The whole card flipping thing can become a little addicting. The past year or so, I've really enjoyed padding my savings account with profits from eBay and card show sales. Sadly the little experiment will likely come to an end within the year and it primarily comes down to two things:
#1: I'm running out of stuff to sell.
I have thousands and thousands of cards cluttering my office, garage, classroom, and dad's garage, but it's not like I'm trying to sell my collection. I love collecting. The stuff that I've been selling have been mostly high-end duplicates and sticker-graphs of hall of famers. And the well is starting to run dry. Most of the decent inventory consists of graded cards which don't seem to be as popular as they once were.
#2: It's a lot of work.
I pretty much stopped selling on eBay last summer, because scanning and listing items took a lot of time. Another thing I wasn't a fan of was dealing with packages and standing in lines at the post office. Plus I wasn't sure at what point they would be sending out 1099's.
As for card shows, they're a little more my style. But as much as I enjoy hanging out with friends and talking shop... sitting on a chair for twelve hours is not good for my back. Sure I'll stand and stretch every now and then... but physically I'd rather be walking around the show than sitting at a table. Then there's the research and organization that needs to be done prior to setting up. I spent several hours each day leading up to the show figuring out the current market rate for certain cards.
That being said... last weekend's show was a huge success. I made three big sales... and one huge one that made the twelve hour day worthwhile. I even found an hour to slip away from my table to dig into some dime boxes and dollar bins.
Some of the stuff is for care packages. I'll set aside a few cards for a future card draft over at The Diamond King. And the rest will either go into my collection or trade box.
Today I figured I'd show off a sampling from the two purchases I made...
Purchase #1: Dime Box Singles $10
I didn't get a chance to walk around until after 7pm, which meant any dime boxes I discovered had been well picked through. But I did manage to find 108 cards from one guy's boxes. I'll go ahead and show off some red in honor of National Wear Red Day (last Friday):
2018 Finest Sitting Red #SR-MO
In an effort to raise awareness for women's heart disease, Collecting Cutch promotes this special day on his blog and shows off some seriously cool cards featuring the color red.
1998 Pacific Aurora Pennant Fever Red #7
The Olson and Pudge cards were the reddest cards in the dime box purchase. However this was the oldest red card I picked up:
1974 Topps Team Checklists #NNO
There were several small stacks of 1976 and 1978 Topps baseball. I grabbed some of the more common names among fans like...
1976 Topps #548
1978 Topps #510
1978 Topps #312
Moving along into the 80's, I was very happy to find this sitting in a stack of 1986 Topps Traded cards...
I already own a copy, but it's part of the set. Now I have a copy for my 80's rookie card box.
1986 Topps Traded #50T
Here are two more 1986 Topps cards, but from another sport...
1986 Topps #203
1986 Topps #258
I'll be rooting for the Bengals next weekend... just like I rooted for them the other two times they went to the Super Bowl. Hopefully the third time is the charm. Collinsworth played on both of those teams. He might not have a gold jacket, but he was a very notable receiver during the 80's.
Time to wrap things up with a few cards from the 90's...
1990 Leaf #107
1990 Leaf #167
And I have no idea how, but somehow this card was left behind in these dime boxes...
1991 Topps Desert Shield #285
Based on a Net54 forum post, the bottom should be rounded, but mine looks pretty flat. Oh well... even if it's a fake... it'll just be sitting in the Abbott section of my Binder PC.
I think I'm going to cut things off here. This post has dragged on long enough. I'll try to show off some cards from my dollar box purchase either on Thursday or maybe next week.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on the Greg Minton, Jim Abbott, or any other cards from my dime box purchase in the comment section below.
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
20 comments:
I have a lot of stuff in the 1 or 2 dollar range, so it's not worth listing. And yes it's a lot of work!
Nice score on the Jim Abbott Desert Shield card. My guess on the Minton Card is that it is a black-and-white photo that they colored in. I've heard they did that a few times, so whenever I see a creepy card like that I assume that's what happened.
Selling cards is NOT FUN. It ceases to become a hobby when I'm doing that. And then I say to myself, "well that's enough of that" and go back to collecting. Much happier.
I hate selling too! But I don't have much that is worth selling anyway. I'd take any Bo RC for a dime!!
I sell maybe two or three cards a year - and that's when a card is going for so much that I can't in my right mind not get the quick cash for it. I just find the selling side of the hobby kinda dull and stressful - collecting suits me much better! (And whether it's real or not, that Abbott is one cool dime box find!)
Dang. That's a nice dime box. 78 Willie Stargell, and a Desert Shield card. And not just an ordinary Desert Shield card; Jim Abbott!
The Bo wins it.
I like the Stargell too.
There's a blogger who uses that Minton picture as his avatar.
Nice finds. If that Abbott is real, that's a great deal.
Nice Collinsworth. It’s hard to believe the current announcer was once a great receiver.
GREAT FINDS
Even if the Desert Shield card is a fake, sometimes fakes and forgeries become collectible in their own right. That happened with postage stamps - in some cases the forgeries are now worth more due to scarcity.
I don't get to go to shows should have you keep an eye out for me lol
Seconding the comment on the Minton being a colorized black and white photo. Also wouldn't surprise me if that signed checklist was a kid being silly.
That is my thought too. I could probably do pretty decently but not enough to make it worth the aggravation.
Re the '74 checklist - I think it's a kid's signature, especially the way the L was written, looks like the kid was just starting to learn script and added his autograph to his favorite team.
That's a sweet Mota card.
Would be cool if that Desert Shield card was real. Great post and always fun to live your show experience through your blog.
Nice pickups! I don't like doing garage sales at all so I'm pretty sure I won't enjoy eBay selling or set up at card shows.
Dang. Completely dropped the ball on reading and responding to my own blog posts. Sorry about that.
jeff b - maybe it's something i'll come back to when i retire ;D
swing and a pop up - based on everyone's comments, that seems to be the case. thanks for the info
night owl & bo - very true. collecting is 100x more fun.
the diamond king - i've got plenty of stuff to sell, but most of it is pc and i'm not looking to move it. i still have a ton of graded dupes, but i didn't sell a single graded card at the last show
nick - collecting suits me better too. but i totally understand when certain cards go crazy and people need to capitalize off of it. that money can be used to buy more cards
gtt - i was able to add a few cool 78's from that dime box... which made me very happy. i had to go back to my table early to clean up, so i'm sure i left some other cool stuff for another collector to find
elliptical man - i think it's jay who uses it as his avatar. could be wrong though
cardboard jones - i've thought about using comc too, but never end up sending anything in. maybe one day
crocodile - real or not... it looks nice in my binder ;D
the lost collector - yeah. i've always liked him as an announcer, but i guess he receives mixed reviews
johnnys trading spot - thanks
jongudmund - wow. didn't know that about stamps. very interesting
matt - i actually found some ny giants for you. i'll send them your way one of these days ;D
nick vossbrink & bo - yeah, i'm starting to think it's a kid too. oh well.
kirk - i totally agree. very happy to add the mota to my binder
sumomenkoman - one of these days, i hope we can hit up a show again
jafronius - it's a lot of work... and not much fun. but it does feel good to put some cash into your pocket.
I also have a stack set aside for COMC submission, but it's been there since before pandemic. eBay sucks for individual cards.
The one time I set up at a show, I didn't sell a single card. Everyone wanted Bowman, shiny rookies and mojo hits. None of which interest me or populate my extras.
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