Did I sell too early? You be the judge...
 

Stumbled across an ebay listing of a Mike Trout 2009 Bowman Sterling Auto and it brought back some bad memories...


What was a sale you look back on and makes you hate yourself? haha


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When I sold 4 Michael Jordan rookies to BBC when he was paying $750 for PSA 8's and $900 on PSA 9's. I had 3 - 8's and 1 - 9.

Or when I sold 4 PSA 8 Topps Gretzky rookies for 750.00 each at a card show.

Thanks for the memories.....

Sales now would have paid my kids college tuition.

I can't believe I've waited long enough that my 1990's wax boxes may actually be worth something.

Whenever i think of a few cards I've sold I throw up a little in my mouth. Best plan is to just not think about it at all...

I also sold my Trout rookies way too early. I sold all my Trouts years ago for around $150 total. It was a fair price at the time, but I wish I had held them. Why didn't I just keep one of the Topps Updates!!


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My Bowman Draft has doubled since I bought it. Probably will sell it and finance a signed card instead, which is what I prefer for modern players anyway.

51 mantle vg-ex for less than 8K maybe 1 1/2 yrs ago
bunches of goudey ruths
e121 ruths
bunches of t206 cobbs
t206 rare backs

I think the answer is everything that I ever sold I sold too early!!!

Thankfully I haven' sold anything that I have regretted but in hindsight, there are many that I wish I had of purchased but didn't because I thought things were on the pricey side and would eventually come down.

One that immediately comes to mind was a PSA 10 Sidney Crosby RC that I could have had for $1,000 CDN. A thousand was a thousand and I thought my wife would kill me.

Those cards are currently going for around the $5,000 CDN mark now in a BGS 9.5. and even higher in the PSA 10's.

I also regret, instead of going for 52 commons starting back in 2016, that I didn't grab the highs instead, but who knew? :(

I would like my SGC 40 Cobb Bat Off back. I sold it for 3 times what I paid but if I'd waited a little longer I'd have been making 5 or 6.

I sold a 1949 Leaf Spahn for $12 in 1977. The a-hole buyer's check bounced and I haven't sold a card since.

I try not to look back
 

Mostly I try not to look back understanding hindsight is 20-20. I am grateful the collectibles world has been good to me. I have 1 regrettable sale that I recall. Shortly after PSA entered the marketplace and there was a lot of debate going on whether they were needed or if they would last..... I had purchased a big Clemente collection including a beautiful 1968 3D test card. I sold the card raw for $6500 which was good money a the time. The guy I sold it to (later became a friend) immediately sent it to PSA which graded it a 9 - the card was worth 30K (1 sold at auction shortly after) a few weeks after I sold it!!

And 1 "good one" that got away. My mom had passed in 2008 and left me some $$. I flagged some of it to put into collectibles. I was super close to pulling the trigger on a PSA 8.5 Clemente rookie for 10K. at the time 8's were selling for about 3K and 9's for about 30K. I ended up not buying it and bought some other stuff (can't even tell you what!). An 8.5 recently sold for 210K :eek:

I've got a few I'd love to have back, including a couple Dietsche Cobbs, and an 8MC Mantle rookie. However, the vast majority of my card sale funds have been re-invested into new cards, which in turn have appreciated at similar rates to the cards sold. Cycle of the collecting life.

What haunts me most are the cards I didn't buy when I had the chance. Underbidder on a PSA2 Gehrig rookie at about $2200, missing out on a PSA4 Ruth rookie at about 1/20 of current value, passing on multiple signed Mays rookies, on and on.

Luckily I never sell anything. Just ask my wife! ;)

I wish...

I'd bought every Goudey Ruth and Gehrig 20 years ago.
I'd bought a 1952 Topps Mantle a decade ago.
I'd bought a 1925 Exhibit Gehrig 20-30 years ago when I was amassing Exhibit cards
I'd bought Apple in 2009.

As the HOF boxer Carlos Ortiz said to me when I met him at an event and realized that I forgot to bring my card of him: "Face it, my friend, you f****d up."

I traded a '52T Jackie Robinson PSA 5 to Pete Sycks for around $6k in trade a few months ago. I think he quickly sold it for $7-8k. It's now on ebay (PWCC) for $119k.

By fluke, or luck, or whatever, I'm 3/4 on these.

Yea same here. I'd gladly take any card back I've sold at what I sold it for. Much more in many cases. But I'm sure the same is true for everyone these days

Wow! sorry to make you think about that again. It's best to just look back and laugh.

Graded
 

I don't have any huge horror stories but there are a handful of graded rookies about 5 years ago that (stupidly) decided to "streamline" my collection but now I want those cards back, and the prices are x2 x3. Also, these cards were perfect in terms of what I like condition-wise.

1968 Nolan Ryan SGC 60 EX Centered
1959 Bob Gibson RC PSA 5 Centered
1958 Roberto Clemente Yellow Team Variation SGC 84 NM 7
1970 Roberto Clemente PSA 7 O Pee Chee
A couple graded mid-grade+ late 60s Mantle

I began to list the various items that have slipped through my fingers, but the regret and foolishness for letting them go overcame me as always. It was over 30 years ago and who knows if I would have kept them anyway, but it was fun having them, and the experience of working in the hobby for nearly 20 years beat working a minimum wage gig. What I learned was that when one gets off of the merry-go-round, the price of readmission may keep one from boarding it again.

I can think of 3 cards that I sold in late 2019 before the boom that I'd love to have back:

1952 Topps Mays PSA 5,
1954 Topps Aaron PSA 5,
2011 Topps Update Trout PSA 10

That said, I wouldn't have been able to buy my t206 Cobb Green and E95 Wagner if I still had those 3 cards. I don't know if I made the right financial decision, but I don't regret having Wagner and Cobb in my collection.

I wish I could have my Camnitz Red Cross Type 1 back. Didn't know what I had while I had it:

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10 years ago I stumbled upon 6.5 wax pack boxes of 1976-77 topps basketball. I paid $120.00 for them and sold them to Steve Hart for $4000. Trust me Im not complaining. I went on fun shopping spree and picked a number items I had always dreamed of owning. I still have many of those items in my collection. Nonetheless if I had the patience And foresight to hold onto to them I could have really done much better today. If selling them too early is the worst decision I make I’m thinking I’m doing pretty good.

Not much out of the stuff I've sold, since I haven't sold much of the nicer stuff.

I came across a small batch of these, and traded a McCovey washington card for them. Immediately traded about half to the local shop for another McCovey washington... I've never seen any more of these.

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The very mixed 48 Bowman set I'd put together that went to fund a ski trip..

And like most, I have the stuff I regret not buying. Only I didn't buy it 40 years ago.

Goudey Ruths at 100
T206 HOFers at $10
Orr USA rookie 100,
52 Mantle was under 1000 for a nice one.
Pretty much all the 50's catds were inexpensive. 54 Aaron was maybe 60. I forget how much the Clemente was, but it wasn't as big a deal as it is now.

My Goodness!

Yes, I try not to. It is difficult when you see the card at auction on ebay. :(

I try not to think about it. My list of regrets is relatively short for a collecting career that is now standing at 35 years, but here goes:

*Forget how I acquired it, but sold a '52 Topps #312 Jackie, probably G-VG (perfect, and I mean perfectly centered...) but with a light vertical crease down the middle - almost the length of the card - did not break the surface - one of those "twist in the light to see" issues - for $500 or so probably along about 2002.

*E92 Dockman Cy Young. I bought at a show also in the early 2000's for maybe $500 raw. I did not know much about E cards at the time, and this proved to be my downfall. I somehow convinced myself the card was trimmed, and sold it on eBay. I made my money back or took a small loss. About 6 months later I saw the same card, and I know it was mine by identifying marks - in a PSA 5 slab where it then sold for about 4x what I had in it at the time. Who knows what that would go for today...

*A nice and centered PSA 5 '53 Topps Satchel Paige that I paid $420 I think for in 2017. I sold it about a year and a half later for a modest profit. Poof...well, that's worth a ton more now.

Anymore I keep coming back to the same lesson learned: Just don't sell cards. Do you really have to? Be bored for awhile. It's sometimes better than selling something to finance whatever it is you have to have in the moment...only to to realize you F'd up later. :mad:

You can't predict future prices-- and of course they drop too. The only regrets are bad sales for the time. But, then, they're stories.

I have several cards that I regret selling too early. However, my biggest regrets are not the cards that I sold too early, but the cards I didn’t buy early. Unless the market significantly tanks, it’s now likely that I’ll never own them. :mad:

Ditto. I also regret buying a good chunk of my collection rather than devoting the money to other cards. It isn't a stretch to think that had I bought ten cards 30 years ago (and they were ones i could have afforded) I could retire on them today.

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