Ok, so I’m going to hammer out the update for my question to go from a 1989 Fleer set to a 1999 Topps Traded Josh Hamilton autographed rookie card first and foremost.

I had an ad online, selling a boat load of older complete sets for $150.  I didn’t even think anything about my “boat anchor” (the 1989 Fleer complete set) as others have called it to be part of a deal.  Since I was selling for $150, I brought along the set, hoping he ws going to ask me to break a $20 (it seems like people bring along $20 bills to do deals). 

Sure enough, as fate would have it …

“Do you have change for a $20?”

“No, but I do have this fantabulous 1989 Fleer Set that I can give you for $10 extra.  How does that sound?”

“Deal.”

YAY!!!!  Deal #1 out of the way.  Now I have $10 burnin’ a hole in my pocket.  I scoured the web, and, for $10 (and some change … I will take the proceeds from the few cards that went over my $10 investment and not count them) I found 12 jersey / autograph cards. 

Everyone loves these, so as long as I can buy them right, they always seem to move pretty well!  Especially these beauties … ESPECIALLY the Gwynn! 
 
 
The Gwynn is a short print and books for $50.  The fact that there is a Clark bat, (my child hood best friend’s fave player), George Foster jersey and other cool cards … not hatin’ it!  Hurray!  It looks like the first couple of deals are working out smoothly.  I will continue to update this thread to show how things are going.  So far … swimmingly!

UPDATE:  Just sold the Foster & Clark for $4, so now I have $4 cash and 8 jersey/auto cards. 

 
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Next up, and I stress this has NOTHING TO DO WITH MY TRADE GAME – I found a guy selling a Derek Jeter autographed baseball online for $300 obo. 

OBO is like blood in the water to me.  I have, have, have to ask.  The ad said it goes for $500-$800 on ebay.  I kept prodding, and he said he would do $190 since he lost the coa.  He had the ball as a kid … a gift from his folks.  I sympathize because I had the exact same thing happen to me with a Willie Mays autographed bat.  I was given it as a kid and lost the coa. 

I asked for up close pictures to scrutinize the autograph, did a lot of research and it all checked out.  I told him I would offer $100 for it – he accepted, and came over to drop it off! 

The fact that it is a Jeter autographed baseball is cool enough … take a look at the pictures below …

That’s right!  The autograph is on an official 1996 World Series baseball.  This has even more significance to it than meets the eye.  Not only is it an official 1996 World Series baseball … it was Derek Jeter’s rookie year, where he won the Rookie of the Year award.  Plus, to top it all off – 1996 started the Yankees run of awesomeness to this day.  It ended the longest world series-less drought for the Yankees since before the Babe was signed when your great-grand pappy used to watch him play. 

This is just cool on top off cool, covered with more cool! 

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Now, boys and girls, for the last story of the evening.  A few weekends ago, my wife and I made our rounds in the garage sale circuit, and came up with some pretty cool stuff.  Since this is more of a baseball / sports card & memorabilia blog though, I will not bore you with the details of my Angry Birds Star Wars Fighter Pod pack, Bart Simpson Plush doll & German Sesame Street character finds.  I will stick with what you are here for!

I ran into a fella at a sale that had some late 80’s / early 90’s unopened wax.  I can’t help myself so I had to ask how much.  He wanted $12.50 a pop, which, for me, is about $10 too much LOL.  I kept prodding, and he had some binders as well.  One binder had rookies of Gwynn, Ripken, McGwire, etc.  After asking pricing, he told me the Gwynns booked for $65 each.  Not bad.

He was only off by $40. 

He continually told me he wanted $20-$25 per card, which again, is waaaaay overpriced.  My wife elbowed me in the ribs when we were talking, and pointed at a boat load of autographed baseballs he had!  Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Yu Darvish, Stephen Strasburg, Miguel Cabrera. 

Ok, so fine – this guy likes autographs, and sells them.  That doesn’t intrigue me.  A good price however, does!  I asked him pricing, and he said he would take $25 for Ryan Braun, $40 for each Trout, Miggy, Harper, Darvish and $50 for the Stras. 

*Trembles*

I try my hardest to regain my composure and ask clear, thought out questions so I don’t make any rash decisions (like buying them ALLLLLLL!)  I look closer, and see they are on “Official League Baseball”‘s – these are not Major League baseballs.  Ok, no problem … still a great, great deal! 

I ask if he has coa’s, and he said yes … pulls them out, and they are from companies I haven’t heard from before.  Again, not a deal breaker.  They are cheap enough, and look good to the naked eye, but I figured I would take a few pictures, get his phone number, and do some research. 

My research paid off in spades.  This link  really sealed the deal for me.

For the cliff’s notes, here you go:  There is a large autograph forgery ring in the Ohio area that has been flooding ebay recently.  The name in the pictures was attached to it!  It is really scary, because some of these autographs look GOOD … and I mean really, really good. 

Before I found this link, I did a search on ebay myself to see what these typically go for, and to my surprise, the prices the guy was offering was not crazy low.  That is typically around what they go for, on that type of ball! 

I figured I would contact the person attached to this whole thing to see if I could buy some autographed baseballs in bulk (of course, pending their authenticity) – keep in mind, I asked BEFORE I ever knew any of this forgery stuff.  He said he doesn’t sell himself, but gave me the name of “a guy” who does sell.  Well, then I found the link above, and filed it under “oh well”, and forgot about the whole thing. 

The very next day, I got an email from the dude I bought a 2009 autographed Bowman Chrome blue refractor Mike Trout (pack pulled and certified, mind you!) over a month prior.  It was a forwarded email. 
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Hey, I just got an email response requesting to trade for the Mike Trout.  Apparently, I still had the post for the Trout still up, because I just got an email (see below), and figured I would pass it along to you.  His punctuation and spelling looks horrible, so I typically pass these off as nigerian scammers, but figured I’d send it over to you since you now have the Trout.  Feel free to contact him or delete the email!
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I was shocked what I found – the guy who made the offer on the Trout that I bought, WAS THE SAME GUY I CONTACTED THE DAY PRIOR!!!  The exact same guy on the coa in the pictures above.  The exact same guy the link above was talking about.  How strange is that? 

Now, I don’t know the guy I bought the Trout from, but I figured he would enjoy hearing the weird story, so I called him up and told him.  He got a kick out of it, and all of it’s bizzarrness as well. 

I did reach out to the alleged scammer, and told him about the link, then asked him to explain himself.  He said the standard “I stand by all my autnetications”, then he thanked me for showing him the link so that way he can post on it, to set the record straight. 

I think it speaks volumes that it has been over a week, and he hasn’t said a single word on it.