Photo of 5 Guys with a Wagner in the 70's

[whiteymet]

Originally Posted by sportsnbikes

Do you ever wish you would've held onto it and then sold it now? Not sure what you sold it for originally but dang...1.2 million off of an $1100 investment. That would've been a helluva payout.

Hi Jeff:

At the time I sold my collection to Halper he was just coming into the hobby and was paying three times what anyone else was paying. The fact that at the time I was living about 20 minutes from him enabled him to visit and make it easy to move the collection.

Also I was soon to be married and wanted to start a business down the line. All of the above helped in my decision to sell.

Sure I have thought about it over the years. However the way I look at it is, if I held onto the Wagner I would have been baseball card "rich" and cash "poor".

I took the $$ I got from the collection and eventually turned it into a business that supported my family and me through the years, allowed me to own my own home mortgage free, put two kids through college loan free and have a net worth now north of what the Wagner sold for.

I would have not been able to start the business without the money I got for the collection. So, in the long run I think I came out OK.

BUT it sure would be nice to have my collection back, and as mentioned Wagner was not even my favorite card, nor were the tobacco cards. I know that is heresy here on Net 54!! I was REALLY into Topps stuff, test sets etc., odd ball issues and regionals.

Fred