Would Have, Could Have, Should Have. (What If?)

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Posted By: John

Ok Topic # 2

If you collect long enough you’re bound to get offered cards or run across auctions with cool lots. We all have stories of the good ol’ days. When prices were cheaper, you were offered a great deal but had no money at the time, or just missed out on a huge find somewhere. Or maybe your story is a simpler one you just plain forgot to bid on a lot or talked yourself out of bidding on a particular item. Or even you sold something you wish you had back. Now your decision bums you out here and there or haunts you on a daily basis.

So lets here Em’ network 54 board what “Dunderhead” mistake did you make. What decision did you rationalize at the time but now regret. Or to quote Dr. John “were you in the right place at the wrong time” Think of this like an AA meeting sometimes there’s comfort in groups!

And if you are the person who got the card or lot that one of our poor posters poured his heart about. Please feel free to post your reply and rub it in. Have no fear I assure you that very few of my fellow collectors here are suicidal about their decisions, you won’t push them over the edge.

Have Fun!


My most memorable story was one from my collecting past. And its one that nags me to this day. In usual fashion my parents were nice enough to take me to Gettysburg for the weekend of searching antique & flea markets for cards and such. I always loved Gettysburg we would spend half the day searching for junk and the rest of the day I would bring my bike and ride around the battlefield.

One of the last shops we visited right across from the Lincoln dinner (best pie around). A frequent stop of mine for non-sports t-cards. I made my way to the front counter to ask the weekend person on duty that day if he had the items I was looking for. A few minutes passed and one of the many traveling Gypsy’s or dealers who would rent space from time to time made his way up to me. I asked and showed him many pictures of cards I had Xeroxed (B&W). He said no too most of my bad B&W images, but then stopped me at a Xerox of a T206 Phelps. And said or your just a little too late and scurried away to the front counter in a panicked fashion.

When he returned he explained that an older gentleman was just in and had a black doctors bag full of them. He went on to further explain that he instructed the man that the normal dealer who bought this stuff was off this particular day and to come back later. Well as my young heart beat around 500 time faster than normal. The man explained to me and my family what the gentleman looked like, and that he mentioned going to a few more shops that afternoon. Well with our description in hand my family and I made a complete sweep of every shop in the town. Asking everyone at every shop if they had seen this man. A sweep that would have made the FBI proud. And believe you me if I would’ve had the authority to set up roadblocks and perform vehicle searches at the age 15 I would have.

To this day I still don’t know if I was the victim of a sick & twisted antique dealer prank. If so at that time there was probably nothing I could have done. But if you know for fact that I was a victim of a cruel joke I know I can take the dealer now the guy has to be in 80’s now. The really bad thing about this deal is that I decided mutually with my family that afternoon that would eat first and then head over.It makes me wonder if I hadn’t insisted on having desert would I have been there in time, was my Wagner in that bag! To this day I don’t eat blueberry pie!!

P.S. If you’re the guy with the bag or you’re the guy who got the bag…. I ask you please let me know did you have the Wagner in that black bag? When I was 15 I was sure you did.



So That’s Mine What’s Yours?

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Posted By: dennis

in the span of a few months in the early 1980's(83?)i passed on a mantle/maris radio($100.00 too much only 20 years old) and a complete 55 topps set $300.00, at a card show,only had $275.00 and that bought a lot back then!

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Posted By: Mark

When I was 10 (1961 I'm sad to say) a neighbor decided to auction off his uncles cards at his house in our neighborhood which included a sizeable run of 39-41 Playballs. I attended with a friend who knew how much cash I had - one dollar. The first card to be sold was a 41 Williams and my buddy bid me up to the buck level so I won the Williams (which I still have). Of course then I watched helplessly as he picked up a dozen or more cards for a nickle each including the 41 Dimaggio, 39 Williams and many other HOFers. Morrie Maurer - if you're reading this I still remember.....

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Posted By: warshawlaw

When I was about 10 my friends and I were in fierce competition over cards at local antique stores. One weekend my mother took me with her to an antique store in a neighboring town that she was told about by 2 of my friends' mother. The dealer told me he'd sold a whole box of cards to them the previous weekend. I saw the cards and they were all 1950's Topps and Bowman cards in great shape. I know because the Dorsky boys lorded it over me all summer.

My biggest fish of all involves another antique dealer who became friendly with my parents and who made frequent buying runs to the South. She and my mother were talking and my mother remarked that I was a card collector. The dealer then told me about a collection she'd seen with another dealer in the South. We quickly pinned down that it was T206 she saw. Since she was planning another buying run the next week, she offered to pick up the cards for me (the guy wanted well under a buck a card). I was thrilled. She came back empty-handed, though, and told me that the dealer had sold them earlier in the week. The kicker is that years later I was reading an old hobby publication and ran across a story about the collection (I recognized the description of the dealer, the pricing and the way the cards were stored); damned thing had a Wagner in it.

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Posted By: Julie

in the '90 sometime, some people sold their cards--or even burnt them--in protest. Meanwhile, I was up in the Berkeley Hills, looking for cards among the garage and yard sales of the rich folk. At one house whre I stopped, the lady of the house told me her son had just sold all his basaeball cards for $1 (and an hour earlier, all his football cards for the samwe price). Two boxes full, altogether. I asked if any of them were really old, and she said, "Oh yes, from every decade that baseball cards were produced; he didn't skimp on buying the best cards there were."

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Posted By: Anonymous

Passed on a gem mint 1967 Topps set for $500 at the first National.

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Posted By: runscott

One small mistake was selling one of my favorite cards, an SGC50 '15 CJ Baker, for $300 when I needed dough. Tried to win another SGC50 '15 Baker last night and it went for $363 plus juice...yes, I was shut out again Barry seemed to do well last night, which is good - I love his auction selections.

"Should have" mistakes: passing on most of the huge George Burke photo lots that appeared in the major auction houses over the last two years. They went cheap and will eventually grow in value. Luckily, I did get the best (IMO) of all the lots. Also, not bidding my *ss off on the Boston Beaneater cabinets Lou Lipset auctioned a while back - large, gorgeous, and under-valued.

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Posted By: Not in2 Politics

Julie,

Did you say people burned their cards in protest? If it were me I'd have taken the John Kerry route and burned someone elses cards.

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Posted By: bawdycrank

Yes, I have one, vivid memory that pains me to this day. It was a place called Quality Mart, a huge thrift store my mom would take us to in the mid to late '70s. Every now and then she would bring home an old table or set of chairs and sock them away in our junk room for yet another restoration project. We bought clothes there, too, a pair of pants for 95 cents, a blouse for 65 cents. We didn't have much money. My brother and I would get toys there, sometimes, in large plastic mystery bags which were the size of a pillow case and stapled shut. You had to turn the bag over and over to see if there was enough good stuff in there to carry the Hamburgler doll with the pee stain.

The owner was a man who looked as old as the linoleum but he was probably in his fifties, and the linoleum was no doubt younger, and more alive. One of my mom's friends called him Rigor Mortis, or Rigor for short. He'd stand by the large glass doors near closing, his ever present cigarette quivering upon his lip. His attempts at speech would send it bobbing violently to his unique language, which was a cross between a mumble, a nasty rattling cough, and the promise of a massive coronary or stroke.

Around the front register were the glass cases for the better stuff: china dolls, rabbit stoles, finer costume jewlery and the like. Well, one day there was one of those fat bags jammed with stacks of T-205s, T-206s, '33 Goudeys, and God knows what else, but all early baseball from what I could see. A couple thousand cards at least, and a Ruth was showing. It was nine bucks. I ran to my mom and she said "No" and I could not beg that one to save my life. Nevermind that I actually had the money at home, what was left from a whimsical bout of thrift which saw me accumulate $28 in Christmas and birthday money and which enabled me to indulge in endeless decisions over how I was going to blow it. But this was the Holy Grail, I knew it even then, a once in a lifetime chance. I asked the guy at the counter if he'd hold it for me. He refused. Where was the English lady with the monotone voice who was always, but always, at the front counter? And who was this guy? I'd never seen him before. The glass case robbed me of my only trick of hiding goods behind the snow chains or under the scraps of tapestry. Back to mom. I could spend my money how I wanted, but she was not going to help me blow all my savings on baseball cards. Absolutely Not. I had no other choice but to leave the bag in that glass case for everyone to see while I ran home to get the money as fast as I could. It was almost three miles and I'll be damned if I didn't get to my room and back in under twenty minutes. But it was gone.

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Posted By: Brian McQueen

I have a story that falls into this catagory as well although I think a few of you have heard it before. Late in 2003, an e107 SGC 10 Bender was placed on Ebay. Bender is my favorite prewar player and the e107 set is far and away my favorite set making this, pretty much, the perfect card for me. However for some inexplicable reason, be it that I was going after other cards at the time, thought it would go higher than it did, or otherwise, I just simply didn't bid on the card and it ended up going for $260.

I even still have a scan of the card that I acquired later on as I've been trying to track down the card's current whereabouts ever since, I know it's had several owners in the past year or so. Anyway, that's enough lamenting for me, thanks for listening!

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Posted By: ErikV

I've passed up some great cards due to not having the money at the time. There was a card shop in Yorba Linda,CA about 15 years back that had all sorts of vintage cards. Passed on some nice conditon T206 HOF cards. Before that, another guy in N.Hollywood had a case full of Goudey and Play Ball cards. I spent the $500 I had on the 1940 Play Ball Joe Jackson card. That $500 bucks could have gotten me a few nice Goudey's instead! I also remember a guy back in the early-80's try and sell me a Ernie Banks rookie for $10. I passed on that one too. Damn!

Hey, who brought this threat up anyways? I'm kicking myself all over again!

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Posted By: Ben

1. About 6-8 months ago, prewarsports (I'm assuming it was Rhys) listed a gorgeous, snow-white Carl Horner cabinet on ebay with an astonishingly low BIN of $800. Not really knowing the price range on Horner cabs at the time, I killed the BIN (sorry E). The cabinet ended up selling for nearly 3k, and I was left feeling like the prize idiot.

2. Not too long ago, I was presented with an opportunity to trade for a e107 Mcgraw without having to tear apart my collection, and decided not to. Traded for an n162 Brouthers instead. To this day I regret that decision, but still quietly hope that an e107 hofer like that one will come around again some day.

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Posted By: T206Collector

My story has a more happy ending than some, but still disappointing to me. The first two T206 tobacco cards I ever bought were a Matty white cap and a Bender portrait, about 7 years ago, from a guy whose grandfather had left them for him. The cards were loosely kept in an old cigar box. He had about 50 or so cards, and his prices were not very good -- armed with a price guide, he believed they were worth more than they were. But, I ended up getting the Matty and the Bender for about book value at the time, and the Matty graded out to a 5 and the Bender a 4. The thing is, I didn't know enough about the rest of the commons, or rare backs, at the time to make a play for those, which I'm sure he would've parted with for a more reasonable sum. He needed the money for a vacation to Vegas, but I am told he regretted the deal for the Matty and Bender almost from its inception. Well, he isn't getting them back and I'm never selling them! But I often wish that he would call again and tell me he wants to sell the rest of his collection...

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Before baseball card collecting became popular I would occasionally see people selling packs of '50s cards at antique auto shows for $5. There were typically, Id estimate, about 200 cards per pack. I thought about it a few times, but never seriously enuff to check the condition - well actually condition wasn't the issue yet - the players were the issue to me. But I never went for it. Heck, this was about 1970 and you could get half a case of beer for $5 then.

Gil

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Posted By: David Smith

Ok, let's see what I can remember before I get tooo depressed.

1) Late 1970's at the Louisville flea market. Dealer had some 1960's and early 1970's star cards for sale. I looked at them and he asked if I wanted to see some older cards. Sure. So he brought out a folder that he kept post cards in to sell. Inside was the post cards AND 11 1933 Goudey's including a Ruth, Gehrig and another HOF, I think Foxx, but not sure. The Goudeys were in probably VG shape but for a 12 year-old... I asked the price but he really didn't want to sell just the old cards. He did say he would sell all of his cards, about 10,000 of the 1960's and early 1970's plus the Goudeys for $1,000. My dad said absolutely not. End of story.

2) Same flea market a few years later, probably 1984 or 1985. I was at the flea market with a friend of mine and was at a dealer's table when an old woman came up and asked if the dealer was interested in old cards. He said yes and she brought out this cardboard box about 5 inches tall and 5 inches wide. The box was full of small, rectangular cards in two stackes. I don't know if they were tobacco, candy or caramel cards but they were all from the early 1900's. I don't know if the dealer bought them or not because my friend drove that day, a Saturday, and he wanted to get back home soon because he had a date that night, ugh.

3) About 10 years ago in a small Indiana town. A person listed sports cards for sale in a newspaper and my Grandmother called and told me about them. I went to see them but they were early 1980's stuff. He did, however, know of somebody who had OLD cards. I called and went to see the guy later that day. The man and his family were living in a rented house that dated from the 1800's and it was full of old furniture and other items. The man said that when his 96 year-old Grandmother had died years earlier, she left him and his brothers the house and contents. Out in back of her old house was s hed with a leaking roof. Inside the shed was a 3 foot tall mound of wet paper items. He had no idea what was in there but he and his brothers shoveled the stuff out and took it to the dump. Back in the shed, there was stuff on the shelves which remained dry. In a box on one of those shelves he found over 1,100 tobacco cards from the 1800's. That night, he brought the box out and showed me. There were fish, bird, parasol drill, World's Smokers, World's Dudes and hold to light playing cards. There were also Indians, actresses and sports cards; boxers (John L Sullivan), wrestlers, oarsmen, billiards players, shooters (Annie Oakley) and three baseball players-Clarkson, Keefe and Carruthers (N28). I didn't know if they were originals or reprints, so I told a collector/slash dealer in Indianapolis about them. The c/d bought everything except for 100+ Indian cards (the seller liked the Old West and Native American items) for $3,500. He ended up getting a couple complete sets of the birds and the fish series plus some near sets of the Dudes, Smokers and Parasol Drill series. He ended up selling everything for a profit AND he kept the 3 baseball player cards for his collection. The 3 had minor flaking along the edges and the corners were a little dinged.

There, three horror stories that I can recall for right now. Oops, just remembered another one.

4) Another small town in Indiana, about 1996. I had put an ad in the paper looking for old ball cards and 2 different people called me. I drove to the small town and one young guy had Red Man baseball cards from the 1950's that his dad had given him and 20+ W502 (he didn't know what they were and I didn't either until later when I looked them up in the big Krause price guide) including the Ruth, Gehrig and a couple of other HOF'ers (no Cobb) that his Grandfather had given him. The guy wanted more than book price for the Redman cards but only $400 for the older cards. I passed at that time because I still wanted to see what the other person had (15 B18 blankets which I bought) and also because I didn't know what the cards were. Later, after I found out the little cards were W502's, the young guy didn't want to sell them anymore. I guess he thought I had found out what they were and thought I was going to rip him off. Oh well.

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Posted By: Anonymous

my dad got me collecting when I was about 10 or so (1982-3)but he had collected when he was younger and he put all of his 50's topps and bowmans in plastic sandwich baggies neatly and put them in a few shoeboxes. (52 mantles 51 Bowman mantles etc) He swore to me he had 7 or 8 of them. When I turned 16 he said ok you've been on this for a few years now, lets go get my collection to add to yours. (His was at my grandmothers house in her furnished basement closet) When we got there, she told us "I threw them away about 2 weeks ago, I did not think anyone wanted them." The bad part was 2 weeks earlier I was ill, so we did not make our weekly trip to grandmas...I still cringe at seeing prices of the 50's cards.

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Posted By: Geoff Litwack

My dad was born in 1929 in Springfield, Mass., and by 1940, when he stuck them away, he had accrued a collection of thousands of baseball Goudeys, Sport Kings, Horrors of War, etc., etc. Then - wait for it - his mother gave them to a young cousin and the young cousin threw them in a fire.

My mother's story is almost worse. Her father worked as a forman in a toy factory above Topps, in New York, in the 50s. At Christmas, he would bring home boxes and boxes of cards - she and her sister were uninterested, and the cards were eventually swallowed up by history.

So: sob stories on both sides. The good news is, my mother's father kept a ball signed to him by the 1937 Yankees, and I can't think of much I passed on that I wish I'd snagged. There was a rather nice T207 Chance at the last Hollywood Park show I didn't have money for, I guess.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Mine wasn't so much a deal that I passed up, but a life choice decission. I was offered an EX+ set of t206s in 1985 for $5k. My choice was to buy that, or buy a car so I could have something that resembled a social life since I didn't own on at the time. Opted for the car. I don't regrest buying the car, but sometimes I wonder, what if...

The one that got away, per se, was an incredible colelction of late 40s and early 50s Topps and Bowman cards that I was never able to aquire. After graduating from HS, one of my jr high math teachers showed me his childhood collection. The boxes were filled with baseball and football cards from 1949-54. The Bowmans were in typical condition, being about EX with no cards with creases. No Mantle or MAys rookies either. His Topps cards were a thing of beauty. When I grabbed the front of the stack, I started looking at all the cards and noticed that they were in numerical order, but that the Pafko was missing. I found the Pafke in the next stack, and to this day, it's the best one I've seen. Finding the PAfko meant that he had all the 52s except the high numbers. The 53s were in the middle of the brick of cards and were the best group of 53s I've ever seen. He had almost a complete set less a few commons. The 54s were also stunning, but there were only about 100 cards in this group with Williams #1 card being the best card in the group.

He also had several hundered Topps football cards from 1950 with the little pennents on the back and about the size of a postage stamp (I forget the set name) along with all the wrappers.

We weren't able to come to a deal that day, but he game me one of the wrappers. Sadly, he died of a heart attack shortly afterwards and I was never able to complete deal for the cards.

I did put the wrapper up for auction in 1990 and it sold for $238.00. I was totally floored by price and was told that the wrappers are quite rare and this one still in tact with no rips or tears.

Jay

I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Wierd, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff. And I want in.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

When I moved to CA my next door neighbors and my family became friendly. They found out I collected cards and the father broke out his collection from when he was a kid. Mostly 1957-1960 Topps, all in magnificent condition. I remember seeing every major star in multiples. He told me he was saving them for his then 4 year old son and I guess the expression on my face was pretty pathetic because he pulled one of about a dozen 1957 Banks cards from a stack and handed it to me. God, did I lust after that box. Fortunately, my parents moved us away the next year and ended my torment. PS: the little bastard kid was a real hellion, even conked me over the head with an iron pipe later that summer--I hope the cards all mildewed .

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Posted By: Anonymous

I'm new to this board but have been collecting for almost 30 years. I've passed on 2 complete E94 sets minus 1 McGraw that an elderly gentleman was left in a will...I probable could've had them for 2-3 grand. I passed on a t206 broad leaf 460 at a national in 95'. I passed on an aaron rookie for $25, a seaver rookie for $7. I could go on and on.

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Posted By: James Feagin

I have to cleanse my soul here. When I was 17 I set up at a card show and this old fellow offers me $125 for my lot of t206 and 1949 Bowman Feller. Being that $125 was a huge sum for me, I quickly accepted. In the lot there was a Lajoie, Chesbro, Bresnahan, etc. I have sinced repented and still have nightmares of my idiocy.

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Posted By: Scott Elkins

Early 80's - EX/MT 1915 Cracker Jack Ty Cobb at a Flea Market in TN for $100 - not much now, but expensive for a 10 year old at the time with only yard work money and a $10/two week allowance!

Mid-Late 1990's - Passed on a VERY NICE VG/EX E90-1 Shoeless Joe Jackson Rookie from Mike Wheat - price was ONLY $1450!!!!!!!!!! Instead I OVERPAID for a VG+ E93 Cobb - around $750 because I like the pose! I "BELIEVE", but am not sure that John Spencer bought the Jackson. The one he consigned to SCP a few years back sure looked like the one from Mike Wheat. If so, John got around $10k for that card - I MISSED OUT ON $8500 PROFIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That would still buy a lot of horizontal caramels for me, even at today's prices!

Also a few years back I passed on a T206 rare back lot in a Mastro auction, even though I was CERTAIN the Lenox (which was very nice) was a Brown Print! Come to find out, John Spencer won the lot and the Lenox INDEED was a BROWN print!

On these last two deals I passed on (if John did buy the Jackson from Mike Wheat), I am happy about one thing - that it was John Spencer who reaped the rewards, because I have dealt with John in the past and he was always a SUPER NICE guy!!!!! John, if you read this, just let me know if the Jackson you auctioned was the one from Mike Wheat - PLEASE - I am tired of only being around 60% certain it was!