What cards did you get for a steal, although you didn't realize it at the time?

[The Detroit Collector]

Originally Posted by skil55voy

I went to a card show in Dearborn. Michigan in 1987. Gordie Howe was the autograph feature. My daughter wanted to get her Red Wings pennant signed and I had a jersey to be signed. We got there and bought autograph tickets. We numbers 407 and 408 for the line which had not started. Everyone was sitting in the bleachers waiting for Howe and no one was walking around the tables. My daughter and I started looking. She got a couple of grab bags and I got to the last table and saw a stack of 1962 Jello cards. There were 42 cards in the stack with 2 Willie Mays cards. The price was 120.00. I looked through the stack and there were decently cut. I had 100.00 in my wallet. I asked him his best price. He said he hadn't sold anything all day and would take 105.00. I told him I had a hundred in the wallet but, would like to have 20.00 to take my daughter to lunch, He said ok. We then sold our autograph tickets to someone else who had come in. (By then they were into the 700's) We went to lunch.

So, in the stack besides the 2 Mays, was a Koufax, Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks and three that I had no idea are the incredibly tough to find:

Bobby Richardson, Bill Stafford and Curt Simmons.

Do you remember where in Dearborn the show was?

[55koufax]

My greatest "steal of a deal" was fairly recently. About the start of Covid I bought a complete raw set of Topps 1959 Football from Touchdown Treasures. It was billed as about half NM and half Nm-Mt. I had the bulk of the set PSA graded. Many low pop 9's. Many star 9's including Jim Brown (RIP). One 10, and a multitude of 8's, 8.5's. Within a year I had a top ten set on the Registry. Completely graded at almost 8.50 GPA, and I really did not have to invest too much $$$ for upgrades. The set easily values at $35K+. Maybe even $40K.
I have less than $10K into it. Almost 4X in 3 years. One of my greatest hits in an entire lifetime of collecting. Lucky.

[JollyElm]

This is one of my all-time favorite cards, because it's a perfectly centered card from a set I adore, showing my beloved 'Tom Terrific' donning his monster-sized mitt, and the photograph makes you wonder, "What in high heck was going on at Shea the moment this picture was taken???????? I mean, he's doubled over in laughter, for cripe's sake!!!!!!"

I spent less than $3 on it and now Mr. Seaver sits ensconced in a PSA 9 slab.


1972seaverIA446PSA.jpg

Love it!!

[skil55voy]

Originally Posted by The Detroit Collector

Do you remember where in Dearborn the show was?

Eric, I believe the show was at Dearborn High.

[The Detroit Collector]

Originally Posted by skil55voy

Eric, I believe the show was at Dearborn High.

thank you, I am from the area so just curious.

[isiahfan]

Originally Posted by The Detroit Collector

thank you, I am from the area so just curious.

If it was a Jim Hawkins event....I think he used to regularly host them at the Hyatt (now/still? closed). I don't remember him setting up HS...just not his image. He did do some later shows at Miracle Mile on Telegraph in Bloomfield Hills.

[Leon]

This was bought for a little over 2k, approximately 4 yrs ago. An average deal at the time.
Most Cobbs bought that long ago and back are probably a great deal, if still owned today.

[TheBig6]

I bought 10 successful Farming m101-4’s at a card show for 20.00 each. Dealer didn’t know what he had and I only vaguely knew myself at the time. They were all kinda rough but my hunch paid off for tune of about 3k

[murphy8276]

I was scrolling through ebay just over 5 years ago and ran into an "Old Yankees Schedule Lot, including Willie Mays Card". I thought it was weird to include a Willie Mays card with a Yankees lot, and noticed that the card included was a 1951 Bowman Willie Mays RC. The seller had it identified in the listing as a reprint included for free with the scheduling cards.

I was having trouble believing it was a reprint no matter how many times the seller told me it was because I had never seen a "reprint of a 51 bowman" with a print dot on it and this Mays RC clearly had one right on his name. Before I lost it to someone else who was curious, I went ahead and purchased the lot. I wasn't interested at all in the schedules so I was honest with the seller that I thought the Mays card may be real, so they were welcome to keep the rest of the lot.
They were adamant it was a reprint and they surprisingly sent me a refund minus shipping when they resold the schedules the next day...



When the card arrived a few days later, it was exactly what I thought and I still cannot believe to this day I got a Willie Mays RC for only the cost of the shipping!





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