Acquiring large lot collections & their surprises....tell us of your's

[tedzan]

My favorite large lot acquisition was back in 2006 from one of Barry Sloate's auctions. It consisted of 346 - T206's,
of which 262 were SOVEREIGN cards. It is quite rare that this many SOVEREIGN's are found in one lot of cards.

The amazing part of this collection was the 40+ HOFer's in it, including the following SOVEREIGN cards.......

Green Cobb
Both Johnson's
Speaker
Lajoie (portrait)
Tinker (portrait & batting)
Evers (portrait & both batting cards)
Chance [portrait (red & yellow)]
Bresnahan (portrait & batting)

etc., etc.

This gave me a huge "jump start" on putting together my all-SOVEREIGN set.


Thank you again, Barry.

TED Z

[ibuysportsephemera]

I purchased a group of misc. sports guides and books that were heavy on USFL media guides. Also included were some older baseball books. In one of the books was a piece of paper that had a bunch of autographs of older baseball players including Gil Hodges and Joe Paterno. I didn't get the connection until I did some research and found out that Paterno was from Brooklyn. I had the autographs authenticated by Richard Simon some time ago.

I have had other nice surprises as well.

-One of my larger purchases of old Brooklyn Dodgers baseball programs included some Green Bay Packers programs from the 1930's. Included was a Packers vs. Redskins Program that I didn't realize until I got home was from an early championship game...I sold this program for 3k which paid for the entire purchase.

-I purchased a collection on eBay of 1920's football programs that were advertised in poor condition. A few of the programs weren't great but many were awesome and a few had Marion Morrison (John Wayne).

-I purchased a large collection of football programs from a known dealer in Florida. Not a lot of information, so I took a chance and found programs that had Jackie Robinson, AAFL and other really collectible items.

I also have found a Joe Namath rookie card in a book as well as some neat ticket stubs tucked into older programs.

[peterose4hof]

I bought a collection of cards ranging in years from the 1940s-1970s and the seller "threw in" a small box of autographed baseballs that he didn't think much of. They turned out to be almost full team-signed balls. One was the mid 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers, one was the mid 1950s St. Louis Cardinals and the other was a late 1950s Giants. All 3 had the major stars and I sold the balls for nearly twice as much as I paid for the whole collection.

That was pre-wife and kids so I blew the proceeds on a 5 day bender in Vegas (Ahhhhh the good old days!)

[barrysloate]

Ted, you're welcome, and you don't find stuff like that as much today.

Interestingly, I may have made one of the best finds of my life today, although not a baseball card. Some of you know I collect large cents (American pennies issued between 1793 and 1857). I was going through my album today just checking something incidental. Every large cent is catalogued not only by date but by die variety. Every time a die broke and had to be replaced, there was a slight change as the dies were hand made. Some die varities are rather common, and some of course are great rarities. I've attributed most of mine but found one today, an 1801, that I never got around to doing. It's been sitting in my collection for at least two years and I paid little attention to it.

So today I pulled out my die varieties book and the large cent and sat down to see if I could identify it (it can at times be a very difficult process). Well, not only did I identify it but discovered it is a major rarity, and by far the rarest one in my collection! And here it is sitting in my album for all these years and didn't even know I had it. I can't even remember who I got it from.

I called my large cent expert and he confirmed it is in fact a great rarity and has a high four figure value! So how is that for a find- I found it in my own collection. It's been an interesting day.

[tedzan]

That is a great story. On a smaller scale, I can appreciate your joy. Back in 1990 I was rummaging thru a box of miscellaneous cards
that I had stashed away since the early '80s. In it was a 1961 Fleer Wilt Chamberlain. I took it to a BB card show and sold it for $400.


TED Z