Selling cards to a players family
 

I had a couple of graded Old London coins for sale on eBay. I've just sold one of them - Dave Wickersham coin to the player's cousin. He'll be giving this to Dave or Dave's son.

It got me wondering, if there are other stories of members selling cards or memorabilia to the family of the player depicted.

So let's have those stories. I'm sure there's many better than mine.

A little off topic but I've always enjoyed buying and giving the last card a collector needed to finish his set as a gift.

Didn't sell, but gave some to a former client of mine who's last name is Uhle.

Sold a lot of error cards and oddball regional cards to players and their family members back in the early days of eBay till around 2002. Sold Brian Holman some error cards of himself and emailed with him off and on for about a year. He is a great guy and had a lot of Griffey and Johnson stories.

I done this with a fellow member. I knew he needed one card for his PSA player set that at the time was the #1 set. I was doing a fairly large deal with another member for a bunch of Ted Williams cards and other 50s-60s HOFers. I asked if he had the Joe Torre card the other member needed. He said yes so I bought it and had him mail it directly to the other member with no return address. A few days later the member that received the card emailed me saying I would not believe what he just got in the mail. After a few days I let him know how/why he got the card.

I have sent and received many free cards from members. It is one of the things that makes this forum special.:D

Lefty Gomez daughter purchased a snapshot photo from me. I didn't know until she wrote me a nice message explaining how much she loved that particular photo of her dad. I added a few extra snapshot photos of Lefty with her package. She was very grateful for the surprise.

Grba, McLain, etc.
 

I've been working with John Miley, selling his complete game audio CDs for the past 20+ years and have sold several to players and their families. Eli Grba bought the first game in Angels history (4/11/1961) that he pitched and won, and then he called me and we talked about it. I asked him about Bo Belinsky but the guy he wanted to talk about was his good friend Dean Chance. He said if I ever wanted to get any of my Met Stadium seats signed by Dean (who was a 20 game winner with the Twins in 1967) I could go through him, since Dean wasn't always easy to reach for such requests. Sadly, Dean passed away before we could arrange it.

I sold the complete 1968 World Series runs to both Don Wert's family and also Sharon McLain. Nelson Briles' family bought some games he pitched in, and I included a picture of a note Nelson wrote to me when I was in high school asking for autographs/pitching advice. His wife (or daughter, can't remember) wrote back and said it brought back memories, seeing his handwriting again.

Steve Blass' family bought about 8 copies of the 7th game of the 1971 World Series, to distribute among family members one Christmas. I've gotten orders every once in awhile through the years from Dave McNally's son, for games Dave pitched, and Ray Culp bought a couple games he pitched. There have been some others, but there generally isn't much of a story to go along with them.

I've sold game used bats to Glenn Borgman's son, Steve Hovley's son, and Harmon Killebrew's daughter. In those cases, I let them go pretty cheaply because the bats meant so much more to them than they would to anyone else. But again, no interesting stories to tell.

I have, but those stories aren't terribly interesting. These somewhat related ones are better:

In the early days of eBay, I had a vintage Joe Gordon signed GPC up for auction. Joe's daughter took the time to write, "Yup, that sure looks like a genuine autograph of my father. Neat!" This was years before his induction. At the time, I think it was the only Gordon autograph then listed on eBay.

Duane Ward is/was a collector and eBay seller, at least at one point!

Have any of you been contacted directly by a player as a result of something you listed? I once received a nasty, unsolicited message from a player whose autograph I had listed. "People like you are the reason I don't sign anything!". Funny, because he wrote a letter to another collector not long before this which alluded to his Christian faith being the reason he no longer signs (no precise explanation given other than that hint). I was rather offended at the "people like you" jab, as I was already familiar with his reputation as a non-signer and had never once troubled him for anything. The item in question was simply a career-era example of his signature which I myself had purchased for my own collection and was reselling in order to recoup what I had into it. I don't feel like putting his name out there, as he clearly spends all kinds of time Googling himself. :)

Grba was a nice guy. I was actually put into contact with him through an eBay seller with whom I had struck up a friendly correspondence. He also put me in touch with the very kind '61 Yankee Johnny James.

Sold a 1939 Play Ball Schoolboy Rowe to his granddaughter about 20 years ago.

Sutthoff
 

I gave a very cool card to a grandchild of a major league player. He came on the forum and asked about cards of his grandfather. So it was paying it forward a little bit. He enjoyed it.

https://luckeycards.com/phunc1910ssutthoffcafe.jpg

I sold a great original photo of Chicago Bears legend Marshall Goldberg to Golberg through his grandson. His grandson said Marshall, who was about 90 at the time, said he'd never seen it before.

I am a shirt tail relation to Dick Wakefield. My Grandpa's sister, my Aunt Betty, married his brother, my Uncle Jack. I met Dick once when I was about 7 or 8. I tracked down his Bowman card when I was in high school. In the early days of Ebay I tracked down all of his major cards. My mom's cousin is Dick's godchild. She is a big baseball fan as well. We both, unknowingly, bid against each other on one of his baseball gloves on Ebay. Whoops.

Dick was friends with Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. According to my cousin he was godfather to their daughter Carrie also.

Last summer I sent my cards over to my cousin, she has a small display set up at her home of his memorabilia. I kept a Dick Wakefield autograph I had. My grandpa got it years ago when a bunch of players got together to do a fund raiser dinner for Dick. Sparky Anderson and Jolting Joe were there too, I have both of their autographs from that dinner.

Of course, it should be noted that Dick's father, Howard, played ball too for Cleveland back in the early 1900's. My cousin went to the HOF library many years ago and looked up her Grandpa Howard. He died young, long before she was born. The librarian at the HOF brought out a picture of him and it brought her to tears as she had never seen a photo of him.

I gave Ernie Lombardi's grandson a raw 1941 Double Play of Lombardi. At least I think I did...I mailed it to someone named Lombardi who made that claim.

Jeremy Hazelbaker's mom bought one of his autographed rookie cards from me on eBay.

Johnathan Pettibone bought his game used Phillies jersey from me on eBay as well.

A Syracuse player bought his game used football jersey from me on eBay.

Anthony Volpe's grandfather is known for buying lots of his cards online.

I once had a buyer with the last Mejia from Puerto Rico buy a Francisco Mejia Rookie auto from me and so I mentioned the same last name and he said they were cousins:)


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Back in the early 2000s, I sold Ryan Anderson cards to his dad multiple times.

I pulled a Ryan Tatusko card numbered to 25 in probably the 2010 range. I posted about it on a message board and he actually contacted me and purchased it himself.

I feel like there was another time I sold to a family member on eBay, but the name just escapes me.

Same theme but flip flopped.

Years ago I won a 6 card lot on eBay of 1935 Goudey 4 in 1s. There were all in variety a conditions. When I received them there was a note explaining that they were put together years earlier for the 6 card puzzle on the back of HOFer Chuck Klein. The seller was Klein’s nephew.

Drew

Klein's nephew collected his uncle's memorabilia. I recall reading a great article in Baseball Cards magazine over 30 years ago that detailed an incredible sale of game used bats in Cooperstown. It mentioned that Klein's nephew was the first person to arrive, much before the doors opened, so that he could buy the bat he wanted. It also said that the nephew was Klein's last living relative.

I worked in a baseball card store, Sports Fan-Attic, in Temple City, CA in the early 1980s and we had the daughter of Rudy Regalado come in looking for cards of him. She also purchased some other Cleveland Indians cards from the time he was with the team.

Meet Dolphin great Jim Langer at a Chantilly show and told him that I had received an early 70s jersey of his from Joe Robbie. He said he didn’t have many keep sakes from his playing days and offered to purchase the jersey. He texted me his address the next day and I sent it to him as a gift and that all I wanted was a picture of him wearing it, which he sent a few days later with a thank you text advising he was having it framed and displayed in his living room.

So, I have been collecting the monster, and I have the 520.....

Almost
 

sold a Rollie Fingers rookie card to.... Rollie Fingers! He considered it, but didn't purchase. Related - I sold a sealed 1970's Charlies Angels doll display to a friend of Aaron Spellings who was going to give it to him as a birthday gift (in the 90's)

I sold a 1952 tony bartirome....wait they arent related...

I sold something on Ebay in the summer of 2020 to Craig Biggio's wife.

She was nice enough to appease me and we talked back and forth a bit about Craig, then her son and the Blue Jays, her new favorite team.

I've also sold a 1927 WS Ticket on here to a former St Louis Cardinals pitcher who is a Net54-er.

And I've sold a Buck Weaver Postcard to Bill Mastro......oh wait, he's not a player.

What a roller coaster that thread was.

I sold a really nice 71 Topps Ron Swoboda to…Ron Swoboda! As a big Mets fan (my dad took me to game 5 of the 69 series…but I was 4 1/2 and dont remember it at all except for having the ticket stub), it was quite a thrill. I set up some cards at the Atlanta National to help pay for some of my purchases with my friend, a dealer, and Ron walked up to our table and asked if I had any of his cards. I think I got $10 for it.

Over the years I have sold 3-4 Zeenut cards to relatives, and have directed that many or more to check with the great dealer Mark MaCrae, who, among other titles, is the king of Zeenuts.

Brian

A dealer friend of mine told me he had a woman come to his table and ask him for Roman Gabriel cards. He had 4 cards that she bought for $4. She gave him a $5, and he turned around to get her change. When he turned back to her, she had already torn the first one into quarters then proceeded to do the same with the next card. He asked her what she was doing, and she said that the SOB was her ex-husband and her therapist told her this would be good for her. She then tore up the rest of the cards and told him to keep the change.

A few years back, Dale Murphy's wife emailed me wanting to buy a bunch of Richmond Braves posters I had for sale. She was super nice and I even sent her a few free oddball items of Dale!

I sold a bunch of signed Yankees items to Denny McLain about 4 years ago. Had some fun and his stories were hilarious.

Hahahahaha, great story!

Love it! LMAO

I messaged a minor leaguer to see if he wanted one of his bats for his kid, it he passed—was going to gift it to him as I wasn’t sure how many he had given his short stint in baseball.

I was processing eBay orders the other day and noticed that one was for former Red Sox pitcher and current NESN in-studio analyst Lenny DiNardo.

He ordered a 1985 TCMA minor league card of Mike Griffin, who was a coach in the Red Sox minor league system when DiNardo was around.

DiNardo is actually going to be a guest at my SABR chapter's next meeting (Saturday after Thanksgiving) - I'll have to ask if he was happy with his purchase. :D

Lenny is a good guy - I’ve been fortunate enough to know him for a while. He has some nice memorabilia from his playing days (including a 2004 WS ring!) - I’ve tried to get him to come over and join me in the vintage world, but no luck yet!

Not a baseball story but.....my brother bought a lot of press photos from the 1950's (no sports) and one was a family juggling. There was a boy around age 7 in the photo and that is the person my brother sold it to a few months ago.