Last night, as I was laying in bed, waiting for the wifey to finish brushing her teeth, I received a response from an ad I saw placed: 50 complete sets of baseball cards. Ok, I'll bite. I start asking what sets, how much, where located, etc. We end up texting, and he says the sets are complete, he lives 20 minutes away from me, and the sets are 1980 Topps, 1981 Topps, 1985 Donruss, etc. and he said he had lots of doubles. I was asking how much he wanted, and he said 3-5. I thought he was saying he wanted $3-$5 each. Later, he said he had been offered 2-8 for all of them, but he could meet in the middle. He said he knew it was cheap but times were tough. I asked again to make sure all sets were complete, which he assured me, for good measure ... aside from a few common missing cards. He said he had a few awesome error cards too.
Ok, so I guess he was saying $300-$500 to begin with. My first thought was, why not take the extra effort to put in those two little zeros behind the numbers to avoid any confusion?
Anyway, It was at about 11:30 at night, and he said he was probably meeting someone that night by driving to someone so they could buy them. I told him I'd probably grab them if we could get to a right price. My wife pleaded with me not to leave that late, so I told him it would have to wait until the morning.
With visions of Rickey Henderson rookie cards dancing in my head, I headed downstairs to watch some netflix goodness, then finally made it to bed a bit past 1. I told the guy we could get together at a specific location at 8, but wanted him to text me to set it up.
8am came along, and he said "still down for meeting?" I said sure! He said "ok, be there in 15". So I asked ... "wait ... what are you driving? Do you know how to get here?" No response.
Hmmmm....
Then 25 minutes later, I get this email that says "at the major intersection next to mcdonalds in the gas station with the car wash. phone died. I'm waiting on the side in my car"
I was thinking who on earth does this ... leaving with a dead phone, meeting at a location that I had no idea where it was to meet?
I wrote him and said "I don't know where that is?! Could you still come here? I can't go out there because I'm in the middle of my work day." Then I told him the location again. He wrote "On wifi at the gas station now ... will be in a gray car in 1 min at your location."
I bring some cash, and meet him. He seems like a normal nice guy at first glance, and is driving a new Toyota ... very nice ... except the window is smashed in and covered with plastic wrap.
He pops open the trunk, and it is filled with long boxes. Some marked 1987 Fleer, 1982 Topps, 1981 Topps, 1980 Topps, etc.
Sweeeeet!
I pop open the first box - 1982 Topps and google the card # of Ripken ... not there.
Crap.
I bust open the 1980 Topps set ... no Rickey. NO RICKEY! 87 Fleer ... no Bonds. 89 Upper Deck ... no Griffey.
Sorry dude, all the good cards are taken.
He then said there were some awesome cards, like Johnny Bench. I told him while Bench is a cool HOFer, it really isn't worth anything. Oh, and btw, his "awesome error cards" he mentioned were actually factory mis-cuts ... aka worthless, damaged cards from the factory.
I'm so glad I didn't meet him at midnight. I'm so glad I didn't meet him where he first wanted me to meet him.
I asked what he'd take for them, keeping in mind they are all commons. He asked for an offer and I told him basically a 10th of what he wanted.
"I can't do that dude."
No problem. Still a nice guy. I ask him more about the history of them.
This is where is gets interesting.
He said he got them from his step dad. I told him that he should ask him for the star cards (he paid his step dad $150 for everything!) He said he hasn't talked to him in a long time. Why? Because his step dad cheated on his mom with HIS (the guy I met) secretary a few months back.
He took off with her, and the guy I met lost his job over it. Shortly there after ....
His wife left him without telling him why, and hasn't heard back from her
His car caught fire and burned to the ground
His second car hit a deer
The insurance co. told him it was fine to drive, which he did ... and the engine blew.
His rental car got broken into, and someone stole his guitar on loan from a store, his stereo and several otehr things
He then proceeded to tell me that there was MUCH more to it, but he'd leave it at that.
To which I thought to myself I better leave him at that as well so I don't catch whatever he had!!!
With all the belly aching I've been doing this year because of how horrible things have been going, I admit ... this poor fella has been through much more. Of course, it makes me wonder if/what his part was in all of this, but regardless, sounds awful.
So needless to say, I didn't get the cards - but heck, I got good blog-fodder out of it.
To the guy I met this morning: If you are out there reading somewhere, I sure hope and pray things get better for you!
