Card(s) you wish you purchased

[parkplace33]

There is another post about cards you wish you hadn’t sold. What about a card (or cards) you wished you had bought?

About 15 years ago I had an opportunity to buy a mid size collection of vintage baseball cards, with HOFers. Price was fair, but I didn’t jump at it. That collection is probably worth 10 fold what he was asking 15 years ago.

Lesson learned: If the price is fair, jump at it.

[egri]

About seven years ago, I came across a signed 1953 Topps Bill Antonello that I needed for my project. The seller was asking $70, and I thought that for a guy whose entire MLB career lasted 20 games, he was California Dreaming. Someone else snapped it up. It was almost six years before I saw another, and that one sold at auction for around $500. I didn't win that one either, and those are the only two I've seen.

[hcv123]

The standout was back in 2008 after my Mom passed - I had earmarked some money to go into cards and was super close to pulling the trigger on a PSA 8.5 1955 Clemente rookie (still one of 2 examples at that grade) at 10K. Ended up buying something else that appreciated WAY less.

[mrreality68]

Two Cards that I wish I had Purchased

1. The 1986 Jordan Rookie Card. PSA 10 was offered to me in early 2018. They wanted to trade it straight up for a 1915 Babe ruth photo Type 1 that I had.

Big miss. I did not know or understand Basketball cards at the time and I sold the Ruth photo for a small but nice profit but WE all know what happened with the Jordan Card.

2. THe 2nd Was the Texas tommy Joe Jackson Card came up for auction approx 2 years or so ago. I was in on the bidding but was not liquid enough to continue bidding and it went for less then I would have been willing to bid if I had the funds.

With me being a Joe Jackson Addict hard to see that go. Hopefully someone on the board won it and is enjoying it

[Peter_Spaeth]

Toleteros Josh Gibson in 2013 or so LOTG; 25 Gehrig when they were affordable; second version of the 311 when they too were more affordable.

[Klrdds]

In 1984 I was a senior in dental school and attended a card show near my school in Atlanta and a collector there knew I collected "older" baseball cards . While there he tracked me down to show me a card he wanted me to buy ..... a T206 Wagner. He wanted $4000 for it . I'm like yeah sure I can get that .... I am a student with no money . I found a pay phone (remember those ? ) and called my dad long distance collect ( remember those calls ?) to ask for a loan and he just laughed and said NO because you don't spend hard earned money on a baseball card and you called me collect to ask me for that . I called my aunt , who in 1977 bought me a 1933 Goudey Gehrig card for $10 and other older cards. She said no also because $10 was helluva lot different that $4000.
I checked by student loan balance because I had extra money left over but it was only $2800.
Told the dealer I could get him $2800 in a week and the rest I'd put on a credit card .
He said his consignor wanted the card sold that weekend . I never got that card and it was sold a few days later.
Up until my dad died in 2016 I never let him forget that and he did apologize for not lending me the money when he saw how much that card was selling for later in his life.
So if you miss them miss them BIG !

[GasHouseGang]

I had the chance to purchase a beautiful Topps 1952 Mantle back around 1980 (don't remember the exact year). But that card had hit a high of $3000 and then fallen back to around $1K, which is what it was offered to me at. I thought it wouldn't be climbing back up in value any time soon and there would be plenty of other opportunities, so I passed. The card quickly climbed back up to it's previous value and kept right on going.

[todeen]

I grew up in the junk wax era, so I have been able to buy every card I thought was cool. But I wish I had turned to vintage earlier. In particular, I wish I had grabbed the Cal Ripken Jr 82 Topps Traded when it was a dime. I spent enough on modern as a high school kid that I could have actually bought some quality low grade post war.

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[Frankish]

Oh man, this thread is painful to read. It's hard to believe cards were so cheap, especially when they appeared so expensive at the time.

Prices aside, the big regrets for me are generally are the cards I've never seen for sale again. A big part of my collection is now Japanese baseball cards from the 1930s-60s. I can vividly recall at least a dozen cards I thought about buying, didn't pull the trigger, and have never seen for sale again. And I don't even care about the condition!

The production run on some of these cards was very low, as is my estimate of the survival rate. But one hope I hold out is that with increased cards prices and media exposure, caches of these cards will be discovered in old Japanese houses or storerooms or whatever and make it into the market. It might be the one upside I see to the great increase in prices....

[Piratedogcardshows]

Way too many to be honest. The one that hurts the most is a 1908 team postcard of the Richmond Colts team. I'll never forget that one as I just started collecting again and didn't know how tough it truly was. Uggggggg.

[rats60]

Like some have said, there are a lot of cards that I wished I chased in the 80s instead of spending my disposable income on other things. The one that really stands out was not buying a 1952 Topps Mid+High run from the Rosen find. I was finishing my t206 set and already had a decent Ex-Mt 1952 Topps set. I never realized how addicted the hobby would become to numbers on a slab. 3k for Mantles that are now pushing a million dollars in a PSA 8 slab.

The other more recent one was a card that I was actively trying to buy off of eBay, an Exquisite LeBron James RPA /99. I kept getting sniped for under 2k. If ever there was a card I should have just over paid for, that is it. It is now a million dollar card.

[esd10]

I have one I regret the most it was about 10 years ago at a card show at vets memorial in Columbus a dealer was selling a t206 green portrait of cy young vg-ex ungraded for $350 and I thought long and hard but didn't pull the trigger.

[t_vguy]

Originally Posted by parkplace33

There is another post about cards you wish you hadn’t sold. What about a card (or cards) you wished you had bought?

About 15 years ago I had an opportunity to buy a mid size collection of vintage baseball cards, with HOFers. Price was fair, but I didn’t jump at it. That collection is probably worth 10 fold what he was asking 15 years ago.

Lesson learned: If the price is fair, jump at it.

There was a very small card & comic shop where I grew up in Naperville, IL. called "Graham Crackers". I'm sure it's long gone by now. I remember walking in there several times to buy cards & seeing '86 Fleer wax & thinking about whether I should pick up solely based on the design which caught my eye. I didn't. Ugh!

[Yoda]

I have told this story before, so I will make it short. At the National in the late 90's in Atlanta, I had serious discussions with Kevin Struss, when he was at SCP, about a card that he was trying to flip on behalf of Mastro, who had acquired from a lady who found it in a Bible (yes, it does happen). I feel the deal could have been done for about $150k, but that would have wiped out the liquidity and a good part of the inventory of my company at the time, Full Count Baseball, so I walked away. The card: a T06 Honus Hans John Wagner in a PSA 4. I try very hard not to think about but once in a while a black fog rolls in.

[Fred]

hahahaha... that list would be HUGE. About the same as "which card(s) do you regret selling?"

[Yoda]

Too right.

[bigred1]

This thread has made me feel better about some of my "mistakes" lol

[Fred]

Originally Posted by Yoda

I have told this story before, so I will make it short. At the National in the late 90's in Atlanta, I had serious discussions with Kevin Struss, when he was at SCP, about a card that he was trying to flip on behalf of Mastro, who had acquired from a lady who found it in a Bible (yes, it does happen). I feel the deal could have been done for about $150k, but that would have wiped out the liquidity and a good part of the inventory of my company at the time, Full Count Baseball, so I walked away. The card: a T06 Honus Hans John Wagner in a PSA 4. I try very hard not to think about but once in a while a black fog rolls in.

John,

About not buying the wagner from struss, don't think