Dumb Mistake? - Share Yours!

[StainLss]

This was a big deal when i was younger. But it still kinda stings. okay i started collecting when i was 12 or 13. i had saved about 40 bucks and went to the mall to go to the card shop. When i walked in it turned out they had a huge card convention that day. so i walked through the tables and did a little browsing, bought a couple packs of 2000 donruss (classics i think) which i thought looked awesome and still do. anyway i was at a table and saw a guy had a "diecut" pennington rc. So i asked him what it was worth guy says 20 bucks. so im say okay ill take it. then he says ill give you a deal on it only 18 dollars. i was stoked so i took 18 out of my pocket and handed it over. Before i was aware of how bv worked i thought that if bv was 20 you sold it for 20. turned out it didnt mean that lol. oh and the pennington was just a fleer ultra gold medallion rc bv 12 today, guess that guy saw me comming...
-John

[tylermckinzie]

I'll never forget when my good friend and I were in HS and were just getting used to internet trading and were becoming masters on the old AOL Sportscard Trading Boards. Well, we come across a fresh post of someone who had pulled a new Precious Metal Green Gems Michael Jordan #ed/10. He was asking $500. We checked our wallets, figured what our next paychecks would be, and we send him an immediate response saying we can do $400, figuring we could split our hard earned money and then re-sell it to a Chicago dealer. As we haggled over the $100 difference, someone else swooped in and bought our card. I think we both lost our lunch when we saw one a few months later garner $5650 in an online auction.

Back in the days when a $200 paycheck seemed like pure gold....

[snowkat]

Buying football packs in the early 80's...just because I liked playing it and packs were 25 cents..could've had a bunch of Atari games instead LOL

[DanielSweeney]

I didn't do this, my brother did (seriously!). Growing up, he was a big Dolphins fan. He had 4 Dan Marino RCs. He decided to protect his prized cards by laminating them with scotch tape. He figured they were less likely to get damaged. He's not into cards anymore, but I still laugh at him from time to time about this.

[BCUS28]

I mentioned this in another thread sometime ago, but I bought 2 cases of baseball cards from one of those QVC-type shows on tv for only $150 a piece and they sent me 2 cases of pinnacle cans. Them dirty SOB's! Needless to say I returned them both.

[Chipper10MVP]

Here is one that has haunted me to this day....

I bought a pack of 89 UD before PSA and BGS came out and sold it to a friend for $50 when it booked for $70 at the time. A good deal back then, but he got the same card graded when PSA came out and I'll be darn it came out a PSA 10! My card, then his. He got like 2,000 for it after it was graded. Thats my luck! LOL

[gatorboymike]

Paid $225 for a 1992-93 Stadium Club Beam Team Shaq right after it came out and its BV was $325. Today it's worth about $50.

More recently, passed up a chance to get a 2003-04 Exquisite RC of Leandro Barbosa for $35. I thought, "Who the hell is this guy? Screw it." Three months later its BV was up to $450.

[BoogieDownBerlin]

We wrote the value of each card on the BACK OF EACH CARD!

hahahahaha thats funny.

[bmoy88]

My horror story is about me getting back into the hobby. I was at the convenience store picking some milk and saw some 90-91 UD hockey on display. I picked up about 5 packs at about $3 a pack. Now I hadn't collected since the early 70s so I didn't know about RCs, BVs, SPs, anything! However, I was impressed with the quality of the cards and mostly the hologram. So I decided that I was going to try and get the set. By then, the hype about the Bure?/Federov? RCs, dried up all inventory around my area. I finally found a card store nearby and promptly told the owner that I was looking to complete the set. So he pulls out his box and starts pulling out the singles I need (now remember, I only have 5 packs worth of cards!). Well then he starts tallying up the high BVs on the cards. It came out to over $200! And that was just for the Low Series! The stupid part was that I paid - and felt good leaving the store with them!!

Note: A couple months later, I found an ad in the local paper advertising the High Series. So I bought it - for $60!

Just found a complete set on Ebay (all 550 cards) BIN for $18 plus $18 shipping!

[pacoasterrider20]

ahh i made one bowman mistake when they first came out with the sigs on it. i thought it was autod. this trade my dad did makes up for it;
81 Topps Traded (25$, VAlenzuela) for a Sealed 82 Topps Traded set (175$ RIPKEN!)

nice one there. back then they were even, but now days, wow. wish i could go back and do a few of those kind of trades