what's the best trade you ever made; what's your worst

Archive · #1 12-12-2003, 05:10 PM

Posted By: warshawlaw

Best meaning not necessarily the most lucrative, but the one that gave you the most satisfaction. Worst meaning the one that you could just vomit over now.

My best trade ever was probably trading some lower grade 1960s and 1970s stars for a 1958 Bell Gino Cimoli. The Cimoli is just plain rare and I'd heard of it for years but never seen one until I traded for it.

My worst trade was one I made in the 1980's. I got a huge box of cards of various sports from the late 1960's, including football, which I hate. Since they cost me nothing, I traded something like 200 1968 football cards of stars (Starr, Namath, Sayers, etc.) for a 1941 Play Ball Whit Wyatt. Argh.

Archive · #2 12-12-2003, 05:30 PM

Posted By: RBCraik

Best: Traded 10 collector grade T206 commons for a T204 Ramly Steinfeldt. Sent it to PSA - came back a 5 .

Worst: Traded a T206 Lenox back for a PSA 9 85 Topps McGwire RC...ugh...Doug you got me on that one .

Archive · #3 12-12-2003, 05:56 PM

Posted By: Rhett

It wasn't a deal that I was involved in but, it was my father. He is a big toy train collector and has been since the early 1970's. Sometime in the mid to late 1970's he was over at a fellow train collectors house and was doing some trading when his friend asked him if he had any interest in old baseball cards. My father has always been a sports fan so he said maybe. His friend then offered to trade him a box of nice 1930's Baseball cards, he later saw one of my Goudey cards and aknowledged that the cards he was offered were '33 and '34 Goudeys, for a Lionel 675 Engine, valued at about $250-300 today, for the whole box of cards. My father thought about it for a while but ultimatly decided not to do it. The part that makes me sick is when he told me there was over 2000 cards there with at least 10-15 Ruth's.

Archive · #4 12-12-2003, 05:59 PM

Posted By: jay behrens

Best trade: trading my comic books I had from when I was a kid for a bunch of really nice 1955 Topps including Koufax, Clemente and Killebrew. That was my start into completing the first set of cards that was not from my childhood.

Can't really think of a bad trade.

Jay

Archive · #5 12-12-2003, 07:58 PM

Posted By: TBob

Worst trade is easy- a complete set of 1965 Topps cards in NRMT condition for a Johnny Ray rookie jersey he wore with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Best trade could be the T213-3 Cobb I traded for a really nice E94 Wagner plus other cards and cash. I say best trade because both of us were very happy so the deal was very satisfying both ways. E94 Wagners in creaseless conditions are as rare as hen's teeth these days. You see Honus' E93, E95, and E98 cards for sale but not the E94.

Archive · #6 12-12-2003, 08:28 PM

Posted By: runscott

I traded a 1960 Mantle card for a copy of "Sport" magazine. I wasn't a very smart card collector as a kid.

My best trade was probably when I acquired the Mantle, along with a 1959 Mantle - all I did was go over to this old woman's house and keep her company for a few hours. We talked for a while and then she gave me a pile of old baseball cards, just for the pleasure of my company. Why don't you guys do that?

Archive · #7 12-12-2003, 09:24 PM

Posted By: petecld

My best trade was made in the mid-80s:

I traded a Nm/Mt 1960 Yaz rookie for an E93 Wagner in ex+ condition.

I then sold that Wagner to another collector about 5-6 years ago and we have been friends ever since.

Archive · #8 12-12-2003, 09:28 PM

Posted By: shammus

Runscott, point me in the direction of the senior citizens hording the vintage cards and I'll be there.

Archive · #9 12-12-2003, 10:14 PM

Posted By: Hankron

Worst trade : Don't want to talk about it
Second worst trade : Don't remind me

Archive · #10 12-13-2003, 10:32 PM

Posted By: JerryS

<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>Trade</TITLE>
</HEAD><BODY>

No Craik, secretly, your best trade was
fraudulence for $184,
but it shall be your worst trade.

</BODY></HTML>

Archive · #11 12-15-2003, 11:58 AM

Posted By: Lee Behrens

My worst trade was a 59 and 60 Mantle for 70 Munson rookie and I don't remember what else. I have always thought he was over rated so I never kept his cards, but this was a bad trade.

My Best: I traded a 54 Banks Rookie (My first big purchase for about 25 T206s including Matty and 3 other HOFers VG/EX.

Archive · #12 01-28-2004, 07:37 PM

Posted By: ramram

Did she make you watch "The Graduate" with her?

My best was a purchase of an oversized (11" x 15") albumen image of the 1884 Columbus team. Extremely, rare in that large of a size. The seller had no idea who the team was. Got it for peanuts.

My worst was selling a dozen Old Judges for $250 about 8 years ago. Thought I was making out like a bandit since I got them for $5 to $10 a piece. People around the midwest just didn't know or care about 19th century cards back then. Luckily I kept the best cards.

Archive · #13 01-28-2004, 09:24 PM

Posted By: leon

I like the subliminal message.....

Archive · #14 01-29-2004, 01:43 AM

Posted By: jay behrens

If you bought thos OJs for $5-10 a pice, then you did just fine selling them for $20 each. Hind dight is always 20-20 and sold many cards that if I held on to longer could have made more money. But there are also just as many cards that I sold that went down in value. If it's the money you are looking for, then take it while you can. It's when you get greedy and try to sell at the peak of the market that will kill ya. Just look at all the people that killed trying to do this in the stock market.

Jay

Archive · #15 01-29-2004, 05:39 AM

Posted By: Julie

I posted here about the first two, but my trading partner found it offensive (thought I was bragging), so it has been deleted. Anyway,I really have found it great fun trading, and did not think I'd gotten either the better or the worse end of the deals.Trading is wonderful, and there's a great pleasure in giving up something important to you for something more important to you.
Guess I have some things to learn about the ettiquette
of it.

Archive · #16 01-29-2004, 06:18 AM

Posted By: Julie Vognar

baseball cards from, just for the pleasure of your company! (which is not to say it wouldn't be a pleasure.)I have dreamed of finding a bunch of cards (etc.) for next to nothing, but it has never happened,
so i don't know how I'd feel about buying or taking something from someone at less than value--it seems O.K. in my dreams; dealers do it all the time. It's what you call a "find." "Finds" are not all lying around attics unowned...

Theoretically, it sucks. Practically, I guess it's one of the things that makes the hobby.

Archive · #17 01-29-2004, 07:17 AM

Posted By: Jay Miller

Julie--That's an excellent point. Most "finds" involve someone getting ripped off by a dealer or collector because they don't know the value of what they are selling. The find would probably never have been found if the owner asked retail for the cards.

Archive · #18 01-29-2004, 07:46 AM

Posted By: Scott

You can definately make your trade count four (or possibly five depending on how you want to look at things as Im sure we can work out something for the "second" part of our trade)

I don't mind if you post the details of our trade negotiations.. I figure if its good enough for the Red Sox and Rangers, then why should I have a problem if you let people know we are making a trade.

At least the players involved in our trade can't get their feelings hurt one way or the other whether we consumate our deal or not

p.s. - I'll respond to your email when I get home from work tonight!

Archive · #19 01-29-2004, 08:13 AM

Posted By: LEON

You are probably correct about "finds"....as far as my little one recently..I overnighted the gentleman the 2003 big SCD so he would know he wasn't getting ripped off. It was August so that was the only one out yet. I paid the book prices, however, as we know some book prices are low. With the thousands of hours I have put into our hobby I guess that's where I knew more than the seller (or the book)....What I hate even more is people charging $10 for shipping (ground) on a $300 card...when it costs about $4.00.....you wouldn't know anyone that would do that do you?

Archive · #20 01-29-2004, 08:53 AM

Posted By: Jay Miller

Leon--I wasn't referring to you when I responded to Julie's post, but if you feel guilty about the your West Coast buy then I guess that is a personal thing. What I was referring to were the finds that are constantly touted on the pages of SCD. As to comparing posting shipping costs in an ebay lot description that turn out to be above "actual" (postage, packing material, driving to PO, etc) costs to ripping off thousands of dollars from unknowing sellers, well that is just an ignorant self serving arguement.

Archive · #21 01-29-2004, 11:43 AM

Posted By: Joel

My best trade was ten dollars for a 1986-87 basketball set. I had no idea what I was trading for back then, I just was in the card store and had to do something.

Worst....Nothing really that I dwell on.

Archive · #22 01-29-2004, 01:30 PM

Posted By: dan

My Best Trade: A stack of 1960's topps star cards including Ryans and Mantles for an 1894 alpha-photo engraving Hall of famer.

Worst trade ever: About 5000 1950s and 1960s football cards for about 500 baseball cards from the same era.

Most involved trade ever: God knows what all for the Washington Times Collins. Most involved but one of the most appreciative.

Archive · #23 01-29-2004, 01:47 PM

Posted By: runscott

If the seller has low expectations and you offer him a fair price, but low enough so that you can re-sell some and make a profit, they will often reconsider and check elsewhere. I have had this happen twice and lost major deals (because I was too fair).

On the other hand, I was walking to the Chicago National and was approached by a mentally challenged man with a brown paper bag full of NM '60s baseball cards, including a '67 Mantle and some others. I could have bought the bag from him for peanuts and sent him back to the train, but instead I picked out a few cards and told him not to take less than "x amount" for them - he wrote down the prices. I then told him to go to Scott Brockelman's table to get treated fairly or to get sent somewhere else. I have no idea what happended after that. Don't get me wrong - if it had been pre-wwI stuff, I would have made him an offer.

Archive · #24 01-29-2004, 05:05 PM

Posted By: warshawlaw

Are you saying that you'd have ripped off the retard if he'd had better stuff??

I agree that many "finds" are rip-offs. Others are not. It depends on the tactics employed. Someone who lies to a seller about what they have and capitalizes on it is ripping them off. Someone who negotiates a price but thinks that the cards are worth more is just a good businessman. The thing you have to consider is that someone offering a dealer a lot of cards for sale is not asking an appraiser for a value opinion and is not entitled to a value opinion. If a seller wants my expert opinion on the cards he has, he can retain me for that purpose. Otherwise, I have no duty to offer up my views on the items I am being offered. I'll give you an example. I made a deal about 4-5 years ago with a fellow who had a bunch of gorgeous 52 and 54 Topps cards. He demanded 50% of high Beckett on them. I culled what I felt were the best of the lot and paid his price on those cards, figuring that when slabbed they would sell for a hell of a lot more. I think I spent around $2,000 with him and bought around 40 cards. I turned the cards over to PSA and most came back 8's and 9's. I think I had my cash out of the deal on four or five cards. I literally quintupled my money. Did I rip off that seller? Nope. I paid his price based on the reputable reference book he chose, but I felt in my studied judgment that the cards I picked were worth more.

Archive · #25 01-29-2004, 06:23 PM

Posted By: Kenny Cole

Scott can speak for himself, but I didn't read his post to read that he would have ripped off the "mentally challenged" person (my wife is an EEOC lawyer, so "retard" is sort of verboten) if he'd had pre-war cards. What I interpreted was that he didn't have any cards Scott was interested in, but, had Scott been interested, he would have made him an offer that was at least relatively consistent with some decent perception of their (wholesale?) value.

After all, had Scott wanted to rip the guy off, he could have bought the cards he wasn't interested in for a song, sold them for much more, and then used the free cash to buy cards that he actually wanted. No one would have been the wiser, and many dealers I know or know of would have done exactly that. I personally have no heartburn over what Scott said and don't read any evil intent into the post.

Kenny Cole

Archive · #26 01-29-2004, 06:45 PM

Posted By: Hankron

I once traded a c. 1930 Ray-O-Print Babe Ruth for a Barry Bonds Refractor. I no longer have either card and, in retrospect, I don't know if it was such a horrible trade. The Ray of Prints are about the ugliest cards in existence.

So let it be known that I once traded a genuine Babe Ruth card for a modern insert.

Archive · #27 01-29-2004, 06:54 PM

Posted By: Hankron

I will note as a relevant aside, that it is best to buy the Ray-O-Prints only if accompnied with the original kit (envelope, etc). The set includes Ruth, Gehrig, Jack Dempsy, Mary Pickford, 2 Charles Linbergh and Humpert Humphry (I think). The problem is that it appears that extra modern cards were made from the original negative (the cards are self developing photos). If you buy a Ruth or a Gehrig with the original kit, not can you be assured that the card is original but the total such grouping is rare, very desirable and highy displayable ... This is not suggest to say that any alone card is fake, but that it is most desirable and safest to buy the entire kit with card.

Archive · #28 01-29-2004, 07:04 PM

Posted By: runscott

I was tempted to offer him a price, but I really don't know modern cards well enough, and I didn't want to get ripped off trying to be overly fair. I had my SCBC guide with me, looked up a few of the HOF'ers, and told him not to take less than 50% of book.

In most cases it seems that '60s HOF'ers in anything less than NM, bring 50-60% of book on ebay, while pre-wwi stuff is closer to book.

Archive · #29 01-29-2004, 11:23 PM

Posted By: Julie

(guy in Lolita?)

Archive · #30 01-30-2004, 06:39 AM

Posted By: Adam J. Baxter

Best: Traded a handful of newer insert cards and two sealed 1990 score baseball factory sets for a 1934 Goudey Charlie Gehringer in at least EX-MT condition, probably would have graded a PSA 6 or better and it was the first pre-WWII card I had ever owned.

Worst: Traded the same '34 Goudey Gehringer for a group of NM 87 Donruss Mark McGwire cards during the 1998 homerun race that I later on couldn't unload to match the Gehringer value and was barely able to sell for book price.

Archive · #31 01-30-2004, 12:58 PM

Posted By: Jonathan Perry

ok this did not happen to me and does not concer vintage cards but it is a funny story so I thought I would share it.

I was at a function in NYC and Chris Martin was there (the son of Beatles producer George Martin.) Chris started telling a story how on the playground in elementry school kids would trade candy with each other. One day another student had some gum balls that Chirs really wanted. However Chris had no candy to trade, so he went into his school bag and pulled out this autographed picture signed by a "popular British band," as his father had told him.

Needless to say a young Chris Martin traded a signed photos by all 4 Beatles for a handful of gumballs. To this day Chris insists it seemed like a good idea at the time

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No Craik, secretly, your best trade was fraudulence for $184, but it shall be your worst trade.

No Craik, secretly, your best trade was
fraudulence for $184,
but it shall be your worst trade.