Your Best Deal Ever (Going Back All The Way!)

[brianp-beme]

Holy Smokes...16 Sport Kings Babes, and in such nice condition! For $8. I just can't imagine it, and what a vintage card collecting dream not from 1980 or before, but so recently. And you could have gotten them for $7.

Amazing.

Brian

Originally Posted by Kzoo

Back in the spring of 2014 at a local flea market a seller was in the process of setting up for the show with a friend of his. I was the only potential buyer around and while strolling through his items for sale, I overheard the conversation with his friend about how his move to Florida was in the near future. Amongst a bunch of other stuff under a couple white tents, he had a small stack of cards on a table with a '33 Goudey Sport Kings Ellsworth Vines on top of the stack. As I picked up the stack of cards to begin looking through them, he mentioned that 'the cards were .50 cents each or if I wanted the whole stack of 28 cards he'd sell them to me for .25 cents each'.

My first thought was reprints? No, they were thicker and felt correct for the issue. I held one to my nose and it smelled correct. I asked him where he got the cards and he pointed to an old, wooden toybox that was painted black with artwork of roses/flower arrangements on the outside that was sitting under a table. The inside of the toybox was lined with newspaper from 1933, but I don't remember the city or newspaper name. He said the toybox was full of old toys that he also had for sale and the cards were just loosely laying on the bottom. He said the toybox came from a local 'storage unit' auction. As I was looking through the cards, my heart was beginning to beat through my chest and tunnel vision set in.

There were many duplicates of only a few different cards.....there were 5 Indian Gum cards of Kishkalwa, 2 Sea Raider cards of Charles Gibbs, 5 Sport Kings cards of Ellsworth Vines, 7 Sport Kings cards of Babe Didrickson, and 9 Babe Ruth Sport Kings cards.

A couple cards had minimal damage from sitting under the toys and they were all a bit dusty, but the majority were BEAUTIFUL. The colors popped, most of the corners were sharp, and they looked uncirculated. I made the mistake of trying to add up .25 cents x 28 in my mind and paid him $8 for the stack. In a blur, I headed about 200 yards for my car. I sat down, looked around, locked the doors and put each card in a top loader. I took some deep breaths and just tried to figure out what just happened. I texted my wife 'I think I just found some great cards'. I think I was in shock, my brain was mush and I headed home shortly afterwards.

I graded most of the cards at some point over a couple year span and have since sold most of them (a few years too early) except for 3 Ruth's (a PSA 6 and 7 & a SGC 6.5) and a nice 8.5 Didrickson (there were three 8.5 Didricksons). I cracked out a few for re-grading in some instances. A couple of the Vines cards graded 8, one Ruth with the best centering but creases graded 2.5. Two Ruth's graded 7, plus three 6's and three 5's. All of the Ruth's were off center towards the bottom except for the 2.5. IMO, the best Ruth graded a PSA 6, so I cracked it out and SGC graded it a 6.5 (I still think it's better than that). The posted picture is from late 2014 and is missing a Didrickson, as I cracked out a couple cards during a couple year span to regrade back when it didn't cost a small fortune. Also posted is the SGC 6.5 that I believe was the best Ruth.

I still don't understand why those were the only cards in that toybox with so many duplicates. I don't think these cards were ever issued in packs. Why no Sport King Cobb's or regular issue 1933 baseball cards? I'd love to know that story.

[ahmanfan]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Holy Smokes...16 Sport Kings Babes, and in such nice condition! For $8. I just can't imagine it, and what a vintage card collecting dream not from 1980 or before, but so recently. And you could have gotten them for $7.

Amazing.

Brian

This is the craziest one. Even if you know nothing about baseball, something old with Babe Ruth on it you would think would prompt a google search or some second glance. Especially from someone who is in the business of selling things!?

[Kzoo]

Originally Posted by ahmanfan

This is the craziest one. Even if you know nothing about baseball, something old with Babe Ruth on it you would think would prompt a google search or some second glance. Especially from someone who is in the business of selling things!?

I can't remember the guy's face as I was in shock, but his general appearance resembled a cross between Kid Rock and Joe Dirt, including the wife beater and mullet. I didn't recall seeing him before and never saw him again. The crazy thing is, there were a couple other collectors canvasing the show that day and somehow I stumbled upon the cards first. I still can't believe it.

[justrun7]

Here are some of my more notable find at flea markets, antique stores, thrift shops, and even card shops over the last 8 years or so, with most being within the last 3 years.

Elston Howard game used bat - Paid $50 Sold $900
1996-97 Skybox E-X2000 Credentials Uncut Sheet - Paid $60 Sold $2500
Tracy McGrady Game Used Autographed Jersey - Paid $15 Sold $1500
Allen Iverson Game Used Autographed Jersey - Paid $15 Sold $1500
Mickey Cochrane Autographed 1934 Goudey - Paid $150 Sold $1700
Mike Trout 2011 Update Gold - Paid $3 Sold $2000
Tom Brady 2000 Bowman (2x) - Paid $100 for box of unsorted cards Sold $2000 (sold rest of box contents for $1000)

There are plenty of finds to still be found out there, you just have to be consistent in your search to find them.

[Bill77]

My best deal ever was my 41 Play Ball Arky Vaughan. One morning at work one of my coworkers told me he had something I would probably like and handed me the card. He got it from an older woman on his postal route years earlier and he gave it to me. I probably stopped by my desk at least once every 30 minutes that day to look at it. A year or two later I was able to get a 33 Goudey Vaughan for $6.00. I think they make a good pair.

[Collectorsince62]

Back in the 70's just before the price guides started appearing, I used to run an occasional ad in a local paper looking for cards. One day I received a call from an older gentleman who was moving. He said he had an old cheese box containing cards, and it was nailed shut but he couldn't remember exactly what was inside. I had no idea what a cheese box was, or why it would be nailed shut, but I was about to find out. I drove a short distance, met the man and he shows me a wooden box about half the size of a shoebox. He finds a hammer and pries open the box. Stacked neatly inside were about 200 1940 Play Ball cards, all in Ex-Ex+. One card however, was lying across the top face up. It was a '33 Goudey Ruth G-Vg. He wanted $125 for everything. I borrowed the money from my Dad who thought I was nuts. Around that same time an antique dealer responded to my ad and said she was setting up at a sidewalk sale that weekend and had a Babe Ruth card she would sell to me before the sale opened. I arrived early, she shows me a '33 Goudey and says "let's start the haggling at $5." She seemed a little disappointed when I handed her the money without bargaining. On the trading front, my favorite trade occurred in the mid 70's when '71 Topps in great condition were really hot and T206's were not. I traded a really nice extra complete '71 set to the owner of a local card shop. He had just returned from a buying trip to the tobacco states and had a bunch of T206's. In return for the '71 set I received a Mathewson, Johnson, Cy Young, Lajoie, Speaker, McGraw, Tinker, Evers, Chance (and Steinfeldt), Three Finger, Chesbro, Jennings, Merkle . . . and a type card from each different back he had. Years later I discovered one of the type cards was a one-of-one Drum. That one has since been auctioned off to a deserving home but the others have all stayed with me.

[jchcollins]

Probably about 20 years ago now, I bought a lower grade '59 Mantle off eBay. It was raw, but I'm thinking it probably would have been a PSA 2. It was around 50 bucks. When the card arrived, it looked different to me, so I flipped it over and noticed that it said "Hecho en Venezuela" at the bottom with the Topps copyright. LOL, a '59 Mantle Venny for 50 bucks. I sold it a year or so later - for nothing like what it would go for now, but still more than 10x what I paid.