Garage/Estate Sale Success?

brianp-beme · #1 01-18-2016, 02:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajjohnsonsoxfan

My neighbor is in his 90's and is rarely seen out of the house, so when he had a yard sale recently I thought I'd stop by to say hello. Never in my life would I thought I'd find a complete set of 33 Goudey's! The only problem is he and his dad glued them to a poster board and then had it framed back in the 1940's. He knew I liked baseball having seen me play catch out in the yard with my sons from his front window so he decided I should have it.

I have a feeling that the cards are reprints, as the Lajoie card is included and all the cards look too fresh.

Brian

brianp-beme · #2 01-18-2016, 02:39 AM

I forgot to add I'm sorry if you thought these were original, and if not, sorry I called you out so soon for pulling all of our legs.

Brian

Exhibitman · #3 01-18-2016, 12:09 PM

The best thing I ever found at a true flea market (as opposed to a paper fair or other collectibles show) was a photo promoting the second Dempsey versus Tunney fight. It cost probably 33% of a realistic value.

Best thing I ever found in a paper fair was a Pinkerton scorecard of Jennings for $30. Also a nice George Mikan RC for under $100.

Tripredacus · #4 01-18-2016, 02:00 PM

Garage Sales are tough and you need to go to MANY of them. In my experience, you find something really good (at a decent price) maybe 1% of the time. The lesser amount of things you know about, the lower that percentage will go.

Others I know who do the garage sale circuit also report good luck in asking about things that are not out for sale. Often a person will not put out something for sale if they feel it has no value or is outdated. Especially when it comes to niche hobbies, it never hurts to ask. Just be careful you don't ask in such a way that makes dollar signs pop up in the person's eyes!

Cozumeleno · #5 01-18-2016, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tripredacus

Others I know who do the garage sale circuit also report good luck in asking about things that are not out for sale. Often a person will not put out something for sale if they feel it has no value or is outdated. Especially when it comes to niche hobbies, it never hurts to ask. Just be careful you don't ask in such a way that makes dollar signs pop up in the person's eyes!

This was a practice I found common as well. One of the best deals I found, a mostly-complete 1971 Topps Football Set for $10, was buried under a table in a shoebox that the seller only brought out once I asked if they had any cards. At the time, I didn't collect older football at all but figured they had to be worth at least that.

I agree with the other sentiments that you're not likely to pick up tobacco cards at these things. But there are good deals to be had on 50s, 60s, and 70s stuff. I just found good deals to be too few and far between to be worth the trouble of getting up, driving around, etc. The other issue is that you have to realize you're not the only one doing this. I can't tell you the number of times that I'd stop by a sale and hear 'Oh, you should have been here an hour ago - a guy bought everything I had.' It's a pretty competitive market and you often have to be up at the crack of dawn to beat the local sharks to the punch.

ajjohnsonsoxfan · #6 01-18-2016, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

I have a feeling that the cards are reprints, as the Lajoie card is included and all the cards look too fresh.

Brian

Brian you got me...that was my early April fools joke. This is a reprint set my son and I glued to a board and had framed. Would be great to find a complete Goudey set at a yard sale though...!

Tripredacus · #7 01-18-2016, 03:22 PM

Also I want to mention that when you ask someone at a garage sale for something, try to be as generic as possible. Also remember that the people will not know all terms that exist in the hobby or maybe any of them. So I wouldn't specifically ask for football cards, but more like say "football stuff from the 60s" or something.

You need to judge the age of the person selling before using certain words. Asking for "old" things will get you a wide range and likely not what you want. One time I remember asking for "old cards" resulted in a box of beat up 1993 Pinnacle football cards.

GasHouseGang · #8 01-18-2016, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajjohnsonsoxfan

Brian you got me...that was my early April fools joke. This is a reprint set my son and I glued to a board and had framed. Would be great to find a complete Goudey set at a yard sale though...!

I had a feeling, but I thought it might be possible. I guess you got me.

ls7plus · #9 01-19-2016, 05:49 PM

I used to have a connection with a friend who regularly handled estate sales and had him on the alert to watch for baseball cards and/or memorabilia. All he ever came up with in years of looking were '80's cards. I think its just been known for too long that these items can be of significant value for significant items to pop up in these venues, except on very, very rare occasions.

Regards,

Larry

RobDerhak · #10 06-04-2016, 05:38 PM

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=209064

Hasn't happened since...but this was just last year...I have had some decent scores since then...same Estate Sale company had a sale a couple months back where every card was $3...some decent stuff, best being a G-VG '69 Bench, but I also did get a '69 Bert Campaneris & '69 Freddie Patek that are at PSA right now that I think may get 9's (Campy may actually get a 10) for $3 each...but most of what was at that one was junky 80s/90s

T205Guy · #11 06-04-2016, 09:46 PM

Several years ago at an estate sale I picked up an album with nearly complete sets of all three T87 Wings Cigarette cards. They were neatly mounted with "photo" corners and were in EXMT condition. I also picked up a Jackie Robinson bat (EX) and a Sal Maglie glove also in (EX) condition. I paid $3.00 for the lot! I also had some luck two years ago at a small antique/thrift store in VA when I picked up a T205 Wilhelm (suffe ed) glued to a piece of scrapbook paper for $20.00. I soaked it off and it graded Authentic due to some paper loss.

slidekellyslide · #12 06-04-2016, 10:47 PM

I got a Nolan Ryan rookie at a tag sale a few years back...on the SECOND day of the sale. I skipped the first day and attended the second day where everything was half off. They had about 40 small stacks of cards rubber banded together for a couple bucks each, I hit about 5 or 6 of them and found the Ryan rookie. I didn't even look through the rest, I just picked up the shoe box and took all of them. The Ryan rookie was the best card in the lot, but there were a lot of stars too, like Frank Robinson, Roger Maris, Tony Perez, et cetera.

Just last year I hit it big at a garage sale with a ton of 1950s cards including about 200 near mint to mint 1957 Topps cards. I paid about 10 cents each for them. Sold them to a card shop in Omaha for a lot of dough, I'm sure he made a ton on them, but I don't submit to PSA and he does.

If we're talking about local auctions I've made a lot of great scores. Just last year I picked up a photo/scrapbook album of former major leaguer Bill Davidson which included a bunch of photos of himself with other major leaguers, some real photo postcards of Brooklyn players including Zach Wheat which was signed on the back "Buck Wheat". There was also a World Series ticket stub in there from 1913, the game between Mathewson and Plank which went 9 scoreless innings. Matty drove in a run in the 10th and then went out and shut the A's down for the 10 inning shutout.

My best find ever was a Tris Speaker game used bat picked up at a local auction about 6 or 7 years ago. I didn't know it was a gamer until I posted pictures of it to Net54 though.

I've made way too many finds at flea markets to mention all of them, but my best finds include, A Dog's Head cigarette pack, 2 Cameo Pepsin pins that were dead mint, and an early Portland PCL team cabinet photo that was HUGE..the largest cabinet photo I've ever seen.

I don't think it's pure luck to find this stuff though, it's perseverance. I hit garage sales, tag sales, auctions, antique shows and flea markets weekly.

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