315 Unopened Boxes of NEW Cards - And You Can Get in On it Too!

Over this past week, I ended up purchasing a mammoth amount of unopened boxes, sets and cases of sports cards!  Heck, I even ended up grabbing a case of Star Wars the Clone Wars cards. 

This has been something of a ritual for the past 3 years - buy out a boat load of unopened stuff, resell a ton, open some, and everyone has a blast. 

I'm opening up this opportunity to you, the reader of my blog.  There are several ways you can get your hands on this stuff.  First, is by telling me what you want by the list below.

1	- 2006 Score Football Factory Set
20	- 2007 Upper Deck Series 2 Baseball 24 pack box
20 -	2008 Upper Deck Goudey Baseball 24 pack box
20 -	2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces Baseball 24 pack box
6	-  2009 Topps Factory Set Baseball Hobby
24 -	2010 Topps Factory Set Baseball Holiday Set
40	- 2010 Topps Series 1 Baseball 10-Pack Box
16	- 2010 Topps Update Baseball 24-Pack Box
12	- 2010 Upper Deck Baseball 36-Pack Box
40	- 2011 Panini Prestige Football 8-Pack Box
4	- 2011 Topps Factory Set Baseball Retail
20	- 2011 Topps Opening Day Baseball Retail 48-Pack Box
8	- 2012 Topps Archives 8 pack Box
9	- 2012 Panini Triple Play Baseball 24-Pack Box
5	- 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball Jumbo 18 Rack Box
20	- 2012 Topps Heritage Baseball 8-Pack Blaster Box
20	- 2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball 36 pack Hobby Box
8	- 2012 Topps Series 2 Baseball Retail 24-Pack Box
12	- 2012 Topps series 2 blaster 10-Pack box
8	- Topps Star Wars The Clone Wars Stickers

I will get you pricing, so long as I haven't sold or opened up what you wanted already.  The prices will be a good amount cheaper than stores, and plus, the packs won't have been searched by those wretched pack searchers! 

Another way, is to let me know how many packs you want of each, and I will put together a price for you.  I have an ebay auction up for lots of 15 packs, that way, if you don't have much to spend, you can get a good array of different product, without resorting to buying $2-3 packs of searched cards.  Blech! 

Anyway, here is some eye candy of about half the stuff I got. 

Strasburg Mania All Over Again!

I remember that night well ... it was 2010.  Everyone kept talking of this Strasburg dude, and he hadn't even pitched a single game in the bigs yet.  As I contemplated the greatness of Strasburgmania, and almost subconciously was a bit jealous that I didn't participate, I began to give excuses.  "It's speculation ... he may never make it.  I don't want to waste money!" 

Then I got to thinking.

"He has a baseball card out ... in bowman....doesn't Walmart and Target sell Bowman???"

So out the door I went to scrounge up all the 2010 bowman I could get.  It was night time already, and most places didn't have any left, but one Target did.  YAY!!! 

I cleaned them out, which meant grabbing what was left of a 2010 bowman retail box, and a few blasters of the same. 

Heart racing, I drove back home to bust the wax that may have this Nationals pitching phenom. 

Retail packs ... none.

Blaster one ... nope.

Blaster two ... zilch.  Until, wait ... what is this?  The last pack has something ... it's purple ... it's a purple refractor rookie!  STEPHEN STRASBURG PURPLE REFRACTOR ROOKIE!!!!

Talk about luck!  One of the few times I didn't hate busting wax at retail pricing!  I sold it online, and a few months later, he had Tommy John surgery.  I REALLY lucked out there, didn't I?

Well, fast forward now ... Strasburg has solidified himself as one of the absolute best pitchers on the planet.  He's a hoss.  I ran into a collection that someone was selling.  It was Strasburg ... over 90 rookies!  That's right ... NINETY ROOKIES OF STRASBURG! 

I thought that was cool, but the pricing seemed high, until I started looking at some of the gems in the collection.  There were several bowmans, topps, and different variations in the lot.  I was at about $50 less than the seller wanted to go, and he said he would meet half way.  I told him I'd stay at where I was, and he said if the other guy who wants them drops out, they are mine. 

Welllll...the other guy dropped out, and Strasburgmania is alive & well again in my household!  I won't show pics of alllll the Strasburgs, as hopefully they will be leaving the fold soon.  But I will show the significant ones. 

Topps blue and purple refractor rookies

Topps green refractor rookies

Topps red hot rookie refractor rookies

Bowman regular and purple refractor rookies

Pie in the Face Short Print Rookie!

This is one of those deals like the Pujols deal that I will be super happy to get into the black with, and have some very cool extras to keep in my temporary collection for a while.  My favorites are the Pie in the Face card, and of course, getting the bowman purple refractor back into the fold.

Out with the old, In with the new ...

If you have been following along, you have seen that I have been posting things about comics.  Last night, after being in my possession for a total of 8 days, the latest comic book collection left.  A guy who found an ad of mine online that was nearly 7 hours away, decided to make the trip out.  He ended up here with a truck at midnight.  At first, I was worried that they were going to fit, since we didn't do any measurements or anything. 

Well, not only did they fit, they fit *easily* - and it was a fast load-up!  I wasn't necessarily dreading it, because I had to take about 30 trips up and down stairs to get the thing, but I thought I'd at least break a sweat.  Nope! 

After that, I slept like a baby ... NOT!  I can honestly say that I'm not sure if I slept a wink, and I don't know why.  I guess I just can't turn off my brain sometimes.  It has been great to see that I can actually *do* this with things other than cards.

SPEAKING OF CARDS ... yeah, yeah ... I know.  This is a baseball card blog, sorry!  Let's get onto the meat of the potatoes here. 

I just picked up a massive Stephen Strasburg lot of rookies - it has over 90 rookies, and a triple threads jersey card of him.  I look forward to working my cardboard alchemy magic on that lot :)  When the shipment comes in, I'll post some pictures of the stras goodness!  Lots of color, refractors, etc.  #excited!

Yet Another Massive Comic Purchase

With how much I hated the idea of having a minivan years ago, I can't tell you how happy I am to have one now. 

Almost exactly a month ago, I reached out to a lady who was selling her comic books.  She mentioned she had tons of long boxes filled with DC comics that were all bagged and boarded.  The price was on the high side for me, so while considering that collection, I ended up getting the collection I posted about before, which the majority has since moved on to a comic shop out of town, and various other collectors / investors in town. 

Had I bought that collection as well, I would have been the proud owner of 51 long boxes of comics, or about 14,000 comics.  I'd imagine that would be quite a leap for a person who knows nothing about comics, going from 0 to 14k.  Not to mention a very hefty drain on the wallet!

After consulting with a dealer friend of mine, I decided to pass on the lady's collection at the price she agreed to, though I was able to talk her down a bit, it was still more pricey than I was comfortable with.

After I moved the collection I had just bought, I decided to give her a call again (I had declined the collection weeks prior).  I made an offer that was a little more than half of what my original possible price was.  She said no, because she had a better deal out there (from the guy who was telling both of us he was a buyer.)  I had a sneaking suspicion that this guy would not pan out for her, just like he bailed on me, so I thanked her for her time, and requested she kept my name/number, just in case something changes.  I didn't expect it, but I was hopeful. 

Yesterday, exactly a month from the time I bought the other collection, I got a text from her: 

"You can pick up the collection now if you still want it."

:) :) :) :) :) :)

Yup, my suspicions were correct.  The out of state comic buyer guyer ended up bailing on her too, and she said she had to get them out of her house because she was moving.   After dinner, and going through our routines with our son at night, I armed myself with some diet caffeine, some good 90's punk music, and set out for the drive that was over an hour away. 

I have mixed reviews on the whole situation. 

The bad news:
-The boxes were kind of ratty, and not as pretty as the ones I picked up from the previous collection.
-There weren't as many comics as I thought
- ALL the boxes were upstairs .... NOOOOOOO!!!

The good news:
- It was a GREAT value for the money
- Most of them were bagged and boarded
- The comics are flat out awesome (more on this later). 

After speaking with her for a while, it turns out it was her recently deceased husband's collection.  He had passed away earlier this year.  What do you say about that?  I felt horrible for her, so needless to say, I wasn't in full offense bargaining mode when finding there were less comics than I expected. 

It took an hour or more to go through some of them and load them up in the mini-van.  When I got home, it was 3 1/2 hours from when I first started on my trek, and so I decided to dig into some of the comics. 

Wow!

I'll be the first to admit - I don't know much about comics, but since I had already bought a bulk collection, which, by the way was really cool ... this one was even cooler.  There are so many runs, and so many popular titles like Superman, Green Lantern, Justice League, etc.  I ended up going to bed at 1am, then waking up at 5:30am and ultimately getting out of bed at around 6 to start diving in again.  Not necessarily that I know what I'm looking at or for, but the comics are just flat out cool. 

I find a lot of them are selling online for $1-$2 but the buyers are having to pay $3 or $4 shipping.  So many of these are setting back collectors $4-6 when all is said and done, so I am fairly confident that I should be able to find a buyer for them at $100 a box, or 30 cents a book if I wait for a while to sell it all.

Time to start finding their new home!

Cardboard Alchemy

Cardboard Alchemy:  noun - The art of turning cardboard into gold. 

Don't you just love it?  For some reason, I find extreme satisfaction of buying low, selling higher, *and* having left over cards. 

Two weeks ago, I bought a killer Albert Pujols collection.  Pujols is my favorite player.  I love watching him hit, and I love what he does off the field. 

Through a few avenues online, I was able to sell two cards in the collection to get a third of my money back, sell the bulk of it a week later to break even (this morning), and sold another one elsewhere to have a $22 profit.  Yeah, that's cool ... but look at what I still have left over ... for free!

Patch with a piece of his Majestic tag

Gold, numbered to 50

Gold #ed to 50 and Black #ed to 25

Killer dual patch of Pujols / Edmonds

Triple Threads # to 36

Triple Threads # to 27

Triple Threads # to 9 Gold

Awesome Patch card!

The whole process is just fun.  Finding a deal, negotiating to get the best possible deal, using your creativity / avenues / contacts / enginuity to sell piece by piece, crossing the profit threshold and having cards in your collection & cash in your pocket that you wouldn't have otherwise. 

 

So fulfilling, and so fun!  Of course, these cards will sell at some point too.  It is just nice to have them in hand thinking, they are free now ... and cost me nothing other than extra profit if I don't sell.

Could the original seller have done this also?  Sure, absolutely.  But what most people don't understand, is it takes a lot of work posting them on various sites, taking pictures, dealing with multiple people, meeting with them, etc.  In light of that, it isn't technically free ... but since it is all fun to me, I hardly consider it work.   

 

Stay tuned!  If all goes well, I'll be picking up a 28 or 29 long box collection of comics this evening that is over an hour away.  I'll post pictures and a story on it later.  You know how I go about this ... you will hear about it if it is a good deal, or a crap deal that went horribly wrong.  I hear they are upstairs, so yeah ... that's bound to be fun.