What's your most shrewd pick-up ever?

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Posted By: Martin Neal

Josh, Those were great pickups!

Last year was very good to me on ebay. I picked up a t206 Shappe variation for $5.00 in a group of two, A t206 Wagner bat on right for $24.00 (has since graded a psa 6).
The best deal other than the T205's (Hobby no stats psa 4 plus 29 others) I picked up last fall) was from a gentleman from Richmond who listed a Cobb bat off on Ebay last summer. He had used a poor photo of the card in his description. It was so blurry, I am sure that is why no one bid at his opening bid. I noticed in his listing he stated he was from central Virginia so I emailed him and said I was from Charlottesville and would like to meet him. The next weekend we met at the Burger King in Zion's Crossroads.
After introducing myself, he pulled out a stack of cards (about 90 cards) from his front pocket. They actually had a rubber band around them. After gently taking the cards from him he told me a pretty incredible story ( it may be a pretty common story). He and other family members had been helping his uncle move out of his house to an assisted living facility and had been cleaning the attic out. At some point, they were in the kitchen when he noticed these cards were in the trash can. He took them out and his uncle said they were his grandfathers and he could have them if he wanted.
I ended up paying $1200.00 for 43 cards, 5 t206s that I did not have in my set including the Cobb which graded vg and a Cy Young glove shows that graded ex. The rest were t205s including a Wallace vg/x, a Rowan vg/x, a Speaker ex, a Wheat ex/mint, A Brown vg/x etc.
He still has about 40 t206s including a ex Mathewson which I am hoping he willl sell soon.