10,000 Baseball Cards – $3000
Baseball Cards range in year from 1970 to 1993. Mostly they are from the late 80′s early 90′s. These cards have all been kept in great condition. There are brands such as Topps, Bowman, Fleer, Score, and Donruss. They are currently taking up much needed storage space in my home and I would like to get rid of them. There are 10000+ cards and I am asking $3000.00. This averages out to 3.5 cents a card. Any questions feel free to call at 925-783-2199 and ask for Bob.
My First Take: First off, let’s forget that he is peddaling crap and focus on his math. He says 10,000 cards for 3000 bucks is 3 .5 cents per card on average. 10000 * 0.035 = 350 in my book, so I don’t know what he’s talking about. At most we are looking at a penny a card, so let’s offer $100 for this one and see where it goes. You know the more I think of it, I should offer the $350, you know 3.5 cents per card and see how he reacts. I love the card suitcases, 3 2000 count ones and 4 800 count ones. So about 10,600 cards total I guess. The cards look like typical bad wax era cards and although they may only be worth $100 total, I’m sure he’ll have a good reason as to why he jacked up the price to 30 cents a card.
The emails:
Me: Heck of a collection, are the cards still available?
Craigslist Idiot: I’ve gotten a few people that wanted it, but none are willing to pay what I want for them.
Me: Well at 3.5 cents a card, it’s not a bad deal, I think as long as you are willing to piece them out that that price I might be willing. Can you give me some more info on the cards, like a breakdown of year to year or decade to decade even?
CI: Sure, like I said in the ad, most of the cards are from 1986 to 1992. I think there are about 50 or so cards from the 70s, maybe another 100 or so from the early to mid 80s and another 40-500 from the early to mid 90s. Would you like to come by and check them out?
Me: How did you come up with a price for the cards?
CI: That’s easy, just pick up a price guide, most of these cards only go for like 10 cents a card, but some I’ve seen on eBay go for 1-2 bucks each. I’m guessing there are probably a 1000 or so cards in the 1-2 dollar range and the rest are commons, worth about 10 cents each, that’s why I think 3000 is a bargain.
Me: Would you be willing to trade? I mean are you looking to buy anything with the money?
CI: Honestly I am just trying to clear room and pay off some credit cards. You know how it goes. I haven’t collected cards since the mid 90s so it’s just time for them to go.
Me: I am definitely interested in 3.5 cents a card, I mean $350 is steep for mostly commons, but who knows maybe I’ll get lucky and find something. You did say these were unsearched right?
CI: Wait the price is $3000, not $350, and yes I haven’t searched these boxes, so there are plenty of star rookie cards in there. Where did you get $350 from?
Me: Your ad said 3.5 cents a card, so 3.5 cents times 10000 cards is $350. If you want to sell them for $3000 you’re looking for 30 cents a card, and even you just said that most of them are worth only 10 cents a card. So $350 then like your ad said and I can pay cash and pick the up today if you can meet me.
CI: Wait a minute, the price is $3000, I may have misspoke in my ad, but that’s the price, at $350 you would be stealing it from me LOL.
Me: Actually I wouldn’t be stealing it from you since I would pay you $350, which by the way is still too much, I was going to see if you’d drop it to $250 or 2.5 cents a card.
CI: I don’t think you understand what I have here, there are some highly desirable cards in this lot. Cards like Bonds rookies, McGuire rookies, Smoltz, Big Unit, Glavine, ect. These aren’t cheap cards. I can go down to $2500 but not any lower than that. I have bills to pay.
Me: But your ad said 3.5 cents a card, I want to pay 3.5 cents a card, I don’t understand why you want me to pay 10x as much as you originally said you wanted.
CI: It’s clear as day in the ad that I wanted $3000, I’ll take $2500 but that’s it.
Me: But it says 3.5 cents a card, you’re reneging on your ad, I’ll pay you 350 cash and like I said I can pick it up today. Deal?
CI: Is there something wrong with you? The price is $2500, that’s it, not 3.5 cents a card, it’s 2500 take it or leave it. Cash only and you have to come here, we aren’t meeting at a neutral place.
Me: I just don’t understand, you said 3.5 cents in the ad, that’s 350 bucks, and you won’t even meet me, at that price you should be delivering it to me. What if I throw in another 50 bucks, can you drive it to my house and unload it into my basement?
CI: What the heck is wrong with you? 2500 that’s it, im not delivering to your house or moving it to your basement.
Me: 2500 is ludicrous, unless you throw in about 250,000 more cards, and deliver it to my house and unload it into my basement because 250,000 cards is a lot of cards and it could be very heavy, I’m just not that strong.
CI: Listen when you want to stop screwing around and buy this, you can email me again, there are 10,000 cards and its 3000 bucks. Cash only. Until then we are done.
Me: Where do you live? I guess I could rent a Uhaul and pick up the 250,000 cards tonight, but can we set the price at 2000 since I have to rent a Uhaul and all.
CI: Fuck off
Me: Thanks, but I think I’ll pass, even though it’s a solid deal, you know for 250,000 cards, I just think you are acting completely ungrateful. So I will pass on this.
CI: Fuck you and you better hoppe we never meet because I would kick your ass!
Me: What does that have to do with the cards?
End of Emails
My Final Take: Well I bet you’re wondering why I went all switch – a – roo on him? I figured since he was changing his price, I could change the amount of cards and the delivery options. I was giving him a taste of his own medicine and you know what? He didn’t like it one bit. I considered the Monopoly money routine, or the cards in the fire video but once the deal went south I just decided to fuck with him. I have to say this was one of the more amusing ones I have done. Talk about a clueless owner, you could actually tell he was embarrassed by the incorrect math on his end.
LMAO!!! I think this was one of the funniest ones you’ve done yet. I like when you asked him if he could deliver them to your basement, LOL!!! I also like how these idiots expect to pay off credit cards by selling their garbage common cards, ridiculous!!!
well if he cant find room to put those cards, why doesnt he bend over? i bet he could find plenty of room then
Definitely I good one, I enjoyed it. I love that you kept going back to his math of 3.5 cents a card, and in the end, it degenerated into the usual threats of ass kicking.
What kills me is that the $350 you offered is a steal – for him! I seriously don’t think I would pay $50 for all those cards, because not only are they junk wax, but by his own admission, they are mostly commons. So he should have been thrilled with $350 for that lot; just goes to show how clueless these guys are (or the incredible scam artists they are).
Ha! When you are child, I will treat you like a child. Nice job on this one. I even like that he said no one was willing to give him what he wanted for them. Well, no fucking duh.
I say you did a really good job. I hate it when people put something in their ad that is contrary to what’s really going on. I love how you got him on the “book price is about 10 cents a card” and then you tell him he’s asking for 30cents a card rather than 3.5 cents.
That is the funniest one yet! I love how you messed with him at the end about the 250,000 cards. I click on your site probably once an hour looking for more CI stories…you should do them more frequent than you already do!
This is definitely one of the best CI posts yet! I can’t stop laughing…hehehehehehehehahahahahaha! Bravo, chemgod, bravo. Good stuff.
Nice one, not that I think these will ever get old, but there are some crazy eBay sellers as well with some junk so if you are looking for an opportunity to expand your website eBay is fertile ground. Check out this guy:
http://cgi.ebay.com/9014-cards-plus-coin-plus-188-select-RARE-Cards_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ66Q3a2Q7c65Q3a3Q7c39Q3a1Q7c240Q3a1318Q7c301Q3a1Q7c293Q3a1Q7c294Q3a50QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem320365252693QQitemZ320365252693QQptZUSQ5fSMQ5fSportsQ5fCardsQQsalenotsupported
My God, what the hell would you have done if he actually accepted your offer of $350? If he had a clue he might have done it. Would you have had to buy them?
Not only was this guy bad at math, but he changed his reasoning for selling the cards. First he says he wants to get rid of them because they take up much needed storage space in his home. Then he comes back and says he has bills to pay. If he truly wanted to just get rid of them to free up space, he should have been happy to get anything for them. What does having to pay bills have to do with selling these cards?
Plus when you pointed out the error in his ad he became more aggitated, as if it was your error.
Just a quick question on these CI postings that you have – do you ever do a follow-up and see if the cards are still listed for sale or if there were any changes from the original ad (i.e sales price, how the ad was written).
Keep up the interesting work!!!!
I loved that the bad math just kept a-coming. He reasoned there were 1,000 cards in the $1-2 range and the rest were commons in the ten cent range. Even using the $2 figure, that’s $2,900. “That’s why I think $3,000 is a bargain.”
This is certainly my new favorite CI.
Beautiful as always. This may be my favorite yet.
Good lord…I fell off my chair laughing so hard on this. Way to bust his chops! Keep up the good work!
Damn that was so good…. i love the CI’s keep up that great work!!
……. I am stunned…. though I don’t know why especially when that idiot can even do simple grade school math! I wish I could anonymously mail this NOOB a couple of 5,000 count boxes of mixed baseball and tell him that I paid a dollar a thousand for them (Which is what commons go for all day long in my neck of the woods) and that he can keep them to go with his other commons. HA! What a joke. Sometimes I wonder if these people really are that dumb or if they just think that the people they are trying to rip off are that dumb??
By the way if any of you want the dollar-a-thosand on the common baseball deal I will sell them to you but I hope you are local because paying the going rate on shipping boxes that heavy is more than the cards are worth LOL! I was only gonna pay for shipping to send them to this CI to show him that his cards are worthless.. ok I shouldn’t say worthless because I do appreciate “badwax” but c’mon.
I like the blog, and these CI never get old. Keep up the good work!
In response to CI blog My name is Bob and I am the owner of the cards that appeared in this ad although they were collected by my son around 15-20 years ago. In cleaning out a closet I rediscovered them and did not know if they had any value so I asked my son-in-law (who is serving in the military by the way) if he could find out if they were worth anything, he bought some books and tried to see if there were cards that were of value. He did not go through all 10,000 plus cards!!! And he did not go on ebay!!! He did make a typo in the ad on Craigs list however.
I AM NOT SELLING THESE BECAUSE I NEED THE MONEY SO FOR $350 I WILL THROW THEM IN THE TRASH AS I ORIGINALLY PLANNED ALONG WITH THE TWO RICKY HENDERSON ROOKIE CARDS (WHO WAS INDUCTED INTO THE HALL OF FAME THIS WEEKEND).
In conclusion we are not stupid people nor were we trying to rip anyone off we simply used what was available to us to find out the value of some baseball cards.
And by the way you idiot I do not think that you can determine the value by looking at the “suitcases” we kept them in to maintain them in good condition.
I called Bob on the phone previous and he still wanted $3,000 bucks, now he wants $350? and he never said anything about henderson rookies! Bob is a bull snaker! Bob do us all a favor and throw the 1987 topps ,1988 donruss , 1990 donruss, 1991 donruss, 1991 Topps all away but please keep the Henderson Rookies you say you have along with the maybe 50-100 1979 Topps vg/ex baseball commons! Thanks Bob, now after you do that, put the stuff on ebay!
I bet this guy was one of those fags carrying around his card breifcases with a fanny pack around at a card show.