I had the Earl Battey card; bought it in Willow Grove in 1984 or 1985, sold it in the early 1990s. My recollection is that I was offered several others, but I was such a "mint fanatic" that I passed on them due to condition. The Battey wasn't mint - it had the typical staple holes - but it had nice corners and the staple holes were nearly invisible.

I had similar experiences with 1955 Topps Stamps and 1970 Topps Cloth Stickers (and several other more "common" test issues). I managed to find groups of each from dealers like Mid-Atlantic Coin, Rosen and Morris, then "cherry-picked" the nicest ones and turned my nose up at the others, not realizing how rare they were. Again, I sold these and most everything I had around 1991, some through SCD ads and some to Levi Bleam.

When I first got on the internet in 1997 and then eBay a year later, I thought I'd be able to find and replace all the stuff I regretted selling. Didn't happen.