Cry for me the Beloved Cards

[pawpawdiv9]

dang Aaron & Chiprop:
Where were you guys when you sold those 1916-20 UNC sets?
Still am fortunate to get what i have & still looking for more of these.

i think i faired better and to forget what i have had sold, because mostly was mantle card collection that let to my 51 & 52 mantle.
I had my share of the Zeenut Dimaggio and Mays RC 7oc, 1915 CJ Joe Jax, 1948/49 Leaf Jackie sgc4.5

[Hankphenom]

This thread strikes me as almost confessional in tone, so I'll tell get mine off my chest. About 25 years ago, I needed some quick cash, so I took my WaJo card binder to the Fort Washington Philly Show to shop it around. I've always been more of a memorabilia guy anyway, and many of my cards had been given to me by a friend of my Mom's who got into cards very early and would pick up WaJo's for me when he found them cheap, so selling them didn't seem like any great sacrifice when I really needed money. I had all the basic cards, most in G-VG condition, but there were also some extreme rarities, like a Texas Tommy type I, BB Bats, Vassar Sweaters, others, along with some great early postcards. I decided on a price of 4K for the binder, and started with Bill Huggins, who turned the pages quickly and without a word pushed the binder back across his display case to me. The next stop was to Dean Zindler, set up near by, who told me the price was too high. "What the Hell?" I thought, I KNOW these cards are worth that much, and started breaking the binder up to sell individual cards at that and several succeeding shows. After quickly pocketing about 8K for maybe half the contents, I was feeling pretty proud of myself. The next show after Fort Washington was a tiny show promoted by Phil Wood outside of Baltimore that had some great dealers but for which few collectors showed up, and my friend Val Kehl happened to be the lucky WaJo fanatic who got the pick of the binder largely still intact. I remember gouging him out of $300 for the Texas Tommy and sticking him for a few hundred more for what I now know are some of the rarest WaJos around. If he sees this, he can offer more details of his bounty, and my consolation is that if there is one collector whom I would never begrudge this good luck, it is Val, one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Among the many other consolations in telling this sad tale--including how great the hobby has been to me in general all these years--is the fact that I, like most of us, would like to have back everything we've ever sold, but this is the one I do still think about from time to time, although I try not to think about it too often--how much would I be able to extract from that binder today?

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

This thread strikes me as almost confessional in tone, so I'll tell get mine off my chest. About 25 years ago, I needed some quick cash, so I took my WaJo card binder to the Fort Washington Philly Show to shop it around. I've always been more of a memorabilia guy anyway, and many of my cards had been given to me by a friend of my Mom's who got into cards very early and would pick up WaJo's for me when he found them cheap, so selling them didn't seem like any great sacrifice when I really needed money. I had all the basic cards, most in G-VG condition, but there were also some extreme rarities, like a Texas Tommy type I, BB Bats, Vassar Sweaters, others, along with some great early postcards. I decided on a price of 4K for the binder, and started with Bill Huggins, who turned the pages quickly and without a word pushed the binder back across his display case to me. The next stop was to Dean Zindler, set up near by, who told me the price was too high. "What the Hell?" I thought, I KNOW these cards are worth that much, and started breaking the binder up to sell individual cards at that and several succeeding shows. After quickly pocketing about 8K for maybe half the contents, I was feeling pretty proud of myself. The next show after Fort Washington was a tiny show promoted by Phil Wood outside of Baltimore that had some great dealers but for which few collectors showed up, and my friend Val Kehl happened to be the lucky WaJo fanatic who got the pick of the binder largely still intact. I remember gouging him out of $300 for the Texas Tommy and sticking him for a few hundred more for what I now know are some of the rarest WaJos around. If he sees this, he can offer more details of his bounty, and my consolation is that if there is one collector whom I would never begrudge this good luck, it is Val, one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Among the many other consolations in telling this sad tale--including how great the hobby has been to me in general all these years--is the fact that I, like most of us, would like to have back everything we've ever sold, but this is the one I do still think about from time to time, although I try not to think about it too often--how much would I be able to extract from that binder today?

Thanks for sharing. I am amazed at the hobby industry GIANTS not even interested at 4k. Maybe they wanted it for 10 cents on the dollar?? Who knows.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

Thanks for sharing. I am amazed at the hobby industry GIANTS not even interested at 4k. Maybe they wanted it for 10 cents on the dollar?? Who knows.

It is mind-boggling, and the only explanation is that things were a LOT different back then. I don't think either of them spent more than a couple minutes looking through my binder before making clear their disinterest. Today, collectors--and especially dealers--would be running from all over the room to look through those cards and postcards.

[Foo3112]

Over the years, I've liquidated a lot of my collection in order to make larger purchases. I have sold some that were still expensive back then and become even more expensive looking at prices today and then some that weren't (and still aren't valued too much today) that I regretted for the simple fact that its hard finding again with great corners, edges and centering.

1933 Goudy #53 Babe Ruth PSA 6 (Honestly, this card looked more like a 5)
1956 Topps Mantle PSA 8
1957 Topps Ted Williams PSA 8 (Strong Centering)
1959 Topps Roger Maris PSA 8.5 (This card looked better than any 8.5 I ever came across)
1962 Topps Maris PSA 8 (One of the strongest examples I ever came across)
1968 Topps Mantle PSA 9
1981 Topps Montana RC (Card looked like it could have been a 10. Sold it for a very strong price and then prices across the board went up even higher. This one still hurts).
1984 Topps Mattingly PSA 10 (Card was dead nuts perfect all around)
1993 Jeter SP PSA 9 (Fortunately I bought another copy just as strong or stronger when they were a lot lower a few years back)

[Bestdj777]

I let go of a 52 Topps Mantle (for three times what I paid for it but still miss that card), a 59 Salesman Sample Mantle, a Mission Soda Mantle, and a few 51 Mantle Photo Cards. Wish I’d kept them all. My biggest regrets are the ones I haven’t gotten, the Briggs Meats when Vahl offered it to me, a 53 Yamakatsu Mantle I just couldn’t swing, and a Rawlings Mantle that came up when I was saving for something else…. One day I’ll have more regrets than cards….