Post your best story! The Buy that got away

[wdwfan]

Mine wasn't too long ago, maybe about 10 years. I had taken out an ad in the paper looking for cards. I had a guy call and say he had a shed full of cards. We met early on a July 4 because it was in a shed with no AC.

He had 2-3 pallets of cases of cards. Some several notebooks and then a few boxes of singles. It was all stored just wonderfully. The cases were all wrapped but I could see some were from the 1980s-1990s.

I flipped through a few of the notebooks and saw all sorts of 50s-60s-70s cards. Assuming partial sets, etc. Some of the pages even had 2-3 of the same cards stacked in the same pocket. All looked to be in really good shape and had some pretty big names in them (Mays, Aaron, Rose to name a few). He did tell me there were no Mantle cards because he had another guy buy up all of those a couple of months earlier.

We came to a price agreement ($400 for everything). I was shocked he was willing to go so low. But I told him I didn't have that kind of cash on hand, however, I could have it the next morning when the bank opened. Well he called me that afternoon and said he had talked to his son, and the son had talked him into holding on to all of the cards. So the sale fell through. I"m wondering what would've happened had I had the cash on hand at the moment. I know I'd have had a ton of gradable 50s-60s cards plus a few cases of 1980s-1990s baseball.

[GasHouseGang]

Mine was years ago, in the early 1980's. I was told there was a doctor in town that wanted to sell off all of his baseball cards, and he had a bunch of 1950's Topps and Bowman baseball. I went to his house, and sure enough, he had some beautiful cards, but he wanted near full book price for them. Included in the cards he was offering were two copies of the holy grail, the 1952 Topps Mantle! They were both beautiful, and they were each in those 3 inch thick screw downs they used to have for "really good cards". He wanted $1000 each, your choice. Well, I might have been able to scrape together that much for one, but then I would have been completely broke, so I decided to pass. Ouch! I'm sure either one would have easily graded a 6. Sure wish I could go back and rethink that decision!

[clydepepper]

No real story here...I just know that the window of opportunity for me to get a '52 Mantle is WAY...WAY closed!

It definitely got away!


.

[Fred]

If you're talking about a guy the said he had some really good stuff, but lied, then I've got a whopper of a story..... CRAZY CANUCK.... anybody remember that asshole.... I know a few board members got burned by that idiot....

Yes, I have a huge regret.... about 1984, someone offered me about (400) T206 cards (had HOF like Matty and others). Cards were in decent shape. I son't remember about the backs... don't even want to say how much it was offered to me for.... puke, blech... my head hurts now....

[Chris-Counts]

When I was a kid in the early 1970s, another kid who lived nearby me had some great cards. He showed them to me a couple times and tempted me with various deals, but he kept backing. After that, he would pass me on his bicycle and yell taunts to me about how he would never trade or sell me his cards. One day he particularly annoyed me with his comments, and I threw my baseball glove at him. My some random chance, the glove stuck in his gears, and his bike was immediately upended. He was literally launched over the handlebars face first onto the pavement. As a result, he got a little banged up, and I probably should have felt some remorse about it. His mom called my mom, but I didn't get in too much trouble. I never did get the cards, though.

[orly57]

Great stories! Keep them coming. Chris, thanks for the laugh. Awesome story.

[pingman59]

It's the spring 1978 Chicagoland Sports Collectors Association show at the Hillside Holiday Inn. I'm in college and have $40 to spend. I got there right when they opened the doors and soon after I ran across an empty display box labeled 1941 Play Ball: $35. I thought it was the coolest thing and I deliberated over and over on spending almost all of my money, not realizing at the time the scarcity of such an item. I passed on it and walked away only to come back 5 minutes later, after coming to my senses, to buy it. IT WAS GONE.

Huge regret.

[tjb1952tjb]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

When I was a kid in the early 1970s, another kid who lived nearby me had some great cards. He showed them to me a couple times and tempted me with various deals, but he kept backing. After that, he would pass me on his bicycle and yell taunts to me about how he would never trade or sell me his cards. One day he particularly annoyed me with his comments, and I threw my baseball glove at him. My some random chance, the glove stuck in his gears, and his bike was immediately upended. He was literally launched over the handlebars face first onto the pavement. As a result, he got a little banged up, and I probably should have felt some remorse about it. His mom called my mom, but I didn't get in too much trouble. I never did get the cards, though.

Thanks for the visual, Chris. VERY funny................

[damonh23]

good stories, keep them coming..

mrmopar..I botched it in the sense I didn't get the deal done. I should have called for backup.. To my defense I had no phone and no way of calling the owners in, to make things worse I remember my girlfriend and a group of her friends coming over acting loud totally distracting me.

I hope I educated him enough so he didn't get taken. But I'm highly confident that the guy probably gave them away for nothing!

[brian1961]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

When I was a kid in the early 1970s, another kid who lived nearby me had some great cards. He showed them to me a couple times and tempted me with various deals, but he kept backing. After that, he would pass me on his bicycle and yell taunts to me about how he would never trade or sell me his cards. One day he particularly annoyed me with his comments, and I threw my baseball glove at him. My some random chance, the glove stuck in his gears, and his bike was immediately upended. He was literally launched over the handlebars face first onto the pavement. As a result, he got a little banged up, and I probably should have felt some remorse about it. His mom called my mom, but I didn't get in too much trouble. I never did get the cards, though.

Chris, that story was a scream! Nice going, my friend. Two sides to every story, and the jerk goes and bawls to his mommy about how this bad boy caused this horrible accident. "And I did'n do nuttin' to him!", I can just hear him whine.

You know, Chris, maybe it's just as well that you didn't get that bully's cards. I have found if I have a very bad memory associated with an object, I don't want the object anymore. Whatever you might have gotten from the boy, over time you probably would not have treasured them, all because it came from that jerk.

My wretched " the one that got away" was at the big 1974 Midwest Card Collectors Convention in Troy, Michigan. I saw a 1954 Wilson Franks Ted Williams at a dealer's table in EX-MT condition. He wanted twenty bucks. I asked him to save it for me while I went to my hotel room to get the twenty. Upon my return, he had just sold it to another collector. Classic example of why teens (I was 19) hate adults sometimes. The sad story with all its details became chapter 12 of my book on regionals, Never Cheaper By the Dozen. Yes, in the chapter I answer the obvious question, "WELL, STUPID, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, GOING DOWN TO THE CONVENTION WITHOUT YOUR MONEY?*%@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I recall, you love regionals, Chirs, so I thought you would appreciate and empathize with this succinct version of my yarn. I quoted you in my book, too!

----Brian Powell

[Chris-Counts]

Originally Posted by brian1961

Chris, that story was a scream! Nice going, my friend. Two sides to every story, and the jerk goes and bawls to his mommy about how this bad boy caused this horrible accident. "And I did'n do nuttin' to him!", I can just hear him whine.

You know, Chris, maybe it's just as well that you didn't get that bully's cards. I have found if I have a very bad memory associated with an object, I don't want the object anymore. Whatever you might have gotten from the boy, over time you probably would not have treasured them, all because it came from that jerk.

My wretched " the one that got away" was at the big 1974 Midwest Card Collectors Convention in Troy, Michigan. I saw a 1954 Wilson Franks Ted Williams at a dealer's table in EX-MT condition. He wanted twenty bucks. I asked him to save it for me while I went to my hotel room to get the twenty. Upon my return, he had just sold it to another collector. Classic example of why teens (I was 19) hate adults sometimes. The sad story with all its details became chapter 12 of my book on regionals, Never Cheaper By the Dozen. Yes, in the chapter I answer the obvious question, "WELL, STUPID, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, GOING DOWN TO THE CONVENTION WITHOUT YOUR MONEY?*%@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I recall, you love regionals, Chirs, so I thought you would appreciate and empathize with this succinct version of my yarn. I quoted you in my book, too!

----Brian Powell

Brian, I went to a show in Pontiac, MI, in 1976. I arrived on a red eye from California with my mom and my brother — and no sleep. I was 15. I stepped through the doors into this big room and walked up to the first table, and the guy had a shoebox full of 1953 Bowman Color Hall of Famers. Just about every card was perfect mint, and there were about a dozen of each, including at least that many Mantles. I spent all I had in the first five minutes of the show — I paid $11 for one of those Mantles — and then I wandered around the room for another two or three hours looking at all this amazing stuff I couldn't buy until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.