Lopsided Trades

[Exhibitman]

Nice idea for a thread. I guess we could subtitle it "A fool and his cards were lucky to get together in the first place". I will throw two stories out there:

I Am A Very Bad Person

I was a voracious reader of all information on cards when I was a kid. Not much out there...Anyhow, one of the books I read a lot was The Complete Book of Baseball Cards: For the Collector, Flipper and Fan [1975; Steve Clark]. Actually, I studied it like a Bible, especially the chapter on rare cards.

One day in 7th grade one of my neighborhood card collecting rivals/friends got a shoebox of 1960s cards. He really wanted a creased 1968 Clemente I had; I sort of wanted some of his new cards. Then I saw one that keyed to something I thought I read: an ugly green and sepia card of Gino Cimoli. I flipped it over and read the back, verifying what I thought. A 1958 Bell Cimoli SP. Very tough card, even with chip stains. I put it down with a poker face and we dickered over the other cards for some time. I wasn't seeing much I wanted for my Clemente--this was the era before card stores and before card shows and conventions, so assembling a run of player cards was not an easy thing, so the Clemente was no joke. Anyhow, we had an offer pending, it was OK, so I asked for that weird Dodgers card too and he threw it in to close the trade! Even then it was like an $80 card.

I Am A Very Stupid Person

It is a few years later and I am at an actual card show. I have a box of 1960s football cards that I got handed to me by some family friends as part of a giant box of mixed sports cards. I've traded and sold many, these are the leftovers. Probably 200+ minor stars and commons from 1958-68. Pre-Beckett, pre-anyone caring about football other than a few I see a 1941 Play Ball Wyatt and offer the delighted dealer the box for the card. Easily the most expensive f-ing Whit Wyatt card ever purchased...

[rats60]

In the winter of 1998 a dealer at a show had a 97/98 Skybox Michael Jordan Ruby #/50. It was a $500.00 card at the time. I asked him if he would be interested in trading and he said yes, he said he was from Minnesota and he would trade it for $500.00 worth of Randy Moss RCs. Today that Jordan is worth ~5K, those Moss cards are less than $50.00.

[aelefson]

Hi-
Great thread! I particularly like 71Buc's post with the follow up. I have two quick tales. In the late 1980s, Eric Davis' 1985 Topps rookie was considered a "hot" card. I traded it for a 1983 Topps Gwynn rookie when their values were fairly comparable. I was ribbed a bit for the trade because Davis cards were considered to be going up in value whereas Gwynn cards were more stagnant.
Around the year 1991, I traded a couple of Upperdeck Griffey rookies and several promo cards that were quite valuable then for a 1961 Topps Mays, a few other 50s-60s stars, and a few T206s (commons). I made several other trades similar to that to build a small vintage collection back then. I loved that dealers would trade the new stuff for vintage, but I also know it was an way for them to make quick money on the hot item of the month.

Alan