Garage Sales

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Posted By: Doc22

Out of curiousity.... has anyone ever picked up pre-war cards at random garage sales?

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

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Posted By: Anson

Yes, many T206 Wagners with their value written right on the back

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Posted By: Shane Killian

only thing i've ever found was when my girlfriend bought an old copy of Swiss Family Robinson and there was a beat up Goudey common inside the book. I never have any luck.

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Posted By: davicycleback

I see the signs, but haven't been to a garage sale in years (I'm not a morning person). I would need assurances for me to get up before 8 on a weekend.

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Posted By: Chris Mc

No, I saw a box of 87 topps traded that had been picked through.

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Posted By: Keith

No prewar stuff, but last year I picked up like 8 unopened wax boxes of 81, 82, and 83 topps baseball and like 5 of 82 topps football. Only paid like $40 for them all. Made a pretty penny on ebay, well at least made enough to support my memoribilia buying habit for a little while.

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Posted By: Daniel Bretta

I've never found any prewar cards, but I have found many prewar gloves, and a few bats. Just a couple of weeks ago at one garage sale I picked up a Ty Cobb decal bat (TC40 w/decal completely gone), a Victor Sporting Goods #99 bat, a Draper & Maynard Major League Special Model 76 bat, and a Stall & Dean Jim Delahanty bat. There were other bats in the box, but they were either not marked or they were not prewar. Grand total for all the bats was $20. I posted pictures on the vintage memorabilia board if anyone wants to see them.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/thread?forumid=396879&messageid=1124999604&lp=1125056555

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Posted By: Mike W

The only card I've ever found at a garage sale was this one. Now, I don't know much about it. It was found in a cigar box with a few cigarettes. This was the only card. It seems to be in some sort of plastic case that reads "PSA" at the top, and "Good 2" on it. Other than this, ... nothing.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Never found pre-war cards offered by the person holding the garage sale, I did meet an elderly lady at one who still had her deceased husband's Goudeys. I don't even remember how we got talking about cards, but ended up following her to her place and then buying the cards. Sadly, no Ruth or Gehrig in the group of about 40 cards.

Jay

My place is full of valuable, worthless junk.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

My mom volunteers for a small Seattle charity that clothes the needy. Just a few weeks ago the Seattle Seahawks donated a pile of worn practice clothes. The inside had all the Seahawks team tags and player numbers. As they were for offensive linemen (huge) and heavily used, they weren't appropriate to give to the clients (Romanian rural villagers). They were sold to collectors with the money used to buy baby socks.

As the charity is run by retirees and homemakers, I was brought in as the resident football 'expert.' As the clothes were dropped off by a Seahawks equipment department worker and no one (donor, workers, charity) was making a penny off the situation, it seemed unlikely someone would forge the numbers and tags on a pair of offensive limeman's pants to be given to a Romanian farmer. I may know something about football, but am no laundry afficianado. A volunteer introduced me to such concepts as laundry tags and pens. And I always thought that big metal metal box in the side room was my water heater.

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Posted By: Nick

I have better luck hitting thrift shops and rummage sales than garage sales for sports memorabilia, though I've never found anything pre-war at any of these.

Player-name store model equipment is often available - my latest pickups this way were Jim Rice and Kevin McReynolds autograph model gloves, and yearbooks, media guides, pins, and miscellaneous paraphernalia often make their way in. Sports books are often cheap pickups this way - I've even gotten autographed copies of Ronnie Lott's and Pat Williams's (Orlando Magic general manager) books from rummage sales.

Cards to be found are usually way overpriced modern junk, although sometimes there's modern junk at good prices and occasional big finds - my best was paying $225 at a thrift shop for several monster boxes full of '70s cards, a couple file boxes full of modern sets and near sets, some magazines and other memorabilia (including a Mickey Mantle autograph model glove), and a plastic tub full of miscellaneous higher-value items - mostly '60s and '70s HOFers in baseball and football.

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Posted By: Jim

Went to an estate sale about 3-4 years ago, bought a 33 Goudey common in VG condition and a 1939 A&M Wix actors card in NM condition.

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Posted By: Dave Williams

Circa 1975 when I was a kid I was at an estate sale, I picked up an old scrapbook with pre WW2 newspaper clippings, Ruth stuff, and several old exhibits and photos of hall of famers (Lazzeri, Bottomley), among others.

I also picked up a complete run of Baseball Registers from the early 50's to late 60's, and ST. Louis Cardinal yearbooks from the same time frame.

I got it all for about $20.

I also once picked up a Knute Rockne biography from right after he died, a limited edition biography numbered to 100 I think signed by Mrs. Rockne.

I think that was $1.

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Posted By: pete

i found about 25 pre-war commons and about 25 post korean war commons about 8-10 years agao at an estate sale...paid $1-$2 each and sold them about 2 months later, made a wopping $20 off the whole lot...
pete-

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Posted By: Ed McCollum

Both about twenty years ago. Remember them both well, as T206s are the only vintage card I collect, and I had about five at the time. One was a Three Finger Brown portrait at a porch sale about a block from the house we rented. The old guy wanted $50 for it, I had $20, and we could never work it out. The other was the same summer, a woman, recently divorced, was having a sale in her suburban garage. She had stacks and stacks of mainly newer cards, and five t206s, the only one I recognized at the time being Cobb, bat off shoulder. It had a price tag of $450 on it, which she said her husband had paid for it, and what she wanted out of it. Seems he left her for a younger woman, and left all his cards behind to. Being a newly wed, I still had that $20 in my pocket, and that was all....

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Posted By: STEVE

HONUS WAGNER DOES NOT SAY REPRINT ON BACK