Biggest Mistakes as Buyers/Sellers

[Wite3]

I have told this story a few times...

At the National in Anaheim (I think '92) I was standing at Kit Young's table when someone (I forget who) came over with the original Allegheney deck of cards (including the box)...I think Kit bought the cards originally and then let me look through them. I wrote down all the Phillies (still have that original sheet that I wrote on) and asked how much for an example. $100 each was that first quote...I just wish I spent the money then (I think i actually had about $250 in my pocket at the time)...years later I ran into a few of them again at Tik n' Tik for between $500-$1000 each...darn...(as an aside...this was the year that I nearly started a fight at the same National when I put a t206 I had bought behind the Gretzky Wagner that Joe let me hold and you could clearly see the borders of my T206 around the trimmed PSA 8...I was ushered away from the display, there was shouting, it was fun!!)

I also had an opportunity to buy a Felin's Franks card about 17 years ago in the early days of ebay and came up $20 short on my bid (bid at the time was $220!!)...sigh...

Joshua

[wazoo]

Sounds like a tough loss, but a good learning experience. I know those opportunities, and when you find out later how much a card is gone up in value, it makes you wonder how you could let such a good card go by. These stories just allow you to learn for the future, but it was much more different back then. Back then not everyone had the technology. Now, as a 15 year old, I am surrounded by technology, which allows almost anyone the inside scoop, and it is so hard to get advantages over other buyers.

[D. Bergin]

Anybody who was around in the late 80's can remember 1986 Fleer Basketball Unopened boxes selling for under 50 bucks a box for several years.

I'm sure we're all still kicking ourselves for not buying up as many cases we can find to pay for our kids college educations and perhaps a new beach house for our retirement years.

Sadly the majority of us predicted we would ride the backs of Craig Jefferies and Gary Sheffield to the promised land.

I also well remember the case of 1984 Topps Football boxes I sold off for 20 bucks a box and 1970 Topps cello Football I sold for 10-20 bucks a pack.

[steve B]

As a buyer, there have been lots of things I didn't buy. That happens over 30+years.
Probably 7-8 33 Goudey Ruths. all around $100 each. Never bought one.
T206s at 1.50 each or $10 for HOF players.
52 Topps Mantle for under $1000 (The guys I shopped at spent 900 on one, I think a record at the time.) Typical nice ones were around 500.

Pretty much any card I could have bought at 1980 prices......


As a seller?
Not really selling, but I traded for some odd 76 Hostess cards, different colors, reversed negatives, numbers over 150. Got them all for a 74 McCovey washington variation. And promptly traded half of them for another McCovey. I've never seen any others.

And selling the p-f 48 Bowman set I put together to fund a ski trip. I made a bit on it, and I've made a start at a better set, but I still miss it.

And not paying attention to Jeters hits and selling the signature rookies signed card a year or two before he got 3000.


Steve B

[glchen]

My biggest regrets on buying all involve around pricing. There are a bunch of times that I negotiated myself out of a rare card because I was a cheapskate. I would push the seller down and down again to try to get the best price, and in the end, he decided to sell it to someone else, and I realized that I should've just taken his offer. Similar things with setting snipes on ebay. Sometimes, I figure this card will go for a really high price, and I can't really afford it, but I'll just put this lowball snipe out there just for the heck of it. In the end, the winning bid is just one increment higher than my snipe, and I'm in shock. I would probably still have lost, but sometimes, it's hard to get over the thinking that if you had just bid a little more, you might have won the card, and it might not have been a total steal, but it still would have been an extremely good deal.

There's also the flip side of course, where I don't know what I am thinking, and I overbid for a card, especially those that aren't even rare. I've done this so many times that I kick myself and promise that I'll be tougher w/ my buying in the future. That of course, leads to what happens in the previous paragraph.

[zljones]

When I first started collecting again as an adult I made a stupid rookie mistake. I saw a really crappy beat down Hank Aaron rookie card in auction on ebay. The seller was from Canada, the background behind the cartoon characters on the back was white instead of green. And the card looked downright kinda funny. Againt my better judgement, I bid anyway and paid $100 for the card and $25 for shipping. I also never asked the seller about the measurements of the care either. Stupid!

I get the card and low and behold it was a dirty, worthless reprint. I bugged the seller to death that it was sold a reprint. He said he got it from his uncle in the 1980s. He said a friend of his said it was real. I told him it did not measure up and that the background behind the cartoon was white. he refunded the money but did not refund the shipping. I lost $25 then sent it back to him.

A few months later the dirty reprint was returned to me as unclaimed, the seller never even picked it up from the P.O. he had me send it to. I was stupid but made a rookie mistake returning to the hobby, plus I did not know vintage cards, I then took it upon myself to do the research to make sure I never got ripped again. Now it should be really hard to rip me off now.

[GregMitch34]

One could mention mistakes for hours if not days. What about a mistake that turned out swell? About 20 years ago I bought a Hugh Duffy Mayo Cut from a store in NY. Got home and did a little research--even pre-Internet--and discovered that this card did NOT have a black back and was therefore a reprint. Fortunately, the dealer let me return it and pick out another card for about $300. Turned out to be a well-centered Matty t206 with a Cycle back--when few cared about backs. Later graded at PSA 4 and still have it. Might be the only one.

Of course, would have done well with the Duffy, too -- if it had been real!

[ethicsprof]

glad it worked out for you!
It seems like an especially good deal in 2012 but 300 for an ungraded Matty
20 years ago seems a bit high somehow. Perhaps it's just my remembering
buying my first matty 28 years ago(which was the first T206 I every purchased) at my first card convention---and got it for around 15 bucks.
all the best,
barry