What's in that box?

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Posted By: Iggy

Okay boys and girl(s). What is the largest amount of "$$$" you have ever sent to a complete stranger to purchase a prewar card and/or lot??? Keep in mind, I am not talking about sending payment to known dealers, friends, or any of the auction houses. That would have some kind of guarantee behind it. I'm talking about going to paypal or your checking account and sending hard-earn cash to somebody named "Joe Smo Jr." (no offense meant to the Joe Smo Jr's of the world) and then quietly sitting next to the mailbox as if nothing had happened.

I'm curious, to what extreme some of us have gone to purchase a prewar card(s). I know we have plenty of high rollers on this board. As for myself, I'm not even a low roller. My biggest purchase was on ebay, to somebody with an ebay handle of colbert in the amount of $1,592.92 (for some nice T206 cards). That wouldn't even make the top 10,000 on a power-outage day on ebay!

So lets see how much sweat-equity some of you guys/gals have? Come-on fess-up! Your wife/husband doesn't really read this board!

-Lovely Day, Iggy...




***EDITED to add a disclaimer***:

Great responses, so far to this thread. I'm really enjoying the banter, but I would like to add a disclaimer of sorts which was mentioned earlier in this thread.

Yes, to feed our addiction most of us have taken some chances with ebay or some other forum. But, keep in mind (if I can speak for everyone (yea, right)), it has been a calculated gamble, with hopefully some intelligence behind it. It's always a good idea to talk to the other party (ask for a better picture, etc.), just to make sure you are not dealing with some alien-being of sorts. Never fall for the grandpa attic routine, have some experience with the card you are buying, never buy an item if the buyer states the card might be a reprint, and if someone has a bunch of negative feedbacks disregard them, no matter the item nor price. Remember, if the glove doesn't fit then you must acquit---oh wait, that doesn't apply to this topic...

Okay, back to the thread!

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Posted By: Steve Murray

$6,300, worked out fine.
$4,000, also worked out fine.
$1,200 for a Matty Ullman and Tinker Victory off ebay eight years ago, got stung, learned a valuable though costly lesson.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

$3500 for EXMT Old Judge Anson cabinet off ebay.............

$2250 for (3) N566 NRMT Newsboys off ebay based on winning a VG- from a guy.

A few years back...........

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Posted By: leon

If an unknown ebayer, but with good feedback counts, I sent a little over 25k to them for my N167 Ewing.....

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Posted By: Steve Murray

Gulp!!!!

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Posted By: Tony Andrea

$8,500 - Worked out fine.
$5,500 - Worked out fine.
I'd recommend speaking with the other party on the phone
every time before sending $$ of this value. It never hurts
to get a feel of who your dealing with when it comes to a
stranger. Just my two cents......

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Posted By: JK

Approx. 1900 for a raw e95 cobb to an unknown seller w/o a single baseball card sale.

Worked out great:

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Posted By: leon

It was a "gulp" but I did speak with the seller on the phone and got to meet his dad (on the phone), who is a renowned postcard collector, and postcards book author, James Lowe (you can google him and see).....His son, Jeff, was the one on ebay. This is also where I ended up buying Walt Corson's personal card checklists. Frank Nagy bought Corson's collection in about 1961 and Bill Mastro wrote a short story about it. I also acquired a few letters from Jeff Burdick and Charles Bray from them. It was a great experience..... best regards

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Josh, boy that is the epitome of finding a needle in the ebay haystack. I'll offer you $3800 so that you can create a fancy post on this board crowing about your acumen in snagging a 100 percent profit in less than a year. Let me know where to send the money.

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Posted By: Jason L

$500 for a PSA 9 Walter Payton RC, Ebay, regular, no-name seller

yep, that's the largest single transaction I've ever made.
I've found enough satisfaction in quantity so far

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Posted By: Joe D.

willingness to offer 'the 100% profit in less than one year' for cool stuff.

do I hear 200%

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Posted By: Rob

i'm a small minnow ...
about $750 for some M101-2s. happened recently actually. worked out good, but was very nervous that they'd be fake or in horrible condition cuz the pics weren't the best.

Rob

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Posted By: Ed McCollum

My largest output for a card ever was $325 for an O'Hara St. Louis to a guy on eBay who was no longer a registerd user two weeks later. It's now in a 10 SGC holder.

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Posted By: joe

Paid $1150.00 for a T205 Cobb on Ebay to seller TXSM, Brooks Newell, San Antonio, Tx. Card was counterfeit, never received money back. Stuck. This happened in December 2000.

Joe

Ty Cobb, Spikes flying!

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Posted By: henry moses

but I once sent about 6000. to someone who emailed me about an item I advertised for on eBay - subsequently thay registered on eBay and paypal just so we could do a transaction - as that was the only way we felt SOME kind of safety net. I waited by the mailbox and tried to track the package with no luck. I sweat just a bit when I found online that the PO had not ever logged in the express package. When it finally got to me I made a small mental note (small mind after all) to figure a better way but haven't found it yet........

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Posted By: Joe D.

I've had successful 'first-time' deals of

10K - never dealt with person before this transaction, but knew of him from N54 (I wasn't worried one bit). Worked out splendidly.

$500?ish trade - first time trade with a fellow n54er I didn't really know at the time - probably one of my favorite transactions on N54 because of a friendship made.



The most I have been stuck for -
$250 - ish for a photo of the 1895 Brooklyn baseball team - eBay. Its a really nice photo - but the description lead me to believe it was much older than it is. When I shine the blacklight on it - it glows brightly (so that means after 1940s?). When I approached the seller about his deceiving listing - he seemed like a nice enough guy and I just let him off the hook. Although his listing intimated otherwise - he then told me the photo could have been produced anywhere up to 1950s / 60s and could have been earlier (saying the company that had exclusive rights to produce that image folded around then).

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Posted By: JK

Jeff,

Very tempting

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Posted By: Dave Snyder

The most I ever sent to one person was $2200 - for a lot of 15 graded (SGC 30-50) T206 HOF'ers which included two Cobbs and a Matty portrait.

It's the purchase that kick-started my collection

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Posted By: ScottIngold

2500.00 for a Magie error with some bottom damage.

Worked out fine.

Also bought a Jeep and toppless corvette...again no problems.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

$930 for a photograph.

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Posted By: Paul

Lots of red flags. "i found this card while i was remodeling my home". low feedback, no history of selling cards. I did trade several emails with the seller, & he did send me a picture of the back. I'm a little nervous. Hope it works out.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150168857299&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=005

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Posted By: Matt

Wow Paul - I hope that works out for you.

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Posted By: Rob Fouch

I'm also a small fish, but once won a poorly marked, bad-category T206 card (can't even remember who it was) and then asked the guy if he had more. He did and e-mailed me digital photos of about 20 cards, including a red Cobb and a red Chance. The photos weren't great but the cards still looked pretty nice. There were a few Old Mill backs mixed in.
We e-mailed back and forth and he seemed like a nice guy. I offered him $1500, which was really more than I could afford at the time, and he took it.
There were a couple of nervous days waiting for the cards to arrive, but he did take paypal, so that gave me some measure of security.

Anyway, they arrived and were much better than the photos indicated. Cobb ended up grading PSA 4, Chance PSA 5, and I got three or four 6's among the commons, including a couple of the Old Mill backs. I figure I ended up with about $3,000 worth.

Oh, and he said he bought the cards for 50 cents apiece from some little old lady back in the mid-1970s. She had more but he said that was all the money he had at the time. I wonder what else she had.

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Posted By: Fred C

I've done a few ebay transactions over $1K with people that I don't know (and that are not known dealers) and everytime it's nerve racking. I guess I've been lucky because they've all come through. I usually check someones feedback pretty close before dedicating large sums to sellers I don't know.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I purchased a large composite photograph of the 1872 Boston Red Stockings on ebay for 13K from someone I didn't know, but I emailed her regularly during the auction to make sure there was a real person out there. It turned out to be the best ebay deal I ever made.

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Posted By: Ken W.

$1200 for a raw N173 Billy Hamilton from a board member who doesn't post too often - I was very satisfied.

$950 for a raw N172 Hoss Radbourn from an unknown ebay seller. Again, everything fine.