What cards did you get for a steal, although you didn't realize it at the time?

[nat]

Originally Posted by z28jd

followed by two people who said they would top any offers

This sounds like a good way to infinity dollars.

[Seven]

A few stories behind each of these cards:

The Aaron RC was purchased off of Becketts Marketplace, back in the Late 2000's. I don't recall the exact price but it was something in the ballpark of $130. I wanted to own the RC of Henry Aaron, I saved my money and was able to purchase it. The Killebrew and Banks RC's were won on Ebay, both for under $100, during the same time period. I couldn't understand how these guys, who were members of the 500 Home Run Club, both so cheap. All of which are in rougher condition, but it matters little to me.

The Koufax, was purchased during COVID. The seller told me that it displays great but measures a touch short of what normal 1955 Topps go for. I have zero plan to grade it, got it for a steal, I'm happy with having it in my collection.

The Minnie, was a throw in from a member on the forum. They were selling 1952 Topps, all lower series. We went back and fourth through a chain of emails, I actually purchased from him twice. Minnie was discussed, but we could never really settle on a price. After I received my second shipment of cards, I noticed the Minnie was in there, and immediately contacted the person, thinking he made a mistake. He told me that because we talked about it so much, he decided just to throw in Minnie for free. This was shortly before his election to the Hall of Fame, so obviously hindsight is 20/20.

[Ronnie73]

This card was a more recent "steal". Basically it was a right time, right place. In April 2020, one random night, but actually very early morning, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. So I checked the newest eBay T206 listings. One seller had 4 listings. 2 were common Piedmont PSA 4's, 1 was a common Polar Bear PSA 4, and the last was a common front, but a more difficult American Beauty 460 back, and it was also graded PSA 4. Each card was listed for $190 each. I only purchased the American Beauty.

[donmuth]

When I started working on my 1967 Topps set, I bought several lots of commons off eBay. In one of those, was this Spezio error card. I didn't realize it was valuable until sometime after I added the cards to my set binder.

[ibechillin33]

Originally Posted by donmuth

When I started working on my 1967 Topps set, I bought several lots of commons off eBay. In one of those, was this Spezio error card. I didn't realize it was valuable until sometime after I added the cards to my set binder.

Speaking of 1967 Topps , I once came across a table at a very small local card show and me knowing a lot about the set since it was the first one I put together knew how hard it was to find some of the high number series cards. I already had these for me set I was building but I bought mike Shannon and norm cash cards for $2 each. I bought a total of 10 high number series for $20 total


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[brianp-beme]

I bought a lot of 3 lower condition M116 cards on Ebay around a dozen years ago. I was interested in two of the cards that I didn't have. The third, the Smith card, was going to be a duplicate. When I got them it took a few weeks to integrate the cards into my M116 collection. And when I came to the Smith to see if it was an upgrade I did a double-take, as it had a different team designation than my existing copy of Smith. I checked my reference materials and online and could not come up with any examples. I sent it to auction and it went for well over 200 times its individual cost.

It is still the only known Boston example.

Brian

[BearBailey]

Sometime in the late 1980s Hawaiian Punch came out with a deal that if you sent in 10 proof of purchases with a SASE they would send you a vintage baseball card worth at least $50, one per household. My family were big Hawaiian Punch drinkers so I sent off the day I found out and eventually gave my best friend the proof of purchases as well as his family weren’t Hawaiian Punch drinkers. When the cards arrived I got a 1952 topps Hank Sauer in NM+ condition, my friend got a 1957 topps Warren Spahn in NM condition. I remembering thinking he made out far better than me, but I was able to trade him a McGwire and canseco rookie for the Spahn card. Based upon how 52s have gone insane pricing wise the Sauer card is the bargain today, but looking back both were bargains since we drank Hawaiian Punch either way and just had to send in the SASEs.

[Jay Wolt]

Brandon, never heard of that promotion
& just checked & saw this ad
Wish I wouldda known about it

[BearBailey]

That is so awesome! So only 3 proofs of purchases I know we drank more than that every week.

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by nat

This sounds like a good way to infinity dollars.

When I didn't respond directly to anyone, I believe (trying to remember from 22 years ago) that I was contacted by them with $600 and $800 offers. Those two offers definitely happened, I'm just not 100% sure it was the two people who said they would top anything.

Instead of selling, I started searching for them and found three others about two years later in a collection. Unlike the first offer I got, I paid a good price to someone who wasn't quite sure what they had.

The Davis is in the top right:

[jh691626]

When I was probably 12 years old at a card show (at a shopping mall, they used to be in the mall!!), I got a 1933 Goudey Mel Ott (the green one) in pretty nice shape for $20. Years later I had it graded and it was a PSA 4.5. I'm not sure exactly what it's worth since I have not looked to sell it, but definitely more than $20!