Monday, November 10, 2014

Cards from a garage sale

A couple of weeks ago I went to a couple of garage sales hoping to get some cards. I was mostly disappointed but did walk away with a few.

At the first garage sale there was a box of mostly junk wax, but also a smaller box with a newer-looking set I didn't recognize. I did see a few interesting odd-ball cards among the junk wax, so I pulled about ten of them plus the newer ones and asked the owner how much she wanted. She asked e to come up with a number so I said "3 dollars". She said "no, aren't cards several dollars each?" I told her no, they aren't worth anything like that. Then she said she would look up the price of each card on her phone. I told her "no way", that I was offering 3 bucks and she could take it or leave it. She relented and gave me the cards for 3 bucks.

It turns out what was in the box was a full base set of 2002 UD Sweet Spot, 100 cards. Not a set I would actively collect but kind of cool to have. I had a few already so those dupes are up for trade - let me know of any needs.



If anything I was more interested in the small handful of oddballs I picked up. There were a few from the Kahn's Mets sets that were given away at games at Shea Stadium...


















And a few minor league cards from 1991 Line Drive. I enjoy this set and still need most of it.

At the second garage sale the guy had tons of really good cards, including a lot of complete sets from the 1970s and 1980s, a lot of vintage stars, etc. I hunted around a bit and found a big box of Bowman cards from around 1993-1996. I asked the guy if he would take $20 for it. He replied that he didn't remember if he had taken all of the stars out of it or not and didn't know how much it was worth. Like the first sale I stuck to my price instead of having someone start trying to price out cards piecemeal, but this guy wouldn't budge so I walked away.

Why do people bother to put things up for sale if they have zero idea how much they're worth or even how much they want for them?

1 comment:

  1. I think a lot of folks who haven't paid attention to the card world still have that mindset from 25 years ago because, well, that's all that they remember.

    Cards aren't "worth" anything other than what a willing buyer and a willing seller agree they are worth.

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