When I went to the card show a couple of weeks ago, I was rather pleased with the vintage stars I picked up for $5, $10 or $15 each. Heady with that experience, I went on eBay and found it surprisingly easy to find vintage star cards at those prices. I won a few auctions at what I thought were pretty reasonable prices. Those $10 and $15 cards add up quickly though, and I forced myself to put on the brakes. I did a little research (which I should have done first) and I think with some more patience I could have gotten most of these cards for a lot less than what I spent. Bit of an expensive lesson learned, but I don't think I overpaid too badly on any one card. Not all of them have come in yet but here are the first few that have, plus one other "splurge" purchase I made around the same time which actually makes me the happiest of all of these.
1959 Whitey Ford - $10. Probably shouldn't spend more than $5 on any post-1956 Ford.
1958 Yankees Team card - $4. Not too bad a price for a team card, but probably shouldn't do that high regularly.
1962 Hank Aaron - $10. This is still a good value, I think. I don't mind the missing corner.
1972 Roberto Clemente in Action - $2. I've wanted this card since I was a kid. This was a good price.
1971 Bob Gibson - $3. Better than the $6 I spent on a 1970 Gibson at the card show. His cards are undervalued for some reason. Whitey Ford too - except for the big no-hitter/strikeout guys, pitchers tend to be undervalued.
1971 Willie Stargell - $1. A combined shipping throw-in with . . .
1959 Stan Musial - $15. My first Musial card, and this is one of the cards I had a Dover Reprint of when I was a kid. It probably would not have been hard to get one for less, his cards don't go for as much as I thought they would. Still very happy to have the card.
With that "higher spending" mindset, I finally pulled the trigger on a set I'd been thinking about for a long time. Long-time readers may remember my enjoyment of the late 1980s Spokane Indians sets where the photos were taken in the local University City Mall. 1987-1989 were plentiful, but 1986 was a lot rarer. At the time I was posting these, the only available set online was going for over $100. Recently someone starting having multiple sets on eBay for $40 each. I resisted a long time at paying $2/card for 1980s minor leaguers but finally pulled the trigger and I'm glad I did. These cards are so much fun. And like the other sets, I will be doing a card-by-card series on these. No big stars in the set but a lot of guys who made it to the big leagues, not bad for a low-A team.
Awesome cards! Seeing vintage cards of legends like that always puts a smile on my face! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteLook forward to seeing those minor league card posts. Nice purchase!
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ReplyDeleteDepending on it's condition, I think it might still be pretty hard to find post-'56 Whitey's for less than five bucks. He isn't someone that I ever look for, but I do see his cards often in various places, and there always seems to be interest. And that Bob Gibson was difficult to get cheap even before the boom, I know, I tried and failed on multiple occasions.
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