05 January 2010

$20 card my arse

so, i went to the local card show recently and spent some time looking through the vintage and oddball bargain bins.  i made some decent purchases, and then looked through another guy's box of cards from the 50's.  i am pretty sure that the cards i was looking at were priced at $1 each, and i found some 1957 topps that piqued my interest.  there was a roger craig card, which i already have, but it made me hopeful that there might be a clem labine in the box. a pretty reasonable hope, i thought, since that was one of the lowest numbered (#53) dodger 'commons' i need.

the guy asked me if i was looking for anything in particular, so i told him i was looking for clem labine.  he looked at me and said, somewhat incredulously, 'that's a $20 card'!  as in, why would i think it would be in a $1 box, even though there were other cards from the same series in the box, including craig, whom i deem to be a bigger 'name'.  anyway, i backed away from the table as the guy offered to show me his 57 binder which, i imagine, was filled with cards at 75% of book.

instead, i went home and bought this card on ebay. 

for about $4.

maybe i'll go to the next show and sell it to the guy for $10 and make a few bucks.

4 comments:

Carl Crawford Cards said...

That crap drives me nuts. You wonder how those guys arrive at who is/isn't worthy of being in the book.

Sharpe said...

You know, I only have one shop available in the area, but have never really asked about singles, etc because I figure I can get everything I need cheaper on ebay. Somewhere there is someone who needs the card/money less than someone paying rent.

It's sort of the sad reality of it all. I want to support the shop in town, since I believe it's the only one, but when you're talking 2x or 3x the price, you just can't do it.

Contrary Guy said...

Tell him you found it in the $4 box at ebay but thanks anyway.

Great stuff!

M.Brown said...

I no longer go to local shows. Those guys want full book no matter what the condition. The Philly Card show is the only show I go to buy my cards anymore. The cards are always high quality and the dealers are pretty decent. They know they are competing with other dealers who have the same quality cards.