What's the best item you've ever pulled from a dealer's bargain box?

[sbfinley]

Not sports related, but about 20 years ago I was on an antique trip with the wife and we found an shop in Kentucky. It listed as an antique store, but it was more of thrift shop and after about a two minute walk I decided it wasn't worth the time. I told her I was going to wait in the car and by the front door I saw a box of books with some modern history textbooks on top. I stopped and asked the guy at the register how much the books were and he said they just came in and he hadn't priced them yet. I said "okay thanks" and walked out the door. He shouted and stopped me and told me I could take the whole box for $30. I hadn't seen anything except for the history books so I just replied back "I'd do $15." He nodded, I paid, and took the box out to the car.

An hour later we were at a drive in having lunch and I went to the trunk to see if there was anything worth reading on the drive home. At the bottom of the box under about 20 random history books and autobiographies no older than the 60's was a weathered old book. I took it out and saw it was dated to 1840's. At the time I had a friend who worked for a book dealer in Nashville. I made a call and she said she would call me back.

On my drive home I got a call from the BYU library asking for as many pictures as possible. Once home I took all the pictures they asked for and emailed them. 20 minutes later someone else called on behalf of the University and made a low 5 figure offer for the book with half up front and half when it was received. He ended up sending the whole amount up front and I shipped it the next morning. All in it was $15 to $15k in about 8 hours. A couple months later I saw my book dealer friend and asked if she ever earned a broker fee for the sale and she just smiled so no idea what she got.

I'm pretty sure this is the exact book I sold to the University: https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digita...0-1846/id/3718

I later saw another copy sell during covid for six figures.

[timn1]

Seems to me it's a seller's responsibility to know what he's got. If he's priced it, I have no problem buying it at that price... It's not nearly the same as ripping off grandma for dead grandpa's Honus Wagner card.

My best find of this type was my first two Star Player Candy cards from a longtime dealer's $5 box. He mostly dealt in postwar Topps/Bowman and couldn't be bothered to look these up. I was happy to take them off his hands

(PS: They were raw when I bought them. I later made the genius move to have GAI grade them, LOL.)

[dbrown]

I was about 12, circa 1981, and there was a flea market dealer with binders -- not bargain, just regular -- where I found a 1970 Johnny Bench, priced like the other, non-high number stars. A couple or a few bucks. I thought I was pretty hot shit for finding that. (I have no idea if the 1970 Bench is still as prized as it was back then.)

On the other hand, in '82 I was selling at shows and somehow I had mistakenly put a 1971 Garvey in a sheet with a $.50 price tag, and someone tried to buy it, I said no, that it was a mistake.

Plenty of bargain box postcard and book stories but those are different and a lot easier.

[butchie_t]

Joe Coleman and Ed Brinkmann 1968 Milton Bradley cards. And I did not even know it at the time. I was just picking up Washington Senators cards.

This was over 20 years ago too. I did not even know that Milton Bradley cards existed.

[Exhibitman]

Depends on the definition of best.

I was going through a box of miscellaneous automotive PCs and pulled the last card I needed to complete the 1962 Racing Pictorial Daytona International Speedway postcard set, which is basically the first NASCAR set. Joe Weatherly (a NASCAR HOFer):



Really, really HTF. Not very valuable, of course, but finding it at random for $0.50, well, that was a heck of a stroke of luck. As it turned out, there is still one more card I need to finish the set, Buck and Buddy Baker. Been looking for that one for about two years.

[JimC]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Depends on the definition of best.

I was going through a box of miscellaneous automotive PCs and pulled the last card I needed to complete the 1962 Racing Pictorial Daytona International Speedway postcard set, which is basically the first NASCAR set. Joe Weatherly (a NASCAR HOFer):



Really, really HTF. Not very valuable, of course, but finding it at random for $0.50, well, that was a heck of a stroke of luck. As it turned out, there is still one more card I need to finish the set, Buck and Buddy Baker. Been looking for that one for about two years.

That's really cool. Does Junior have a card in that set?

[Smanzari]

I found a good stack of 1962 Jellos in a Dollar box at a show a few years ago (actually thought they were Post until I got home), spent like $14 for 18, flipped for like $9800 total.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by JimC

That's really cool. Does Junior have a card in that set?

Junior Johnson? No. So far as I know, the set is composed of:

38087F Roberts, Fireball
38088F Lorenzen, Fred
38089F Petty, Lee and Richard
38090F Jarrett, Ned
38091F White, Rex
38093F Weatherly, Joe

I am guessing the Bakers are 38092F

The Pettys:

[LEHR]

Nothing major but around 1999-2001 I was in Indianapolis with nothing to do on a Saturday and found a small card show at a Holiday Inn. While browsing through a dollar box (something I never do) I pulled and purchased a few sharp 1969 Topps hockey cards for a buck each. When I got home I realized they were actually OPC cards, not Topps. I ended up sending the the best card (Derek Sanderson) to PSA with some other cards about a year later and it graded a 9. I sold it on eBay a year or so after that in an auction and it sold for $125.00 if I remember correctly. Not bad for a $1 purchase.