20th Century Baseball Card Trade-In Challenge

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Posted By: Matt

Looking at the back of a Yeungling Ice Cream card, where two manufacturer trade-in offers were presented (see below for the offers) I had the following question/challenge to the board:

What 20th Century Issue would be the worst possible trade-in financially you could make? For purposes of the challenge I'm using SCD prices in EX condition.

To start it off, I'll throw the 2 Yengling's offers out there:

1) The 1928 Yeungling Ruth valued at $4,800 for an ice cream bar, available at your local grocery for about $1, for a loss of $4,799. That's a bad trade, but not as bad as:

2) The entire 60 card 1928 Yeungling set valued at $18,000 for a Gallon of Ice Cream, value about $5, for a loss of $17,995.

OK - who can top a loss of $17,995?

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Posted By: Turner Engle

1915 CJ set....25 cents for 176 cards.

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Posted By: Fred C

Ok, make the set a PSA8 set and see what happens. Then to make the loss bigger, make it a PSA9 set, then a PSA10 set....

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Posted By: Matt

Turner - you probably have the winnr for the other competition - BEST trade - 25 cents for a full CJ set!

Fred - use whatever grade set you want, but be consistent when comparing values between sets.

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Posted By: Jay

400 Kalamazoo Bats cards for a fine silk umbrella. If they were baseball cards that would be about a $1 million loss, even for the most common Philadelphia players.

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Posted By: Matt

Jay - stay within the rules - it's the 20th Century Challenge - otherwise KBats would win in a runaway!!

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Posted By: Jim VB

Using the same 2007 SCD values, the 1932 (really 1933) US Caramel set is worth about $20,000, PLUS THE LINDSTROM! That card is worth $80,000 in VG and only 3 have been found.

One set got you a ball, valued then at $1. Three sets got you a glove, valued at $3.


In non-sports cards, US Caramel did the exact same thing with their 1932 American Heroes set of US Presidents. They only printed a handful of McKinley's. That card alone is probably worth $30-50,000.

A complete set got you a pound of caramel candy.


In both cases, they did return the cards, but with a special hole punch in them, so they could not be redeemed again.

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Posted By: 1880nonsports

cards exchanged for a Babe Ruth signed baseball.... Before eBay and a "find" of these cards I bought the redemption card from Slater auctions in about good. I paid about 75. as it was quite rare then - I thought it to be a SCORE. After the find - another case of buy high and sell low as there seemed enuff to then meet sluggish demand. A circa 1921 signed Ruth ball could fetch in excess 50,000.......

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Posted By: Matt

Jim VB - I think you may have the new leader. However, to confirm, we need to be careful about the calculations; since the submitter got the cards back, he was onlylosing the difference in value between the clean cards and the stamped cards. I believe the known Lindstrom cards are all stamped and valued at $6k0-$80k So, let's do some rough math:
(3 sets submitted)UNKNOWN VALUE - (3 stamped sets back)$250,000 - (baseball glove)$25 = Hmmmm..... anyone want to suggest a value? We need a projection of what an unstamped Lindstrom would be worth...100k (if so, trade net loss is about $70k)?

nonsports - your suggestion of the Ruth ball is again an entrant for the other competition of BEST trade since it would have made the trader $$. I'm asking about worst trades, ie if the kid who actually collected the stuff back then was still around, he'd be none to happy with the trade he made as a child...

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jim- I only know of two Lindy Lindstroms. Has a third one been recently discovered?

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Posted By: Paul

Barry, I was going to ask exactly the same question. But I have another question. The only redeemed (hole-punched) card I've ever seen is one of the Lindstroms. Did the US Caramel company punch a hole only in the Lindstrom when you turned in your complete set? That would seem like an odd practice because I don't think they would want to admit that the Lindstrom was the only difficult card and the only one that required this kind of security measure.

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Posted By: Matt

The Lindstrom pictured in the SCD has a stamp on teh back - no hole...

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Posted By: barrysloate

Paul- yes the cards were punched when they were redeemed for one of those worthless prizes. Of the two known Lindstroms, the one with the punchholes likely originated from someone who had ties to the company, since it had already been cancelled. The one I sold, which was intact, was part of the owner's childhood collection. By some unexplained miracle, he found one as a kid and kept it for 65 years!

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Posted By: Jim VB

Barry and Paul,

You are correct. It is only 2 Lindys. I must have been thinking of the McKinley's. There are 3 of them on the pop report. (Although ungraded cards make the total at least 5.) Sorry for the confusion.


Matt,

The Lindstrom pictured in the 2007 SCD actually shows the "CANCELLED" stamp and two hole punches. There is a hole punch in each lower corner. They look like the shape of an inverted boot. The same punch was used on the McKinley.

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Posted By: Matt

barry - if the one you sold was the uncancelled variety then we can figure what the "loss" was in trading in the card - how much did each of the two Lindstrom's sell for?

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Posted By: Jim VB

Matt,

http://www.network54.com/Forum/526604/message/1163187042/last-1188345268/Someone+ask+for+McKinley+-

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Posted By: Glen V

A nice uncancelled set of George C Millers would be worth a chunk of cash too.

What were the valuable prizes that the Zeenut coupons could be traded for? How much would a mint Thorpe w/ coupon go for?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Matt- mine sold for 92K in 1999. It was then resold a couple of years later, but unfortunately in a down market, and for somewhat less.

Leland's sold the cancelled one, and I think it went in the mid-five figure range, but I don't remember exactly.

It's my understanding that both of them are currently owned by the same person.

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Posted By: Matt

barry - what's your best guess then on the current value difference between the 2 cards, $25k?

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Posted By: barrysloate

You mean between the cancelled vs. the uncancelled? Probably wider than that, but I really couldn't guess.

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Posted By: Matt

I'll go with $40k then as the difference between the value of the cancelled and uncanceled cards unless someone else wants to disagree.

So, the gives the following trade:
3 sets of US Caramel Baseball cards, valued at $270,00 traded in for a baseball glove valued at $25 and the 3 sets of redeemed cards, valued at $140,000 for a net loss of $129,975

That's a BAD trade

anything worse?

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Posted By: Scott

True story,

My sixth grade teacher, Ms. Merrill, was at a store when she was a little girl and was given a choice by the Babe himself of a personally autographed baseball or a quarter. Well at least I hope she enjoyed the candy she bought for her 25 cents