This one was sent to me by Tim in Pittsburgh. I saw it and I knew I had to respond.
Baseball Card Collection 88-90 – $250
Collection of Topps, Fleer, Score, and Donruss baseball cards. This is my personal childhood collection from 1988-1990. Complete sets of 88 Score, 89 donruss, topps, and fleer. Lots of small 52 card specialty sets from Kmart, Revco, Fleer. Also includes two folders of favorites. Many boxes of commons. These boxes have not been gone through in a long time ( 15 years), there may be some rookie cards that were worth nothing at when I was collecting but have went up in time. located in the Bellevernon area. Please email for more info.
My first take: Well 1988 – 1990 is indeed the sweet spot of the bad wax era. I like the mention of the “specialty” sets from Kmart, Revco, Fleer, like those are some incredibly rare cards. I also like when he says he hasn’t gone through them and there might be some hidden treasures as well. Let’s say he has 5000 cards and at a penny a card we are looking at about $50. I plan to really get him going by offering $25.
The Emails:
Me: Sounds like a heck of a collection, is it still available?
Craigslist Idiot (CI): Oh ya it’s still available would you like to come by and look at it. (Why can’t people just tell me what’s in the lot?)
Me: We live pretty far away and was hoping if you could tell us what the best cards you have are.
CI: I really don’t have time to go through it all. I can tell you there are 3 sets from 1989 and the 1988 Score set. Those alone are worth about $100. Then I have a 5000 count box of cards that could contain anything from that era. What do ya think? (How about I don’t have time to pay you for it, give me a f-ing break just let me know what you have!)
Me: Well I don’t know what to think, basically I guess you have a few of those 52 card sets, and 4 regular sets and a bunch of commons. Is the price negotiable?
CI: To a point, there are limits I am willing to go to. I know this is worth a lot so I can’t come down too much. The 250 was a price I was pretty firm with.
Me: You know this is Craigslist right? I mean it’s all about negotiating.
CI: I’ll negotiate but let’s be reasonable. What are you thinking? (Drop the bomb!)
Me: Well those sets aren’t worth a ton so I was thinking we could start the negotiation at $25. (Yeah . . . here it comes!)
CI: Your crazy, this is easily worth $500 and maybe more, I said reasonable. How about $225 and you can keep the commons box. (You mean that wasn’t thrown in? How nutty is that?)
Me: You weren’t really expecting the box back were you? I can up it to $30, when do you want me to come over to get it?
CI: Yeah I wanted the box back it’s expensive. Look you are wasting my time, if you ever decide to bring up your offer to something realistic, email me back.
Me: But I did a lot of research to come up with that price, through many websites, and also this video, which helped me price out the tough to evaluate sets: http://voiceofthecollector.blogspot.com/2008/10/long-awaited-junk-wax-how-to.html. From this video you will see that the cards you are selling are worth between $30-$40.
CI: You are wasting my time.
Me: Yeah maybe, but you are a thief, trying to dupe people into believing what you have is actually worth something. Instead it’s worth about as much as a log to put in the fireplace.
CI: You want to come by and see them so I can kick the shit out of you?
Me: Yep, what time pal? Oh and do you only take cash?
End of emails.
My Final Take: What a fucking jerk. Not only is he trying to rip people off, but he wants to give them a beat down as well. This is your typical CI. No idea how much his stuff is worth, or if he does, he’s pissed and now wants to collect. He’ll never sell this crap and if he does he deserves jail time. What a horrific deal from a horrific era of cards.
Nice, I knew you’d get him all worked up!!!
I can’t believe the amount of people that tell you that they don’t have time to go through their collections. It happens every freakin’ time. How long would it take to tell you the top 5 cards? Wouldn’t you know that off the top of your head if you are trying to get someone to give you $250.? What the hell is wrong with these people?
I get that you want to inform people that what they are attempting to sell is not worth what they are asking but I don’t understand why you have to be so rude about it. I’m sure some of these people do know what they are doing and are trying to rip people off but you assume that everyone realizes that their old collection is worthless. Before I got back into the hobby and started doing some research I didn’t know that everything from that time period is basically worthless and I don’t think people would know especially if they just went out and got a beckett to “check prices”.
I don’t care for your tactics at all, you’re rude and insulting. There is a way to inform people that what they are selling is not worth a 10th of what they are asking without being a jerk about it.
To each his own. Besides I only go after the lazy and the scammers.
Please, please, please take a look at the Minneapolis version. Same clueless people, same outlandish price requests, they’re just waiting for you to contact them.
Ken – I couldn’t disagree with you any more!!! How can these people put a price on something that they have NO CLUE what it’s worth??? If you were trying to sell your ’94 Honda Accord, would you ask for $15,000….NO, you would do research to see what it’s worth and then go from there!!! These people in my opinion CLEARLY know what they have and are trying to rip people off, every single one of them.
Hey Ken lighten up. My boy here is doing a favor educating the sheople of the worthlessness of their crap and hopefully enouraging the elimination of the cards from the planet once and for all.
This is the funniest stuff on a blog ever and should be nominated for an award for best recurring post.
Even if they don’t know what they have, Chemgod educates them and they refuse to believe the truth with a , “My minds made up, don’t confuse me with the facts.” attitude. People with that attitude in life suck and the world would be a better place if they were collectively removed from society. Ignorant bastards.
I have to admit, and I have said this before this is my favorite section of Bad Wax. I love the way these folks think they have some treasure in this worthless crap. Keep sticking it to them….they deserve it. Also, I have read all of your Craigslist Idiots and it seems there is always someone wanting to “kick someones ass”, or “kick the shit out of you”….I think it would be funny if I showed up for the ass-kickin’. I could wear a big Bad Wax t-shirt and say “I’m here for the ass-whoopin”…haha. I would like to mention that I am a great big boy, these people have no idea who they are talking too.
Keep up the great work.
Best,
Submarine Shane-Wax Heavens Man on the Street
To criticize this insanely genius idea is idiocy. All of these people know what they have is worthless, and they are trying to scam and dupe innocent people to get what they want. They deserve this, at the very least. Ken needs to realize the “rude and insulting” one is the idiot who tries to sell this junk for so much money. Why do you think they don’t put it on eBay? Because they will actually get what its worth!
Keep doing your thing, Chemgod! I look forward to this each time there is a new one!
Hey Chemgod, check this out. It’s not CL but once I saw it I thought right of you. Maybe you can have some fun with him. Cheers!
http://walmart.oodle.com/view/2900–Assorted-Baseball-Cards-1987-to-mid-90%27s/1265573993/usa/
The fact that he wanted the box back was the best thing I have ever seen.
What was he going to use it for? Organizing his Hannah Montana card collection?
This is one of the best yet, besides, this isnt fun if you arent a jerk to them. I mean, all of them are quickly asking you to come over, that cant be right…
It seems like these CL assholes only care about getting money in their hands as soon as possible.
Ken:
So, which CI post featured you and your collection?
Please go for this one. I want to see my home state rocking this section.
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/clt/1089364102.html
This just never gets old. I would love to know what the percentage is of people that actually believe their stuff is worth a lot and those who are just con artists.
Either way, anytime you get someone to say, “You want to come by and see them so I can kick the shit out of you?” Then you win. Congrats.