The Great Mouschi Flip Quest of 2015

[mouschi]

On opening day, you may recall a story I wrote about my latest million card acquisition that flopped, but as a consolation prize, I got this:



I love the card so much, and it has a very interesting story to it. During the home run race, this card, when coupled with Big Mac's 1985 Topps card sold over $1,000. I'll spare the other details, as it is in my story, but to make a long story short, someone asked if I would sell the fruits of my otherwise fruitless outing. I did, and thus begins the great Flip Quest of 2015!

Step two has officially begun today, and I am at $21.55. I have until the end of the baseball season, or whenever the A's are knocked out - whichever comes first. The Flip Quests from the last 2 years have been a blast, and I got some mega awesome stuff, along with some pretty fantastic stories. Let's see how this pans out!

WHAT IS A FLIP QUEST???

For those of you who don't know, it is a fun way to start out with something small and end up with something big. The first year I did this, I started out with a 1989 Fleer factory sealed set that I got for free from a friend's dad and ended up with a 1999 Topps Traded Josh Hamilton autograph. Last year, I started off with a custom 89 UD style Puig and ended up with a million card inventory when all was said and done.

Last year was a bit inflated, because I allowed myself to make more than one custom, so this year it won't be as high flying, as I will be sticking to a single item - the McGwire - and go from there.

What is the end game this time? To find something really cool for my Canseco PC. I'm probably going to go hard for one (or a few) of my white whales. Here is a list of what I would like (though in the ocean of collecting, I'm sure there are plenty more white whales out there that I don't even know about!) I may be picking up things along the way as well. Here are some of the more sought after cards I'd like though:

1989 Donruss & Leaf Blue Chips
1990 Donruss Aqueous
1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold
1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified Platinum Gold
1998 Donruss Crusade Red

So with all that said, let's get started!

4-6-15: $0 (Starting w/McGwire Card)
4-13-15: $21.50
4-13-15: $1.50
4-13-15: $106.25
4-15-15: $14.75
4-16-15: $131.50
4-19-15 $65
4-20-15 $107.75
4-25-15 $17.75
4-25-15 $117
4-28-15 $166
5-1-15 $286
5-2-15 $284
5-6-15 $344
5-13-15 $459
5-28-15 $422
5/29/15 $449
6/3/15 $646
6/5/15 $321
6/7/15 $303
6/10/15 $423
6/13/15 $448
6/20/15 $597
6/28/15 $747
7/2/15 $858.75
7/11/15 $784.75
7/22/15 $855.25
8/1/15 $1,046.75
8/8/15 $1122.75
8/24/15 $1277.75
9/18/15 $1473.75
10/6/15 $38.75

INVENTORY
Monkey statue
Indoor Smores Machine
AP US History Book
2 ft long canoe
Build a bear lot (have some left) and elf on the shelf
Yacker Tracker
Soft tea set
Kids Easel / Desk
Clemens Bobblehead
Vintage Train
Microsoft CDs
Nearly 50 dragons & wizards
driver ed in a box
12 game used Astros pants
13 or so Video Games / Movies (PSP lot is gone)
Wood Gas Station Play Set
Several new in box dolls
Trivial Pursuit

KEEPERS
2015 Heritage Kershaw Relic
1990 DONRUSS AQUEOUS JOSE CANSECO !!!
14 PS3 games (I may end up getting a ps3, so I don't want to sell these just yet!)
30 mega rare Canseco cards

[Bestdj777]

Best of luck in your quest! You may have better luck posting here:

http://net54baseball.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by Bestdj777

Best of luck in your quest! You may have better luck posting here:

http://net54baseball.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35

Thanks Chris! This isn't really a buy/sell thread, but rather a flip quest tracker (though, as I have things listed on this thread, I wouldn't mind taking offers on things!)

[mouschi]

....and just like that, we are out of the batter's box!

A fellow cardboard fiend just texted me with a nice $50 lot of cards. BUT this also came with a $30 gift certificate to a major restaurant chain here, which we will put to good use soon I'm going to parcel out the cards from it for $20, so it leaves me with $1.50 and these cards ....









Oh, and I got this Kershaw, but I have a few of his autos on some blanks from some TTM's, so I'm going to be ripping out the jersey piece to make an auto relic custom.



..... BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!!

They already have sold. Every single card ... within 3 hours.

The first card sold for $57 and the rest at $47.75 altogether.

[EldoEsq]

Very cool thread and idea...will be following the quest!

[mouschi]

Today I picked up a resale lot that included a Kobe Autographed Redemption card, and some other goodies. In addition to this, the wifey and I went to HEB while our son was at his youth group, to do some shopping.

We ran across a boat load of t-shirts for $1 each. They were all JJ Watt shirts, and there were 21 of them. If I can't sell these here locally for more, then I'm doing something wrong!

We bought some other groceries as well, but the shirts came out to be $21 ... I love seeing in print that we saved nearly $300.

[mouschi]

All the cards I picked up last night just sold - after shipping fees, $116.75 to add!

[Smidge]

I've always wanted to do something like this and you have just motivated me to start! Good luck!

[CW]

Cool thread. Good luck!

[mouschi]

Thanks to this flip quest, and it being garage sale season, I decided to hit it full force yesterday! There were some pretty cool pickups for $66.50 total.

Rifle Scope - $5


My Little Pony Items - $5


Sand & Water Table $5


Discs $1 (includes the others below as well)


Gaming Chair $6


Fisher Price Train set $5


Gator Mount Motor Guide for boat w/digital Display $10


4 ft long body pillow of $100 bill 50 cents




Bobblehead of Clemens $3


Tail Light for Trailblazer + boot & Dave Ramsey financial set below for $15




Beanie Babies $1 (some of these might be worth something ... cool!)




Vintage ride on train "Mighty Kacey" - came with a large track - may be a good sell too $5




Picked up 2 of these for $2 each


$3


Some highlights of the day:

- I asked the owners of a garage sale how much a tie cost - when another buyer already had it around his neck. The buyer's wife said I could have the man if I bought the tie. While we were all laughing, I declined questioning how much she thought I could get for him.

- We went to one sale that said "POWER RANGER TOYS". The dude had a boat load of star wars, star trek and power ranger toys. Vintage, etc. He was mega high priced, and I struck up a conversation with him. When asked why he was selling, he said with a straight face "The apocalypse is coming. Have you heard of the blood moons? We are 3 deep now, and have one more to go." I would have thought he was messing with me, but everything about him and his body language showed that he was being serious. LOL!

[mouschi]

Here is the latest -
Yesterday, the Dell disks sold for $17.75 and the gaming chair for $25.

[timzcardz]

Just reading this now.

Thanks for putting a smile on my face on the way to work.

Good luck in your quest.

Have you considered making the quest into a video game? Kids love those games with "quest" in the name, don't they?

"Mouschi's Quest". Hmmmmm.😃

[mouschi]

Thanks for the kind words! I should go to nintendo with that idea

[mouschi]

A stormy saturday morning foiled our garage sale plans, but I did pick up a nice card lot last night. I picked up a previous card lot, but it was over my budget, so I didn't throw it into play with the flip quest.

[KCRfan1]

What a great idea! Keep us posted as things progress, and I am looking forward to what you eventually end up with.

[mouschi]

.....so the wife decided to brave the weather and see if anyone else did at all, and have garage sales. They did!

I drained the rest of my money on these beauties.

Mainly because they looked so nicely with my latest Canseco Custom ...



Oh, and I forgot to mention ....






The two dragons above






came with ....







a few friends ....







Nearly 50 dragons and wizards. Yeah, everyone looked at me crazy, but I think I can flip 'em!





















The Gator Mount Motor Guide just sold as well!

[begsu1013]

what's the end game here, mousch....is your heart set on something or is there a certain price point for your exit strategy?

regardless, cool concept and whatever the material asset is, i'm sure it wont compare to the journey!

"3 blood moons deep already"
(guy was dead serious)

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by begsu1013

what's the end game here, mousch....is your heart set on something or is there a certain price point for your exit strategy?

regardless, cool concept and whatever the material asset is, i'm sure it wont compare to the journey!

"3 blood moons deep already"
(guy was dead serious)

The flip quest ends on the last day of the season (or whenever the A's last game this year is, if they make it to the post season!)

I'm looking to add some killer cards to my Canseco collection. Namely:

1989 Donruss & Leaf Blue Chips
1990 Donruss Aqueous
1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold
1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified Platinum Gold
1998 Donruss Crusade Red

If I can find them! If I can't find them, then I'll just pick up some other awesome Canseco for my collection.

[mouschi]

It has been slow going lately, but today, I told another CD for $9 and the Dave Ramsey kit for $40.

[mouschi]

Ahh yes, and I gave the beanie babies to my dad to sell, so I'll gotta take those off the list as well.

[mouschi]

Here is the latest - the JJ Watt shirts sold for $120.

[mouschi]

So after a long night of fun, picking up 220,000 cards ...



and secretly going to my parents house around midnight to setup some christmas reindeer...



then posting on facebook so they and their friends can see it ....



we went to bed, and got up (not so) bright & early to hit the garage sales. We didn't get much at all, but here are a few things:

115+ DVD's (the pic doesn't show all of them) for $20


Driver Ed in a Box $5


And finally, a binder of baseball cards. The binder was one of several plus some boxes that the seller had marked for $5 each. I quickly thumbed through all of them, all while the seller was insisting that they are really good cards, etc. Mostly commons. On the front page of one, I spotted a Jeter dugout which I figured I could at the least make my money back on it here locally by itself, so I said what the heck ...



When I got home, I saw it had Bo Jacks & Nolan Ryan gold signature cards (Nolan showed below)



Not a huge pickup by any means, but hey, after dealing with NON cards all morning, i had to get a fix!

That means my total investment for the day was $30. I sold the 2 memory cards also for $28, so my $1 or so investment from a week or two ago nearly funded all of what I got today

[timzcardz]

Following along.

Maybe you could work up[ to flipping for Canseco's house. That would be a cool collectible! I remember several years ago seeing the listing for his house.

[mouschi]

A buyer came over for the DVD's for $60. Things have been slow as molasses, but at least we have progress in going forward an not backward!

[CW]

HA! Nice reindeer!

[autograf]

This is like an episode of 'Two Broke Girls' where they post how much money they have at the end of each show. They have antics that cause them to lose or gain money on each show. And they're not difficult to look at either. Since we can't see your picture (and you CAN'T be as nice looking as them), keep coming with the pickups and sales. It IS interesting.

[timzcardz]

Tom, I hadn't thought of Two Broke Girls, but do you remember "The Brill Report" maybe 10-15 years ago?

It was a hobby online/email thing by Bob Brill, and one of the things he did for the year was start with a small sum of money (maybe $10 or $20) buying one thing and though flipping it and a series of subsequent buys/flips see what total he could get to by the end of the year, or how long it would take to get to a set amount of money, say something like $5-10K.

Each week he would report on what he bought, sold, and what his current total of cash and assets was.

He took a hiatus back in 2008, and that ended up being the end of it.

[mouschi]

Oh hey guys - I didn't see the last 2 comments from before. Thanks for posting!

Anyway, still slow going - I did move the cards though, so lets add $115 to the lot.

[mouschi]

With all the excitement of my road trip, I have found it difficult to buckle down and get through everything. However, here I am with an update.

I sold the Arthur Court dishes for $33, and some of the trains for $30. In addition to this, I picked up a $100 lot which included this:


An Elvis Andrus 1/1 mini leather - tons of other cards came with it too.

[mouschi]

So, I have several updates today.

Firstly, after fees, the main lot of cards I just picked up sold for $137. Then, the sand & water table sold for $25.

But of course, I picked up some more goodies! How? Today, the Tri Star card show rolled into town. It is one of the few things that gets me to brave the houston traffic, and drive past where I worked 15 years ago ....



See the circle? Yeah, I was there. Fun fact - I was MISERABLE and deeply depressed working there. I eventually got fired. The first and only time, too. Turns out it was the biggest blessing ever.

I entered the show and started looking for Canseco cards (I found ... NONE.) and things to buy.

Total introduction count for the Canseco story / Beckett headline: 4
Total # of comparisons to Rollie Fingers: 3

While I was walking around, I got a text from my friend saying her dad was there. Her dad was the guy who gave me a 1989 Fleer complete set, and within a little over a month, I flip quested it to a 1999 Topps Traded Josh Hamilton autographed rookie (a big deal at the time.) It was my first flip quest ever. #memories.

We ran into each other and spoke for a good while, until he had to get a phone call. I decided to take a stache selfie with him in the background to send to my friend.



Later, he returned the favor while I was talking to another dealer ... well at least he tried. Ultimately, he had to ask me how to turn the camera around. Then he took the pic and sent to my friend. I asked her for the pic, and here it is:



This was about as exciting as things got. I did pick up some cool things though for the flip quest, like:

a box of 1971 and 1972 topps baseball ... around 1,400 or so cards.



and a box full of game used Astros pants. Many of them had some nice patch work on them as well.



The damage came to be $140 for everything

[mouschi]

A few things have happened recently:

one pair of game used pants, the vintage cards and a tail light sold for $207
I also bought a nice dresser for $10.

I hope to have a really good update to this flip quest in a few days as well!

[mouschi]

Over the past few days, some things have sold and a huge, huge, HUGE thing happened for the flip quest! Here is the summary:

First, I sold the 1/1 Andrus and the rifle scope for a total of $88 after fees.

Now for the biggie.

I ran into a former Canseco collector who I gave my checklist to. I asked him if he had anything I needed. He emailed me and said "Do you need this?"

Attached in the message: A 1990 Donruss AQUEOUS! This is one of the many white whales I have swimming about the ocean. We went back and forth and ended up doing a deal for $413. I would not have been surprised if, at the end of the flip quest, I would not have been able to have found any on my list in the initial post, so I'm really pumped about this ... not to mention that he had about 26 other cards on my list that I didn't have. That is huge also, as that type of quantity simply doesn't happen anymore.

[KCRfan1]

Congratulations, you had to have been stoked!!!!!!!

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

Congratulations, you had to have been stoked!!!!!!!

Oh for sure! But the fact that I was able to add on like 26 others ... man that was awesome. It wasn't too long ago where I bought a lot of 450 (12/13/14 to be exact) cards and didn't have 305 of them. That was amazing and it only cost like $30 or so. They were mainly oddballs. I'd be over the moon if I could find a tenth of that many cards for ten times the price, lol! My, how times change.

[mouschi]

Things are humming along nicely. I sold a pair of the gamer pants for $50 and picked up the following at garage sales yesterday for $68:

Trivial Pursuit (Was trying to see if Canseco had a card in it since I have a number of them already ... he doesn't. GRRRRR - this may sit here for a while, and then donated.)
Kirby Vacuum Cleaner
Gas Station Play set and several new in box dolls
PS2 w/out a cord or controller, but with a few games and a guitar

The best deal of the day was 70 or so games - all PSP, WII or PS3 for the most part! This was $45 of the $68

[mouschi]

I just picked up some cards for $110 and sold them to 2 separate buyers for a grand total of $230, so the $120 extra goes to this!

[mouschi]

Nothing too crazy at garage sales today. Picked up a weight watchers kit and 3 easels for $25, then a play house for $5. I also sold the dresser for $60, so I'll add $25 to the total.

[begsu1013]

congrats on landing you whale...

still love this thread!!

[pawpawdiv9]

HEY!! just looked at this thread...noticed the Ty beanie babies. You realized you have a 'special' one in there!!! I know, because i got one stored away. Its the purple one with the rose. That is the 'princess diana' one. If you do some research and go thru the many variations in determining which pellets you have and such on the tag. On Ebay they are going for crazy prices. Literally crazy. Over half-million dollars when i looked last year, which in terms wont even hold water. You will see 100k and on up. CRAZY!!

BTW- i found this Canseco on Ebay: (Didint know if you had one or not)

[mouschi]

Thanks for the heads up! I don't think it is the REAL expensive one but if so, mom and dad are gonna be MEGA happy

[mouschi]

So the garage sale circuit was DEAD today ... I did get some grocery shopping done which my wife was happy about.

This week, however, I did sell some things - a doll, vacuum cleaner and weight watchers kit. In addition to this, I flipped a card lot within a day, so the total to add for everything is $149

[KCRfan1]

Is the wife helping with The Great Mouschi Flip Quest of 2015? If so, what role has she played?

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

Is the wife helping with The Great Mouschi Flip Quest of 2015? If so, what role has she played?

She is almost always with me when going on the hunt for garage sales, but she wasn't feeling too well today, so she didn't go. I'm like 0 for my last 5 times going w/out her. She is my lucky charm!

[mouschi]

Buying and selling has been pretty slow going this week, but today I sold the Easels for $140. I also sold over 200k cards in my garage that were not a part of this flip. Since he was buying all the other cards, I told him he could have the binder of cards that is mentioned in my flip quest for $10 extra. He accepted! So, that means we can add $150 to this.

[mouschi]

I sold the PSP lot for $111.75 - interestingly enough, it was to a guy who has purchased about 400+k worth of sports cards from me in the past. No other white whales have surfaced yet, but I'm still crossing my fingers and toes that something comes up, as it looks like I have enough to pull the trigger pretty much any one of them and then some.

[mouschi]

Slow going for sales, but today we did pretty good with some purchases.

We grabbed this suede love seat for $15


This play system for $5


This boat for $8


and the following:

Build a bear lot w/13 bears, some furniture and clothing $25 (+FREE Elf on a Shelf WOOT)
Littlest Pet shop lot $10
Yacker Tracker $5
Stuffed Tea Set $1
Kids Easel / Desk $5

$74 well spent, I'd say!

[swarmee]

Nice pickups in the modern toys genre. Those should all make some money.

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Nice pickups in the modern toys genre. Those should all make some money.

That is my hope!

[mouschi]

Things are still slow going, because I have many other things going on, but I thought I would update for the first time in about 11 days.

I picked these beauties up for $10. They are about 3 feet tall. A sticker said $5 on one of them and I asked the lady if it was $5 for all 3 or $5 each. There were a gaggle of women gasping at me even asking. "$5 would be a real good deal for you, wouldn't it?" So I said "yeah, but what do you expect? It is a garage sale, so ...". The gaggle laughed a bit as to say touche.

Instead of walking away because they offended my honor, I figured I'd just grab 'em for $10


I also got this kid stool for $8.



The last piece of buying I did was this little lot here:










Total, I have spent $58.

Here is what I have sold:

Littlest Pet Shop lot for $50
Camcorder for $35 (YEAH!)
but then the buyer said it was broken (BOOOO)
I promised to give him a refund and because "I was honest and nice" he only asked for $25.
So ... Camcorder: $10
Dolly Parton Doll (from the doll lot) $18.50
Bloat Up Boat: $50

In total, this means we can add $70.50 along with a few cool profitable pieces to the pot!

[mouschi]

Time for an update!

I sold the majority of the cards from my last update for $55. The rest of the cards, I put with this lot that I bought this lot for $60 yesterday:














I ended up selling all the cards above and the leftovers I mentioned for $56.50 so now I have a nice silver coin to add to the mix

A build-a-bear sold for $20
The kangaroo climber sold for $50
The Guidecraft Kitchen Stool sold for $50
and last but not least the ankle boot sold for $20

That gives us a profit of $191.50 to add to the pile, and we are now over $1,000 - now if only one of my white whales would surface!