400,000 Card Haul!

So, this past weekend, a good dealer friend of mine contacted me asking if I was interested in seeing someone's collection.  He said he was not going to be able to make it because he was having some car issues.  Anytime he makes a suggestion, I listen, so I called up the guy to hear what he had. 

On the phone, it sounded like the typically over inflated common lot from someone who wanted way too much for everything.  I wanted to try it anyway though, because my dealer friend mentioned something about some 60's cards.  It was hearsay from another friend of his, but either way, I figured ... what the heck.  Sure, it is a half hour away, and if it truly is nearly 400,000 cards, my cardbord mobile would have to make two trips.  Automatically 2 hours time right there!

The guy was very nice.  We agreed that after I finished things for the day with my family, I would call him, and head up there to take a look.  I gave him a call, while I was on my way, and he didn't answer.  I texted ... nothing.  I left a message, still nothing.  I was 10 minutes into my trip or so, and decided to turn around.  I was almost back home, and got a text:

"Sorry, I was at a restaurant and got drunk." 

Hmmmm.  Do I really want to go over to this guy's house now? 

Of course! 

So I went there, and sure enough, he had tons of cards.  Everything was nicely packed, and his new Z06 Corvette looked super pretty in there also.  I asked him the story on it, and basically what he said was, about 10 years ago, someone was about to start up a shop.  They got sick with cancer and died.  To help out, he ended up buying it all for $15,000.  He assured me he wasn't looking for anywhere near that, though it did make me a bit nervous! 

I looked and there were some lower end rookies of Pujols & Jeter, which showed me that it wasn't all just commons.  There were all kinds of other neat cards as well.  After a while though, he pulled several other stacks of cards from inside of his house. 

I'm glad I waited for a while before making an offer!

I decided to finally make an offer, and we came to an agreement.  Here are some pictures!

From day 2 of the haul

From day one of the haul

The funny / slightly stressful thing about it all is that this was a day after we bought a TON of stuff at garage sales.  AND when I got home, my wife mentioned her sister was going to go ahead and bring over stuff that she wanted us to sell for her.  Needless to say, we are looking like a bunch of hoarders right now! 

I was up until about 2 am with the first haul trying to shoe horn it in my garage.  It sure was tiresome, but the juice was definitely worth the squeeze.