A nice find at an antique mall

[BradH]

Finding sports cards at antique malls generally amounts to just junk-era stuff that is almost always WAY overpriced. On Friday I had one of my better finds in a while: rubber-banded stacks of 1970s cards for $3-6 per stack. Each stack was a little different in size and appeared to range between 25 to 150 cards each. There were also plus some 400-count boxes of 1972-74 cards (that I assumed were all commons) for $10 per box.

Each of the bundled stacks had a "star card" on top and I figured they did this to bait people into buying the stack, while filling the rest of the bundle with commons.

I'm building some early '70s sets and while I figured that a lot of these cards would have soft corners and/or creases, I thought it'd be fun to just sort through them.

I decided to buy almost everything they had. I passed on the 400-count boxes of '73s and '74s and I passed on the small rubber-banded stacks of '71s (they looked pretty beat up). I grabbed the 400-ct box of '72s because I'm far from finishing that set and I thought this bulk lot would get me a lot closer to completion.

I have only sorted through a stack of the ‘77s and '72s so far and some are really nice, some have a ding or two on the corners and a few are in rough shape. But for the most part they’re fine for the sets I'm building.

I have been very pleasantly surprised that the stacks I've sorted so far are NOT just a bunch of beat up commons. There are star cards throughout.

Looking forward to finish sorting them this weekend and I'll post some pics as I go along. (Unfortunately, the top card on one of the stacks of '77s is a Nolan Ryan cloth sticker that appears to have suffered damage due to the rubber bands.)

[GrayGhost]

Nice pickup!!

[ALR-bishop]

Your persistence paid off

[BradH]

Here are the various piles after I separated them when I got home Friday night.

[BradH]

I was a bit stunned by the results of the first two bundles I went through.

The first stack was 1972 and it had a Rod Carew card on top. Of the 55 cards in the bundle, it yielded 14 Hall of Famers plus a 3rd-year card of Thurman Munson. It also had another Carew in the bundle and TWO Nolan Ryans.

The '77 stack had the Ryan cloth sticker on top (kinda beat up), but in the middle it had a nice Eck, George Brett, Jim Rice, etc. Didn't have as many HOFers as the first stack, but I am pleased!

[Mike D.]

Nice find! Hope it helps you along on your set building! What was your total spend on the lots?

[BradH]

Originally Posted by Mike D.

Nice find! Hope it helps you along on your set building! What was your total spend on the lots?

Thanks, Mike -- the total for the lots came out to $77, but I asked if they could give a slight discount since I was buying almost everything they had. They asked me if $60 would work and I was very pleased with that total.