupleless people, especially on this site, for whom the term caveat emptor was coined. Thankfully they are the exception here, not the rule.

And in closing, if anyone has high-grade well-centered 1960's short print or star cards they might sell, I call dibs on all of them.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Agree with no 2. I wish people would just be honest with each other.

People who post about a card they saw, a story they read, a video they saw or whatever else, then don't post a link to said subject.
I understand about outing an auction but if you're going to talk about some card, rare or other, most people are going to look for it anyway so just post the link.

I see this all the time in the BST Ebay/Auction/Etc. section.

Some variation of: "I have this card/memorabilia on Ebay/Heritage/Memorylane/etc..."

No link, no picture, no ID, nothing.......you basically just gave me a job, to go search out your item.

Why even bother? :confused:

Hey! I resemble that remark.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...e/IMG_0399.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...e/IMG_0370.jpg

Walter White and Black...Heisenberg to the local rat population. Five confirmed kills this year (the ones he brought home to share with us). As far the rodents go

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...o%20knocks.gif

I could use a little less of the "doomsday" folks on here. Especially the ones who have been touting impeding doom for the last 5-years.

Did I miss "People who post their new pick-ups, proudly stating how long they've been looking for it or how it was their childhood hero or something, then the next day it's listed for sale in the BST thread"??

That is a good one

Well, that's just silly. :p

Happy New Year. :)

When dogs don't get as equal time as the cats...

Modern cards as a whole. Refractor, cracked ice, optic, prism, gold, silver, blue, orange, red. I could care less. Your card went up because your rookie had a good game??, my guys are already in the hall. To even attempt to figure modern cards out makes me want to wait at every green light until it turns yellow, then go. I enjoy the good old days, Topps, Bowman for a few years, with a few food cards sprinkled in.

Amen!

Dogs should only be allowed on this thread while under close supervision.

Brian

I want Dealer Services to quit calling me.

.

Oh, that's a good one. Phone calls from auctioneers. Not only is it annoying, it smacks of desperation. Trust me, I know about your damn auction; if I haven't bid on anything it is because your stuff does not interest me.

Along the same lines are emails "Having reviewed your bidding history we believe the following lots may be of interest to you." and half the items listed are either modern basketball or Pokémon cards. If you are going to state items are based on things I've bid on in the past, make sure I have actually bid on similar items previously.

Please, eBayer sellers, stop sending me offers on cards I have no interest in!!! If I 'viewed' your auction, I didn't actually look at it, I just clicked on it to mark it as read (so I know where to pick up my search next time). If I have genuine interest in your card, it'll be added to my watch list. A view means nothing, nada, zilch. And for the love of criminy, if you send me an offer, do the frickin' math and make it a nice deduction off of your stupid price. When you offer a 4% discount on a card that's 200% overpriced, nobody on the planet is going to jump at it!!!!!!!!!!!

Deep breath. Whew, that felt good.

+ 1 Agreed

But Please tell me what you are viewing I only get a 2% discount

Lol that was great Darren! I feel better now too!

Here is one…….

Freakin’ scotch tape.

Nuff’ said.

YES! I get sick of seeing all of these wasted top loaders. Blue Tape!

366. Stickstacking
Rifling through your piles of empty toploaders, trying to find a single clean one that’s free of tape residue and not stuck to other ones.

367. Starter Sets I love it when folks want to dump their duplicate commons (meaning guys nobody ever heard of) as a generous "starter set".

I especially love it when this graciously offered "starter set" is priced 3 or more times greater than what this junk is even close to worth.

Totally agree with that one!

Or a ‘near complete set’ that has less than a quarter of the cards of the complete set for sale. Basically it ain’t NEAR anything.

Sell the card, not the slab/grade
 

We all say to buy the card, not the slab…

Yet the vast majority of sellers (auction houses, eBay, even BST) don’t even bother to describe the condition of the card that is for sale. We’re expected to guess the condition based on a 2 dimensional picture on a screen?

Auction houses are the worst as they’ll write 2 paragraphs on Ty Cobb’s statistics yet fail to mention there’s a tough to see (on screen) crease right through his eyeballs! Ugh!

I want to know every defect of the 100 something year old piece of paper

I know, right? it's like the stock pimps from boiler rooms who cold-call my office and claim we spoke about an incredible investment last month. If you are gonna hassle me at least don't insult my intelligence.

1. "Set Breaks" that have 5 cards listed.
2. Increasingly clever ways to try to hide the fact that a card is a reprint - making me have to view the listing directly rather than exclude from the search.
3. Opening bid prices on auctions that are so high they never receive a bid and just keep getting relisted. I swear there are some cards that have been listed this way since 2015!
4. Failing to provide back scans.
5. Ebay eliminating the distinction between baseball, football, basketball, etc cards.
6. Getting a "Your payment is due, your purchase is going to be cancelled" e-mail 2 hours after winning an auction.

I could go on, but I will stop. Phew, it does feel good to vent!

We are in a bubble. The market for modern basketball is overbought with lots of fresh Jordon RC's hitting the market as PSA finally clears the backlog. Mike Trouts base RC retreated as he was out for a good part of the year with injury. I still think pre-war is the place to be simply because of a much smaller potential inventory.
And speaking of card prices, I wonder how Charlie Brown's favorite player/card fared in 2021. I know he is Joe W. but I can never remember his full name.