General Forum

Have any of you ever purchased a large collection or even a large box of thousands of cards and found the same card again and again and again?

I'm working my way through a lot I picked up of several thousands of cards (completely unsorted) and I keep finding Mike Greenwell cards.  I just sifted through a small pike and I pulled 6 of the same exact 91 Fleer Ultra card #32, Mike Greenwell.  I've found a few dozen of this same card in this first box alone, not to mention at least a couple dozen of other brands and years of Mike Greenwell.

Why or how they ended up with so many copies of this same card, when the other cards in the box aren't nearly as duplicated, just amazes me.

Sorry for the rant but I need to hear from others who've shared this same experiance.

A couple of times I've found similar items. Once actually with Greenwell. About 20 1987 Topps in a large lot. Another time I had about the same number of 1982 Topps George Foster AS cards. It happens. 

I was just going through a bunch of 92 Ultras to upload last night... missing dozens to complete a set... but 7 Delino DeShields or Andy Benes cards...hard to understand exactly.

Personal anecdote here: when I was a wee lad, I went with my uncle to a Phillies game at Veterans Stadium in 1988. I watched Ricky Jordan in his first major league at-bat smash a home run. In 1989, I got real interested in collecting and found out that Ricky Jordan had a rookie card in the 1989 Donruss set. I traded for that card like crazy. I was up to 30-40 of them at some point. Not saying that your collection came to fruition that way, but it is possible.

It's what they do. They print some cards a lot more than other cards and most times it is a common player on the low end of the scale. 

A company can make more money when they do that. It's easy math. Print a few cards less than and some you overprint. Making a few hard to get and people have to buy more and more packs to find them. It is common to almost have a second set, before completing the first one. As you look for that last card.

Even using this website I have some cards I'm looking for to complete a set. That no one has up for trade and they are not all the star players or high dollar cards. 

So it is no surprise you have found a box with a lot of some cards more than others and the odds are the ones you are hoping for are not there. 

I have an entire 3200 ct box of the same minor league team set. I haven't even bother trying to figure out how many of each card is in there.....

Ah, Mike Greenwell. I bought a box of 1000 mixed cards off Amazon, 20 1988 Donruss Mike Greenwell cards in it. 

It is possible the original collector called Mike Greenwell. I know this for if someone bought my collection they would get

130 1991 topps #1

129 1990 donruss #166

128 1989 topps #530

108 1990 donruss #659 correct/error

105 1987 donruss 138

104 1991 upper deck Nolan Ryan Heroes #18 

that's to just to name a few  

It has happened to me when I bought collections that last one I got many of was 1987 donruss Bo Jackson and 1990 score Moises Alou 

I got a box of 1988 Topps cards, found 30 Jerry Browne's!  Multiples do really suck...

I bought three binders full of cards from my LCS that must have been from a Danny Tartabull collector.  In some of the pockets, there must have been 8 copies of the same card. I may have over 100 copies of three or four of his cards now. LOL

Weird, but they really went all out. I kinda like seeing that collectors interests.  Just sorry that he gave up on it.