Garage sale finds

paulcarek · #1 05-12-2009, 02:53 PM

The weather's been exceptionally beautiful lately here in Northern California, and on the weekends, it seems as if there's a garage sale sign on every other telephone pole. I remember my collector/dealer uncle telling me about all the great stuff he used to find at such sales back in the 80's, and have pulled the car over many a time on the (extremely) off chance of stumbling across something interesting. So far, nothing but shiny recent material.

My question is, what's the best card you've ever picked up at a yard/garage sale?

slidekellyslide · #2 05-12-2009, 03:06 PM

I go to tons of garage sales and have never found a prewar card, but my brother did find a 1907 HM Taylor postcard at a garage sale in Walla Walla, WA a couple of weeks ago.

Anyone know what this card is worth?

fkw · #3 05-12-2009, 03:15 PM

my father and I used to go to goodwills and flea markets in the lat 1970s to 1980s and find vintage baseball gloves for $2-$10 all the time. Most were the 1920-1950s webless 3-4 finger or trapper style ones. I ended up dumping them all in the mid 90's for 3-10X what I paid for them. Now I rarely see one and if I do its price is all jacked up.

calvindog · #4 05-12-2009, 03:15 PM

Dan, that's a nice Cobb. The card itself is in really good condition and the writing on the back is obviously not fatal. I think the front writing, however, knocks it down a bit and makes it tough to set a value. I would venture around $500 -- $850.

slidekellyslide · #5 05-12-2009, 03:57 PM

Thanks Jeff!

Frank, I used to find all kinds of splitfinger gloves and vintage bats at garage sales, but not for a long time now. I still see them often at estate sales and auctions, but they always seem to go for more than they're worth.

doug.goodman · #6 05-13-2009, 12:11 AM

I found this game at the Japanese equivalent to a flea market in Tokyo a few years ago. It cost me 1000 yen, at the time it was about $8 US. It's about 2 feet square and came with the game pieces and directions.

Doug

David W · #7 05-13-2009, 07:02 AM

In the 70's when I was a kid, I bought an old scrapbook with newspaper articles from the 30's and 40's, and there were several Goudey's glued in
there, plus some other pre war cards.

I think I paid like $5.

GoldenAge50s · #8 05-13-2009, 10:22 AM

--was at a yard sale in the early '80s and it took me 1 yr to consumate the purchase!

I had recently "rediscovered" my '50s cards from the attic at home and began searching yard sales for more cards as the "card boom" had begun. Usually you had to ask for cards--nobody thought to put them out even if they had any!

When I asked the usual question of a lady she reached into a small box she had beside her chair and showed me some little tiny thick cards I had never seen or heard of before. She said someone had told her they had value & said she wanted $10 each for them---I immediately passed as I was buying cards at most sales for $4-5.00 a box full!

Anyhow, in the next few months I did some book research and figured out that they were "really old" & had come in cigarette packs way back in the day and was regretting that I hadn't bargained a little with her to buy them.

Fast forward to a year later & a new yard sale season---I went back to that same house, rapped on the door & reminded the lady that I had looked at some baseball cards last yr & did she still have them?

To my surprise she did--17 little cards in all--and this time I agreed to pay her $10 per card--$170 in all.

They turned out to be the 1889 Old Judge issue and there were 3 HOFers in the bunch--Galvin, Keefe, & Harry Wright.

I hung onto them until around 2000 & they were the 1st cards I ever had graded by SGC. I sold most of them on EBay around 2001-2002 and I'm sure a couple or more of the Board members have them in their collections as we speak!

Here are the last 2 I sold--- in a Lelands auction in 2005: Anybody have these in their collection??

slidekellyslide · #9 05-13-2009, 10:37 AM

OJ's at a yard sale! Now that's something. Three of the OJ's in my collection came from an estate auction that my mom and dad attended in the early 80s.

Matt · #10 05-13-2009, 10:55 AM

Fred - those OJs are fantastic!

GoldenAge50s · #11 05-13-2009, 11:00 AM

Thanks Matt---I just figured out how to post the full image!

Aric · #12 05-13-2009, 11:15 AM

Great thread. I am, without a doubt, a garage sale junkie. I'm always researching new items to keep my eyes out for. The days of finding a box of pre-war cards is long gone but there is certainly great finds to be found. Here's some stuff I've found this year:

1949 Freedom's War #109. This was the first time, in a long time, I found a vintage card at a garage sale, it got me pretty excited. I spent quite some time trying to find more but this was the only one.

1964 World Series Spin-a-fact. Its a pretty cool item, gives stats and facts for every world series up to that point. Measures 10" in diameter. Not sure why the picture came out blurry.

Not sure if this is considered a card. It measures 2-3/4" x 1-1/2".

And finally, found this last week. These old 8mm boxes make for great display. This one unfortunately was missing the film.

cubsguy1969 · #13 05-13-2009, 01:19 PM

Beautiful OJ's and a cool Cobb!

I've never found pre-war cards at a garage/tag sale, but I've come across some modern stuff that I flipped. I'm actually a tag sale junkie and go out just about every weekend on Long Island. I buy records, books, magazines, anything I can sell for a profit. I used to use the profts to buy cards, but now we're paying down debt, so all the money's going there.

I've shared this before, but I once found a rare autographed stock market book (Jesse Livermore) for $1.50 that I ended up consigning to Heritage Auctions. It sold for $6,500.
and just this past weekend, I made probably my most bizarre score. I bought a large seashell collection for $100. I know, it sounds silly, but it turns out that some rare shells sell for thousands of dollars and seashell collectors rival us in obsessiveness. I've listed about 60 so far on ebay and they're up over $400 already with several days left in the auctions. And I've got hundreds more. I'm hoping there's a $1,000 shell mixed in there somewhere.

It's amazing what people collect.

Rob D. · #14 05-13-2009, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cubsguy1969

I know, it sounds silly, but it turns out that some rare shells sell for thousands of dollars and seashell collectors rival us in obsessiveness.

I predict a new Beckett Grading banner ad within a month.

slidekellyslide · #15 05-13-2009, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob D.

I predict a new Beckett Grading banner ad within a month.

My kid better hide his seashell collection ASAP.

Jayjones82 · #16 05-13-2009, 02:51 PM

Not at a garage sale, but a good friend of mine went to a landfill in the late-90's and, while he was unloading his trash, noticed an old cigar box with some cards in it. There were approximately 60 T-206s in the box, including a Cobb Green Portrait, a Mathewson, and a couple of other HOFers. He ended up sending most of them to PSA. I think the Cobb came back a 2 and the Matty a 4. Wish I had that kind of luck.

slantycouch · #17 05-13-2009, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenAge50s

--was at a yard sale in the early '80s and it took me 1 yr to consumate the purchase!

I had recently "rediscovered" my '50s cards from the attic at home and began searching yard sales for more cards as the "card boom" had begun. Usually you had to ask for cards--nobody thought to put them out even if they had any!

When I asked the usual question of a lady she reached into a small box she had beside her chair and showed me some little tiny thick cards I had never seen or heard of before. She said someone had told her they had value & said she wanted $10 each for them---I immediately passed as I was buying cards at most sales for $4-5.00 a box full!

Anyhow, in the next few months I did some book research and figured out that they were "really old" & had come in cigarette packs way back in the day and was regretting that I hadn't bargained a little with her to buy them.

Fast forward to a year later & a new yard sale season---I went back to that same house, rapped on the door & reminded the lady that I had looked at some baseball cards last yr & did she still have them?

To my surprise she did--17 little cards in all--and this time I agreed to pay her $10 per card--$170 in all.

They turned out to be the 1889 Old Judge issue and there were 3 HOFers in the bunch--Galvin, Keefe, & Harry Wright.

I hung onto them until around 2000 & they were the 1st cards I ever had graded by SGC. I sold most of them on EBay around 2001-2002 and I'm sure a couple or more of the Board members have them in their collections as we speak!

Here are the last 2 I sold--- in a Lelands auction in 2005: Anybody have these in their collection??

That's an awesome story!

GoldenAge50s · #18 05-13-2009, 07:18 PM

Thanks "Slanty"--I guess the luckiest part for me was that she still had them!

I realized several thousand for the $170 investment--and at the time thought I was paying WAAAY TOO MUCH!

Jantz · #19 05-13-2009, 11:11 PM

I have posted pictures on the memorabilia side before of a savings account book that I found at a flea market ( sorry, not exactly a garage sale ). It was from the early 1900s and in the back it described how to figure out a hitter's BA and a pitcher's ERA. What got me to buy it though was the player examples that they used.... Wagner & Dahlen. $1.00

On a side note, I also found a WWII infantry soldier's handbook once at a flea market. Since I was an infantry soldier myself I just had to buy it. $4.00

A few years later at an estate auction I puchased a Civil War bullet mold for my brother. $7.25

You just never know what you may find.

Jantz

vintagebaseball · #20 05-14-2009, 01:22 PM

About a year ago I was at a craftshow/antique show and came across an old scrapbook of colorful stickers and advertisments and such that appeared to be old. I purchased the book I believe for 5 to 10 dollars. That night as I was looking at the pages and on the middle page were some Scrapps cards from 1888. So for around 10 dollars ended up with some Scrapps tobacco cards. I was thrilled to say the least.

Jeff Price · #21 05-07-2010, 03:20 PM

I was riding my bike to go fishing at the park. I was probably 13-14 years old, when I saw a fish tank for sale. Looking for one I stopped but it was cracked. I was just getting into cards and saw @50 1970 baseball cards. They were $1 for the stack, nothing to exciting. I then asked if they had more and the lady said no baseball but alot of football,hockey and basketball. For $5 I could have them all. It was 2 brown grocery bags full. Highlights included 15 Lew Alcinder rookies, 2 Namath rookies, @15 sets of the 69-70 Basketball, and too much to list. I started doing shows with these cards and 25 years later still do this for a living. Jeff

slidekellyslide · #22 05-07-2010, 05:35 PM

It's funny that you dug up this old thread...my brother called me a few hours ago and told me he was at the "garage sale of the century." He picked up a ton of vintage toys, dolls and such....and a 5,000 count box of 1970s Topps football.