30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Mystery Box of Cards & A Very Handy Tool

A few weeks ago... Michael over at Sportscards.com reached out to me and offered to send me a free mystery box of cardsFree cards?  Uhh... yes pleaseThe catch?  Well there really weren't any obligations, but he asked me to check out a pricing tool for collectors on their site.

As a guy who purchases the bulk of his PC additions on eBay, this tool is really quite handy.  In the past, I've used sortsof.com and watchcount.com to help me track completed listings of cards... which ends up giving me an idea of what the fair market value of a card is.  Unfortunately, neither of these sites go back more than a few months.


But guess what... Sportscards.com's pricing tool goes back several years.  And this awesome tool isn't only for card collectors.  They also track stamps, coins, currency, toys, entertainment memorabilia, and other collectibles.

To get full access to this valuable tool, all you need to do is create an account which should only take one or two minutes of your time.

Okay time to check out the mystery box of cards they sent...


First up...

Ty Cobb Sample Card

It looks like Sportscards.com has acquired a handwritten letter by Ty Cobb, which they've cut up and turned into a memorabilia card.  I know this will probably upset some collectors who don't believe in destroying rare pieces of history.  On the other hand, I'm sure there are some baseball fans who'd love to own a small piece of history.

Next is this memorabilia card of Harrison Barnes...

2016 Spectra Catalysts Relic #10 (#'d 007/149)

I remember Barnes from his days at UNC and with the Golden State Warriors.  Haven't really followed his career since then, but the James Bond serial numbering is pretty cool.

Sportscards.com offers a variety of mystery boxes on their site and it looks like at least one of them guarantees a vintage card like this one:

1976 Topps #230

This card isn't exactly worth hundreds of dollars, but it's a great looking card featuring a Red Sox hall of famer.  It's a little off-centered, but the corners and edges are pretty darn sharp.

The fourth item in the box was a pack of 2019 Leaf Draft football:


Here's what I pulled:


Sweet.  A cool insert card of the Oakland Athletics' 2018 first round draft pick.

And the card that is taking the blogosphere by storm the past few days...

1978 Grand Slam #78

Okay... maybe I'm being a little dramatic.  But it has been shown off on two other awesome blogs in the past two daysNachos Grande and Johnny's Trading Spot.

Buck Leonard must have signed a ton of these before he passed away in 1997, because in addition to these two blogs, these are all over eBay right now.  Don't get the wrong idea.  I'm not complaining.  It's not often I get to add the signature of a Negro League legend to my collection.

According to his National Baseball Hall of Fame webpage, "the Sporting News ranked the slugger No. 47 on its list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players" of all-time back in 1999.

A huge shout out goes Michael and Sportscards.com for this very generous mystery box... and for creating a very cool online tool that will definitely help me with all of my future eBay purchases.

Today's question of the day:

Do you ever check completed eBay listings to help you determine the price you're willing to spend on an item?

Well that's it for today.  Happy Saturday and sayonara!

9 comments:

defgav said...

Seeing these free mystery boxes pop up on the blogs, I was thinking, "oh man, how come *I* didn't get one of these emails?" And then I found it sitting in my spam folder. D'oh! Went ahead and replied, but not sure if I'm too late.

And yes, I often check completed listings before making a purchase.

The Lost Collector said...

I always look at completed listings. Very helpful!

night owl said...

I received one of those emails and didn't bother. I don't think I missed much either.

SumoMenkoMan said...

I would have to say that eBay seems like the place to go to get a good idea of the cost of something. I know there are other tools out there, but I mainly use it as a tool on things I am interested in selling to see if it is worth my time. Cool mystery box by the way. Awesome!

The Snorting Bull said...

I almost always check completed listings, also the Buy It Nows. Kind of figure out some sort of strategy from there.

P-town Tom said...

This is what I do, too. It works for me and I even do this on my phone at card shows when the mood strikes to buy a more expensive card... it helps keeps me in check.

Bulldog said...

First thing I do is check completed listings on eBay. It isn't perfect but it is a great idea of where to start price wise. Nice Yaz!

Jon said...

Maybe it's just me, but I think that it's kind of lame that they basically sent everyone the same thing. I didn't receive any email, but even if I had I would've turned them down, shilling other people's stuff really isn't my thing.

Fuji said...

defgav - hope they send you a mystery box... that's not quite a mystery anymore.

the lost collector - i'm pretty impressed with this tool. i use it at least a few time a day

night owl - i hear ya. i enjoyed the mystery behind the box... and was pretty happy about adding the buck leonard autograph to my collection

sumomenkoman - a guy at the flea market told me he spends $20/month on a similar site that tracks ebay sales for longer than 3 years. i'm not willing to dish out $20/month though

the snorting bull and p-town tom - you should check out their tool then. i use it all the time

bulldog - yeah... nothing is perfect. but it gives you an idea of what the going rate is

jon - lol. i just can't get myself to turn down free cards. as for shilling other people's stuff... i'll only do it if i believe in their product. i really do like the ebay tool they're offering to collectors