Phone Call of a Lifetime

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by parkplace33

Earlier this week, I got a phone call from a gentleman saying he had a large collection of baseball vintage sets that he wanted to sell. He was very excited and had been saving these sets for a while. All were "vintage and in mint condition". I asked him to send me pictures of the cards. When I got the pictures, all of the cards were.....

1988 Topps Baseball

He must have had 25 1988 Topps sets in binder pages. He asked what I was willing to pay. I told him the binders and binder pages were probably worth more than the cards. He was not happy and insisted I was wrong. I then pointed out you can buy a NM 1988 baseball on ebay for $10. He hung up.

Unfortunately he was upset because he was expecting his collection to be worth a lot and was hoping to strike pay dirt in this sellers market for collectors right now.

So he was shocked that his time and/or investments was not what he hoped.

Hopefully he did not buy them from someone without researching and over invested or over hoped

[bobbyw8469]

Story of our lives. When people find out I collect cards, they ask me to value their 1997 Donruss. I just laugh and tell them the truth.

[abothebear]

My mom still insists my collection from childhood is going to pave the way of my future. Never mind that I am well into that future, and it is mostly gravel roads.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

Story of our lives. When people find out I collect cards, they ask me to value their 1997 Donruss. I just laugh and tell them the truth.

I have two neighbors who asked me the values of their junk wax era childhood cards....I didn't laugh at them, patiently looked through their "junk" and then told them the truth, that was a year ago, neither have spoken to me since????

My son's baseball coach had me swing by his house to look at his childhood collection of cards. When I told him "the truth" about the majority of his junk wax collection, I could tell he was not happy. On the bright side, I told him some of the cards in his collection did seem to have some value after looking up their sold prices via ebay....they were his 5 different cards from his 6 years in the minors. He had saved 50-60 copies of each of his cards....single cards from those team sets sell periodically around $3 each. He now understands how an over supply can suppress value in the card market.

[Johnny630]

I just received a phone call, do you buy NASCAR Cards... Dear Lord Nooooo

[jchcollins]

I've been on hand when stories like this walk into my LCS from time to time, and it's generally somewhat amusing. The last was not modern cards actually, but a lady who had a lower grade '65 Mantle. It might have still been worth $200 or something, but of course she was convinced it was worth at least ten times that. She stormed off in a cloud of anger after the owner offered her I think $150.

[IgnatiusJReilly]

That was hilarious!

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

I've been on hand when stories like this walk into my LCS from time to time, and it's generally somewhat amusing. The last was not modern cards actually, but a lady who had a lower grade '65 Mantle. It might have still been worth $200 or something, but of course she was convinced it was worth at least ten times that. She stormed off in a cloud of anger after the owner offered her I think $150.

Love it

[steve B]

In High School I hung out at a local card shop often enough that I was usually there a couple days a week.

One time a guy - who turned out to be another dealer- dragged in a big box of 78 RC cola cans to ask if they wanted them. They pointed at me and said "we don't but that guy does" Six bucks for maybe half the set

Then I had to call mom for a ride home ....Lucky she was tolerant of my collecting.