Around the end of June, we were contacted by a gentleman up in Niagara Falls, who had "complete sets" of cards and some memorabilia that he was looking to sell. He was very straight forward from the beginning, assigning conditions to every set he told us about. Now, if you are familiar with the hobby, you know that many vintage collectors tend to over-estimate the condition of their own cards because they are not familiar with the professional grading standards used today. We see it all the time, and the hardest part of the job sometimes is explaining how the grading system works, and how collections aren't as great (in terms of condition) as they usually think. So, when this lead came across my desk, I didn't jump right away, because I know how this story goes... it was probably a group of sets, some near, and some complete, and probably low grade....or modern! Now, don't get me wrong, we buy as many vintage collections as possible, whether its 10 cards or 10,000 cards, but some just get us more excited than others. But, for some reason, "Niagara Falls" stood out to me, and I gave it a second look.
Niagara Falls, New York is a place that I haven't visited in over 25 years, so it definitely intrigued me! I thought to myself if this collection is works out, I'd love to make the trip up...and also see the Falls again. So, I followed up with the lead myself, and found out rather quickly that this was the real deal. He really did have a fantastic collection of vintage sets, and they were in said condition. I was very pleased!?
It was vintage sets galore. They had sets from the mid-1950s through the late 1980s, and even some modern sets up through the late 2000s. I'm now using "they", because we learned that this was a collaborative effort by three brothers, selling their late father's collection. Their father was an avid sports fans for many years, and was a local legend up in Niagara. Not only was he involved with physical education at the local schools, he was the city supervisor of recreation, and was also a golf pro! He even founded a golf tournament, called the Juniors Championship. He also had a strong passion for baseball and one night at the Rochester Press Night, he was able to interview Pete Rose!
His love for baseball didn't stop there. He was also a passionate baseball card collector, spending decades building sets.
Their father built all of these sets card-by-card, ?as he ? ?spent over 30 years scouring flea markets, garage sales, and card shows. Eventually, it became easier for him (and everyone else), and more card shows and conventions started popping up around the country. You have to remember, there was no Internet back then, so completing a set took months or ?even ?years to finish ?. You kept track of what you were missing with paper and pencil and carried that want list around wherever you went?! It was certainly a different time back then. A time where you couldn't wait for school to end so you could run down to the corner store to buy a pack of cards for a nickle, then a dime and eventually a quarter. A time where you traded your Mantle or Mays straight up for cards you needed for your “set” ?without looking at some price guide (CCP and Beckett weren't even publications, yet). It was a time when you got excited to flip or play leaners against that old brick building in the neighborhood. Sometimes we forget how pure the hobby used to be. Now, with a click of a mouse, you can buy mostly any card or set you want, and it will be delivered to your door within days. And you certainly don't put the cards in your bike-spokes or play topsies, you put those cards directly into cases and stash them away. Technology is great, but I think it's taken a little something away from the hobby.
So, you can imagine the emotional attachment a collection like this can have to a family, not only because of the monetary value, but because they know all the hard work and passion that was put into this collection by their father. Sometimes that can cause it to be worth more than face value. From this point on, I knew I had to handle this with kid gloves, and take the lead on this collection - something I was very excited to do!
So, after a few phone calls back and forth, we finally made arrangements to meet up in Niagara to appraise the collection. The appraisal process is always the first step of the process, because you have to find out what it's all worth before you can make an offer. The hardest part was over though: from getting familiar with the sellers, to finding out all the intricate details of the collection, and to confirming that they truly were committed to selling the collection. We have to get that all sorted out first, because we certainly we're going to travel almost 1000 miles on a whim.
Since we arranged to meet up Sunday, I took full advantage of the trip and got up there on Friday, so my wife and I could have a few days to explore and enjoy the scenery - and what a time we had! Once Sunday came around though, it was all business. I drove over to the sellers' home and we evaluated the entire collection together - from inventorying, identifying conditions, to realizing market value. It was a long process, but it was well worth it. We made a very strong offer on the entire collection. As I mentioned before, the collection was huge, filling up boxes, closets and a basement. What I didn't know however, was that they had already gotten an offer from a national dealer who just happened to be local, and they weren't certain if they wanted to take it. They wanted the experts at Just Collect to come in and do a full appraisal and to make an offer as well. They felt that if they had two separate evaluations of the collection, they could measure the value and strength of the evaluations and the purchase offers. They just wanted to be sure - and we don't blame them. Both offers were pretty similar, but our initial offer was a little bit lower. It wasn't lower because we were trying to pull one over on them, it was lower because we know what margins we need to make as a company, and how much we were comfortable with spending. We both agreed on what the collection was worth, it was just a matter of reaching common ground on a selling price - which is sometimes the toughest part about the process. The offer they got from the other dealer was a little more than what we originally hoped to pay for the collection. I reviewed my notes and double checked all of my work and after tweaking the numbers again (what felt like a hundred times), I realized that even though it would be more than we wanted to spend, we could make it work.
So we made another offer, and it was still slightly lower than what they had gotten before. They then told us the exact offer they had gotten, which was almost $1,000 less than what our second offer was. But I was real comfortable at where we were at - didn't want to budge. Knowing that it was possible that we'd lose this deal, I said, "In all seriousness, if we offer you this, you're going to decline and let us walk?" The seller paused for a minute and said, well, I would have to, because we would be getting more from the other dealer. If it's just about the money, how could I turn their offer down? At that point, we legitimately knew how real the other offer was, and the possibility of going home empty handed was staring me right in the face. After some unsettling silence, the seller spoke up and said, "We like you guys a lot, you've treated us with the utmost respect, and handled this situation more professionally. Even though they came in first with the offer, if you match it, we'll sell right now, and we won't call them back to counter. We know you will make our father proud with the story and video you will do on his collection."
So we ended up matching their offer and purchasing the collection. And even though we paid more than we initially wanted to, it's ok, because at the end of the day, these were good people, who had a great collection, and we'll figure out a way to turn a fair profit at the end.
The hardest part was yet to come. How on Earth was I going to get this collection back to our office? It's literally hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of cards and memorabilia - filling up an entire house. The only option is to ship it all back, sans the few high-end pieces that I could bring with me on the plane. So, I dove right into the collection and pulled out the best stuff - this is what I'd be carrying onto the plane. I grabbed about 100 lbs worth of vintage sets and made my way to the airport. The rest of the stuff will have to get shipped back to our office in Jersey. Time was tight though, and it was going to take hours (or even days) to pack everything else up - so I left it in the hands of the seller to actually ship the material. For real. That's how strong of a trust we had built for each other in just a few short hours. I paid for the collection and left, and he's going to ship the rest of the collection back to us in waves. I gave him our FedEx account and everything, so all of the cost would be on us, all we needed was his time.
When you build that mutual respect for one another, you know that neither of you will get screwed. It's funny, as I walked out he joked with me and said "Hey Leighton, how do you know I'll even ship this stuff?" So I joked back with a huge grin and said in my best New Joisey accent, "I know where you'se live," and everyone laughed.
Let's take a look at some of the highlights from the collection:
This definitely was a full collection of "stuff", which included vintage cards & sets, factory sets, special production sets, unopened wax boxes & cases, and hundreds of the once poular Starting Lineups action figures. The nine vintage baseball sets from 1956-1972 were the bread and butter of the collection:
Of all the sets in the collection, they were almost all exclusively baseball, but a few basketball, football and hockey sets did happen to sneak in. The sets ranged in condition from VG to Near Mint, but averaged EX to EX/MT - not bad for a run of vintage sets! The nicest looking set was the 1972 Topps Baseball set, and the most valuable, by far, was the 1956 Topps Baseball set, which has a gorgeous Mantle card (EX ?-ish?) ?, that we've already sent out to PSA for grading?. The 1972 Topps was the only set in the entire collection that he did not build himself. He actually bought this set from a card show about 20 years ago, and still has the receipt! The two other non-baseball sets that really stand out are the The 1970-71 Basketball, which averages EX/MT to Near Mint, with the Pistol Pete rookie being ?Near Mint and well centered; and the 1979-80 Topps Hockey set is ?EX/MT to Near Mint, with the Gretzky rookie in EX/MT condition.
We bought the collection about ?four weeks ago, and only about half of the stuff has made it back to the office so far! No worries though, as we are receiving the collection slowly but surely. It's incredible how massive this collection really is! The most recent shipment that came in was on ?last ?Monday, and it was filled with boxes of Starting Lineup Action figures (all sports, all years-yes but lots of 1988 and 1989’s which are the earliest years):
We were interested in these because the figures from the debut year, 1988, are pretty valuable. There was a lot of other oddball stuff in the collection, like a 1961 Post Cereal set, including the panel, in really good condition, along with a full run of 1970s Kellogg's baseball sets. Some other miscellaneous sets of value included a few mid-modern baseball sets (80s), and a few football sets from the 1970s.
We intend on breaking up a few of the sets to get some of the cards graded, but the majority of the sets will be sold as-is, over the course of the next few months. Be sure to check our eBay auctions every Sunday night!
?Sometimes, the coolest part of the process is meeting the people and the stories behind the collections we buy. People come from all walks of life, but we all share the same love and passion for the hobby. It's truly a beautiful thing, and that was certainly the case here ?. While we spent time with the family, we also learned that when their father first moved up to Niagara from Long Island, he also used to buy and repair old clock radios. Just like card collecting, it had become second nature to him, and before he knew it, he had over 400 of them! And we're not talking about a dingy $5 clocks from Walmart, these were vintage radios from the early 1900s - which turned out to be worth a pretty penny! The family has recently listed them through a local auction house.
We're also learned that next year, they will be renaming the Juniors Championship golf tournament after him, to pass along his memory and to show the thanks he deserves for his contributions.
??"I’ve had a great experience dealing with Leighton and the crew at Just Collect. Their offer was fair as well as the best of several we received, and more than just the cards they showed as much interest in the story of how the collection was built and cared for. While other companies asked me to bring the collection in to them for viewing, Leighton came right to me at my home in Western New York and got the deal done that day. I would highly recommend them to anyone!" -Kevin R., Niagara, NY
Just Collect is always buying complete sets and near-complete sets from 1879-1979. Contact us today to find out how much your set (or collection) is worth!