Emerging from the cardboard

What you see, is alllll cardboard!

These past few months have been a real trip.  The cardshow, and some other deals I had going on really made me put my nose to the grindstone with cards.  I have found treasure after treasure.  More importantly, most of it has found a new home, so our garage isn't so cluttered anymore :) 

The card show, as always, was a blast.  I spent more than I normally do, but am now in the black, and, still have TONS of stuff left over!  Among them, about 750 8x10 autographs, 23 framed autographs, 13 boxes of decent star/retired/hall of famers, 3 or 4 boxes of inserts & refractors, 5,000 cards that are the better guys like Jeter, Pujols, Ruth, Mantle, etc. (No, no vintage ... just stuff like legendary cuts on the older guys), a few autographed bats, 5,000 vintage football cards, and more. 

I bought another collection from a guy that had boat loads of memorabilia.  I got rid of 90% of it to recoup my costs, and am now left with some cool vintage stuff, some autographed 8x10's of Hank Aaron, a Mantle autographed ball, old ticket stubs, and a lot more other cool stuff.  I got a great deal on it all, and had been conversing with the previous owner for weeks before I actually ended up pulling the trigger.  I'm sure glad I did.  On top of meeting a nice guy, I got a real treasure!

Soon after this, a guy who lives up north came over to pick up a literal uhaul full of cards from me, from a collection in a deal I did quite a while ago. 

Finally, after that, was another deal that I got a whole lot of fun things.  Thousands of team set / star player packets, and various other fun stuff. 

Of course, it isn't all roses.  Anytime you deal with people, you get knuckleheads.  Those who lie to you about trying to get better deals, those who stand you up, and those who call you names because you won't sell them back your stuff.  I'll take the good with the bad, I suppose, because the good ... is GOOD.  :)

I don't want to mince words here.  I'm not a dealer.  I'm not a collector.  I'm somewhere in between.  Maybe a collealer.  Yeah.   I don't do this to make money.  I do this so I can stay in the hobby, and save my family from having a house full of cardboard.  I do not find excitement in *having* something.  I find excitement in *finding* something.  In order for a deal to be successful for me, I typically need to have fun going through it, make some money off of it, and have some things left over to keep.  For me, it is not about how much you can get for something; it is more about how much fun you can have at it while not losing money. 

If there is a Michael Jordan rookie for $500 that is worth $500, that does not excite me nearly as much, as, say, 3 Derek Jeter Score rookies for $3 worth $10, selling 2 for $6 and keeping one.  Whammo ... $3 profit and a free Jeter :)  I buy cheap, sell cheap while making a few bucks and keep a bit.  Plus, there are numerous fantastic stories that come along with it all.