Deans cards?graded for free by their expert?

vintagetoppsguy · #1 09-21-2013, 01:29 PM

Andy,

First, let me say that you are lucky in the fact that you have a wife that desires to buy you cards as gifts. That's pretty awesome. I just got married, but I don't think my wife would ever buy me a card as a gift (at least she didn't do it in the 5 years we were dating). However, if she expressed that desire, I would give her a list of dealers that I would recommend, and probably a list of dealers to stay away from (and Dean's Cards would be on that second list).

I understood everything you said, but there are many, many other dealers that offer good customer service that are a lot more reasonable on their prices that you wife could shop from. I'm certainly not trying to get into your marital business. If you are okay with your wife shopping there for you, by all means continue. All I am saying is there are a lot more affordable options - not to mention the last few comments that were made about Dean's over grading their cards.

Jantz · #2 09-21-2013, 01:43 PM

You all know that there are two sellers who sell under the name of Dean's cards right?

Jantz

nsaddict · #3 09-21-2013, 02:33 PM

Jantz, Could you please let all that don't know these 2?

Jantz · #4 09-21-2013, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nsaddict

Jantz, Could you please let all that don't know these 2?

Richard

Dean Han-ley of Dean's Cards

Lar-rie Dean of Dean's House of Cards

It could be easy to get the two mixed up.

Jantz

JollyElm · #5 09-22-2013, 03:52 AM

Deans Cards is a frickin' joke!!!

I'm upgrading my 1972 set, so I'm constantly trawling ebay for many of the commons I need. Without question, every time I see a card priced ten times what other sellers have it listed for, I know it's our ole buddy Dean once again. It just makes me laugh how ridiculous his prices are. Clearly the guy has a screw loose and has no concept of reality. And sure, he's not doing anything illegal. A fact his apologists love to point out, as if that somehow justifies his exorbitant pricing techniques.

Case in point. The card on the left is what the esteemed Dean grades an 8. Yes, with 4 bad corners and other issues, he gives it an 8!! And his opening bid is...mind you, it's just the OPENING BID...$10.80. Yes, ten dollars and 80 freaking cents for a common you can usually grab up for under a dollar.

The card on the right is a different auction by an unknown seller. I wanted to find a card quite similar to Deano's offering and this was basically the first one I ran across that wasn't in rough shape. It has pretty sharp corners and is a little off center. The price? A buy it now of $1.79, which is about 1/6 of our hero, Dean's, opening bid price. One sixth!! And that $1.79, in itself, is way overpriced.

phils.jpg

Keep in mind that I didn't search this out to find a pathetically overpriced Dean card. I searched "Deans Cards 1972" and used the first listing found there. You can be absolutely certain that each and every one of his other cards is similarly price bloated. He/his company annoys the living bejesus out of me!!!!!!!!!!!!

dodgerfanjohn · #6 09-22-2013, 05:40 AM

Some of you guys may want to look at Burbank Sportscards. It's one of the very few sportscards shops in Los Angeles to have survived the past couple decades. They have a large inventory and the owner is as honest as it gets in this business. Cards are accurately graded though sight unseen you should expect centering issues. Pricing is generally on the higher side(I remember they always used to use high Beckett in the 90's. but no where near the prices of Deans cards. And they can be somewhat negotiable.

CobbvLajoie1910 · #7 09-22-2013, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dodgerfanjohn

Some of you guys may want to look at Burbank Sportscards. It's one of the very few sportscards shops in Los Angeles to have survived the past couple decades. They have a large inventory and the owner is as honest as it gets in this business. Cards are accurately graded though sight unseen you should expect centering issues. Pricing is generally on the higher side(I remember they always used to use high Beckett in the 90's. but no where near the prices of Deans cards. And they can be somewhat negotiable.

+1. Love Burbank. Rob Veres & Co. are outstanding to deal with.

autograf · #8 09-22-2013, 07:45 AM

I've picked up some lots of 1960, 1961 and 1968 Topps this year and decided to finish out the sets. Needing anywhere from 10-30% of the cards in each set mostly in EX or better, I found most of them on ebay and finished the rest up at the national this year. In doing so, like a lot of other people, I saw Deans cards frequently. There was ALWAYS someone with similarly conditioned cards for 1/2 or less the cost of Deans cards. Everyone has a model they work on on ebay, but 80 cards sold out of 80K in a month isn't one that will net you a lot of money.....maybe they're trying to drive people to their website. I don't have specific experience with them but I would be equally mad that they took advantage of my wife and I'd see it the same way. I have dealt with some great people who have fantastic customer service in finishing these sets off including:

Joesvintagesportscardsii
Mantlerules
Battersbox

And a bunch of others for singles here and there. The above three have great photos, fair prices, healthy inventory and ship lightning quick. I'm not associated with any of them in any way but good people should get a note too. The best thing about Deans is that I can usually tell from the prices and quickly go past them. I don't begrudge them for charging whatever for their cards, I just don't buy anything from them.

arc2q · #9 09-21-2013, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jantz

You all know that there are two sellers who sell under the name of Dean's cards right?

Jantz

Yeah, that occurred to me later. One sells at a number of shows and is for
Richmond I think. The other runs the very large website card business known as Deans Cards. Both fine men.

conor912 · #10 09-21-2013, 04:49 PM

Years ago when I first started collecting vintage I bought several times from Dean. At first I loved his site's simplicity and ease of use. After a while, however, I realized how expensive he was compared to other dealers and stopped buying from him. At one point during this time my dad bought me a complete set from Dean which came in an 800 ct box. When I got it, I opened it, checked the key cards, and put them back in the box. Four years later I decided to put the set in pages and as I did I realized a card was missing...then two...then three...then 78. There were 78 duplicates, 78 missing cards, and two team cards with team stickers stuck right on them. Because it was four years later I figured I was SOL but decided to call them anyway. I talked to a guy (not Dean), explained the situation, and he told me to email him a list of the missing numbers. I did, and a week later a box showed up, free of charge. I thought that was pretty amazing. When I opened the box, they still screwed up 3 or 4 cards which I still had to go track down elsewhere. You can take this story as a positive or a negative, depending on how you choose to. The guy could have just told me tough shit, but he tried to fix it. In the end though, they still came up short.

Tao_Moko · #11 09-21-2013, 06:47 PM

I don't get this crowd sometimes. I mean, just next to Jesus in how ethical you are. Dean didn't violate anyone or break any laws. From what I can tell, Dean invests into keeping his inventory up so charging a premium to a person with money that was buying a gift is not that awful. She was happy and was treated well from what I read. He did spend his time fulfilling her requests. There are lots of crooks in this hobby and Dean is not one of them. So what he made a couple bucks. Should I hate the Pandora bracelet lady that gets a premium out of me when I buy them for my wife or mother? I'm a dude buying overpriced metal and glass. Not much different from a woman buying baseball cards made of paper and ink.

Eric S

vintagetoppsguy · #12 09-21-2013, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tao_Moko

Should I hate the Pandora bracelet lady that gets a premium out of me when I buy them for my wife or mother? I'm a dude buying overpriced metal and glass. Not much different from a woman buying baseball cards made of paper and ink.

You should if the lady charged you $300 for that Pandora bracelet when every other jewelry store in town has it priced for $100.

thehoodedcoder · #13 09-21-2013, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tao_Moko

I don't get this crowd sometimes. I mean, just next to Jesus in how ethical you are. Dean didn't violate anyone or break any laws. From what I can tell, Dean invests into keeping his inventory up so charging a premium to a person with money that was buying a gift is not that awful. She was happy and was treated well from what I read. He did spend his time fulfilling her requests. There are lots of crooks in this hobby and Dean is not one of them. So what he made a couple bucks. Should I hate the Pandora bracelet lady that gets a premium out of me when I buy them for my wife or mother? I'm a dude buying overpriced metal and glass. Not much different from a woman buying baseball cards made of paper and ink.

your comparing baseball cards prices to baseball card prices on cards of similiar nature and condition to draw the conclusion that the price is fair....then you use the anology about a bracelet and paying above scrap metal value for it. i think a better anology would be to compare it to the same braclet at a higher price.

either that or you need to change your argument to say that all cards are not worth more than the cardboard and ink value. this is where your argument falls apart....right? anyone that read your sentance can clearly see your anology is drastically flawed.

if 95 percent of the world sells something at one price and 5 percent sell it for 3 times what the rest sell that is a different scenario. it doesn't make someone a crook but it also isn't the best business practice in the world.

the people selling it at 3 times market value clearly know its marked up 300 percent. i think people see greed when others do that. i think its understandable that they see the greed in that and don't like it. did they do anything wrong? no absolutely not. does that make it 100 percent ok. probably not. turn the question inward to yourself. would you be happy knowing you paid triple a price when you could just as easily got it for the list price if you knew what you were doing?

lack of knowledge plays a part here. had you known...you would have never paid triple the price. supply...demand. when the cards are readily available no person of sane, sound or mind having knowledge would pay that price. this basically means while not praying on people, his business model does though however only attract people that do NOT know what they are doing.

it doesn't take much to see my point here.

kevin

Tao_Moko · #14 09-21-2013, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thehoodedcoder

your comparing baseball cards prices to baseball card prices on cards of similiar nature and condition to draw the conclusion that the price is fair....then you use the anology about a bracelet and paying above scrap metal value for it. i think a better anology would be to compare it to the same braclet at a higher price.

either that or you need to change your argument to say that all cards are not worth more than the cardboard and ink value. this is where your argument falls apart....right? anyone that read your sentance can clearly see your anology is drastically flawed.

if 95 percent of the world sells something at one price and 5 percent sell it for 3 times what the rest sell that is a different scenario. it doesn't make someone a crook but it also isn't the best business practice in the world.

the people selling it at 3 times market value clearly know its marked up 300 percent. i think people see greed when others do that. i think its understandable that they see the greed in that and don't like it. did they do anything wrong? no absolutely not. does that make it 100 percent ok. probably not. turn the question inward to yourself. would you be happy knowing you paid triple a price when you could just as easily got it for the list price if you knew what you were doing?

lack of knowledge plays a part here. had you known...you would have never paid triple the price. supply...demand. when the cards are readily available no person of sane, sound or mind having knowledge would pay that price. this basically means while not praying on people, his business model does though however only attract people that do NOT know what they are doing.

it doesn't take much to see my point here.

kevin

Too much to read while the fights are on. My only point is that it's just baseball cards. They are really not that big of a deal.

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