General Forum

Genuinely intrigued if anyone else has any stories like this.

Have you ever encounterd like a full box of a product at like a resale shop or something? A couple years back I was at a resale shop in Missouri and I found a completely unopened box of '89 Bowman. It even had the poster that hobby stores would put in their window. It was a really awesome find and I'd love to see something like that again.

I found a 2017 Topps complete set in the very back of a store for $30.00. It was in perfect condition and the owner of the store had forgotten it was there. So I ended up buying it.

At a local auction in the mid-90s, I found some 1958-1962 cards including many of the stars / HoF.  Got everything for $230 Cdn.  It was what launched me into the vintage set collecting.

That's really cool! Especially nowadays when cards from that era can be hard to get your hands on.

Found this entire set in its album for $5 in a used book store in Fergus, Ontario.

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/178995/1936-John-Player-&-Sons-National-Flags-and-Arms

Dang! Really cool to find a full set that old.

I've had incredible luck finding cards at car shows. Not always car related, either. The Rhinebeck car show every May used to have a dealer with some great stuff but I have not seen him in a while, of course I missed last year and everybody missed this year. One time I saw him I got three factory sealed boxes and a complete set hand-collated in a binder, all NASCAR. 

Dang that's a good haul!

Back in the erly 90's while still in highschool I was working at a local newspaper as a copy-aide (a glorified term for a "go for" boy). My father also worked there as a copy editor for the sports section, so that was kinda cool. One evening at the newspaper another copy editor/columnist by the name of Pete Perkins came up to me asked me if I wanted the card he had in his hand. I looked at it and my mouth just dropped. I couldn't believe what he had in his hand and was offering. I asked him at least three times if he was sure he wanted to do this, to just "give" me this card with no repayment of ANY kind. He said yes on all accounts saying he had four or five others lying around his house. I was absolutely shocked and flabbergasted that someone would actually do this and offer me something for nothing and would just leave the others "lying around" his house, especially knowing what it was. The card in question? A 1954 Topps rookie card of Ernie Banks. Yes, you read right. The card, in looking at it, was obviously not in the most excellent condition, but still in good shape rounded corners and all. At the time the card was listing in Beckett at top end for $500, I reckon because of the condition he felt he could part with it and that the others he had were in better shape than this one. I was still a novice in the hobby at that time and just the thought of having one of the key rookie cards from that set was only a dream. I still have the card to this day. That will probably be in the top two of all card transactions in my lifetime.

Sad to say, but that newspaper I worked for, The Arkansas Gazette, folded in October of 1991 after 171 years of publication and ended up merging, with great disdain, with the Arkansas Democrat. The newspaper has been called the Arkansas Democrat Gazette since that time and has gone digital with the exception of the Sunday edition because they are legally required to print the obituaries.

I ended up being one of the last two "go for" boys ever for the Grand Old Lady. It still has been the only job ever in my life that I have been paid on a weekly basis. 

Back in 1979 Mom used to ask me to go with her to the Garage Sales since Dad wasn't about to.  I remember dreading those we would drive all over Liberal KS and look at peoples junk.

Then one day we were at this sale and the lady had a bunch of old coins with baseball players like Frank Robinson, Mickey Mantle and Pete Rose for a quarter.  I took these to Mom who told me she would give me a dime and I remember being disapointed until I thought it works for Mom so maybe it will for me.  I offered my 10 cents and she accepted and I went running to Mom stepped on my shoelaces and SPLAT right on my face.  The lady who was the homeowner came to check on me helped me pick up my stash and then told me to wait there.  

She came out about 30 seconds later with a shoebox of the entire 1st and 2nd series of the 1964 Topps set and some 65s as well as the gold cards which I couldn't believe someone would give up on real gold card.

That is my best card story and probably the reason I am son into cards today.  I spent hours looking at the players and would ask my Dad if they were any good and he would tell me stories about the players to go along with the trivia on the back (yes I scratched the backs with a quarter)