General Forum

I'm sure we've all been burned at one point or another.  The first thing that comes to mind for me is counterfeits, but I've always been reimbursed, so that probably doesn't count.  What are some situations you've been in?

I picked up a small collection of cards in early 2016 and one of the card was a 1933 Sport Kings Duke Kahanamoku that I had wanted. It was right before I moved and the cards got packed away and it took me a couple of months to getting around to unpacking my collection and when I pulled out the collection to sort I realized I had a reprint. It wasn't marked and the seller did not say that the cards were authentic so it was my fault for asumming but it was too late to go back to the seller and I did end up keeping some of the other cards and sold others so it wasn't a major loss, more of a learning experience.

I believe I was in first grade and I was trading with a friend.  We used to sit down and look through each others collections and pick out cards we wanted from each others collections.  I assume his father had passed down some cards to him because he had a 1958 Frank Zuppo card.  I am not sure why, maybe the interesting sounding name but I had to have it.  I gave him a locker box full of cards (I assume around 300 cards) in exchange for the one card.  My mother found out and felt I was cheated and talked to his father and he had to give me back my cards.  I don't exacly remember how it all went down but I still have the Zupo card.  I guess maybe I ripped him off.

Bought a 2006 Topps Sterling mickey Mantle box for $20 from a show once and when I got home and opened it the dealer had taken the card out and resealed the box. I kept the box to remind me to be more careful.

Purchased about 100 Husker cards (several very nice cards) for $15.00 online (before PayPal).  I had his phone numbe,r address and ready to mail the money order.  He then said he could pulled more Huskers and If I waited a few days he would get me over 2000 Husker cards for $50.00. (at that time that was big money to me)    I said OK and wait over a week and then said he was ready to ship.  I sent the money and never got my cards.  After many e-mails and calls I dropped it. 

When I first started buying vintage cards on Ebay around 2001. I ended up with a few reprints. I learn the hard way sometimes. 

Thought I bought a pair of '89 UD Griffey RC's a few years back on ebay.  Never recieved them.  Seller replied he sent them to the wrong address and of course no refund.  Long story short, I was able to get the address of the seller which happened to be in a hotel in New York.  I called the hotel and told them what room I needed and there was no answer.  So I sent an email to the seller and said I would see them in the lobby of X hotel the next morning.  Next morning I called and the person had checked out.

Not ripped off, but a big thing at my gradeschool was flipping cards. One of the "competitions" was taped cards, where you could tape a block of cards together and you slid them along the pavement to try and be closest to the wall. Ya I clearly remember that the top card in one of my "tape cards" was a Gretzky rookie.

Oh, I have had that happen, the missing card, many times. The worst was many years ago. I was stationed in Japan and bought an '83 Fleer set (pre-eBay, TufF Stuff ad). I had it shipped to my parent's house and didn't get my hands on it for like 6 months after that. I went the set and lo-and-behold, the Gwynn rookie was missing. Contacted the seller about that and basically got a "tough cookies" response. He knew I was overseas at the time and would not have seen the set right away. Just "oh well'd" me and hung up.   

Now that I'm back in the hobby, biggest rip off so far is those darn late-90s early-00 sets with the excess gloss. Too many times I've bought something only to get a brick in return.