Childhood or adulthood rip off stories

[Ronnie73]

It was 1990 and i was 17. I went to the local baseball card shop and saw a nice pile of 1989 upperdeck ken griffey jr rookies. They were $15 each and i had $50 so i bought 3. The store owner took the whole pile out, which was about 40 of then each in a ridged card holder and sleeve. I picked out the best centered ones. After i got outside with them, i noticed all 3 cards had the same crease in them. I went back in the store and wanted a refund and was told i must have creased them myself or switched the cards with ones i already had. I asked to see the pile of cards in the case again and was told no. A few years later, i was able to sell the three cards with the creases for $25 each since mint cards were going for over a hundred. I never went back to that store and they eventually closed down a few years later.

[Jcfowler6]

When I was away at college some of my "old friends" broke into my house and stole a few thousand of my cards.

'59 Clemente
'53 Reese
'75 Brett
'79 O. Smith
Couple Hank Aarons
Any thing I had old really.

Several other HOFers I had collected over the years. There was a ton of evidence and I know who they were. And one of the guys admitted it to me and gave me his cut back and apologized. It was a sad event in many ways for me. But you live and learn and hold no grudges and forgive with the same grace I am afforded.

I have since picked up another '59 Clemente and would like to get some of these again.

[ullmandds]

As a young child I was sold a fake mayo...I wasn't knowledgable back then to know if the back wasn't black...it was fake!

I bought a fake fro joy babe ruth sheet from a local store while in college in the late eighties...again...a result of my naivete!

As an adult at the 95' national I bought a 71 thurmon munson from a bargain box that turned out to have the edges colored with a black marker.

As recently as 7 yrs ago I bought a t3 off ebay that turned out to be a color xerox...as it was only a few bucks I never complained.

There have been too many instances of dealers "trying" to screw me over the years I won't even mention those.

I still have all of these fakes to this day.

Just before I found this site I had $9000 in vintage stolen from me by a guy named Ryan Randals(has a "vengeance is mine" tattoo on his neck) from Des Moines IA. A very nice SGC 7 71 Ryan, a bunch of goudeys and diamond star Hof'ers, 6 Maris and mantle cut autos, a ton of 50's Hof'ers with Aaron's rc, around 30 mantles, a bunch of pack fresh 57's & 56's, and a ton of shinny stuff autos and relics. I was selling to get money for some tobacco cards and other older stuff but never got any of it. Had to start from new again.

Glad his family was married into the legal system because they refused to press charges or arrest him

[bsuttonosu]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

As an adult at the 95' national I bought a 71 thurmon munson from a bargain box that turned out to have the edges colored with a black marker.
...
I still have all of these fakes to this day.

I beg to differ. You can't still have that Munson. It was sold to me a few years later by anothter shady dealer.

[D. Bergin]

Late 80's when I was still in high school I helped run a card shop that was opened up near my school. It was robbed and a lot of my own stuff was stolen from the shop, including a 53 Mantle.

Amazingly the kid who robbed the shop showed up back in the shop when the owner was there and was caught and most of the cards were recovered.

I guess I had the best revenge when I stole the kid's girlfriend from him shortly after.

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I guess I had the best revenge when I stole the kid's girlfriend from him shortly after.

Lol

[D. Bergin]

Used to set up at shows as a teenager. I was partners with one of my friends for a little while and we set up at the Waterbury, CT Ramada Inn.

Great crowd and we had a great show. At the end of the show, without me knowing, my buddy took all of our funds and spent them on 1984 Topps Rack Pack Boxes from a dealer I did not trust. I almost brained my friend right there. This was when the Strawberry and Mattingly cards were huge.

We went back home and opened all the boxes. Not a single Strawberry or Mattingly in the bunch. They had all been searched already.

[jschris]

My story starts out very similar to Rawn's. In high school (ca. 1989), there was a kid sitting next to me moaning about needing beer money for the weekend. I could see the lightbulb flip on when he asked me, "Hey, you still collect baseball cards?" He said his deadbeat dad had left a shoebox with cards he collected when he was a kid. I asked him how many were in there and he said it was probably 400 or so. I offered $40 blind for them. He eagerly accepted--probably the most his dad had ever provided for him! Picked them up that night but didn't open the box until I got home.

Most of the cards were from 1960 and 61 and there were plenty of stars. I even felt guilty and gave him back a few dupes like Koufax and Aaron. I still had plenty left anyway.

That wasn't enough as far as karma was concerned, though. I had a flat tire the next morning. And that weekend, while my new friend was apparently hammered, I traded a nine-pocket sheet of stars to the local card dealer for the one card I truly coveted: the 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco.

[RobertGT]

As a 13-year-old kid, I was hot after the "key" Donruss rookies in 1988 (Greg Jefferies) and 1989 (Griffey Jr.). I was pretty successful at convincing my mother to buy dozens and dozens of the Donruss blister rack packs available from both years at the local Shelby's in suburban NJ where I grew up. She bought me enough rack packs from both years to stuff two binders full of cards, with cards jammed into both sides of the vinyl pages. I had maybe 1,000 cards from each year.

I did not pull a single Jefferies or Griffey Jr RC.

It took me many years later to understand why: Some sleazy but clever adult had gotten to the packs way before me, and figured out how to pack search for hot cards inside on the basis of which players were on top.

My first introduction to the sleazy nature of the card business. Still happening today at Targets and Walmarts around the country.

[SetBuilder]

Originally Posted by RobertGT

It took me many years later to understand why: Some sleazy but clever adult had gotten to the packs way before me, and figured out how to pack search for hot cards inside on the basis of which players were on top.

Can you elaborate on this method of searching inside packs?

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by SetBuilder

Can you elaborate on this method of searching inside packs?

Cards were packaged in sequences. If you know the sequence and can identify the top card, you'll know the cards underneath (within the pack) without having to open it.

[travrosty]

Originally Posted by Ronnie73

It was 1990 and i was 17. I went to the local baseball card shop and saw a nice pile of 1989 upperdeck ken griffey jr rookies. They were $15 each and i had $50 so i bought 3. The store owner took the whole pile out, which was about 40 of then each in a ridged card holder and sleeve. I picked out the best centered ones. After i got outside with them, i noticed all 3 cards had the same crease in them. I went back in the store and wanted a refund and was told i must have creased them myself or switched the cards with ones i already had. I asked to see the pile of cards in the case again and was told no. A few years later, i was able to sell the three cards with the creases for $25 each since mint cards were going for over a hundred. I never went back to that store and they eventually closed down a few years later.

card shop i used to go to would describe his cards as mint, but they would have a hidden or hard to see crease in the card, he would sell it to us, then later we would find the defect, and we knew that he knew it was there.

i learned to never trust someone when they describe the card under a holder, i either have to take it out and inspect it personally or i cant buy it.

one of the guys did pressure him to take a card back and he berated the guy and told him that a sale is a sale but he would take it back this one time but that the buyer should learn his lesson because the dealer didnt know if the buyer put that crease in there himself (even though he knew darn well it was there beforehand, he knew exactly what he was selling).

So i bought a leaf frank thomas RC back then for 50 bucks or whatever it was, and the crease made it worth a lot less. And I thought less of the guy from then on knowing that he knew that crease was in there but sold it to me for nm price anyway.

[scmavl]

In the early 90's, I had gotten out of collecting. A few other kids still did and one day when we were talking, I mentioned having an '89 UD Griffey rookie that I pulled from a pack (back when this card was HOT!!!). One friend said he'd trade me an Ozzie Smith rookie for it so I said "sure!" I dug up the card at home and made the trade the next day... then I found out that an '80 Topps was NOT Ozzie's rookie card.