Act 1:
I went to high school in Auburn, WA, a suburb south of Seattle in the late 80's. A buddy of mine was a bat boy for the Mariners, so I was able to pick up from him a game used, broken Jose Canseco bat (this is when he was the hottest in the game).
Act 2: The local Ben Franklin dime store on main street had two boxes of 1986/87 Fleer Basketball cards for $.35 a pack. It was the offseason in baseball, and I loved collecting so I bought and bought and over a month or two I manged to buy most of those packs. Bball cards were not popular back then and I wanted to collect them for the fun of it. I had multiple Jordan RCs, Jordan stickers, full sets.... I estimated about 2.5 full sets and a couple of sticker sets.
Act 3: I was probably a junior/senior in high school when my 11 year old cousin came to town from California. He had $40 in his pocket and wanted to buy something from me because he was a collector also. Being from the bay area, he zeroed in on the bat. I wouldn't budge... I knew that bat would be worth big $$$ someday when Canseco was in the hall of fame. I could retire comfortably in the South of France and write a book on my brilliance. He was about to leave, he was desperate, he wanted to buy something.
Act 4: Do you have any basketball stuff? he asks... Yeah, this old box of cards from a couple years ago, but I don't know what they are worth, I reply. He said, I'll give you $40 for them. I agree... they are gone. Thousands of dollars of mint RCs. At least three Jordan RCs... maybe more.
Epilogue: A few years later, when those cards really took off and were worth a ton, he wrote me a letter thanking me for the new car he purchased after selling those cards. I know that he didn't scam me or cheat me, but I felt really dumb! The Canseco bat is probably worth more as scrap wood right now!
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