Friday and Saturday Pick Ups

I feel like I'm a high roller with all the money I've been putting out recently for cards!  Actually, I've been putting up record breakingly low prices for things.  I'm not sure how I keep running into these deals.  Many of them aren't super-awesome-fantastic.  They are just THERE, and they are not a risk, because I know at a minimum, I can make a small bit off of them.  Particularly, these $10-20 deals I run into that I feel confident I can have fun with, then pull $20 profit out of or so. 

Friday night, I met up with a dude who wanted to basically just get rid of his collection.  It was good and ungood.  I got home and found several cards in horrible condition, but there were some Griffey rookies, some vintage commons, etc.  I figured I'd be able to make some off of it, after having fun going through them.  There were even a few autographs, so that was nice. 

Tonight, I met with the same guy whom I got the cards on Thursday as well as the jersey.  Such a nice guy!  He kept throwing things at me - Ultimately, I got an 8x10 autograph of a football HOFer, a Darvish chrome rookie, Eddie Mathews game used bat card, Astros hat, Orioles blanket, McDonalds bucket of Scooby Doo for my son, and some other stuff ... all for the price of about what I could get for the 8x10 auto. 

That wasn't the awesome thing though.  While garage saling with my wife this morning, we found a girl who was a nutso Astros fan.  I walked up the driveway, and saw only her husband.  There were some binders of cards with decent stuff, though it was overpriced.  I did see a bunch of bobbleheads.  I made an offer for all of them to clear them out, and they gave me a great deal.  After talking with the wife for a while, she said she had a bucket of autographed baseballs. 

ORLY?

They were not gradable quality, and they were mainly of lower players, but I was able to pick them up for a *very* good price.  There were about 15 autographed balls altogether.  I also picked up a few cool Jeter items. 

It was great, because I hardly ever find any cool baseball/sports stuff at garage sales.  While I can't say I hit the jackpot, I would say today was a total winner. 

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Well, I have some good news, and I have some bad news.  The good news - I picked up a pretty good deal last night!

The bad news:  Someone scammed me out of a $250 Target Gift Card.

Starting with the good - last night, someone had posted up online, several cards for sale for cheap.  I was considering not even getting them, because though it was a good deal, it was just too cheap to really make any money off of them. 

The deal consisted of a few autographs, some serial numbered cards, a few Nolan Ryan, and an Astros throwback jersey (new, sealed in the bag.) 

I'm a sucker for those 80's bright Astros colors, so that is what hooked me!  The seller was really nice, and even threw in several cards, as well as about 400 top loaders.  Then ... get this ... he invited me to go to a Houston Texans signing!  After meeting him, I just thought - wow, what a nice guy!  I wish I would be able to go, but either way - great to see such a nice person. 

I should be able to sell everything for a good price, and keep a pretty rockin' jersey, which I am wearing right now. 

Now, the bad.  I put up online, a Target gift card for sale for $230.  It was for $250.  Someone emailed me saying they would have their daughter pick it up.  I texted them, and we talked back & forth ... one thing they wanted was to get on three way with me and have me call Target to verify the number.  I punched in the numbers, and sure enough $250 balance. 

He said ok, my daughter is on her way to the bank already, and will be there soon.  15-20 minutes past, and guess what?  I called in to see if anything was fishy. 

Your balance is $0.  Thank you for calling.

URGH!!!!!

I went off on a tirade of a text to him.  How dare he rip me off, I'm getting the police involved, etc.  All of my texts ....

...were to the wrong person.  WHOOPS!!!  So now, I have one dude who ripped me off for $250, and another who probably things I'm a lunatic! 

I called Target, and they said I would need to file a police report.  When asked why they couldn't just put a hold on the funds, they said (and rather rudely, might I add) that they will NOT lift a finger ... until a police report is filed. 

I filed a report, and the police officer was here to take my info fairly quickly.  Nice guy too.  While he was here, I tried to block out of my mind what my neighbors must be thinking with a cop car in front of my house.  I called Target back to give them the case number, and I got the same jerk...err...person... and he basically said regardless, it is probably a lost cause. 

The officer suggested I go to the Target down the street and speak with someone face to face.  The lady I spoke with, was VERY nice and understanding.  Her words:  "We will definitely take care of you and make sure you get your money back."  I asked her again, and she confirmed again!  A sigh of relief on this side, let me tell ya.

Stay tuned for what happens next!

Target Gift Cards & Blasters

A few days ago, my Target gift cards came in.  I decided to do some research, and many folks are saying I should try to sell the Target gift cards.  I found a site, Plastic Jungle, that will allow me to sell them at 90% of the value ... but only gift cards $25 or more.  2 of my cards were $10, so I decided to use them up. 

On my way to grabbing dinner for my family, I ran into Target.  Interestingly enough, they had two clearance blasters at $11.99 each - 2011 Allen & Ginter, and 2011 Topps Chrome. 

You can put it on the board .... YESSS!!  YESSS!!! /Hawk

Game 3, 2012 ALCS Yankees vs. Tigers in the background.

I just love that shot.  Baseball going on in the background.  Baseball card opening going on in the foreground. 

I got some cool stuff, but nothing that reall made me go WOOOW!  Dipping my toe in the pool really made me think a lot ... a lot about if I want to put the entire amount into blasters. 

And I think the answer is no. 

Instead, I'd like to make a little game of it.  Let's call it - "what can I generate out of the $550 worth of Target gift cards?" game.

Because you see, the two blasters that looked so shiny and mouth watering on my table, ended up being a pile of cards, where nothing really stood out.  Sure, I got some cool SP's, serial numbered cards, refractors, x-fractors, rookies, etc.  But nothing that made me go HOLY COW!  If there is one thing I want, it is to make money on my purchases ... and then perhaps be wowed.  Neither happened.  So, as I see it right now, I look at a pile of cards ... in a box.  And I think to myself "is this $26 worth of cards?"  Definitely - but not to me. 

Even if I had bought ONLY $11.99 blasters with ALL the gift card money, that would mean I'd have 42 boxes to go.  It sounds like heaven ... it really does!  But, after the wrappers settle to the ground, I simply may not have the kind of enjoyment that I would when having bought them.  It is, after all, only 2,000 cards, if each pack has 6 cards. 

I know how I am - having that kind of money wrapped up in cards that would net me a few hundred dollars loss ... just leads to heartache.  So, it was a blessing in disguise to be able to only get a few blasters for now. 

One thing I was really turned off to about selling the cards to Plastic Jungle, is that I lose 10% ... 10%!!!  That means instead of $550 buying power at Target, I only have $495 cash. 

But then, digging deeper, I remembered ... ahhhh .... tax.  Yes yes yes ... 8.25%.  That means I really only have $504.62 spending power at Target anyway.  My first argument for the blasters was thinking ... well, I don't want to leave $55 on the table.  But as it turns out, the descrepancy is less than $10. 

So, I'm going to bite the bullet, do the smart thing, and get the cashola. 

With that said -  Let the "what can I generate out of the $550 worth of Target gift cards?" game begin!

Picked up a massive collection of ... Comic Books?

Yes, believe it or not, I picked up a bunch of COMIC BOOKS!  I was cruising the internet a few nights ago, and found someone that had 24 long boxes for sale.  A good friend of mine who is a dealer gave me some pointers, so I decided to call up the seller.  As it turns out, he owns his own business, and picked these up, in hopes of doing some comic shows.  The shows cancelled, an he needed the cash quickly for inventory for his biz.  I was more than happy to help out :)

The card-mobile becomes a comic-mobile ... for the weekend, anyway.

I was able to talk him down to about half of his asking price, and the next day, I made the long hour drive with my daughter to pick them up.  I got there, and they were basically taking up half of the entire living room.  We sure got our workout! 

I'm infatuated with comics right now ... though, I don't know anything about them.

It has been fun going through them.  He mentioned he thought that each box would have 250-275 comics, but the 2 I've counted have had 320 and 367, so I think I got an even better deal than previously though!  Several Hulk, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, X-Men, etc. are in these comics. 

While I haven't read a comic book in probably 20 years, thumbing through some of them, I can certainly understand why many comic collectors don't have any girlfriends...with the women they put in these books, how could real life women compete???

As I was pulling out my money to pay, I asked if he had anything else he was selling while I was there.  He told me he had several model kits of Star Trek in boxes.  I told him I didn't know what I could do with them, and he said "you know what ... just take them."  He also gave me a binder full of comic cards.  Such a nice guy!  I was mega pumped.

So yeah, I basically have a BOAT LOAD of comic books now ... to the tune of 7,000 or so.  I am actually starting up a dialogue with another person selling theirs too, - it looks to be about the same size.  We'll see what happens.  My garage is already stuffed with "stuff", not to mention probably a few hundred thousand other cards coming my way this week, most likely!

With my wife and son gone this next weekend, I am considering opening up my garage to comic collectors near and abroad to rummage through, and buy as few/many as they would like.  We'll see what happens - I may chicken out!

A Nice Surprise

I was on one of my favorite sports card trading forums today, and someone was speaking about getting some cards with rewards points from their credit card.  We only have one credit card, and I only use it to pay for some biz stuff, but I logged in and found out I had 62,000+ points!  I knew we had a lot, but never did anything with them, since we just don't do anything with the card, besides pay off the balance once a month.

I decided to dig in deeper, and found out I could get $313 cash.  Eh, ok. 

Then looked even deeper ... GIFT CARDS! 

There they were - Target Gift Cards.  $250 card for 25,000.  $50 for 7,750, etc.  I ended up redeeming them for $570 worth of gift cards for Target!  YAY!!!  So that means, I can either sell on Craig's List and try to get $525 or so, or blow it all on blasters.

I'm thinking I'm blowing them all on blasters. 

Including tax, at $21.65 each, that means I can get about 26 of them.  That is pretty great to think about.  Not to mention possibly getting some of the cheaper ones for $10 or $15. 

Considering the $313 they were going to give me cash, that is kind of like me getting the $20 blasters for about $12 each. 

The only catch is, that it apparently is going to take 2-3 weeks to get here.  MAAANNNN.  The interwebs hath spoiled me.  When I want something, I look it up, and WHAMMO.  It is here. 

Maybe, just maybe, some value boxes from Topps will be here by then, just like they did last year.  I don't recall when they came out last year, but hopefully that's how it will work again. 

2-3 weeks means that I have time to research!

Paypal Me $3 & I'll Send you a Robinson Cano Rookie TODAY!

I was fortunate enough to grab 600 Robinson Cano rookie cards, and he is ON FIRE right now, so I'm sharing the wealth :)  

Paypal $3 to tanmanbaseballfan@gmail.com and a Cano Rookie is sent to you TODAY! 2 for $5, or 5 for $10.

8 down, 592 to go!

As I write this, the Yankees look to be going to the post season again. Cano is ON FIRE, has hit .621 in the past 7 games, now has 31 homers, and is arguably the best 2nd baseman in the game today. We won't hold it against him that he is a Yankee

I have tons of what I consider to be gradable 2003 Just Minors Robinson Cano rookies - they book at $10 each, and they are all in very nice condition.

Paypal $3 to tanmanbaseballfan@gmail.com and a Cano Rookie is sent to you TODAY! 2 for $5, or 5 for $10.

Only in the states please, thank you! Smaller quantities will be sent in holders & pwe.  Contact me for bigger bulk & discounts.