Baseball Cards and Collectibles on things-and-other-stuff.com

Baseball Cards & Collectibles on things-and-other-stuff.com

If you've take the time to read any of the pages discussing how I got started collecting and then reselling, like this one here, then you're aware that it all began with baseball cards. I remember the first time I seriously collected as a kid was with the 1979 Topps set (I was eight that season). I also remembered learning a valuable lesson that summer when I acquired an older Rollie Fingers card that I had coveted for weeks (man, that mustache sure was cool then!) for junk, a common. I knew something was up right away though when my neighbor showed his little brother his price guide and both of them were laughing at me. I had dealt the rare Bump Wills card for Rollie's stash, the correct variation. Okay, you won't fool me again.

Well, that's not true. About 12-14 years later I was excited to buy a '65 Topps Steve Carlton rookie card off a couple of kids my age at a local card show I was doing. A couple of months later at a larger show (Nassau Colliseum) I dealt the Carlton card off to a dealer from St. Louis for a nice-sized stack of about 40 or 50 1940's & 50's Cardinals programs. I was elated, I had swindled the guy, this stuff was gold in my eyes. I told a friend of mine to watch my table and went for a walk outside to contemplate this great deal. I returned about ten minutes later, my buddy smirking at me, he says, "Your buddy from St. Louis was just over here. He called you a crook and said he hoped you were happy." What'd I do! Well, I went over to the guys table and found out the card was trimmed. The guy was livid and still pretty unhappy when I insisted we reverse the deal. Lesson learned. Get a ruler and don't by cards from derelicts looking for beer money.

Okay, one fun deal before I close this out. The kid across the street from me had about two of those wooden wine boxes filled with unsorted 1980 Topps cards that I bought off him for $15 probably about 1984 or 85. There were a few thousand cards and I scored about a dozen to fifteen Rickey Henderson rookies ranging from VG to Pristine Mint condition, with most of the cards pretty sharp. I did well flipping those.

So as you can see, baseball cards were my fist love and my original entry into the world of collecting. I always preferred selling the newer stuff to acquire cool older stuff from the 1950's and 60's and the occasional '33 Goudey when they popped up locally. On Long Island I was the tall kid with an emphasis on older stuff but also offering newer stuff because that's what often sold (Brien Taylor gold cards anyone?). I did my last card show around 1994, went to college soon after, and by the time I got my feet wet in the buying and selling world again eBay had taken hold.

I don't do a lot of baseball cards anymore because I've found they're very difficult to buy and sell online these days, at least at a profit. I do however pick up the occasional oddball baseball collectible to sell, I always offer sports magazines and try to have some vintage photos on hand most of the time as well. My eBay Store does have four sports aisles in it, mostly magazines. I especially enjoy handling vintage issues of The Sporting News and still deal a little with Sports Illustrated as well, though they're not as much fun as they used to be. There is also an aisle for Miscellaneous Sports Magazines as well as Sports Collectibles. I've also set up an Amazon aStore for the baseball fan which is embedded below. I've tried to filter this mini-store to include the latest collecting price guides, subscriptions to the current magazines, World Series DVD's, and a selection of the more popular baseball biographies. All purchases through this aStore are actually through Amazon.com with a small percentage of the sale being paid out by Amazon to me (the prices are all the same though and all of your info is stored with Amazon, not me):