Childhood or adulthood rip off stories

[7nohitter]

Zach,

I can totally relate to your story...As a 13 yr old in 1990 I was excited to go to the local card shop with my $50 or so, thinking that i had a ton of money. Will never forget how 'little' I felt when the rube behind the counter was bothered that I asked to see a '70 Nolan Ryan, nor have I forgotten the tone in his voice when I asked how much it was and he snickered, "more than you probably have." What an ass. As I got older I was happy that his store closed....

[seablaster]

As a teenager, my friend and I worked out a trade where I was going to receive his 1960 Leaf Duke Snider card for my prized 1991 Upper Deck Dikembe Mutombo rookie card, which I had pulled from a pack, and 10 M-80 firecrackers.

The Mutombo rookie is a cool looking card with the Denver skyline in the background and at the time he had some serious potential. The Duke Snider card was in VG condition at best, but I thought, what the hell? He's a hall of famer.

I come to learn that the Snider card was trimmed and trimmed quite poorly too. I still have it. Man, I wish I had those M-80s back.

[packs]

I wasn't ripped off, but I got low balled pretty badly at the San Leandro show last weekend. I wanted to trade for a guy's Obak premium. I offered him an SGC 40 T206 Cobb Bat Off and a really nice PSA 1 1933 Goudey of Gehrig for his Obak. The guy told me he'd give me $1,000 in trade for my cards. Needless to say I was pretty annoyed.

[tiger8mush]

Back in the late 80s I was around 10 yrs old and saved up $20 from selling newspapers (standing in the roads in St. Augustine, FL on the weekends) and went into the local card shop. The owner, a sleezeball who saw that I had $20 to spend, told me he had a "NM" Bo Jackson football rookie card. SUPER HOT! How much? $20! I didn't really even want it, but he talked me into it. Its closer in condition to "VG" by todays standards.

[esd10]

i remember this one time in 1990 or 91 i went to a card show at my local mall and i had saved like a $100 to buy my favorite players rookie card the 79 topps ozzie smith and of course i found 1 for around $75 and was so excited. I had the card for about 2 weeks and took it to school with my mother of course telling me not to and did anyway and showed some of my friends at lunch who where intersted and put it back into my bookbag and finished the day and when i got home and was going to take it out of my bag and it was gone. lets just say i was heart broken to find that my prized card was gone someone had taken from my bag during recess and never seen it again. This off subject but when i was young i always thought the 33 goudey ruth was the penicle of all cards and now it makes me laugh to know what is really out there.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by 7nohitter

Zach,

I can totally relate to your story...As a 13 yr old in 1990 I was excited to go to the local card shop with my $50 or so, thinking that i had a ton of money. Will never forget how 'little' I felt when the rube behind the counter was bothered that I asked to see a '70 Nolan Ryan, nor have I forgotten the tone in his voice when I asked how much it was and he snickered, "more than you probably have." What an ass. As I got older I was happy that his store closed....

I saw one of those guys get taken by a kid who was about 8 at the flea market. He asked about a card and got the same response, "probably more than you have" The kid replied that he'd bet that he had more than the dealer, the card to him if he had more, the contents of his pocket to the dealer if he had less. ----The Kid had about $1500 on him! And a dad who was about 10 feet away, probably a setup, but nobody liked that dealer.

The same dealer would always try to push the latest "hot" set at me, iron ons, minis, big cards....My usual response was that I already had them. So one time I mention that I'm thinking of selling some stuff the next week. He has me come around the back of the van, and hands me two boxes of cards and says "don't come to sell next week, those are on the house" Whenever I was wanting cards and had no money I'd tell him I was going to setup and always got something free.

Steve B

[Buythatcard]

We've all been ripped off one time or another. I was ripped off by my best friend's father.

I started collecting cards in the mid 50's when I was a young kid and stopped around the late 70's. I only collected Topps and had several thousand cards. I was a big Yankee fan back then until the Met's came along. I collected everything that had Maris or Mantle on it. I also had every Yankee yearbook from the late 50's to late 60's. In addition I had every Met Yearbook from their first until the early 70's. So, I amassed a huge collection.

Then one day in the late 70's my best friend told me that her father buys sports cards and memorabilia. Since I was a teenager and needed money badly, I said "Great". Her dad came to my apartment and took everything I owned and told me that it was only worth $500. I took the money thinking that I got a great deal.

It wasn't until I was shopping at a mall several months down the road where there was a card show going on at the same time that I knew the scumbag ripped me off. He was selling my yearbooks for $50 to $100 a shot. I don't have to tell you the value of those Mantle cards.

Here I was trusting a friends Dad and he took me for a ride. It's over 35 years ago but I still get pissed off.

[judsonhamlin]

When I was 12 (1980) or so, I got jobbed by a flea market guy who convinced me that the 1951 and 1952 Bowmans that some kid had cut down to the size of the '50's were worth money. I think it was only about 20.00 for three of them, but still...
2/3 of a Ford rookie, anyone?

[bh3443]

Originally Posted by 7nohitter

Zach,

I can totally relate to your story...As a 13 yr old in 1990 I was excited to go to the local card shop with my $50 or so, thinking that i had a ton of money. Will never forget how 'little' I felt when the rube behind the counter was bothered that I asked to see a '70 Nolan Ryan, nor have I forgotten the tone in his voice when I asked how much it was and he snickered, "more than you probably have." What an ass. As I got older I was happy that his store closed....

Hello my friend/neighbor! Interesting story, anyone er know locally?
Thanks,
Bill

[7nohitter]

Originally Posted by bh3443

Hello my friend/neighbor! Interesting story, anyone er know locally?
Thanks,
Bill

Hey Bill...

It was a place on Rt.9, by Tropic Isle....a two level building and the store was down stairs....for the life of me cannot remember the name of it.

[tbob]

When I first got back in to collecting cards in 1981, I went to the local card shop and saw a Killebrew rookie card from 1955. It was in very nice shape but it had a corner crease. Probably today would be graded VG. The owner of the shop, a well known card collector of pre and post war cards, told me you just don't ever find the Killebrew card without any creases. i bought it. After going to a couple of shows, reading a lot about vintage cards and the market in general, I learned I had been duped. Well, we all learn in life.
The post script is I bought a 1968 Nolany Ryan rookie card from the same dealer in 1982 before the "craze" began. It was NRMT and I bought it from him for $15. At the height of the Nolan rookie craze I sold it on ebay for $900. I made sure and tell him about it. I have never seen a guy whose face turned so pale while he listened.

[BranchRickey56]

Alright, you're forcing me to drag out old, painful memories...

Almost my entire collection of cards was stolen by movers in 2000.

My new company asked us to move from Cincinnati to Atlanta and we used one of the big-name movers. I had just moved all of my cards to new hobby boxes for the relocation, but had the pre-war and star baseball cards in two binders. My idea was that I would put everything in binders and finish those few sets that were incomplete (using this new 'eBay-thing') when we got settled in the new house.

I had started collecting in 1967 and had complete or near complete sets of all the sports (baseball, football, basketball, hockey, even British soccer) from '67 to '72, as well as a large number of star cards from the 1950's Bowman and Topps football sets (things like the Bowman 1952 Large Jim Lansford). There was a very near complete set of 1962 Topps Basketball, a complete set (- #66) of the Ted Williams Fleer cards, some of the good non-sports issues (like the Marvel Super-hero set from 196?)- and on and on. It hurts to even type all these out now.

Like a dummy I let the movers take the cards after being assured by the movers rep on the phone that they had coverage up to $100k for personal property.

I don't know who took them or how but only the "star" binders, which had been packed in boxes with my books made it to Atlanta.

The good news was that the moving company wrote me a check for $20,000, which bought the family a new van (probably the only time in life I'll ever be able to buy a new car with cash!). The bad news was that I wasn't ready to sell the cards and to replace what I had would have cost over $50,000.

I still feel violated and sad to this day. They stole my childhood!!!!

(Ahhh...feel much better now. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, Doc. How much do I owe you for this session?)

[zljones]

Wow looks like a lot of people have the same stories of sleazy or overly aggressive dealers. I thought my experience may have been interpreted as petty. It is bad how some of these sleazy dealers ripped kids off back then, I think it is low if a dealer takes advantage of child's dream of owning a cardboard treasure. My dream was to own the 1954 Topps Hank Aaron and if I would have kept saving up my money back then, I possibly would have at least gotten a 1959 Topps Aaron or something, but then again it probably would have got stolen when I was 16 just like that 62 Topps Warren Sphann did that I was pressured into buying as a kid.
Greg, thanks for sharing that story. Especially when my movers came by with gang tattoos and tear drop tattoos under the eye, it made me a little worried about my cards last year.
I always worry about someone breaking into my home when I am not there and stealing them. I am not worried about the HD TVs or my computer, or PS3, those are all replaceable by insurance claims. My worries are my cardboard treasures getting jacked

[Bpm0014]

In about 1992 I was 17 years old. I bought a near perfect single signed ball of Pie Traynor on the sweet spot for about $40 from my local barber. I then flipped it about 2 days later at the local card shop for $75 and felt like the smartest kid in the world...