You thought you found a goldmine, only to find out you had not

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Posted By: Mike Peich

Leon's experience today with the large collection of 70s to 90s cards, and Barry's comment about the Mantle signature, made me think: What cards/memorabilia had I been told about that got me excited, only to find the goldmine was non-existent?

A friend of mine recently told me about a signed 1950 Phillies ball that his aunt owned and was thinking of selling. According to the aunt, when his uncle was little, he caught a foul-ball hit by Rich Ashburn. After the game Ashburn signed the ball, liked the little kid, and took it to the locker-room for the entire team to sign it. My friend asked if I might be interested in having the ball for my collection, depending on what I thought it was worth. Damn right, I thought.

When he showed me the ball it was indeed signed by the team. But Whitey must have used an old mimeograph machine to copy everyone's signature since it was a facsimile signed ball. So much for truth in advertising.

What about the rest of you?

Cheers, Mike

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Posted By: Shanon Ping

about 6 years ago a friend (who put together a near complete T205 set) and I went and looked at a guys collection of Cracker Jack cards. He had some big names and they even were stained and everything, however once I held one I knew they were fakes. I told him and he gave me the old "found in Grandpa's attic" story. Oh well, the search continues.

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Posted By: Silver King

While back in St. Louis on business this past summer I expanded my search of old baseball cards, specifically looking for 1880's items. A guy emailed me that he had several hundred cards and needed money and would let the entire collection go for cheap. I thought it was too good to be true and asked what cards he had and he said he didn't know until he got his old boxes out of the attic. Not wanting to lose the sale I didn't press too hard but the guy emailed me back and rattled off some cards. I quickly realized he had 1980's cards, not 1880's cards. When I told him I was looking for cards 100 years older he told me thought I made a typo in my email to him.