Worst Missed Buy of Sports Memorabilia

[Exhibitman]

I will always regret not doing whatever it took to buy a T206 Wagner about 20 years ago. The biggest bone-headed maneuvers I can recall both happened at one National on a Tuesday: (1) having a stack of 1918 Zeenuts in my hand, and not even bothering to ask a price because there wasn't an O'Doul in there [later found out the price was very, very low per card], and (2) seeing a couple of E121 Henry Johnson backs for sale at the same price as regular cards but not buying them because I don't collect them even though I knew they were tough to find. D'oh!

[jsage]

It is not very vintage - but not buying the 1986 Fleer Basketball Wax Boxes at Costco for $10 per box. When they were first issued, they had big supply.

Like most of us, I was a "Baseball Purist" and thinking -who would want to collect Basketball Cards?
At that time most people did not realize the Jordan rookie would quickly escalate to $1,000 for a top graded card...................

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by jsage

It is not very vintage - but not buying the 1986 Fleer Basketball Wax Boxes at Costco for $10 per box. When they were first issued, they had big supply.

Like most of us, I was a "Baseball Purist" and thinking -who would want to collect Basketball Cards?
At that time most people did not realize the Jordan rookie would quickly escalate to $1,000 for a top graded card...................

There was a guy who had a cardshop in his basement that I would go to once a week in the mid 80s...he had mistakenly been shipped a box of the 86 fleer basketball and wanted to know if I wanted it at his cost... I told him I'd take a box if it helped him any...I opened the box when I got home..put two complete sets together..got three Jordan's..so I gave the extra Jordan to my brother in law who is a huge North Carolina fan...I sold both sets off before the Jordan card went crazy. I still remember seeing ads in the SCD for cases of that stuff at $20,000+

[steve B]

Originally Posted by jsage

It is not very vintage - but not buying the 1986 Fleer Basketball Wax Boxes at Costco for $10 per box. When they were first issued, they had big supply.

Like most of us, I was a "Baseball Purist" and thinking -who would want to collect Basketball Cards?
At that time most people did not realize the Jordan rookie would quickly escalate to $1,000 for a top graded card...................

It's amazing how many of us passed those up. For me it was McCrorys in the mall. They had a full island display, 8ft long with 3 tiered shelves and cabinets below. All 86 fleer basketball. I bought a handful of packs, stopped by a few days later and bought a few more. Found out they were supposed to be hard to find, went back and they were all gone. Total time maybe 10 days, and only 2-3 days between the last few I bought from the still full display and the empty display.

Steve B

[mr2686]

First "big" show I ever attended at the Anaheim convention center. Must have been about 40 or 50 very long rows of dealers. The very first row I found a framed and matted lithograph of Ty Cobb with a signed Check dated the day and year I was born. Not having any experience with shows, I decided to go through and look at every other table before deciding that I really really wanted that Cobb. Of course, it was long gone when I got back.

[Exhibitman]

Mike's story reminds me of when I was about 14 or 15 and at a local show here in LA. A dealer had a stack [I mean dozens] of Cobb checks at $50 each. I thought about it but $50 was a big piece of my budget and there were so many of them that I passed.

[Kzoo]

I remember the card like it was yesterday and exactly where I saw it. I believe it was around '86 or '87 and my parents used to drag me to an antique show once in a while on Sunday afternoons. Now fast forward twenty some years, and I love going to the same antique show during the summer. To this day, I remember the exact spot where a dealer had a '52 Topps Mantle in a thick screw down case for $500. It was in Good condition with some soft corners, but I only had like $20 back then and I could get a lot of 35 cent wax packs with that money. That Mantle was way out of my league, but I'll never forget it.

Matt

[GasHouseGang]

I had a similar experience with the Topps '52 Mantle. A local doctor in my home town that had collected the cards as a kid, was selling everything he had. This must have been around 1980. He must have just opened the cards and put them away, because he had some beautiful '50s cards but he wanted book price. He had two 52 Mantles in thick screw downs. He wanted $1000 each but would take $900. It would have been really difficult to come up with that kind of money, so I just settled on a few other cards he had (I remember one was a 53 Campanella). I really kick myself for not figuring out a way to at least buy one of those Mantles!