Why on Earth did I buy this?

[G1911]

I have purchased multiple cases of 1988 Donruss. For cash money. While sober.

Can I get a sticker?

[JollyElm]

A new listing for each card I buy off of eBay appears in the same grade/shape for a minimum of 25% less than what I just paid for mine before the one I bought even reaches my door. Does that count?

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

When I first started doing shows as a dealer at 14 years old I was always desperate to get "older" star cards. In about 1988 now at 16, the father of a teacher at my high school had a decent 1965 Yaz, which was AMAZING to me at the time. I offered to sell it for him and take 10%. He said he wanted $85 (even in the late 80's craze that was too much) and I said I might have to take less. His response was "That's OK but I want $85" To me that meant try like hell to get $85 but if you have to you can take less.

It took almost half a year but I finally managed to get $60 for it. I called him to tell him I had $54 dollars for him and his response was. You told me I would get $85. Basically what he meant when I asked him about taking less was 'you do what you want but I'm getting $85' Was a hard lesson and $31 that hurt back in those days!

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

When I first started doing shows as a dealer at 14 years old I was always desperate to get "older" star cards. In about 1988 now at 16, the father of a teacher at my high school had a decent 1965 Yaz, which was AMAZING to me at the time. I offered to sell it for him and take 10%. He said he wanted $85 (even in the late 80's craze that was too much) and I said I might have to take less. His response was "That's OK but I want $85" To me that meant try like hell to get $85 but if you have to you can take less.

It took almost half a year but I finally managed to get $60 for it. I called him to tell him I had $54 dollars for him and his response was. You told me I would get $85. Basically what he meant when I asked him about taking less was 'you do what you want but I'm getting $85' Was a hard lesson and $31 that hurt back in those days!

That would not have been the lesson I would have learned if I were in your shoes. The lesson I would have learned is that some people are idiots who aren't worth dealing with, and that sometimes, those idiots receive $31 less than would have liked for their cards.

[hcv123]

Back around 1990-91 I was new to dealing cards. A guy brought a great looking 56 Mantle - I don't recall how much it was, but it would have been a big purchase for me back then. After buying it I learned (from someone else looking at it) that it was trimmed. A few weeks later I was set up at another show and had cards laid out on my table (prior to having showcases). I had the Mantle out and was offering it for significantly less than I had paid noting it was trimmed. Yes, I turned around for a minute and when I turned back the Mantle was gone - someone had stolen my trimmed '56 Mantle!

Another one that just came to mind was the Michael Jordan rookie I won in an auction run by a guy who owned a card shop near Albany NY (I forget his name) - It was NRMTMT and a card that got tucked away as Jordan is my favorite player of all time. An article came out about Jordan fakes and upon examination, I think a year later, I learned that the example I had was a fake! Not sure exactly why (perhaps because I was young), but felt embarrassed about going back and asking for a refund.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Snowman

That would not have been the lesson I would have learned if I were in your shoes. The lesson I would have learned is that some people are idiots who aren't worth dealing with, and that sometimes, those idiots receive $31 less than would have liked for their cards.

Never any shortage of that lesson running an auction

[Mark17]

About 15 years ago, when I was collecting GU bats, I spotted an auction on ebay that was closing with just a couple minutes. It was an H&B signature model Owen Bush. Well, I knew right away that was the famous Tiger, Donie Bush, and was hoping and assuming other people might not know this. So I quickly got my snipe bid in, and won it for a few hundred dollars. Boy was I excited!

About a week later I received a USPS medium size flat rate box. Inside was a mini bat of Owen Bush. I scrambled back to the listing, re-read it closely, and sure enough, buried in the description was: 16". In my haste, I hadn't noticed it. I eventually sold it, being clear it was a mini bat, and took hit of a couple hundred dollars. Not the most I've ever lost on a transaction, but probably the biggest emotional up, then down.

[ClementeFanOh]

I don't feel so bad now! Maybe 30 years ago, I traded a beautiful Walter
Payton rookie for 2 college football programs. The programs are wonderful and
still in my collection. That taught me the meaning of "loss" in the card world

Trent King

[raulus]

It's been a few years.

I got conned by a goon who convinced me that he actually had the goods. It was a long con over several months, and I fell for it. And I'm a professional skeptic! I literally get paid every day to exercise professional skepticism. And so it's certainly humbling to admit it.

And unfortunately, I lost a lot of money. And I mean a lot. So much that I'll decline to actually disclose the full amount. But whatever you're thinking, it's probably more. I suppose the good news is that since it was just fun money and not rent money, nobody died in the process. But there was definitely no fun involved.

Still makes me mad enough to chew nails and spit rust every time I think about it. Luckily, as time goes on, I think about it less, but every once in a while, something will remind me, and I'll just shake my head and wonder what I could have possibly been thinking. Perhaps the worst part is my wife knew it the whole time, so now I have periodic reminders of her superior judgment whenever we have a difference of opinion.

Luckily it didn't stop me from collecting. But it definitely set me back a bit, and made me a lot more wary when I do direct deals.

But maybe my willingness to admit my spectacular failure will give others the space to admit their own stupidity. This is a safe space, and chances are whatever you've done pales in comparison to mine, so feel free to share.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by raulus

It's been a few years.

I got conned by a goon who convinced me that he actually had the goods. It was a long con over several months, and I fell for it. And I'm a professional skeptic! I literally get paid every day to exercise professional skepticism. And so it's certainly humbling to admit it.

And unfortunately, I lost a lot of money. And I mean a lot. So much that I'll decline to actually disclose the full amount. But whatever you're thinking, it's probably more. I suppose the good news is that since it was just fun money and not rent money, nobody died in the process. But there was definitely no fun involved.

Still makes me mad enough to chew nails and spit rust every time I think about it. Luckily, as time goes on, I think about it less, but every once in a while, something will remind me, and I'll just shake my head and wonder what I could have possibly been thinking. Perhaps the worst part is my wife knew it the whole time, so now I have periodic reminders of her superior judgment whenever we have a difference of opinion.

Luckily it didn't stop me from collecting. But it definitely set me back a bit, and made me a lot more wary when I do direct deals.

But maybe my willingness to admit my spectacular failure will give others the space to admit their own stupidity. This is a safe space, and chances are whatever you've done pales in comparison to mine, so feel free to share.

Come on man, details? That is so vague I say no sticker. Here is my equivalent tale of woe -- I once overpaid for a card.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Come on man, details? That is so vague I say no sticker.

No soup for you!

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Come on man, details? That is so vague I say no sticker. Here is my equivalent tale of woe -- I once overpaid for a card.

Specifically which specifics do you specifically request? You want the play by play, start to finish, and leave out nothing?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by raulus

Specifically which specifics do you specifically request? You want the play by play, start to finish, and leave out nothing?

Some description of cards involved and how it unfolded, I assume you don't want to name the con man.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Some description of cards involved and how it unfolded, I assume you don't want to name the con man.

Not sure that I even know his real name. I do know his alias, or what he called himself. I also think that several of the other parties that were allegedly involved were probably just alter-egos. Nowadays, anytime I run into someone with the same last name, I immediately assume they must be fraudsters. Just an unconscious knee-jerk reaction.

Basically his dad had just died and left behind a very nice collection. I'm a Mays collector, and based on some of the scans he sent to me, for example, there was a Mays 52T in PSA 8. And based on the PSA cert, his dad would have had a very nice collection indeed, because this cert was connected with a very significant collection in the PSA set registry.

We discussed it for a while, and his attorney contacted me (again, probably just him through another email address spoofing the attorney). I checked out the attorney's license with the state bar, and everything checked out. We agreed to meet in a couple of weeks to do the deal. He would deliver the cards, we would agree on a final price based on everything there, and I would pay him. We signed some legal docs. I agreed to pay a small amount as a deposit to hold the deal.

And, not that different than most cons, it slowly unfolded. There were delays. There was a need for more money to hold the collection. There were more delays. We communicated almost every day. The attorney sent me details and court orders and whatnot. It was always the case that we were going to meet in a couple of days and settle up. Almost there! Not quite...almost there! Just a few more days and a few more dollars.

And hell, once you're in it a little, and you're believing everything they have to say, then it's easy to keep baby stepping your way through it. You start looking for reasons why the inconsistencies and nonsense must be accurate. And so you just keep going. Total sunk cost fallacy at play, and yet it's a powerful psychological feature.

Eventually I started to push them a bit, and only make payments over more secure channels like paypal goods and services, or using a credit card.

I think the final straw that eliminated all doubt in my mind was when he charged my credit card about 15 times over the course of about 3 days, running up around 10k per charge. Luckily, I got the credit card company to reverse all of those charges, but it took a long fight. The goons asserted that they had provided construction services on my house, which was completely risible, but the credit card company bought it. So then I had to spend a lot of time convincing the credit card company that this "vendor" was not a real business, and they had never actually done anything other than attempt to (and succeed at) stealing my money.

As a worthless side effect, nowadays, just about any time I try to buy anything, my credit card company sometimes just denies the charge, and often they immediately text me to make sure that it's legit.

So there you go. Con artist 101 all day long.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I think where you went wrong was when he said he needed more money to hold the collection. You already had a deal and that was BS. Live and learn I guess. I had a friend who bought and paid for a 311 Mantle and received a 57T Mantle instead. We finally got his money back but it was an effort.