[Archive]

Posted By: Tim Newcomb

The poster above who questioned the statement that dealers wouldn't always know the prices of vintage cards must not have been to many big shows. A huge part of the fun of the National (other than seeing n54 friends) is finding great stuff that's grossly underpriced-- exactly because the dealer isn't aware of what he has (or how much it's gone up recently).

Sure, most show prices are high, but there are also plenty of bargains at good venues. A great many part-time dealers (people who do a few shows a year) don't take the time to update their prices every time they go. They know what they have in the cards, and are willing to let them go for their initial selling price, which in a market like this one has been, will almost always represent a healthy profit if they bought the cards even a year or two ago. Thank Goodness this is true or ordinary collectors like myself would be pretty much SOL!

A couple of examples that come to mind:

-- 3 Star Player Candy cards (value ~ $750) bought from the $5 box of a well-known dealer who specializes in Topps stuff. He didn't know what they were, much less how much to ask for them

-- E97 Keeler and Cy Young bought for less than half then-market value from a lovely older couple who has been selling for many years. They are perfectly knowledgeable about the cards themselves, but don't have the time to check SMR every other day. They knew how much they had in them (probably very little) and were content to get my $700 for them. (It also helps if you are repeat customers, but I did pay their sticker price minus the standard show discount.)

-- my find at the 2001 National of 290 sharp-looking T206s (including 50+ HOFers and Southern Leaguers) for $1000. (That's not a misprint.) This was late on Saturday. The sellers were part-timers breaking up a set. They had sold nearly half of it by Saturday 5 PM, had already made a nice profit, and wanted to get on home. I was lucky enough to be the first person to walk by after they put out their "closeout" sign. Super-nice-guy dealer Ron Barrett lent me the cash to buy it!

I've got dozens more of these written down at home. I don't think I'm unusually adept at finding stuff like this. Everybody who goes to shows (who isn't looking only for a few very specific things) has these stories.

There are just too many sets and too much fluctuation in prices for anyone to follow all vintage card prices unless they want to make it a full-time job. As I said, thank goodness!

Tim