First Post...Estate Sale Haul Today

[RobDerhak]

So, I've got a stack of 100 or so cards and I am amped up. I back away from the table, and realize there is another box on the floor. I ask him if these are priced as marked or what, and he says, nope, we're just doing the $5 each thing on them too...Allrighty then...the '57 Spahn may grade a 8 or 9...I mean it is NICE







These Hopalong Cassidy cards were in a snap case with some randoms (76 Brett, a stack of Cecil Fielder rookies (?) for $5...no idea on their value





At this time I decided to go back through the first box to see what I missed...there were a few...I'm sure I left more there that I should have bought...I could barely see my adrenaline was pumping so fast





Throughout the house there were cards...









Then I found the little plastic box I hoped for and bought it without opening it to see what was inside...





No big stars (minus Lasorda I guess), but still...

continued.....

[RobDerhak]

$7 a box...



$4



$5 box w/ '89 Upper Deck packs in it



And then, the lottery ticket....



No idea if they are Desert Shield or just plain ol' '91 Topps...2 of the boxes are sealed, two are not. If anybody knows how to tell the difference, please inform me. I looked at Houdinis break, and the box seemed to be identical to the regular '91 release...any help on these is greatly appreciated...

Anyway, thanks, hope I'm not breaking any rules with multiple photo posts to start, but I;m so damn excited about my find today I just have to share it!!!

[Bestdj777]

Welcome to the forum. Such awesome finds. It looks like you got some beautiful cards. If you don't mind me asking, what was the final damage?

I believe there was a fairly recent discussion in the modern card section--directly below this one--about how to distinguish between Desert Storm/Regular Topps cards. I may be mistaken, but I think the answer was that the only way to know is to open them. I hope for you that they aren't regular Topps. Either way, for that price, I'd say it is well worth the money just to be able to flip through them.

[RobDerhak]

Thanks for the reply...yea, I did a search for Desert Shield on this board and it seems to be the consensus that you need to open them...I did find a video on youtube that was a pack break, and it was a wax pack...the packs in the two open boxes of mine are cellophane, so that may be my answer...still probably wont bust open anything until I get a chance to do a little more research.

Total damage was a little over $800.

140 of the $5 cards + the unopened stuff, and a few other trinkets I haven't photoed yet...best of that lot is a 60's (i haven't researched it yet, I'm thinking '65ish) Stamped Auto Cardinals ball in plastic wrapper with the order sheet in the wrapper with it...it isn't sealed, but the ball can't be removed through the little hole in plastic...Facsimile autos of Gibson, Brock, Schoendienst, etc...I'll photo it later tonight I'm sure

Also a really old Little League Baseball (i'm thinking 50s?) that looks like it was never played with...things I couldn't live without, ya know

[ALR-bishop]

There is a member here, Zach Wheat, who thinks he has ways to identify Desert Shield from regular packs. It is discussed in some of the old Desert Shield threads. He can also help distinguish between real and fake desert Shield cards. If you do a member search under the Community tab above, you can pm him to discuss it. He is always very helpful about what he knows

Edit---or you can pm him from his post in the "set finished ...white whale found" thread on this page

In 1991 Topps inserted one each of every prior years cards in their packs There were redemption cards for the 52 to 56 cards and cards thenvalued at over $ 50, and they would be no good now, but there could be some older cards involved, although far from mint

You have some Fleer inserts in there among the Topps Stamps and Transfers

[7nohitter]

Rob....
Welcome...and thank you for sharing that find!! Wow, were you looking around, waiting to be caught like Red in The Shawshank Redemption???

AWESOME!

[RobDerhak]

Originally Posted by 7nohitter

Rob....
Welcome...and thank you for sharing that find!! Wow, were you looking around, waiting to be caught like Red in The Shawshank Redemption???

AWESOME!

Lemme tell you, I didn't set that stack of cards down! I didn't hand them over to be counted, I counted em up, said there are 140 cards out of the $5 bin, feel free to recount em if you don't trust me, and he trusted me...I'm sure I missed stuff since I was one handed after going through the big box, but I wasn't gonna risk them flipping through and realizing their error if I dropped them off at the counter...does that make me a bad person? I hope not!

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by RobDerhak

...the packs in the two open boxes of mine are cellophane, so that may be my answer...

I imagine there are no card fronts visible through the cellophane packs, as this would (obviously, unless I am missing something) answer your question. Out of curiosity, what is showing on the tops and bottoms of the packs?

Great find, by the way. Those cards you purchased at $5 each are absolutely awesome!

Additionaly, welcome to the board. Enjoy. You have landed upon a great website. Plenty of knowledgable collectors willing to help.

Best regards,

Eric

[ls7plus]

Awesome find, and thanks for sharing!

Best,

Larry

[RobDerhak]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I imagine there are no card fronts visible through the cellophane packs, as this would (obviously, unless I am missing something) answer your question. Out of curiosity, what is showing on the tops and bottoms of the packs?

Great find, by the way. Those cards you purchased at $5 each are absolutely awesome!

Additionaly, welcome to the board. Enjoy. You have landed upon a great website. Plenty of knowledgable collectors willing to help.

Best regards,

Eric

Thanks for the welcome!

Yea, the back is showing on the front & the back of the pack, so no info to be found there...that was my first hope as well!

[JollyElm]

Welcome aboard!!!

If you're looking to do some trading, I could use the '61 Koufax, a '63 Mays and the '63 Fleer Spahn and/or Koufax. Check out my bucket to see a ton of stuff I have available for trade.

[stlcardsfan]

Congrats Rob, great stuff! Where was the sale located?

[campyfan39]

That's amazing congrats! The condition on those 62's is incredible. Glad you brought a pocket full of money

[RobDerhak]

Originally Posted by stlcardsfan

Congrats Rob, great stuff! Where was the sale located?

Kansas City in a tiny little half of a duplex in an area of town close to the part of town that I don't go to at night.

[begsu1013]

welcome and SCORE!

there is no discrepancies between desert shield boxes and regular topps boxes, there is only one way to find out...open and rip a pack.

a good indication though might be if the house had any military mementos/memorabilia as well.

however, even steve from bbce has to pick out a random pack out of a box that is submitted as a "desert shield" box to find out. I believe he reseals this pack, in the same exact fashion as it was opened and is the only instance of this ever happening of such a reseal.

I do not know this from personal knowledge, but the guy that told me this is extremely reliable on unopened and I would not regurgitate this if I didn't think it was legit. but call bbce, in a week or so (as it's the national) and ask....it would solve your mystery really quickly.

as for feeling guilty, do not. you paid the price that was asked. it's not your position to price someones' items. the guilty feeling is because you stumbled upon one hellavu find and congrats!

and I will take that 63 berra please.

[RobDerhak]

Originally Posted by begsu1013

welcome and SCORE!

there is no discrepancies between desert shield boxes and regular topps boxes, there is only one way to find out...open and rip a pack.

a good indication though might be if the house had any military mementos/memorabilia as well.

however, even steve from bbce has to pick out a random pack out of a box that is submitted as a "desert shield" box to find out. I believe he reseals this pack, in the same exact fashion as it was opened and is the only instance of this ever happening of such a reseal.

I do not know this from personal knowledge, but the guy that told me this is extremely reliable on unopened and I would not regurgitate this if I didn't think it was legit. but call bbce, in a week or so (as it's the national) and ask....it would solve your mystery really quickly.

as for feeling guilty, do not. you paid the price that was asked. it's not your position to price someones' items. the guilty feeling is because you stumbled upon one hellavu find and congrats!

and I will take that 63 berra please.

Yep, a guy on Blowout told me about Steve and I called him yesterday. Very nice guy that said, well, basically the same thing you said...just cross your fingers & rip! Nothing discernible between regular & Shield versions (I didn't ask him about, and haven't tried the blacklight trick Zach mentioned prior)

I've opened the two boxes that weren't sealed, both were just plain ol' '91 Topps. There was a LOT of military regalia in the house, and obviously there were some Desert Shield singles around too...and about 50 boxes of those Desert Storm cards, so there were a lot of things from that era that gave/give me some hope.

[whiteymet]

Nice pick up. Just be aware the Red Heart cards you showed are reprints, in case you did not know.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Great vintage pickups! Good luck with the submissions, let us know how they turn out

In regards to the 91 DS cards, it may just be the lack of quality images used to display the pickups, but the typical definition of a legit DS card's logo does not appear on the DS cards pictured here. In addition, the logos appear much shinier on the cards pictured versus legit copies I have handled. Again, it could just be the images used here. Post some pics of the backs of these DS cards also.

[RobDerhak]

Originally Posted by whiteymet

Nice pick up. Just be aware the Red Heart cards you showed are reprints, in case you did not know.

Yep, the REPRINT at the bottom on the back was a dead giveaway (not to mention the high gloss, which would have blown people minds in '54)

There were about 15 of those sealed little packs, all w/ Mantle on top I just grabbed one of 'em for the hell of it.

[RobDerhak]

duplicate post

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by RobDerhak

And then, the lottery ticket....



No idea if they are Desert Shield or just plain ol' '91 Topps...2 of the boxes are sealed, two are not. If anybody knows how to tell the difference, please inform me. I looked at Houdinis break, and the box seemed to be identical to the regular '91 release...any help on these is greatly appreciated...

Anyway, thanks, hope I'm not breaking any rules with multiple photo posts to start, but I'm so damn excited about my find today I just have to share it!!!

Thanks for the heads up on the thread guys. Rob, nice find. The DS boxes I have seen look like the regular 1991 Topps boxes. Are your boxes wrapped in cello? I have not seen DS boxes wrapped in cello - other than BBCE certified boxes (see below). DS boxes will look exactly the same as regular issues 1991 Topps boxes - even the 4 yellow bordered 1991 Topps cards printed on the bottom of the boxes do not have a DS logo on them.

One of the ways you can tell a DS pack is to use a strong blacklight and shine it on the back of the pack. The red trim on the reverse of DS cards should glow or fluoresce; if it doesn't it is likely not a DS pack. However, if every pack in the box glows or fluoresces, there is a high probability it is a DS box. Here is a pic of "sealed" Desert Shield boxes by BBCE (below).

Z

[RobDerhak]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

Thanks for the heads up on the thread guys. Rob, nice find. The DS boxes I have seen look like the regular 1991 Topps boxes. Are your boxes wrapped in cello? I have not seen DS boxes wrapped in cello - other than BBCE certified boxes (see below). DS boxes will look exactly the same as regular issues 1991 Topps boxes - even the 4 yellow bordered 1991 Topps cards printed on the bottom of the boxes do not have a DS logo on them.

One of the ways you can tell a DS pack is to use a strong blacklight and shine it on the back of the pack. The red trim on the reverse of DS cards should glow or fluoresce; if it doesn't it is likely not a DS pack. However, if every pack in the box glows or fluoresces, there is a high probability it is a DS box. Here is a pic of "sealed" Desert Shield boxes by BBCE (below).

Z

Thanks for weighing in.

So I opened one of the unsealed boxes last night and it was a dud...just plain ol' '91 Topps & only 1 Chipper.

The sealed boxes are wrapped with the (here is the part where I start to sound like a moron) crinkly type of plastic...not the type of plastic that stretches when pulled...does that make sense? I saw (i assume it was your) post about the blacklight when I did a quick google at the estate sale yesterday...I may need to see if I still have my blacklight stuffed in a closet somewhere and check 'em tonight.

I went back to the same this AM...it looked like nobody had gone through the box since me. Found 42 more worth grabbing @ 25% off today, he took 'em all the way down to $3 each since I bought so much yesterday...nothing crazy...my biggest miss was a '63 ROokie Stars w/ Gaylord Perry & another '61 Leaders w/ Koufax, mid stars like Kubek, Oliva, Kaat, things like that...a couple of Variant Checklists that have a little premium on them...two more sealed '91 Topps boxes appeared as well, so I grabbed them (now for $4 each), as well as half a dozen or so 90 UD Hi # Boxes just to rip hoping to find Aaron auto (fat chance, but for $3 a box, why not?!)

I'll probably head back over there in the afternoon tomorrow to see what kind of deal they'll make on the scraps since they are mid-high grade...bulk of what is left is '63 commons, handful of adjoining years.

[ALR-bishop]

"No idea if they are Desert Shield or just plain ol' '91 Topps...2 of the boxes are sealed, two are not. If anybody knows how to tell the difference, please inform me. I looked at Houdinis break, and the box seemed to be identical to the regular '91 release...any help on these is greatly appreciated"

Maybe this is what caused what you now consider a high jack

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

"No idea if they are Desert Shield or just plain ol' '91 Topps...2 of the boxes are sealed, two are not. If anybody knows how to tell the difference, please inform me. I looked at Houdinis break, and the box seemed to be identical to the regular '91 release...any help on these is greatly appreciated"

Maybe this is what caused what you now consider a high jack

What Al said plus unless it is a crap home printer fake most believe vintage cards to be the real deal.

The DS cards are easily among the top 10 faked/altered cards of all time. Yes they don't sell for thousands of dollars but you can turn a worthless common into a card that sells for a few dollars. I usually avoid them because I have no clue what is real and what isn't.

[RobDerhak]

Easy.

I didn't say the thread was hijacked because it hasn't been hijacked...I just said it was odd that such a focus has been put on the least valuable cards I found...I think is says one of two things...either this community is really interested in DS cards in general, or this community is hyper sensitive when it comes to looking for/assuming cards are fake...not judging either way, just an observation.

And you are correct, I did ask for help on the sealed boxes...which a couple of posters offered their advice on. And for the record, I did open 5 of them so far...all regular issue, no vintage inserts yet either lots of Larry Jones rookies though