Why on Earth did I buy this?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Schlesinj

Dr. Becket said on his podcast he traded a 52 mantle for a Betamax player.

Not at all personal to you or even critical, but IMO the main reason card doctors who are little better than thugs have been so successful infiltrating the hobby is that a lot of wealthy bright and successful guys just left their common sense at the door when it came to cards.

[Rhotchkiss]

Nicolo, that’s a hell of a story. Thanks for sharing it. Hopefully it helps someone avoid a similar result.

Thanksgiving of Freshman year of college, 1992, I agreed to give my brother all of our collection for $100 and I got to keep the Clemente rookie. Later that year he sold the entire collection at a show for $10,000!! He was a 16 year old sophomore and got $10k for the collection I mostly put together. There is no way whatever I did with the $100 was worth it (probably smoked it over Thanksgiving holiday).

Lesson is - at least get $200 when you give your brother the collection

[BioCRN]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

Thanksgiving of Freshman year of college, 1992, I agreed to give my brother all of our collection for $100 and I got to keep the Clemente rookie. Later that year he sold the entire collection at a show for $10,000!!

$10,000...wow. That's a lot of Todd Van Poppel, Kevin Maas, Scott Erickson, and Brein Taylor RCs.

[Bill77]

For me it was towards the end of 2001. I bought a box of Topps Traded and pulled a Pujols rookie and the gold version as well. I traded the regular Pujols straight up for an 87 Topps Barry Bonds. Just to make it sting a little bit more I bought a box of older packs of cards from Target about a month later and pulled the same Bonds card only in much nicer condition.

[Rhotchkiss]

Originally Posted by BioCRN

$10,000...wow. That's a lot of Todd Van Poppel, Kevin Maas, Scott Erickson, and Brein Taylor RCs.

Lol. We had two complete 1986 Fleer basketball card sets, every garbage pail kid ever made (series 1-??), tons of 1980s stuff (like 100 1985 McGuires, Boggs, Gwynn, etc), as well as the “old” stuff I liked. I specifically recall a bunch of 1949 and 1950 Bowman HOFers, rookies of Gibson, Frank and Brooks Robinson, Drysdale (Dodgers Sluggers - I loved 1957 topps), McCovey, Aaron, Banks, Killebrew, Lasorda (good coach at the time), Stargel, Rose, Carlton, Seaver, Sutton, Niekro, etc. We also had every Topps Mantle from 1957-1969, as well as many mid-career HOFers. Finally, a few t206s- like Young with glove and Bresnahan with bat (my first t206 ever). I am not saying they were mint - many far from it- but we put together a real good collection for a couple of teens. We would hustle at shoes, trade with friends, and often sell/have tables at shows.

By 1990, there was topps, Fleer, donruss, sportflicks, upper deck, and bowman. It became too difficult to fools which rookie was worth owning. Plus, we were buying a ton of every kind of card of rookies (the goal was 100 of each). I felt the whole thing had gotten crazy/stupid and I was convinced the bottom would fall out. We really didn’t collect much in 1991 and 1992 (my junior and senior year of highschool). And then freshman year I made my dumb transaction. However, today, it’s a great story and my brother and I have great memories

BTW- I feel today about cards the same as I did in 1991 with all the craziness. That is why I only collect super old, blue chip players and sets - they have always been valuable and have gone up over the 4 decades I have been collecting

[pokerplyr80]

Years back I had a similar deal, but on a much smaller scale. It was a Craigslist add (yes I know) and a bunch of raw 50s and 60s cards. The guy had several scans, and any time I asked for a specific scan of a card he produced it. I wound up sending him $8k, but PayPal goods and I made sure I itemized the list of the big cards with the payment. This was the only thing that saved me in the end.

A similar story followed, delays with excuses, pictures of him in the hospital, his "wife" started emailing me with the status of his condition. Finally his wife mailed me a box that he claimed as a bonus for the delay. It was a bunch of 90s cards worth maybe $5. I disputed the charge the day the box arrived, and recorded a video of me opening this box. Apparently when you file this type of dispute the other party has 10 days to submit their own evidence. This 10 day period was filled with increasingly aggressive emails with excuses that were more and more unbelievable. In the end he submitted nothing to PayPal and I got my $8k back. Lesson learned, if the deal sounds too good to be true, it is.

[Exhibitman]

Listening to some of these stories I don't feel like a lonely fool. I got ripped off last year by an eBay con artist from Mexico goes by barbacoa215. He sells fake cards and laser prints of real cards. He sends them from Mexico City to avoid authentication. When you file a claim to return the cards he accepts the return. You then discover that eBay won't give you an international return label and that tracked return shipping to him (NON-refundable) is so expensive that it practically costs as much as the cards. So I sent the cards regular, he claimed he never got them, and I ate my payment and my return shipping costs. I then found out he's pulled this scam repeatedly.

All I can say is that if barbacoa215 ever shows up at a National I will kick 100% of his ass.

[Leon]

I have bought several fakes on eBay. I think all of the bigger ones got remedied. The last one was a picture of an N173 I bought. IT would have only been an ok deal, even if real LOL...

Actually, I also bought a fake Mayo HOF'er not too long ago and had to go to ebay management for resolution...the guy guaranteed returns then opened a case when I did!

If you have been doing this 20+ yrs, you have some stories!!

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Listening to some of these stories I don't feel like a lonely fool. I got ripped off last year by an eBay con artist from Mexico goes by barbacoa215. He sells fake cards and laser prints of real cards. He sends them from Mexico City to avoid authentication. When you file a claim to return the cards he accepts the return. You then discover that eBay won't give you an international return label and that tracked return shipping to him (NON-refundable) is so expensive that it practically costs as much as the cards. So I sent the cards regular, he claimed he never got them, and I ate my payment and my return shipping costs. I then found out he's pulled this scam repeatedly.

All I can say is that if barbacoa215 ever shows up at a National I will kick 100% of his ass.

[Tyruscobb]

In late February 2020, I consigned several items with an auction house. I was convinced Covid-19 would produce a significant recession and the card market would soon tank.

My plan was to sell before the crash and then buy back the same cards, but in better grades, for less money. Thus, I’d improve my collection and put some money in my pocket, or use the extra money to further expand the collection.

The card were all nice, but lower graded ones. The lot included a Ruth, a few Mantles, and a Mays rookie. Although I turned a profit, I didn’t gross enough to buy back the same cards, let alone nicer copies. I sold at the worst possible time - right before the boom. Impossible to predict, but still stings.