How to track down elusive white whales?

[MattyC]

Well, Leon...

You were right.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Well, Leon...

You were right.

Well, not sure what I was right about, except "buy it when you see it".....but if you picked something up, congrats. Many times I have sniped at 5x+ what something is worth if I have to have it. I have never regretted it.

[dstudeba]

Wow two days to find a white whale, Ishmael was a slacker.

[murcerfan]

.....if only rare cards were easy to find.

[brian1961]

LEON WROTE: Many times I have sniped at 5x+ what something is worth if I have to have it. I have never regretted it.[/QUOTE]

Beautifully expressed, Mr. Luckey. If you really WANT something, and I refer to something that has everything you love in a card, you better believe you must fight to win. If you're thinking, "I must get it for a fair price", or "will there be any upside potential for a profit later?", then you may have a kinda naive mindset. Remember, you're hunting WHITE WHALES. Did you really think there would not be other ships looking for those same whales? Assuming you have good taste, there are others with that same good taste--and they're gonna fight 'til the blood runs, matey!

In some other thread, I mentioned getting a rare Mickey Mantle card for a high amount of cash. Though this was '89, it was a lot of money to me then. Book value may have been barely a grand, but the card presented miles ahead of what you think of when you see VG-EX. His price was $2,500. I asked if he would come down some. No. My worst fear would be that he would consign it to another auction or worse yet, take it to that year's National Convention.

I KNEW if my fellow collectors got a better look at it, my chance would be gone for good. So, I paid 2.5 times book. When I got the card, I was dumbfounded, spellbound. The card was THAT good-looking. It's chapter 3 in my upcoming book. It took perhaps a decade for the book value to match the price I paid. But look, think hard, lots of issues are not studied that closely for value, though now VCP.com has fixed that to a point. Even then, many issues are thinly traded. White whales are excellent examples of this.

Why? The items were almost invariably purchased by a collector for their own collection, not to re-sell in five to ten years, unless one of the four dreaded D's transpires in their life.

They don't call them white whales for nothing. You need to find out where the white whales are--who owns them. If they've owned them a while, it's 'cause they like them. They enjoy them. It might take some hefty jingle for them to say OK. But you want it to be YOUR jingle they're saying yes to.

So, as others have said, let the hobby know you want them. Some ads may cost you. How bad do you want them? Collectors in our hobby and other hobbies used to do that, and sometimes the ad was a full page. If you do it on an internet BST, the space is free. SO GET CREATIVE, OR FIND A FRIEND OR HIRE SOMEONE THAT WILL CREATE A STUNNING VISUAL AD THAT WILL BE NOTICED. IT'S NO DIFFERENT THAN MADISON AVENUE. YOU WANT PEOPLE TO NOTICE WHAT YOU WANT IF YOU ARE GOING TO GET THE BITES YOU WANT THAT MAY LEAD TO LANDING SOME OF THOSE DREAM CARDS. Make a small list of 5 that you want the most. If you don't show a figure you're willing to pay, at the very least express that you'll pay handsomely. You better mean it, if you want success. Ask around the hobby--who's a good hunter? Who knows who has what? HIRE HIM.

But that's gonna cost some of my card-buying money? YUP. Again, how bad do you want them? I suppose when you get sick and tired of dreaming about them, as your original post alluded to, you'll listen to some (not necessarily mine, that's completely up to you) of the advice shared here and fight smarter.

I sincerely wish you happy hunting. Oh by the way, I, like Leon, have never regretted getting that rare Mantle. Every time I look at it, the card gives me genuine joy and my admiration for it wells up all over again.

Happy hunting. ---------Brian Powell

[ullmandds]

must have been a humpback whale?!

[MattyC]

Great post, Brian. A really fun and spirited read.

I suppose that sometimes what makes a collector's whale is not just sheer rarity, but rather a confluence of factors. In my case a big challenge was finding the right one for my taste, and fighting the occasional temptation to settle for an example that just didn't feel right.

For example, if one is a serious stickler for centering or image brightness, and shopping in a capped price range to boot, there is always the chance your perfect desired copy of a card does not exist. In this sense, when you finally lay eyes on your dream copy after years of searching, it can feel like a 1 of 1 so to speak.

I personally love older cards that look the part and exhibit charm and character, but there is a fine line between character and utter absence of eye appeal. Finding a specimen which strikes that delicate balance can be tough.

Then a card can feel like a whale eluding you, as its price increases-- perhaps at a pace faster than your income is increasing, lol. So it can be a whole host of things, along with there being relatively few copies in your price range/grade.

It is so true, though, that when buying to keep forever you never regret making that one last, big reach that grabs it.

[brian1961]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Great post, Brian. A really fun and spirited read.

I suppose that sometimes what makes a collector's whale is not just sheer rarity, but rather a confluence of factors. In my case a big challenge was finding the right one for my taste, and fighting the occasional temptation to settle for an example that just didn't feel right.

For example, if one is a serious stickler for centering or image brightness, and shopping in a capped price range to boot, there is always the chance your perfect desired copy of a card does not exist. In this sense, when you finally lay eyes on your dream copy after years of searching, it can feel like a 1 of 1 so to speak.

I personally love older cards that look the part and exhibit charm and character, but there is a fine line between character and utter absence of eye appeal. Finding a specimen which strikes that delicate balance can be tough.

Then a card can feel like a whale eluding you, as its price increases-- perhaps at a pace faster than your income is increasing, lol. So it can be a whole host of things, along with there being relatively few copies in your price range/grade.

It is so true, though, that when buying to keep forever you never regret making that one last, big reach that grabs it.

I'm sorry. I probably misread and misinterpreted what you were asking advice about. I'm a bit embarrassed, but I'll get over it. When you wrote of white whales, it connoted something else to my mind. Oh well. Also, I am probably unworthy of giving that advice since I have not been collecting competitively for a decade now. Some of what I conveyed still holds true, however. Still, in this massed wired era, a few strategies are completely unknown to me, me thinks. So, you are by no means naive, and I by all means jumped the gun. Hopefully you'll allow me one false start, as in track & field.

Be that as it may, I can well understand your frustration over the difficulty of finding certain cards, that have the right combination of characteristics you find appealing. Many that you want are entrenched in sets, whose owner will not break up until he wishes to part with the set as a whole. Then the set may or may not be sold or auctioned off individually. After a few years, those heavily desired cards would take on the persona of a white whale to you. Quite.

The confluence of factors is finally crowned with the diabolical reality that by the time you find the right piece, it is priced out of your range. As Daffy Duck would say, in part, "what a revolting development!"

Putting the word out via message boards, and enlisting the help of a good dealer might still be viable allies to you in your fight to gain your cardboard gold.

Cheers. ---------Brian Powell

[MattyC]

Brian,

All good. Your writing is quite enjoyable. Ultimately I wanted it badly enough to go all out and win it. Amazing feeling.

I just knew, beyond any doubt, that I would never find another specimen in the grade as nice as the one in question. It was a true anomaly of eye appeal for the grade, and the one for me. Luckily it was my very max bid that held on.