One of the guys on the show Storage Wars bought an entire house full of collectibles. I haven't watched many of the videos yet -- some of the comics they are pulling out of this place are insane.

Anyway -- in this video starting around the 4 minute mark they open a drawer full of vintage 1960s/1970s) non-sport boxes -- the boxes do not have packs in them, and watching how they are handled is a bit cringe worthy, but it's pretty amazing to watch. . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wl34OZgaXE

Really intresting, some amazing finds in there.

Howdy,

Great to see all the old cards and boxes, I got too excited when I saw the Casper cards, I collect them when I can find the individual cards at a reasonable price.

Thanks for sharing the video.

TTFN

I also found the video interesting. The boxes were tossed about and shoved into the box he was packing. I liked seeing what looked like a Gilligan's Island card in there.

Agree, also interesting to see all the old stuff stashed away. Always cool to see vintage trading card boxes in good condition.

That said, depressing to see the state of the house, and irritating to see the lack of respect with which the cards were handled. Sure why not run your hands through your greasy sweaty hair and poke your fingers in your ears before handling vintage cards, then rag open the display boxes and just toss them into a bigger box?

I mostly agree with X... Interesting yet its hard for me to watch the vultures sloppily pick the bones of this extraordinary collection.

There is currently a 1969 Brady bunch display box on Ebay for $1,299.99

quote:

Originally posted by BILLZEE:
I mostly agree with X... Interesting yet its hard for me to watch the vultures sloppily pick the bones of this extraordinary collection.

I've watched several of these videos now, and while I really wish the cards were handled better it sounds like the alternative was literally the garbage. So, perhaps they are vultures, but if they weren't vultures all of these great finds would be lost forever.

The story I've pieced together through some videos was that a guy owned a collectibles store a long time ago, and he passed away. His brother was selling Rene (the Storage Auction guy) some stuff from the closed store out of a storage locker. The brother who was selling them stuff from storage passed away as well. The timeline is unclear to me, but it sounds like a lot of the stuff was moved into that house at the closing of the store, and perhaps after his passing, and then all of it sat in the house for many years.

The father (I believe it said he was 95 years old) of these two brothers was looking to sell the house, and apparently just planned to have everything that was in the house hauled away as junk so it could be sold. Somehow through the previous connection/sales with the brother Rene asked to be able to make an offer on the contents basically sight unseen.

While I wish things were handled better, seeing the condition of that house, and the overwhelming amount of stuff in it I can understand it. . . Ultimately I'm just glad that this stuff exists and didn't wind up in a landfill -- that would have been really sad.

I really loved all the giggling glee of these guys. I wonder how they will feel if and when its ever their stuff being disposed of with such little respect.

Yes its a business to them, but as a collector of more than a few things, I do feel sad on a personal level whenever I come across large pieces of someone's card or autograph collection that just got dumped in a dealer's hands because no one else wanted it. I think of all the time and effort and money that it took someone to gather these items, valuable or not, and now nobody cares and most of it will go in the garbage in the end.

When I do buy parts of such collections, I always mentally thank the unknown person who put it together and hope they know somebody appreciates it. It's the least I can do.

About seven years ago, I was driving to a local gem and mineral show with two friends. One of them was excited because he had met a dealer at a show a week or two before and managed to get first shot at a book collection the dealer was bringing. The dealer also had a fossil collection he'd just acquired.

At the show I watched my friend make a deal for the book lot and then I went to see what fossils the dealer had for sale. I started recognizing a few of the specimens as they had been been on display at shows for years. It was the collection of friends I met in the late 80's, a husband and wife who used to travel around California and points east, digging their own specimens, buying and trading at shows. The husband had died around 2000 and I learned the wife died in 2010. It turned out no one in the family was interested in fossils so it was sold as a lot. I was sad to hear of Betty's passing (had just exchanged letters with her in 2009) and that sadness was compounded by the sight of parts of their collection spread out on a table with most specimens not having their labels with them. She and Norm were meticulous about making labels with all the pertinent information and keeping them with their specimens.

Fortunately, I knew where some of it was from and I had money to buy a few specimens. It felt weird to buy them because it was their stuff - things that wouldn't have been sold if they were still living. They loved collecting and passing along what they learned and I was one of those people who learned a lot from them. Nice people.

Yeah, who knows how many collections ended up in a dumpster because the heirs were selling the house and no one wanted to go through the stuff and figure it all out. If a house can sell for a million bucks, who cares about a bunch of fossils or cards even if they're worth hundreds to thousands of dollars?

Jess

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
I really loved all the giggling glee of these guys. I wonder how they will feel if and when its ever their stuff being disposed of with such little respect.

Yes its a business to them, but as a collector of more than a few things, I do feel sad on a personal level whenever I come across large pieces of someone's card or autograph collection that just got dumped in a dealer's hands because no one else wanted it. I think of all the time and effort and money that it took someone to gather these items, valuable or not, and now nobody cares and most of it will go in the garbage in the end.

When I do buy parts of such collections, I always mentally thank the unknown person who put it together and hope they know somebody appreciates it. It's the least I can do.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:

Yeah, who knows how many collections ended up in a dumpster because the heirs were selling the house and no one wanted to go through the stuff and figure it all out. If a house can sell for a million bucks, who cares about a bunch of fossils or cards even if they're worth hundreds to thousands of dollars?

Jess

That is a sad story, at least you were able to treasure some of their collection.

It isn't all that uncommon on here to see a post from a collector asking for the best way to sell a collection. That person likely put significant effort into learning about cards and amassing a collection -- and after all the expertise they acquired they still don't even know how to sell it -- Now can you imagine that same scenario if you didn't have knowledge/expertise in cards/collecting?

In much of the country you can't just walk into a comic/card shop or local show and find someone who is knowledgeable about non-sport cards. And if you do find someone who claims to be knowledgeable how can you know that you can trust them? It is an overwhelming situation. I can see how collections end up in the garbage/goodwill/etc.

In fact I have a relative, and both of their parents passed away. The children took some family heirlooms, but all the rest of their belongings were packed up in a storage unit. After several months the child in charge of the storage unit started having issues paying storage, and ultimately the storage locker as auctioned off due to lack of payment. The saddest part was that no one else in the family knew there were any issues as many people in the family would have been willing to step in and help.

Yeah, it's sad. I posted something remembering Norm and Betty on one of the fossil forums. I know it's floating further into the back pages now but it'll be there as long as the site exists and I know there are at least a few other collectors out there who remember them too.

Yes, many of us are just collectors, buying and trading. Some of us are buyers and sellers. Some cards have increased in value over the years but a lot of it is hard to sell now and some of it appears worthless. It was probably never easy to find someone willing to buy everything, and when you did encounter that person, it was when you didn't want to sell. It was unfathomable at the time because you were still trying to fill the "holes" in your collection.

I was sorry to read that you had a sad story to tell as well.

I have a happy story to pass along. One of my friends is in his 80's. He and his wife were avid fossil collectors. He'd been doing it since he was a kid in the 40's. After his wife passed away a few years ago, he started thinking about selling their collection, keeping a few specimens for a display in his living room. He asked me if I could see if anyone would be interested. I asked a few dealers but no one had a serious interest. Then, I told a friend and fellow collector about it and he visited him and they talked numbers. He did end up buying the collection. Both are happy. One friend doesn't have to worry about leaving his son with a garage full of boxes; another has added significantly to his own collection and he's someone who truly appreciates the time and effort it took in building that collection. They are now friends too on top of it.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

That is a sad story, at least you were able to treasure some of their collection.

It isn't all that uncommon on here to see a post from a collector asking for the best way to sell a collection. That person likely put significant effort into learning about cards and amassing a collection -- and after all the expertise they acquired they still don't even know how to sell it -- Now can you imagine that same scenario if you didn't have knowledge/expertise in cards/collecting?

In much of the country you can't just walk into a comic/card shop or local show and find someone who is knowledgeable about non-sport cards. And if you do find someone who claims to be knowledgeable how can you know that you can trust them? It is an overwhelming situation. I can see how collections end up in the garbage/goodwill/etc.

In fact I have a relative, and both of their parents passed away. The children took some family heirlooms, but all the rest of their belongings were packed up in a storage unit. After several months the child in charge of the storage unit started having issues paying storage, and ultimately the storage locker as auctioned off due to lack of payment. The saddest part was that no one else in the family knew there were any issues as many people in the family would have been willing to step in and help.

My copy came in yesterday. I wasted $36.00 ! Ten or 12 pages for vintage ? I know it cost big money to print these price guides. I know there's a limited amount of sets they can put in there. Big fail Beckett ! Big fail,

Storage Wars people are looking for the "big" find item, I do not think most of them think of trading cards a "big" item, worth plenty of dough! You also have to remember, that the storage vaults have been already opened and extra stuff added in, too make the show more appealing to the masses when the Storage Wars folks find a diamond in a pile of worthless trash!

quote:

Originally posted by <<<<ALDO_NOVA>>>>:
Storage Wars people are looking for the "big" find item, I do not think most of them think of trading cards a "big" item, worth plenty of dough! You also have to remember, that the storage vaults have been already opened and extra stuff added in, too make the show more appealing to the masses when the Storage Wars folks find a diamond in a pile of worthless trash!

This wasn't on Storage Wars, and I don't believe anything was planted in this buy. This just happened to be the youtube channel of a guy who also happens to be on Storage Wars.