30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Thursday, May 30, 2019

I Overpaid and I Liked It

The next two and a half weeks will be a little hectic.  My students are starting to turn in their final projects this week.  Tuesday is our annual honor's field trip to Santa CruzWednesday grades close and special report cards are due to students who are at risk of not graduating.  And report cards need to be finished by next Friday.

After that the focus shifts to graduation practice and the process of cleaning up my classroom.  I'll be in the same room next year, so most of my stuff can stay up.  However there's an outside chance that they may use my room one or two days during the summer for a math summer program.  That means I need to put away all of my collectibles and knickknacks that might be tempting to bored summer school kids.

How will it affect my blog?  Well... the next few mid-week posts will probably be shorter than normal.

Today I wanted to show off a card I've been targeting for quite some time:

1960 Topps #35

I've been interested in purchasing a few vintage Whitey Ford cards for my "lefty" collection.  I established a few key prerequisites to help me stay focused.  First I knew I wanted a 1957 or 1960 Topps regular base card.  I like the photograph of Whitey on his 1957 card and 1960 Topps set happens to be one of my favorite Topps base card designs.  Since it's a vintage hall of famer, I would only consider PSA, BVG, or SGC graded copies.  Finally, it had to be reasonably priced.

Ultimately, I ended up paying a little more than I would have liked ($38 + $4.50 shipping), since PSA 5 copies often sell in the $20 to $25 range.  As a guy who prides himself on finding good bargains, this is truly an out of character purchase.  But I decided to bid on it anyways, because the card looks better than some of the PSA 6's I've seen.

What about you...

Have you ever knowingly overpaid for a card?  What card?  Why were you willing to pay more than the going rate?

Well that's it for now.  Hope all of you are enjoying your week.  Only one more day until the weekend.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

13 comments:

Commishbob said...

I'd bet every set and player collector has overpaid for a card. Now whether they will admit it or not is another thing. Among others one card I overpaid for was my 1960 Topps Venezuelan and for the simple reason that they don't roll around very often. The '64 can be had every day and twice on Sunday though. Now the '59 Venezuelan he shares with Bob Friend? I'm kicking myself for NOT overpaying for one of the brutal copies that came up a few months ago.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

I overpaid for an 82 Topps base Ripken earlier this year. I didn't need it for my set or PC, yet I paid full price for it, just to clinch the bigger deal I was wanting. Normally I stick to paying 10-25% (less if I can) of BV for NM cards. I know that sounds crazy but it happens every time I go out to buy cards (non retail). Doing such put my cards on hand at 8 million cards at one point. Thank goodness I've whittled that down to apx 1M, maybe less I hope. Even a third of those are still dupes that I so want to trade away.

Baltmoss68 said...

I’ve often heard the advice that when dealing with graded cards, you buy the card and not the grade. Looks like in your situation that you did well.

Collecting Cutch said...

I have overpaid for a handful of cards numbered to 5 or less because, well....I don't know if I will ever see it again unfortunately

The Lost Collector said...

Like Cutch, mostly for rare Tinos and Hensleys.

Sean said...

That Ford is a beauty!

I only overpay for a card if it is one of the last ones I need for a set, which is rare. Otherwise, I prefer to take the patient approach and wait for a good deal to come up if one isn't currently available.

night owl said...

I overpay for cards all the time. I'm not afraid to admit that, I don't know why anyone would be. I want a card when I want it, if I have to throw a few extra nickels at it and I can afford it, who the hell cares?

gcrl said...

I like to think that I pay what I am willing to pay rather than overpaying, but yes, I do this quite often.

Henry Blanchette said...

I don't usually overpay for cards as the vendors at the card show with whom I do business with have very fair prices. However, I'm sure its happened quite a few times.

The Snorting Bull said...

I have four more weeks of school left, the stretch run is always crazy. I hope you weather the storm and get to summer break.

I overpay for cards at times for various reasons, but at some point we all do.

AdamE said...

I now have 5 Game Used Virdon Jerseys. I overpaid for every one of them. I am always afraid that if I don't buy them that Topps will get hold of one and make six dozen 1/1 cards out of it; then I would have to overpay for six dozen 1/1 Virdons.

Hackenbush said...

I don't think I've ever "knowingly" overpaid for a card. When I first came back to the hobby I got caught up in a bunch of ebay auctions with a Ron Santo supercollector. Losing so often (he seemed to have deep pockets and he's still selling them now) forced me to branch out into other teams. Love the Ford! Just remember all of the bargains you've shown us over the years.

Fuji said...

commishbob, collecting cutch, and the lost collector - when it comes to rare cards that seldomly pop up, sometimes it's just easier to dig deeper into that wallet

johnnys trading spot - 8 million cards? wowza. glad you've managed to get it down to 1 million. as for the ripken... if paying full price for it helps you save money on a bunch of other cards, i don't think of it as overpaying.

baltmoss68 - i'm starting to live by that quote. just picked up another card that was just too nice to pass up... even though the grade wasn't that strong

sean - thanks! i'm usually pretty patient too, but i liked the look of this card too much.

night owl - i'm okay with paying a nickel or two extra... but this card was about 100 nickels to 200 nickels more than the usual sale. that's a lot of nickel box cards ;)

gcrl - that's a great philosophy. i'm gonna say that to myself a few more times to make me feel better.

henry blanchette - i'm all about bargains... so it doesn't happen very often. but then again... a bargain 30 years ago can easily turn into bad deal. just look at all of the sam horn rookies i picked up back in the day. i bought them cheap, but they're practically worthless now

the snorting bull - seven more days. i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. another year in the books.

adame - wow. that's pretty impressive. and i love how you're doing it for a noble cause. gotta save those jerseys from destruction!

hackenbush - bidding wars suck. lose out to guys all the time. yeah... i'd say the bargains outnumber the bad deals exponentially, but i still can't help but dwell on them :)