Worst buy in your collecting career?
 

Prospecting and speculative investing are part of this hobby. Or sometimes a player joins your team and you grab his cards early and they don’t live up to the potential.

What has been your worst buy in the hobby? Has it changed how you collect?


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[QUOTE=Jeter1020;19987033]Prospecting and speculative investing are part of this hobby. Or sometimes a player joins your team and you grab his cards early and they don’t live up to the potential.

What has been your worst bit in the hobby? Has it changed how you collect?


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I can think of one specifically..I collect Wisconsin sports stuff (among many other things card related) as one of my main PCs, so back in 2013 naturally it was between an Eddie Lacy Topps Chrome Red Refractor /5 RC Auto or a Giannis Immaculate Logoman RPA 1/1 (for sale on the Basketball B/S/T on this very site), when making my largest sports card purchase at that time to date.

I think the Giannis was for sale for $1000 if I remember correctly and I was so close to getting it. But instead, well I won the Lacy on eBay for $840 :doh: I did end up selling it a few years down the road and getting most or all of my money back for it, but that one hurts a little lol

dellin betances. a 4x all star, who doesn't sell for much. he was the big player back then w/ Tim lincecum.

I don't waste my time on prospects now.

2 cases of 2021 Bowmans Best Hobby boxes

The BB boys got me

I still have one. Im sure its full of hot Wander Franco cards

[QUOTE=soicanbefree;19987045]2 cases of 2021 Bowmans Best Hobby boxes

The BB boys got me

I still have one. Im sure its full of hot Wander Franco cards[/QUOTE]

You’re not alone. The ‘21 BB pump & dump suckered in a lot of people.

Pretty much every purchase I made during the COVID boom was a financial loser.

[QUOTE=soicanbefree;19987045]2 cases of 2021 Bowmans Best Hobby boxes

The BB boys got me

I still have one. Im sure its full of hot Wander Franco cards[/QUOTE]


+1
Have a BB ‘21 hobby case too.
Do have a nice color run of Witt‘s, but yeah, now I just see that case on the shelf and shake my head.

Back in around 2006 I bought a 2000 Bowman Draft Grady Sizemore for $270. I really believed in him at the time.

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2024 Inception Baseball - Jack Leiter SP and Joey Loperfido auto. 7 cards, less than $20 in value. Will never rip Inception again.

Two come to mind. An A.J Reed Topps Chrome Superfractor Auto for $400 and a 10 count Bowman Chrome Color Auto run of a some 28 year old minor league player that beat his wife the following week I started collecting him.

Mike Trout

Me three. I only bought one box but it was the dumbest buy just because of the fomo aspect.

[QUOTE=dchawk;19987089]+1
Have a BB ‘21 hobby case too.
Do have a nice color run of Witt‘s, but yeah, now I just see that case on the shelf and shake my head.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=blackvodka;19987139]Back in around 2006 I bought a 2000 Bowman Draft Grady Sizemore for $270. I really believed in him at the time.

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Please tell me it was the auto and not just a regular bowman paper…

Justin upton red auto.

In 2012 when I bought the 2011 Bowman Chrome J.D. Martinez Auto Superfractor

cards

I bought a $700 break of Aristides Aquino.

First and last break, ever.

First and last prospecting attempt, ever.

[QUOTE=patchgenie;19987044]dellin betances.[/QUOTE]

I sunk a lot of money into him as well back when I bought individual prospects. The dude looked like he was going to be something special. He had a fine career, but that was definitely a bad investment.

I'll add one that probably almost no one has ever heard of: Jose Capellan. Early 00's Braves arm that was truly something special (or at least we thought he was). He was one of the naturally gifted arms that really felt like was going to be special. I was SO confident in him that I decided to corner his market. I bought EVERY SINGLE card that popped up on ebay that was numbered to 100 or less. And remember, that was when there were still multiple card manufacturers. So he had a good amount of cards. I cannot tell you how many thousands of dollars I spent on his stuff. And here we are looking back, and its hard for me to find anyone who has even heard of him. Oops.

P2020, although it did get me back into the hobby which has been a massive net positive overall.

Chris Marrero. Thanks, Beckett. He WASN'T the "next Pujols". I had just switched from 100% hockey to mostly baseball and was learning. Boy, did I learn.

[QUOTE=Jeter1020;19987033]Prospecting and speculative investing are part of this hobby. Or sometimes a player joins your team and you grab his cards early and they don’t live up to the potential.

What has been your worst buy in the hobby? Has it changed how you collect?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/QUOTE]

Worst is certainly subjective depending on who you ask. I didn't spend a lot, but as far as "prospecting" is concerned, it was more than I've spent on most.

The player was Jhon Diaz.

[QUOTE=hammertime;19987263]P2020, although it did get me back into the hobby which has been a massive net positive overall.[/QUOTE]

I learned more about how the hobby truly operates because of P2020. I still have the highest purchase for the Rivera/Chang.

I bought a lot of Randy Arozarena's and they sat at PSA for 19 months during that whole shutodown period. By the time I got them back, even the 10's were worthless. There were also a lot of Gavin Lux, Luis Robert and Wander Franco in those shipments.


[QUOTE=hammertime;19987263]P2020, although it did get me back into the hobby which has been a massive net positive overall.[/QUOTE]

I'm sure overall I more thank broke even on P2020 because I remember selling my extra early Goodens and Trouts for like $700-$800 early on, but yeah, what a trainwreck that ride was.

Not baseball but during covid (coincidence)... I started to collect Spencer Knight cards since he was the future of Florida Panthers goal tending and was going to be a stud. Big Panthers fan, liked Knight with Team USA and liked his game and am a goalie myself. Figured he'd be the next Panthers great goalie from Beezer, to Luu, to Bob....

Went into the player assistance program within months of me collecting tons of his rookie cards (maybe 200+ with autos and GU), missed the Stanley Cup runs of 2023 and 2024 (although he was dressed and got to lift the cup but inactive), and then they traded him to Chicago for a old defense man with a large contract no one else wanted.

Sucks, fan wise and cash wise. Just all those spencer knights sitting right next to all the speculation Zion Williamsons.

The knights i bought as a fan, but now it just feels like a waste.

After getting back into cards in 2019 and being a rangers fan I started buying their young prospects. Josh jung is ok buy Justin foscue hit a hr in 8 games in a row in 2020 so fomo kicked in and I bought 2 blue wave(not even true blue) bca for about $250 ea. No more prospecting for me ��