Observations from a yard sale - 80s/90s junk cards

[swarmee]

For those of you criticizing the junk wax buyer, they could just know more than you. There are approximately 15 cards in 1990 Topps that sell for $500-1,000 each if they have a specific rare print defect. There are four or so better known errors in 1991 Topps that regularly sell $100-200 each if you know what to look for.

If all you see is a monster box of commons from Topps junk wax era, and you're not screening them for these rare errors/variations, then maybe you're selling the boxes cheap...

Same thing for modern Topps or Heritage or Upper Deck. So many unannounced/nearly impossible to notice SPs, SSPs, errors, etc that people looking to complete Master Sets still need. Before you toss them in the trash or sell for cardboard recycling value, check your cards against junkwaxgems or baseballcardpedia.

[bdk1976]

Originally Posted by swarmee

For those of you criticizing the junk wax buyer, they could just know more than you.

No, I just think they have WAY more time than me and much, much lower standards on what makes a 'good deal' and/or 'good investment'.

[bbcard1]

I usually get to the point in a long show where I sit down at the nickle or penny boxes. I pull any former Marshall University players (you find a lot of Troy Brown and Carl Lee but may occasionally trip into a Pennington or Leftwich). If it's anything that remotely interests me like regional issues or players I like from a set that I for some reason didn't collect, I get it. There are few things you can enjoy that you can buy for a penny.

[ocjack]

Before the advent of price guides, I would always check out dealer tables for 1957 Topps commons looking for Bakep. In 10 years of searching commons, I found 2. Still satisfying when you ask for a discount from the dealer's common pricing.

So I guess, it's still sort of the same thing.

[Mark17]

Years ago I had a case of 12,000 junk commons, remnants from my days as a dealer. It was a horrible mix, with several groups of 100+ cards of a 1987 Topps common player for instance, and all cards were 1986-1991. Poor variety junk.

I described it as junk, sold it on ebay, the shipping cost at least as much as the cards, and when the buyer received it, he complained. He said he understood it was junk, but didn't realize how bad it was until he found the 900 Mike Maddux (not brother Greg) 1989 Fleer cards.....

But then, a couple days later, he wrote back and said never mind, he was quite happy with his purchase. He'd found a small stack of 20 1990 Sammy Sosa Upper Deck cards that I hadn't been aware were in there.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by swarmee

For those of you criticizing the junk wax buyer, they could just know more than you. There are approximately 15 cards in 1990 Topps that sell for $500-1,000 each if they have a specific rare print defect. There are four or so better known errors in 1991 Topps that regularly sell $100-200 each if you know what to look for.

If all you see is a monster box of commons from Topps junk wax era, and you're not screening them for these rare errors/variations, then maybe you're selling the boxes cheap...

Same thing for modern Topps or Heritage or Upper Deck. So many unannounced/nearly impossible to notice SPs, SSPs, errors, etc that people looking to complete Master Sets still need. Before you toss them in the trash or sell for cardboard recycling value, check your cards against junkwaxgems or baseballcardpedia.

This is why I was glad I never got rid of the boxes of junk era cards I had accumulated over the years in my basement. I recently sorted them for these error and variation cards and found a bunch of them. None of the 1990 Topps blackless cards, but I did find a partial blackless Frank Thomas card that I sent off to PSA. I also found some of the hard to find 1991 error cards like the Mark Whiten and Chris Hoiles. I will never pass up a box of 1990-1991 Topps cards ever again if I can get it cheap, just for the fun of error hunting.