Page 29 - tmp

August, 2019 The Antique Shoppe Page 29
the highway. I stopped and ran out to find them on the road as it began raining.
KAYE’S COLLECTOR CORNER I was losing thousands of cards per second! Ridding myself of these cards and
recovering my investment would be a long road!
I found a local auction to unload some of the sealed boxes. Although they kept
By Mike Kaye 50% commission I was chipping away at my trapped investment. Then I tried
selling 1,000 card lots online for $10 each, with no interest I then began marketing

THREE QUARTERS OF A MILLION them differently, stating “one penny per card — how many cards do you want?”
and this resulted in 3,500 cards sold in an hour. Mathematically it worked out to be
BASEBALL CARDS COLLECTION no different than $10 per thousand so go figure. I still had hundreds of thousands
of cards to go through when I found some rare hockey sets.
I sifted through the price guide I had bought and noticed there were some high
A number of years ago I was contacted by a television network who wanted to rolling price tags on some of the cards in the sets. I eagerly sorted the sets to
feature me on a series called “Wife Swap”. They were seeking a “collector” and find the numbers jumping over the high-end stuff. Then I remembered the black
came across my name for being prominently established as an expert collector. binder with hockey cards the seller kept, and I realized they had been “cherry
I agreed to work with them, and they wanted to picked”. It was a lost cause so I moved on. I had
see my collections. At the time, I was in a bit of to sell these cards, one way or the other.
financial despair and my number of collectibles My toddlers had begun using the boxes as
was meek at best. Here I am as an “expert” and seats in the living room. I had filled my home
barely any collectibles to show for! I took to the with “old paper that had mites”, according to
web to find an instant collection to buy in order my wife.
to spruce up what I had at the time. Next, I offered team sets and a collector
Yes, I bought close to a million cards, offered me a penny per football card. I agreed
well, 750,000 to be exact and it turned into an but all the sports were mixed in the piles. I
adventure. I bought the cards to have inventory had to weed through the cards to separate the
for the TV series who wanted to come to my football cards totalling 75,000 cards. I had now
home to begin filming. The series required a broken even and was beginning to see profit. I
stranger to care for my newborn son at the time still had about a half million cards though. Just
and for my wife to live with a different family when I thought I was done I visited my mom
for the week. This posed a problem for my wife and got an idea.
and we had to back out of the deal. I saw the My mom had recently stumbled on a site that
contract money slip through my fingers and I was offering 50 rings hidden in candles with
also saw 750,000 baseball cards in my 900 sq. the chance that one of the rings was actual gold
ft. home with my family of five. How did I find while the rest were knockoffs. On a gamble she
so many cards? bought one of the candles with a supposed gold
When I began researching collections for sale ABOVE: Thousands of baseball cards in boxes. The humidity caused certain ring inside, but it turned out hers was not the
on Craigslist, I filtered the collections by only sets with high gloss to stick together and become bricks of garbage. actual gold ring. She had bought it online from a
those listed for $1,000 or more. Lo and behold Worth pennies a piece and not an easy sell. BELOW: The 90s era of steroid site that sold other one-time deals. My salesman
use caused the baseball card market to crash as collectors lost interest in
a baseball card collection of three quarters of a the collecting hobby. Cards being worth pennies on the dollar. instinct kicked in. I contacted the site where she
million cards was for sale for $2,500. I bargained bought the candles and told them about the half-
the owner down to $1,700 and agreed to meet million cards I had. I offered them fixed lots of
him at his warehouse. He opened the garage and baseball cards to sell and they agreed. I began
there were stacks of cards, unopened boxes, row offering card lots through the site and was able
after row stacked six feet high, filling a two- to sell a lot of them but then they wanted other
car garage. It brought back memories of my items mixed in. Instead of getting rid of cards
younger days when I set up shop at the Baseball I had to buy more cards in the form of sealed
Shows. I began imagining the opportunities and packs to add an assortment to the fixed lots that
unearthing the potential gold. The seller then were being offered through the site. It worked
told me that one particular black binder was not and I sold almost the entire half million cards! I
included in the deal. I scrolled through it seeing then directed my attention elsewhere unloading
various cards, mostly hockey, but I was at a loss the rest.
as to their value. He explained that they were After a few more live auctions and selling
his prior, and not part of the collection. off the remainder as a vendor at a neighborhood
Seeing the mass of boxes, I agreed to proceed garage sale I was free of the cards and had
with the deal. We signed a contract agreeing tripled my investment in less than a year. Would
to take the collection as is, although I added I do it again? Probably, but only because I
an excessive mold addendum. He offered my caught the collector bug that I can’t shake.
taking over the storage locker, but I respectfully declined and began loading my Some quick pointers of baseball cards. The 80s and 90s drug performance
van with the cards. Having underestimated the space required, the van filled up enhancing era did a number on the hobby so if you’re looking to invest in
after only the first 100,000 cards. I was in over my head. cards, you’re better off buying 1900s – 1970s cards. Furthermore, the 80s and
I swiftly called my brother who agreed to provide temporary storage in his 90s stuff were printed in large amounts. The stuff that comes out today too
two-car garage until I could figure out what to do. It took about six trips to get is mass produced and the only chance of profiting is to luck out by finding a
them all into his garage. I brought home the first 100,000 cards, to the dismay very rare insert card. If you are lucky enough to find one you may be better off
of my wife, I filled the living room with them, and realized, I need to get this selling it while the iron’s hot because once the new sets come out each year
figured out and do it fast. it seems that collectors demand fizzles quickly. The time-tested players like
First, I tried eBay with an auction offering 5,000 cards which resulted in no Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth will always demand premiums.
bids. On a trip to get more cards from my brother’s garage I noticed some glossy
cards fused together into bricks resulting in losing about 15,000 cards. If that’s Do you have a collection to sell but don’t know where to start? Perhaps you inherited comic books from
not enough, my bro asked me to empty his garage because he was moving. I now the 1930s -1960s, baseball cards from the 1950s – 1960s, Garbage Pail Kids from the 1980s, vintage metal
lunchboxes from the 1950s – 1970s, vintage fast food restaurant décor or any unusual collectibles? I’ve been
had to squeeze a two-car garage of cards into my 900 sq.ft. two bedroom. known to pay top dollar for vintage collections and I’m waiting for your email or text. Contact me today with
While transporting the massive collection the bin lids began flipping open on your inventory list at: kpeople@hotmail.com or text me photos at 561-628-4369. Thanks, CollectorK