Slightly O/T......I am about to go look at 500,000 cards

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Posted By: leon

A friend of mine in the art business says one of his customers is selling 500,000 baseball cards. I am about to go look at them in approximately an hour. He says some are old. Guesses as to what they will be? I will update later this evening....regards

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Posted By: peter ullman

Sounds like a craig's list special to me...Leon. Probably multitudes of sets and cards from the mid 80's -present with some vintage 1970's commons thrown in!!!!

I hope I'm very very wrong!

pete in mn

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

1988-1993 Topps/Donruss/Fleer

That's "old" to some people.

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Posted By: leon

I told my friend the same thing. It's only an hour of time so no big deal. Honestly, I am hoping for some good 50's stuff that could be valuable.....but my guess is just like yours....

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Posted By: Matt

My money is on lots and lots of 1991 donruss

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Posted By: Jim VB

I agree it's probably "old" as in 1987 Donruss commons.

But... if it turns out to be good... and you need help... I'm local and available (Frisco). Let me know if you need anything.


Jim VB

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Posted By: barrysloate

N172= 200,000

N173= 50,000

E107= 100,000

E103= 50,000

T205,T206= 99,998

T208= 2

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Posted By: peter chao

500,000 '88 Donruss commons in poor condition.

Peter C.

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Posted By: leon

I am near the Galleria and the cards are in Carrollton at Beltline and I35.....I will let you know if I need the use of a wheel barrel....

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Posted By: Tony Andrea

Barry beat me to it. That was going to be my guess to.

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Posted By: barrysloate

If I'm right want to go halves with me?

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Posted By: Tony Andrea

Barry -
Hell, I'd even settle for a 3rd.
I aint' greedy.....

Tony

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Posted By: peter chao

You guys are being silly, where are you going to find a 500,000 stash of vintage pre-war cards?

Peter C.

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Posted By: Anonymous

set aside one of the E107 factory sets for me...

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Posted By: barrysloate

I say we offer 25K. If my math is right, that works out to a nickel a card. I think that's fair given the risk factor.

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Posted By: Eric B

The missing batch of 1/2 million T231 Fan's?

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Posted By: peter chao

Actually it seems like Leon has a pretty soft job, he has us running the forum while he goes running off to check out some old cards. Sounds pretty cushy to me.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Russ Bright

i HAVE been picking up larger lots from Craigslist recently (over 350 thousand cards for 600 dollars total between 3 lots). While a BUNCH of the lots ARE 90 topps 91 fleer and donruss, there have been some nice/choice cards some nice autographs - a lot of these "lots" get to be so monsterous people just want to get rid of them, and if they didn't pick out every card worth over a dollar 10 years ago, they probably didn't take the time to do the same right now -

Good luck Leon, i hope it's worth the time!

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Posted By: Tony Andrea

Barry -
Just received a call from someone who wants in on the deal.
What should I tell him?

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Posted By: peter chao

Russ,

Actually, you probably got the lots from former card stores, or something similar to that. When storeowners decided that they could make more money from E-Bay than in their own stores, some of them decided they would go on E-bay full time.

However, on E-bay they might be able to be more profitable, they couldn't sell as many cards as they did before because it doesn't make any sense to spend the time to auction off a .05 card.

So what you have been buying possibly is the excess inventory from these former storeowners.

Peter C.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Tony- you should tell him to go #@*^!&!!...

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Posted By: Tony Andrea

Copy on the #@*^!&!!...

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Posted By: Rick McQuillan

Last night I looked at a grouping of 40-50 thousand cards. The guy wanted $5k for beat up dirty 1990's commons that had been stored in an old shed. He had a couple of dozen 50's and 60's commons that were in poor condition. The whole works wasn't worth more than 50 bucks. Oh well, next time I will hit the jackpot!

Rick

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

I'll bet they're Pirate tobacco baseball cards.

But they're all trimmed.

-Al

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

499,500 Fleer Billy Ripken 'FF' Cards from 1989
500 Four Base Hits Kelly cards in NRMT

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Posted By: Russ Bright

Peter - I know this... all to well...

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Posted By: barry arnold

would you please get me an O'hara variation for a hamburger today.

have fun, leon

best,
barry

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Posted By: Ricky Y

My mind is delirious with allergy medications right now...so I'm fantaszing that Leon finds half a million Kalmazoo bats cards!

Ricky Y

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Posted By: peter chao

Here we are waiting patiently for Leon to get back.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Jimmy

I have 500,000 cards if you need them!!!

I am thinking they are from the 80s and 90s just like I have, but good luck you never know

Jimmy

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Posted By: Marc S.

maybe it's a cache of Niagara Baking cards...

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Posted By: peter chao

Jimmy,

I have about 100,000 '87 Topps. When these cards first came out, Barry was merely an above-average rookie with potential.

The hot cards were Cory Snyder, Wally Joyner, Canseco, Will Clark, and Bo Jackson.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Rob Dewolf

1987 Topps ... we've finally found Peter's wheelhouse. (Smiley face intentionally omitted)

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Posted By: leon

It was 50,000 and not 500,000 to start with...and my guess would be closer to 10,000.....The guy was real nice and was about 35 yrs old and collected them as a kid....Do I really need to go any further? Lots of mid 70's up through the 90's....I think I did see a few 60's cards but not many. I gotta tell you when someone isn't in the hobby and doesn't know what's going on it's sort of heart breaking to let them know the reality of the value. They think they have a gold mine and you have to tell them their mine is empty...or almost empty. I would guesstimate they had about $1000 of cards....there were a few nice 70's rookie HOF cards....Oh well...maybe the Kbats, Fans Cigs, and D355's on the next run.....They are very nice folks and I was glad I could help a little bit. I told them to sort them (they were in big boxes in very unorganized piles and worse) and then take out the HOF'ers and sell the rest on ebay by year......

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Posted By: barrysloate

I was referred to an old woman recently who I was told had some signed Mickey Mantle balls...sounded good to me. She lived a block away and when I went over she pulled out of an envelope a picture of Mickey Mantle torn from a magazine with what looked like a facsimile signature. She needed the money and I didn't know what to tell her. I know the feeling.

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Posted By: Jimmy

Peter,

I must have 20 1987 Sets and at least 50 Barry Bonds singles - I find ways to sell them - maybe not for much but I sell them - I sold at least 750,000 commons over the summer. I go through many collections just like Leon all the time - and sometimes I really have to talk and explain the hobby to the sellers and it does get disappointing. Many of them are even dealers that I help out that just do not get updates on prices and the hobby.

Jimmy

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Posted By: D Brown

Off the subject just a bit -- I'm curious, did anyone pick up the N173s that showed up on Craigslist last week? Too far away and too dubious for me -- I'm a lurker! not a real buyer. But I'm very, very curious if they were real. One seemed too good to be true, but hope springs eternal.

David

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Posted By: Zach Rice

David-

Someone did purchase the three N173s that you mentioned. Two of the three have the scarce Dog's Head advertisement at their bottoms, one of which is the Buck Ewing with mascot card. A Roger Connor N173 was also included in the lot of three, unfortantly it was not a Dog's Head. The new owner has shared with a few people that they will likely be available within the next few months in a future auction.

Zach Rice

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Posted By: jay behrens

OK, I've seen this craigslist mentioned several times now. What is it?

Jay

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

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Posted By: dstudeba

David -

They are real and they are spectacular. And not mine

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Posted By: peter chao

Rob,

The interesting thing about my collection is that I have only about 200 pre-war cards but they are worth more than the 100,000 1987 Topps cards.

Peter C.

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Posted By: David Smith

To all,

I have always said that if I won the lottery and had cash just to throw away that I would go around and buy these newer cards and run them through a paper shredder. That way they are no longer available and the people selling them will get some money for them. The cardboard would be recycled and the people would hve more space for other itemsof, just more open space.

If I did this enough, then these newer cards might actually become valuable some day. So, if I ever DO win the lottery, you guys still holding onto 100's of thousands of new junk might actually have something in 20 or so years.

David

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Posted By: peter chao

David,

In theory my 100,000 '87 Topps cards are worth money, almost all of them including around 100 Bonds rookies were purchased at around .01 each. Cases of miscuts, vending cases, rack cases were purchased.

The problem is as a practical matter there is no economically feasible way to sell these cards.

If I tried to sell it all as one lot, I would probably get less than .01 per card and take a hit.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Matt

peter - then I would argue that they're not worth more then .01

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Posted By: DJ

An old neighbor (in his mid-seventies) flagged me down the other day and told me if I had time, he had some baseball cards he wanted me to look at.

He told me he had several old Bowman sets.

The next day, I walked over, and there they were! Yellow...factory...sealed...bricks. 1989 Bowman set, three of them!

Another time I was contacted about a "potential find" from a friend who said a guy had a complete 1948-1960 Bowman and Topps sets. When I went over there, the gentlemen (also in his mid-seventies) had taken his Poor-Good overall sets, added up every individual card he had from a Beckett Yearly and came up with the fair figure of $250,000.

I'm thinking Leon...mucho 1983 Donruss and some 1978 (vintage commons) sprinkled in.

Good luck!

DJ

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Jay, Craigslist is free classified advertising for your local area....I had never heard of it until about 3-4 months ago and I advertised that I was looking for a rare Homer The Haymarket Hound bobblehead and I got a call within one hour of my listing. I have tried advertising looking for older Lincoln baseball memorabilia with no luck at all....I did however get an email from the son of a former Lincoln Chief player who was looking for info on his dad....he had nothing to sell though.

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Posted By: Andrew

I recently responded to a Craigslist ad for old baseball cards. The guy had more than 15 boxes of late '80s and up. Claimed "book value" is over $50,000, but would let it all go for $5000. I kid you not, if he offered me $20 to take 'em, I'd pass as I wouldn't want to deal with the hassle of hauling all that trash.

"Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame." -- Erica Jong

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Posted By: shane leonard

Leon,
Once you get home tonight looking at this stuff, please swing by Plano and pick up the same stuff in my garage. You can have it all for $1000.


Shane