BaseBall Cards – $1
assorted baseball cards 4 sale from 1980′s
My First Take: It is short but sweet. No price, no nothing to work with. I’ll go with the usual penny a card offer. I’m assuming he is going to be difficult. I mean who puts one line ads in Craigslist like this and hopes to get a sale. He’s lazy I can guarantee that. I’ll push for pictures and for him to give me a price he wants.
The Emails:
Me: I saw your ad on Craigslist, and wanted to know more about the cards.
Craigslist Idiot (CI): I got a whole bunch, what you want to know?
Me: What years they are from, who is in there, what brands are there? Also how many cards do you have?
CI: Umm i don’t know who the players are or the brands there are about 2000 cards.
Me: Could you look on the cards, see if they say Topps or Fleer or Donruss, how about the names, if you could give me a few or maybe take some pictures?
CI: i don’t have time to take pictures or list name, the brands you said are the ones on there. do you want to come over and buy them?
Me: How much are you looking to get for them?
CI: i have no idea what to even ask for them, make an offer, for 2000 cards from over 20 years ago, a serious offer.
Me: Tell you what, just tell me how much you are looking for so we don’t waste each other’s time.
CI: i just don’t know, but if you make me an offer i can’t refuse then it’s yours.
Me: Well if you are forcing my hand than if you have 2000 cards, I’ll offer $20.
CI: You aren’t serious are you? i was thinking more like 500.
Me: Can I ask you why you were thinking they were worth that much?
CI: The cards are 20 years old, you can’t get them anymore and they go up in value the older they get. 500 seems about right to me.
Me: Yeah, you’re wrong about that line of thinking. Back in the 80s the card companies put out so many cards that they all became worthless. The stopped that in about 1995, when cards started to become worth more.
CI: You don’t know what your talking about. Ive seen these cards go for tons of money, i think 500 is a bargain.
Me: But you admited that you didn’t know what they were worth. If you look them up online you’ll see that most of the cards from that era are worth about a penny each, that’s why I offered $20.
CI: Unless you want to raise up your offer then i think we are done.
Me: Before you go I think you should watch this video on how to price your cards. It’s a very valuable video to look at: http://voiceofthecollector.blogspot.com/2008/10/long-awaited-junk-wax-how-to.html. By the way how many offers have you had?
CI: you think i should burn these cards? your an idiot, they are worth a fortune. you ar ethe first to email me but wont be the last. do you get pleasure out of being such a jerk?
Me: Actually I get a pleasure out of seeing jerks like you for the scammers you really are. You haveno idea that your cards are worthless, you’ll never sell them. Who the hell is going to plunk down 500 bucks on a 7 word ad, with numbers instead of words and no punctuation. No one, your cards are worthless! So you want to take my $20 offer?
CI: fuck off asshole.
End of emails.
My final take: I picked this one for a very distinct reason. I knew he would be a moron when it came to the price of his collection. I also had a feeling that he had no idea what he had. Right and right. 500 bucks? Are you serious? With that tiny ad? I could very well be the only person that is going to contact him. I am fairly sure he wont sell it for even $100, someone might offer him $50 and he’ll probably take it. I do like the string of curse words at the end of the emails, always gives me the warm and fuzzies when I know I pissed someone off to the point of cursing.
i thought these people would be hard to find until i did a search for “baseball cards” in the local section of craigslist. wow…they pop up from all over.
one guy has “3-4 albums full of baseball card with some football and basketball mixed in from the late 80s early 90s” and he wants $800 for it.
What strikes me is that he thinks they are worth so much, but he doesn’t have the time to even look at the names on the cards.
Methinks he spent $400 on the collection himself and he’s trying to get his money back. Hopefully he’ll find someone as hapless as himself. But Craig’s list is good for that.
What an idiot. When they use such vulgar language they’re really tipping their hand. They’re just trash.
Maybe I’m a Craigslist newbie, but what’s with the $1 people keep putting in their header? Do they actually think that people are doing searches for “baseball cards” and “$1″ and are going to be so tickled that they found a match that they don’t mind then paying $500?
I always love the part when these IDIOTS say “I have no idea what they’re worth” and then turn around say they want hundreds of dollars for them. UMMMM, why would you sell something that you have no idea what it’s worth, do some research first you fuck nut!!!
The last email you sent was priceless.
“You want me to burn them?!?”
Yes, please, and quickly, do the collecting world a favor and burn them!! Burn them now!!!
I love how you sort of disregard their final pleas for a deal and say “so, you want to take my $20 offer?”. Keep it up.
Yet another wonderful post. I am suprised this time..the guy didn’t want to punch or kick anyones ass…haha. If I had a dollar for every clown that comes into, or calls my local shop owner with this kind of junk I would never have to worry about paying for my wax…ever again. Keep up the good work.
Later,
Submarine Shane-Wax Heaven’s Man on the Street
Why even bother? A majority of these folks really don’t know what they have is worth. I don’t think that makes them idiots more like uneducated. Its not like exposing them is going to do anyone a favor. Talking about overproduced have you seen the amount of Jersey cards that have hit the market in the past 3 years. If I put 100 in a box and stored them in my closet forgot about this hobby and pulled them out 20 years from now what would they be worth? Well I guess I could check a couple online auction sights to get an idea that if I wanted to spend an entire week looking them up. I think a buck a piece would be a good way to start. Don’t get me I wrong I get a good chuckle out of it. I would just hate to have one of these guys show up at your doorstep calling you out over some cheap wax.
Badwax? What this guy has for sell is the staple of this blog is it not?
“they go up in value the older they get.”
Man, it would be great if it were that simple!
Another great version of Craigslist Idiots. I would have decreased the last offer to $10 since he called you a jerk before. As always, thank you!!
Classic! I just found this site and these Craigslist Idiot posts are awesome, keep it up!
I look around on Craigslist at card postings and am amazed at the asking price for people’s collections – always from the late ’80s to early ’90s. I’m glad someone is starting to call them out on it.
Me feeling is that people are caught in a time warp when it comes to cards and card values. Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s (to a degree), the hobby was in it’s golden era. It became somewhat mainstream and there were stories and articles being written of promises to be able to put your kids through college on your Wally Joyner, Will Clark, Eric Davis, Greg Jeffreies, etc. rookie cards. We all know what happened to the hobby, but most “casual collectors” don’t. They went away from the hobby but now that it’s 20 years later, they assume their cards must be worth a fortune, since the promise was so great back then. They’re stuck in the time warp.
I was at a flea market last summer, looking for cards, and came across a table with a few. There was an ’88 Fleer Glavine rookie in a screw-down holder with a price tag on it… $30. I turned to my Dad and just said, “Wow.” The woman selling it heard me and said, “Good deal, huh?” Um, yeah. I’m not sure if I’d even give you a nickel for that card.
CL Idiots is seriously one of the few things on the internet that I get giddy about when I see a new post is up. The other being another bacon-wrapped recipe on youtube.
Keep up the great work.
wow, he says a couple time that he has no idea what they are worth or what to ask for. then when you offer $20 he says he was thinking 500, what did he just pull that out of a hat? what an idiot