Barn Find
 

Posted here because of the # of members in the pre-war arena who have had barn find type experience. Mostly looking for pointers on how to go into the situation below. I also added what I'm going to be looking at.

I am going out to look at a collection of primarily 1940's baseball tomorrow that is supposedly a true "barn find" and a few Goudey's. I know there are some reproductions out there for these years so I'm approaching cautiously. One question I have is whether or not I should expect to see x number of SP's per y number of cards? The guy said there are Ruth's in the group so if there are 5 of them and only 40 cards should that be a red flag? Were there any super prints I would expect to see more of in the Bowman or Leaf sets? I've read up on how to identify the fakes but sometimes I have found that knowing the distribution of the cards themselves helps to determine how they were purchased or collected. I uncovered a find of 39 Playball's 20 years ago and there were two Joe D's and two Williams in a group of about 200 cards. Any advice from seasoned barn find collectors would be helpful.

If it turns out to be legit then I'll certainly share pictures tomorrow evening.

Thanks,

Eric

good luck eric!

No big surprise. Big bust. Lots of modern reprints nicely roughed up to go along with a grand story.

Were thet at least "good" reprints? I have seen people try and pass Topps Archive as the originals...:D

Not really. Not as bad as Archives but pretty bad. I knew better then to get excited but it's hard not to.

keep looking!
 

Hi Eric,
Too bad it didn't work out.
Keep looking, as one of these days you WILL find something nice.
Best Wishes,
Bill Hedin

If this person is knowingly trying to pass off reprints as original cards that would be fraud in my book! Hate to see anyone lose money on this sort of stuff but as the saying goes buyer beware. Maybe the police should be contacted if this person is trying to pull off a scam?

Gee, officer. I thought surely they were real old. I am no expert that's why I called one.:D:D

He was looking for offers and before I left told me I could buy them for $8 bucks so I figured he he was not going to have much luck ripping anyone off. Every opportunity is worth at least a look but I feel kind of stupid for missing the obvious signs. We all dream.

LOL! $8.00 Ok so I guess were not talking grand larceny here!