Has anyone risked a "too good to be true" purchase online, and had a positive result?

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by Howe’s Hunter

Sometime between 1998 and 2003, there was a Maggie error card was on eBay that the seller listed as having just found, had done some research but said he didn’t know if the card was altered or the real thing. Everyone agreed it was an original but didn’t know if it had been scraped, erased, etc. Looked real to me but I was under-bidder by what ended up to be less than one dollar. In those days, you could contact the winner of a lot by eBay messages so I just asked if he planned on grading and if so would he let me know how it turned out. We exchanged messages off and on for about a month before he got his PSA 4 Maggie error card back.

That he won on eBay for $198.00.

Missed it by this much ...

Ouch....that is one of those that you should have went a little stronger on the snipe!!

[JeremyW]

This card was listed on Ebay as a reprint. I gambled on it & was very happy with the result.

[steve B]

I've had more of them in other hobbies, but have had a few in cards.

A card simply listed as "old baseball card" with a blurry pic of a Goerge C Miller.
It was a beater, but real. And the way it's beat up matches my others. The price was Ok, but not amazing.

A couple T206s sold ungraded with the usual seller warnings that they don't know what it would grade - they did pretty well.

The bikes and stamps.... Loads of deals on iffy listings, or just poor listings.

[Fastball]

Interesting thread because I will admit I did this very thing once a while back. However, up to this point I haven't put any effort into determining if it is authentic. So, upon disclosure I welcome any suggestions or help, or perhaps feel free to laugh. There was an auction on eBay that I saw close to the end that was selling a an original tintype photograph of Cy Young. There was a letter of provenance that said it came from his estate. I have no idea how to prove if the picture is really Cy Young; but, I thought it was cool enough and so I said what the heck. I don't have the picture here with me but can post it later. The truth is still yet to be determined or perhaps it's one of those cases where you'll just never know. But I even though I knew it was likely too good to be true, I did it anyway, but rarely do that.

[egri]

A few months ago, an eBay seller listed a lot of four signed 1953 Topps, including Fred Hutchinson. The photo on the listing was terrible (I could barely see the signatures, much less make an assessment) but at something like $80 for the lot, I figured it was worth a shot. I pulled the trigger, and they turned out to be four very nice vintage signatures, including a very bold Hutchinson. Two others were upgrades.

He also had a lot of 1951 Bowmans that had a Hutchinson, but by the time I went back, it was gone.

[IMG][/IMG]

[D. Bergin]

Back in the early years of Ebay I used to do searches for oddball playing card types, and ran across a lot of a couple dozen Fan Craze baseball cards, including a bunch of minor HOF'ers.

No pictures, just a written description. Probably won the lot for under 50 bucks. I was ecstatic when they showed up.

[seanofjapan]

I live in Japan and collect vintage Japanese cards.

The great thing about collecting here is that the hobby is in some ways like it was in the US in the 60s and 70s - there are still hoards of old (1930s-1960s) cards out there owned by people who are just looking to get rid of them and have no idea what they are or that they are worth anything. So when you see a "too good to be true" opportunity it almost always turns out to be both "good" and "true". Antique dealers are really good sources for vintage stuff since most of them don't know what they have on their hands either.

Stuff like this is what collecting here is like: https://baseballcardsinjapan.blogspo...40s-menko.html

[AGuinness]

Originally Posted by seanofjapan

I live in Japan and collect vintage Japanese cards.

The great thing about collecting here is that the hobby is in some ways like it was in the US in the 60s and 70s - there are still hoards of old (1930s-1960s) cards out there owned by people who are just looking to get rid of them and have no idea what they are or that they are worth anything. So when you see a "too good to be true" opportunity it almost always turns out to be both "good" and "true". Antique dealers are really good sources for vintage stuff since most of them don't know what they have on their hands either.

Stuff like this is what collecting here is like: https://baseballcardsinjapan.blogspo...40s-menko.html

Fun read, thanks for sharing!