Has anyone risked a "too good to be true" purchase online, and had a positive result?

[Exhibitman]

Do AH stories count?

I once made a purchase from Skinner. I forget why but I ended up looking at one of their catalogs and found a lot of miscellaneous cards. The single photo shown had an imperial cabinet of a minor league team a whole bunch of other miscellaneous sports cards, and a bunch of nonsports strips from a tough entertainment set. The description was trash and they were not helpful in response to questions, so I did my own research and was pretty sure that the cabinet had Frank Bancroft. I bid on what I saw and won it. The nightmare then began. Skinner didn't 'do' shipping so I had to contract with a third-party shipper to get the lot sent from New England to Cali. Much anxiety ensued. Eventually I was able to contract with a shipper who demanded $90 to ship a cabinet card and about 50 smaller cards. Rip-off city, but I had no choice.

The box finally arrives after weeks of waiting and it is huge. I open it up and find that one of the two cabinet cards besides the imperial had been improperly packed and broke in two in transit. Yay. My irritation was offset, however, by the bricks of bubble-wrapped cards. Apparently the lot was several times bigger than the cards shown in the photo; the bidders bid on 50-ish items; the lot was more like 250-ish items. One of the most fun and most profitable groups I ever purchased.

[GasHouseGang]

C'mon Adam. You have to show a few pictures. What did you get?

[Exhibitman]

It's all long gone; I bought the lot for resale. There was an imperial cabinet of a minor league baseball team, a few boxing cabinets including a 1920s large mounted photo by Hall of boxing HOFer Jack Delaney that was broken in transit, and hundreds of 'actor-animal' strip cards and other entertainment and boxing cards. Also a bunch of sports photos and other ephemera. What was amazing was the sheer volume of what was omitted from the AH description and photos.

[Case12]

Originally Posted by packs

My luck has only extended to autographs. I bought this Grover Alexander baseball for $80:

Wow!! What year did you get it?

[TUM301]

Being a Ruth fan can be expensive so I decided to concentrate on somewhat of a "niche", St Mary`s Industrial School related items. About 3 years back guy posted 3 or 4 1913 school calendars on EBAY with no reserve. Had seen maybe 1 before so decided to take a chance and won 2 for a very decent amount. Enclosed is the link to the "better" of the 2. On a side note, years later found a nice companion piece for them. A period ruler advertising the school and all the services they offered the general public. Great topic !

https://www.flickr.com/photos/154296...5/47977814548/

[packs]

Originally Posted by Case12

Wow!! What year did you get it?

I bought that ball 6 or 8 years ago and sold it to a board member. Best $80 I ever spent. It's also signed by Babe Didrickson and a career minor leaguer on other panels.

[Wite3]

I was contacted by a woman in Santa Barbara about 20ish years ago who emailed saying she found two cards in an old photo album of her father's. She described them but could not take a picture of them (before camera phones). She did not care about money and said they were in very rough shape. She asked for $100. I sent her the money, she sent me a two Mayos, both very rough but recognizable and real. Anson and W. Robinson.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Wite3

I was contacted by a woman in Santa Barbara about 20ish years ago who emailed saying she found two cards in an old photo album of her father's. She described them but could not take a picture of them (before camera phones). She did not care about money and said they were in very rough shape. She asked for $100. I sent her the money, she sent me a two Mayos, both very rough but recognizable and real. Anson and W. Robinson.

What a rip off. Two no name players. !
I guess my small Trucker Boy find from several years ago was too good to be true. But it was true. I know this Arrelanes was from it and bounced back to me after it was sold in my first collection sale. It was a small card, as the seller sold them, so was priced at 50 bucks.

There were these in the find too-

D310 (12) w/weaver fr....overall gd-vg
D311 (61) all different pr-ex
E90-1 (18) w/Jackson (pr-sold), Joss..overall pr-fr
E90-2 (1) Wagner - nice SGC 20....2 moderate creases
E90-3 (2) common and pr-
E101 (9) w/Evers, Jennings pr-fr....major back damage..
E136 Zeenut '11 (113) w/Weaver in fr...others vg'ish
E136 Zeenut '12 (36) gd-vg+/ex
E136 HR Kisses (2) gd
E136 Zeenut '13 (6) all with coupon
E136 Zeenut '14 (23) 6 with coupon 17 without coupon
E137 Zeenut '15 (67) 24 with coupon w/McMullen 43 w/o coup.w/Risberg, Lefty Williams
E137 Zeenut '16 (1) with coupon
E224 Texas Tommy (5) w/Marsans, w/uncatalogued
E-Unc Big Eater (3) w/ horizontal ex, 1 in gd-vg, 1 pr
H-unc Western Playground (40) complete set vg+
T4 Obak- (2) still unidentified but not Weaver.
T206 Old Mill- (23) w/Cobb, Evers, Chance, Willis.pr-fr
T206 Sweet Caporal ?(1) Cobb 350-460 series...pr.
T212-1 Obak (47) nice mix of framed/frameless
T212-2 Obak (116) about 25 different slogans.. pr-ex-mt
T212-3 Obak (131) w/Weaver pr-nrmt/mt
T217 Mono (8) 3 that don't have back damage......pr-gd
T222 Fatima- (7) all common, 1 high number in fr, 2 cut in half, pr....

[lowpopper]

Bought this raw on ebay and slabbed it at the national a few years ago. It has had a few owners since then.

[swarmee]

Still waiting for confirmation from PSA that the three 1952 Topps 3rd series gray backs I bought on COMC are actually authentic. But they don't seem to have logged my order in, so maybe I'm on double-secret probation from submitting cards to them.

[sreader3]

I missed the REALLY early days of eBay, but even in the 2003-2008 time frame one could still find amazing raw cards on eBay that were not trimmed.

I would get burned occasionally, but overall the math worked well.

A couple examples of wins:

T206 Green Cobb SC 150/25. Purchased raw on eBay in 2005 for $2100 via Buy It Now. It’s now in a PSA 4 holder. A very nice crease-free example. I would not take a chance on a raw Green Cobb today, but 15 years ago it still made sense. Pulled the trigger and won.

1933 Goudey Gehrig #92. Purchased raw on eBay in 2006 for $788 via auction with $0.99 starting bid. It’s now a PSA 5. The seller had limited feedback and presented the full story--a “smoke-free home” yada yada. But it looked good to me. I would have second thoughts about pulling the trigger today. But back in 2006 it worked out.

The Piedmont Factory 42 Era

There was a time in fairly recent history when T206s with the Piedmont 42 back were underappreciated. Two examples:

T206 Leifieid (Batting) P42. I was working on the T206 set in PSA 4-6 back in the day. In 2005, a nice looking Leifield (Bat) PSA 4 popped up on eBay. No back scan. At $50, it was a decent if not great deal for a PSA 4 common so I pulled the trigger. The card shows up in the mail, I flip it over, and … it’s a P42! Big win! It’s so nice I crack and resubmit it to PSA and … PSA 5.

T206 Lajoie (With Bat) P42. It’s early 2004. My favorite card ever is Lajoie (With Bat). I see a nice PSA 5 copy listed BIN at $700, which is reasonable but no deal. I look at the back scan and it’s a P460. The factory designation is fuzzy but the script extends end-to-end which I know Factory 25’s don’t do. So I figure it’s a Factory 42. Trigger pulled.

I won’t bore anyone with the many occasions that I have been burned and lost money by "going for it." They are not nearly as fun.