First Post...Estate Sale Haul Today

[RobDerhak]

New Here, hope this is in the right subforum...

Posted the same thing on Blowout, but I do need a little help identifying a couple of the oddball pennant/stickers...any help is appreciated, and I look forward to learning my way around here!

(sorry about the upside down photos...I rotated them all correclty, but Photobucket links didn't update apparently...tried to fix, but no luck)

This was a shaky hand Estate Sale. 4+ Hours later, I'm still shaky from adrenaline from finding the Estate Sale we all dream about after 30 or so years of looking (minus a 10 year hiatus I guess).

Let me set the scene...I tried to go to a different Estate sale at 9 am open today that listed "cards from the 60's"...well, either they wrote their address wrong, or I did, because the place doesn't exist. So....I hit stop #2 a little earlier than I thought I would...it was about 20 minutes away from where I had tried to go already, so I got there about 15 minutes after it opened at 9:00 and the place was PACKED, but nobody was looking at baseball cards!!!

This Estate Sale had promise to me because of two things. 1) There was no details on the cards listed...not even years, just "Baseball Cards", and 2) There was lots of unopened early 90s stuff pictured AND a ton of military items (some of you know where I am going with this already I'm sure)...so I was hopeful...but what I found was NOT what I expected at all...

So, I walk in & First cards I see are a stack of cases & screw downs in Ziplocks. Cards ranging from '33-'66, and mostly priced at full book or more with a few excptions. '66 Mantle @ $125 that looked like a solid 6-7 candidate was most tempting high $ card. But I did grab a couple low $ cards from this stack.



Nothing crazy, but some nice mid grade vintage stuff at a fair price, which is all I ever really hope to find from these things...

Stack #2.

Heart Rate jumps...mixed in with a bunch of 91 Upper Deck Frank Thomas' are these beauties...





OK, so there ARE Desert Shield cards here...just like I hoped to find...now...how many will I find?!

There was a little jewelry box filled with Topps Stamps & such for $12. I told him to start me a pile and reserved those, not really knowing what all would be in there...no idea there'd be a Mantle/Aaron/Spahn, etc...any info on the mini Reds Pennant & NASA/Senators stickers/iron ons is appreciated



























continued......

[RobDerhak]

So, I walk away from the main table to explore, he says that "I think all the good ones are up here, but there are cards everywhere at this auction, have fun!"

There is a large shoebox at an adjoining table with a sign "Cards $5 each unless marked". Well, OK...$5 seems steep for commons, but I'll flip through in case something slipped through the cracks...cards are loose, not in cases, but they are neatly organized by team. I start flipping through a bunch of commons, mostly '61-'75, a few 50's here & there.

I come across this in good shape, and think, hmm...Maybe there will be some nice semi stars in this box for $5



Then I keep flipping, and my heart rate keeps rising.

In the order I found them...keep in mind $5 per card




































continued......

[RobDerhak]

So, I've got a stack of 100 or so cards and I am amped up. I back away from the table, and realize there is another box on the floor. I ask him if these are priced as marked or what, and he says, nope, we're just doing the $5 each thing on them too...Allrighty then...the '57 Spahn may grade a 8 or 9...I mean it is NICE







These Hopalong Cassidy cards were in a snap case with some randoms (76 Brett, a stack of Cecil Fielder rookies (?) for $5...no idea on their value





At this time I decided to go back through the first box to see what I missed...there were a few...I'm sure I left more there that I should have bought...I could barely see my adrenaline was pumping so fast





Throughout the house there were cards...









Then I found the little plastic box I hoped for and bought it without opening it to see what was inside...





No big stars (minus Lasorda I guess), but still...

continued.....

[RobDerhak]

$7 a box...



$4



$5 box w/ '89 Upper Deck packs in it



And then, the lottery ticket....



No idea if they are Desert Shield or just plain ol' '91 Topps...2 of the boxes are sealed, two are not. If anybody knows how to tell the difference, please inform me. I looked at Houdinis break, and the box seemed to be identical to the regular '91 release...any help on these is greatly appreciated...

Anyway, thanks, hope I'm not breaking any rules with multiple photo posts to start, but I;m so damn excited about my find today I just have to share it!!!

[Bestdj777]

Welcome to the forum. Such awesome finds. It looks like you got some beautiful cards. If you don't mind me asking, what was the final damage?

I believe there was a fairly recent discussion in the modern card section--directly below this one--about how to distinguish between Desert Storm/Regular Topps cards. I may be mistaken, but I think the answer was that the only way to know is to open them. I hope for you that they aren't regular Topps. Either way, for that price, I'd say it is well worth the money just to be able to flip through them.

[RobDerhak]

Thanks for the reply...yea, I did a search for Desert Shield on this board and it seems to be the consensus that you need to open them...I did find a video on youtube that was a pack break, and it was a wax pack...the packs in the two open boxes of mine are cellophane, so that may be my answer...still probably wont bust open anything until I get a chance to do a little more research.

Total damage was a little over $800.

140 of the $5 cards + the unopened stuff, and a few other trinkets I haven't photoed yet...best of that lot is a 60's (i haven't researched it yet, I'm thinking '65ish) Stamped Auto Cardinals ball in plastic wrapper with the order sheet in the wrapper with it...it isn't sealed, but the ball can't be removed through the little hole in plastic...Facsimile autos of Gibson, Brock, Schoendienst, etc...I'll photo it later tonight I'm sure

Also a really old Little League Baseball (i'm thinking 50s?) that looks like it was never played with...things I couldn't live without, ya know

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by RobDerhak

And then, the lottery ticket....



No idea if they are Desert Shield or just plain ol' '91 Topps...2 of the boxes are sealed, two are not. If anybody knows how to tell the difference, please inform me. I looked at Houdinis break, and the box seemed to be identical to the regular '91 release...any help on these is greatly appreciated...

Anyway, thanks, hope I'm not breaking any rules with multiple photo posts to start, but I'm so damn excited about my find today I just have to share it!!!

Thanks for the heads up on the thread guys. Rob, nice find. The DS boxes I have seen look like the regular 1991 Topps boxes. Are your boxes wrapped in cello? I have not seen DS boxes wrapped in cello - other than BBCE certified boxes (see below). DS boxes will look exactly the same as regular issues 1991 Topps boxes - even the 4 yellow bordered 1991 Topps cards printed on the bottom of the boxes do not have a DS logo on them.

One of the ways you can tell a DS pack is to use a strong blacklight and shine it on the back of the pack. The red trim on the reverse of DS cards should glow or fluoresce; if it doesn't it is likely not a DS pack. However, if every pack in the box glows or fluoresces, there is a high probability it is a DS box. Here is a pic of "sealed" Desert Shield boxes by BBCE (below).

Z

[RobDerhak]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

Thanks for the heads up on the thread guys. Rob, nice find. The DS boxes I have seen look like the regular 1991 Topps boxes. Are your boxes wrapped in cello? I have not seen DS boxes wrapped in cello - other than BBCE certified boxes (see below). DS boxes will look exactly the same as regular issues 1991 Topps boxes - even the 4 yellow bordered 1991 Topps cards printed on the bottom of the boxes do not have a DS logo on them.

One of the ways you can tell a DS pack is to use a strong blacklight and shine it on the back of the pack. The red trim on the reverse of DS cards should glow or fluoresce; if it doesn't it is likely not a DS pack. However, if every pack in the box glows or fluoresces, there is a high probability it is a DS box. Here is a pic of "sealed" Desert Shield boxes by BBCE (below).

Z

Thanks for weighing in.

So I opened one of the unsealed boxes last night and it was a dud...just plain ol' '91 Topps & only 1 Chipper.

The sealed boxes are wrapped with the (here is the part where I start to sound like a moron) crinkly type of plastic...not the type of plastic that stretches when pulled...does that make sense? I saw (i assume it was your) post about the blacklight when I did a quick google at the estate sale yesterday...I may need to see if I still have my blacklight stuffed in a closet somewhere and check 'em tonight.

I went back to the same this AM...it looked like nobody had gone through the box since me. Found 42 more worth grabbing @ 25% off today, he took 'em all the way down to $3 each since I bought so much yesterday...nothing crazy...my biggest miss was a '63 ROokie Stars w/ Gaylord Perry & another '61 Leaders w/ Koufax, mid stars like Kubek, Oliva, Kaat, things like that...a couple of Variant Checklists that have a little premium on them...two more sealed '91 Topps boxes appeared as well, so I grabbed them (now for $4 each), as well as half a dozen or so 90 UD Hi # Boxes just to rip hoping to find Aaron auto (fat chance, but for $3 a box, why not?!)

I'll probably head back over there in the afternoon tomorrow to see what kind of deal they'll make on the scraps since they are mid-high grade...bulk of what is left is '63 commons, handful of adjoining years.

[ALR-bishop]

"No idea if they are Desert Shield or just plain ol' '91 Topps...2 of the boxes are sealed, two are not. If anybody knows how to tell the difference, please inform me. I looked at Houdinis break, and the box seemed to be identical to the regular '91 release...any help on these is greatly appreciated"

Maybe this is what caused what you now consider a high jack

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

"No idea if they are Desert Shield or just plain ol' '91 Topps...2 of the boxes are sealed, two are not. If anybody knows how to tell the difference, please inform me. I looked at Houdinis break, and the box seemed to be identical to the regular '91 release...any help on these is greatly appreciated"

Maybe this is what caused what you now consider a high jack

What Al said plus unless it is a crap home printer fake most believe vintage cards to be the real deal.

The DS cards are easily among the top 10 faked/altered cards of all time. Yes they don't sell for thousands of dollars but you can turn a worthless common into a card that sells for a few dollars. I usually avoid them because I have no clue what is real and what isn't.