Tell us one crazy hobby story which happened to you

Three come to mind...

1. I bought a 1993 Finest Nolan Ryan Promo Refractor at a card shop in Midland, TX for $35. It was back in high school, so around 1996-97. The seller thought it was a regular promo. In his defense, the promo refractors don't look like regular refractors. Even in light, it's extremely difficult to tell. The surface has what looks like a protective film on it. I later sold it after my high school graduation in 1999 for $1800. Instead of blowing it all on a stereo system or booze in college, I bought 6 ounces of gold. This was back when an ounce was $275 or so. I later sold the 6 oz for around $9000 about five years ago. My $35 investment went up 25614.29%. Google stock has only went up 1294% since IPO

2. I used to collect vintage hockey back in the early 2000's, especially Jacques Plante. At one point I had the #3 set on the PSA Registry. One card I could never find in high grade was the 1969 OPC 4-in-1. I had a PSA 5, but no one on the Registry had one higher than 7. They're incredibly tough in high grade. I'd previously bought a 4-in-1 Bobby Orr PSA 8 for around $275. One of my friends planned to hold a private auction for a ton of PSA 8's...including the Plante. This was in 2003, around the time when the Registry (and Bobby Orr cards) went absolutely bonkers. I knew the Plante would hit $500+, and I knew my broke college student ass wouldn't be able to afford it. He offered me first crack at it since he knew I collected Plante. I told him I couldn't afford it, so I had the genius idea of offering a trade - my Orr for his Plante, straight up. He took it. It worked out well for me, as I was able to up my GPA by a few hundredths of a point (it was only weighted 1, for some reason). And holy hell, did it work out for him. He added it to his auction, which wasn't a regular type auction. Highest bid wins. In other words, if you bid $1000 and the next highest bid is $600, you're paying $1000 for it. He ended up selling the Orr...for $8888. Whoops

3. This story isn't interesting, just wildly depressing. In 2005, I bought a PSA 9 OPC Gretzky rookie for $3500. Sold it long ago for $4k, but left it in my Registry set. In August, I got an email asking to remove the serial number...I'd totally forgotten about it. Out of curiosity, I checked Ebay to see if it sold there. It had, for what appeared to be $30k. LOL. I hate it when it shows the BIN, but not what the BO actually is. Probably closer to $6000 or so. I looked up "PSA 9" under Sold Items and did a double take, then a double shot of Jack

Sonuva*****. Same card, albeit with a newer holder. Whoops

Probably the oddest story that is hobby related was going on an adventure into Seattle at night as a teen with a budHe was more into pot than cards at that time and I was still very much into cards only (no drugs for me thank you very much). I was rewarded with a 1970 Roberto Clemente to be party to this ill advised adventure. I can't recall specific details on where exactly we went, but it was probably the seedier area of First Hill in Seattle at the time. Basically we walked from the waterfront/ferry dock and he purchased some weed at some pre specified apartment or house. I'm sure this was more dangerous that it seemed at the time, but I do remember being somewhat nervous all the same. This would have been 1985 because part of our cover story to his mom, as I was staying at his house that night, was that we watched Brewsters Millions. Still have the card!

RStadlerASU22 said:

[MENTION=3478]bradical[/MENTION] , are you busting the cases and send raw or sending them in as a resub?

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A fair mix of both. Back when FCB had the group subs, I would just send the card right back to Mason as soon as I got it and didn't agree with the grade.

I have so many..............Here's an interesting one that I benefited greatly.


Many years ago we had a weekly show in Lilburn, Ga in, I believe was in a former Big Lots type location. This was during the time when Bo Jackson was so hot and we were getting 12-15 dollars for a Beckett with Bo on the cover. In my booth I had 5 Bo Becketts and a gentleman came in and asked me how much for the Becketts. I told him 50.00 and he said OK. He then asked me if I was interested in publications because he had a thousand or so from the 1940's thru current that he wanted to get rid of. I asked how much and he told me that if I came to pick them up then I could have them all. I set up a time to come by his house and told him that I would bring the Bo Jackson Becketts with me. He said OK and left.

I came to his house within a couple of days and went to his basement to check out the magazines he had. He probably had at least 3 thousand instead of the thousand that I was expecting. Sport, Dell, Ring Boxing, Sports Illustrated, Baseball Digest and many others. We loaded everything in multiple trips in my car. After my last trip I handed hin the Bo Jackson Becketts. He then asked me how much did he owe me. I told him nothing. He then told me that he agreed to pay me fifty dollars and thats what he wanted to do. I told him the least I could do was give him the Bo Becketts because he just gave me thousands of magazines and publications. He then looked me dead in the eye, with a stern look and told me this " I don't want your charity". At that point I said thank you and high tailed it out of there.

Shortly after I made it back home to my condo. As I was unloading, a neighbor came by and asked me if I have any old Playboys. I noticed that I had 20 or 30 that were in the lot. Since I had no use for them I was just going to throw them away. Anyway, the neighbor asked what I wanted for them. I told him " I don't know, what would you offer". He told me 200.00. Well. the Playboys were his.

I took the 200.00 and bought Backing boards, plastics, tape, boxes and now had magazines to sell in addition to sportscards. I took the magazines to my weekly permanent location and left them there and started selling them every weekend. For about 6 months I ended up selling hundreds of dollars of magazines every weekend until we moved to Venture Mall. Since I was not going to haul the magazines with me every week( because of the weight) I decided to sell them to a gentleman by the Barry Sanders who some of you may know( No not the football player). I believe he gave me about 2000 dollars for the magazines that I had left.

And all this started over 5 Bo Jackson Becketts that a man wanted for 50 bucks. .

It would take too long for all the stories I have on cards I have pulled from packs or bought from someone so I will just go with my best deal I ever got on a card for what it should have sold for the 1996 Leaf Preferred Steel Bronze Promos #40 Derek Jeter card. I heard rumors for years that these cards existed but never had seen a Jeter only the Clemens at the time was going though my normal ebay searches for Jeter cards I was looking for when the 1996 Leaf Bronze Promo caught my eye it was listed as just a promo. The picture was very bad so it could have easily been mistaken for as a Gold and those sell for no more than $50.00 so I put a snipe in taking a chance of $100.00. I was the high bidder but it didn't meet the reserve so I messaged him and asked what color the card was and what he was asking for it he responded Bronze and said for me to make him an offer so I basically doubled my high bid and offered him $70.00 for it and he accepted. I got the card in the mail and it was indeed Bronze since then I have seen quite a few more of the Bronze Promo cards but no more than 2 copies of any person. It's my diamond in the rough. I did get a $10,000.00 offer that I passed on as I am a Jeter collector first and only sell doubles of his from the 90's collection. My buddy Paul who once owned every 1992 to 1996 Jeter card that he knew about at the time said he would not even count this card because it's so scarce and he thinks this might be the only Jeter out there and it's going nowhere for a long time as it will be passed on to my children. It basically took 18 years before it was ever seen I don't know many cards that are like that. It's my favorite Jeter card I own because it's that rare and one of his 90's cards.

I get ***** every time I go into a LCS.

Super Mario said:

I get ***** every time I go into a LCS.

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That would tell me to stop going into the LCS I am glad I stopped buying packs because the amount of money I lost buying packs I wish I could get back and buy cards I really want.

This happened to me in January, 2014:

On a whim bought a box of '97 Finest (Series 2) off eBay for $34.95, delivered in a seemingly futile attempt to win the baseball card and PC lottery. To provide some background context, I've been collecting Griffey since I was a kid in the early 90's and have kept an updated want list since I started. This list consists of pretty much every rare 90's insert/parallel of Griffey because as a kid, I went to the card shows/LCS/looked through pictures in Beckett and only wanted the most visually appealing cards from this era. Of course, the majority of these also happened to be the most rare and expensive and I could only dream of owning them. As I've aged, I've been able to afford and cross a good amount off the list, but there are obviously still a few (e.g., Totally Certified Gold /30, Certified Team Mirror Gold /25, etc.) that I still want but are so difficult to find.

Naturally, when I bought the box and even when it arrived, the thought of pulling a certain card was racing through my head, even though I rationally was not expecting to pull it. I equate my thoughts at the time to getting excited over the purchase of a scratch-off lottery ticket: I never buy these, but this time it's worth a shot, doesn't really cost anything anyway, and I have almost no expectations. I would have been happy for pure nostalgic reasons of opening up a box of one of my favorite sets almost 20 years later.

As I opened each pack, I kept all the cards together and first checked for deckled-edges; even if I didn't see that die-cut pattern initially, I still thumbed through the cards one at a time, taking meticulous care not to reveal the card immediately following one on top. Fast forward to the 7th pack. I opened it and immediately check the sides of the 6 cards and see a deckled-edge. "Ok, probably an embossed," I think. Look at the top card (Brian Giles rookie) and as I thumb up to see the next card, the bottom 4 cards slip down briefly and my heart jumps bc I thought I saw the words "Griffey".....I can't hold back my curiosity and jump to that middle card to see it:

'97 Gold Embossed Refractor Griffey

After hyperventilating and fist pumping like Tiger Woods for the next hour, I was still in shock that I actually pulled it. ​I ended up calling my Mom, roommates at the time, and two of my friends from childhood who collected cards with me, screaming like I had just won the actual lottery....except in my mind, I essentially did. It's still the centerpiece of my Griffey PC today.

Best pull of my life.

Super Mario said:

I get ***** every time I go into a LCS.

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Consent is not rape, Sam.

In 2008 or so I made a trade/paypal deal for my one and only 2004 Bowman Chrome Felix Hernandez Gold Refractor autograph...for pennies compared to the value it grew into I told myself that I would get it slabbed one day more out of protection versus anything as I never slab anything and have no clue what to expect grade wise.

Here is the raw scan, I have always been confident the auto would be a 9 at best but most likely an 8. As for the corners/surface/centering/edges I have zero knowledge with my own eyes but remained confident that if I ever slabbed it I would be happy with a 9 card with 8 auto, but would one day upgrade.



Fast forward to earlier this year. BGS was at my LCS and I submitted cards for my very first time. Included was my Felix gold refractor auto. On the RCR form I filled out I would want it slabbed if I got a 9 on the review and an 8 on the auto review. When I got it reviewed I was PUMPED to see it come back as a 9.5 with 9 auto so I had Beckett take it with them:


A few weeks later I look at the population report and figure out what my grades were, which came back even BETTER! Once I received the card in hand I compared it to the rest of the BGS gold refractor population and this is now the highest graded gold refractor auto in current existence (too bad the case had a scratch when I opened the box, but it looks less apparent in person at least):

Awesome I am still missing the Jeter card like that. I will get it one day.

tidel144 said:

This happened to me in January, 2014:

On a whim bought a box of '97 Finest (Series 2) off eBay for $34.95, delivered in a seemingly futile attempt to win the baseball card and PC lottery. To provide some background context, I've been collecting Griffey since I was a kid in the early 90's and have kept an updated want list since I started. This list consists of pretty much every rare 90's insert/parallel of Griffey because as a kid, I went to the card shows/LCS/looked through pictures in Beckett and only wanted the most visually appealing cards from this era. Of course, the majority of these also happened to be the most rare and expensive and I could only dream of owning them. As I've aged, I've been able to afford and cross a good amount off the list, but there are obviously still a few (e.g., Totally Certified Gold /30, Certified Team Mirror Gold /25, etc.) that I still want but are so difficult to find.

Naturally, when I bought the box and even when it arrived, the thought of pulling a certain card was racing through my head, even though I rationally was not expecting to pull it. I equate my thoughts at the time to getting excited over the purchase of a scratch-off lottery ticket: I never buy these, but this time it's worth a shot, doesn't really cost anything anyway, and I have almost no expectations. I would have been happy for pure nostalgic reasons of opening up a box of one of my favorite sets almost 20 years later.

As I opened each pack, I kept all the cards together and first checked for deckled-edges; even if I didn't see that die-cut pattern initially, I still thumbed through the cards one at a time, taking meticulous care not to reveal the card immediately following one on top. Fast forward to the 7th pack. I opened it and immediately check the sides of the 6 cards and see a deckled-edge. "Ok, probably an embossed," I think. Look at the top card (Brian Giles rookie) and as I thumb up to see the next card, the bottom 4 cards slip down briefly and my heart jumps bc I thought I saw the words "Griffey".....I can't hold back my curiosity and jump to that middle card to see it:

'97 Gold Embossed Refractor Griffey

After hyperventilating and fist pumping like Tiger Woods for the next hour, I was still in shock that I actually pulled it. ​I ended up calling my Mom, roommates at the time, and two of my friends from childhood who collected cards with me, screaming like I had just won the actual lottery....except in my mind, I essentially did. It's still the centerpiece of my Griffey PC today.

Best pull of my life.

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Back in the 90's, we did a lot of pack wars. You know, when two (or more) people open a pack and the best card wins both (or all) packs?
In 1994, I was pack warring with 1994 SP Football. We both open our packs with our backs turned, and he said, "Ahh! I have you beat." I smiled to myself because I was thinking that same thing. I had pulled the diecut holoview of Emmitt Smith. There was not a better card. I can hear him laughing, and we both turned and he had pulled the diecut Holoview of Jerry Rice!!! He just about fainted when he saw my card! Emmitt Smith was a $300-$500 card and Jerry Rice was a $200-$300 card! It turns out (since those are more than case hits) the card shop owner would fill in packs as they sold so he always had a full box on the counter. That's the only explanation both cards were in one box! felt bad taking that card, but we sold it for $250 and split the money. I still have the Emmitt.

A_Pharis said:

Great stories! I have to be honest, though. When I read the bolded part, I asked myself "Is he really going to tell us about a poop he took?"

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That's a man sized log son!

chris19978 said:

Awesome I am still missing the Jeter card like that. I will get it one day.

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magicpapa said:

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Didn't you trade that to Nelson if not I would be very interested.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Freedom Card Board mobile app

Didnt trade, just picked it up for him, its the non deckled edge

magicpapa said:

Didnt trade, just picked it up for him, its the non deckled edge

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And it will be in his collection as he is a hoarder like me I don't give up my singles of Derek Jeter cards I own from the 90's for me it's the thrill of the cashing after all his 90's cards. I know I will never get them all but will try. I am working on 2 trades right now in hope to pick up some new cards. I am also saving for a bigger buy later down the road.

I buy cards to flip, and years ago I bought a sweet Mike Schmidt jumbo patch #/10. I was about to do the FCB Sportacular show in Atlanta and was trying to pick up sweet cards to drum up interest. My buddy who owned a shop in Florida and I split a few tables, did the show, and the card didn't sell. I put it on ebay and got what I needed for it.

There was another guy who came into my buddy's shop who also bought cards to flip. He sold to the shop owner a lot. Well one day - maybe 6 months after I had sold the Schmidt online - I walk into the shop and see the Schmidt sitting there. It was easy to recognize, and it was the same serial number as mine. I asked my buddy where he got it and he tells me he got it from the other guy who comes into the shop. So the next time I see him I ask HIM where he got it and he says he got it online like a month earlier. Turns out, within the span of 6 months, I bought the card, sold the card elsewhere, and it ended up back in the same small town where it started. I thought that was pretty bizarre.

Great thread, enjoyed reading all the responses.

bradical said:

I love buying BGS 9s and resubmitting them. In fact, I have a pretty good track record.


Most recently I purchased a BGS 8 Sam Bradford NT RPA, busted it out from its holder and resubmitted it. It came back a BGS 9.5.

No trimming or wizardry here, just dumb, blind luck from BGS.

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This is awesome.

I purchased a 1986 Fleer Jordan rookie last December as a Christmas present to me. He had pictures of the card in a PSA 8 case, but he thought it was better than a PSA, so he crossed over to BGS. BGS rejected it as a suspected trimmed copy. I picked it up for $400 + $50 eBay bucks discount. I held onto it for a while until I finally got the itch to send it in to BGS just to see if I could at least get it authenticated. I compared it to other cards of standard size, and I didn't see anything that looked like trimming, but admittedly I have no idea what to look for. The card came back a BGS 8.5 and is 0.5 away from a BGS 9.

I was freaking stoked. I've always wanted a high grade Jordan rookie, as the only one I have is a BGS 4 that my dad bought for me back in 1998 during the playing days (has a crease). This really is my holy grail card, and I was able to snag it at about 1/4th the price it should be.

tidel144 said:

As I opened each pack, I kept all the cards together and first checked for deckled-edges; even if I didn't see that die-cut pattern initially, I still thumbed through the cards one at a time, taking meticulous care not to reveal the card immediately following one on top. Fast forward to the 7th pack. I opened it and immediately check the sides of the 6 cards and see a deckled-edge. "Ok, probably an embossed," I think. Look at the top card (Brian Giles rookie) and as I thumb up to see the next card, the bottom 4 cards slip down briefly and my heart jumps bc I thought I saw the words "Griffey".....I can't hold back my curiosity and jump to that middle card to see it:

'97 Gold Embossed Refractor Griffey

After hyperventilating and fist pumping like Tiger Woods for the next hour, I was still in shock that I actually pulled it. ​I ended up calling my Mom, roommates at the time, and two of my friends from childhood who collected cards with me, screaming like I had just won the actual lottery....except in my mind, I essentially did. It's still the centerpiece of my Griffey PC today.

Best pull of my life.

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Holeee! Great story!

Keep 'em coming guys...