A Collecting Cataclysm

Trying something different with a "journal entries" style post to document a big event in my collecting career. I'm compelled to write about it, but I'm too paranoid to post about it until after it's over.

Wednesday, June 23, 2021, midday

I've had a #1 collecting focus pretty much since returning to the hobby nearly a decade ago now: a full set of 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition refractor autos. I just love the look of the cards, and it's got a great checklist with several all-time greats and fan favorites. As it stands, I'm down to just 8 more cards. I wondered to myself lately if anyone had ever collected all 76 before. Each card is serial-numbered out of just 25 copies.

Well, guess what, someone apparently did get 'em all. Days ago, a full setbreak of 2004 Retired refractors popped up on eBay in 76 separate auctions from consignment powerhouse Probstein123. So not only are the 8 cards I need available (most of which I had never seen for sale despite my persistent searching over the past several years), but also the 68 cards I already got.

As I type, the auctions all end within a few minutes of each other tomorrow evening (Thu 6/24). It's been a stressful few days watching these auctions. I really want to score those remaining hateful 8. If I miss out on them, it could be years if I ever get the chance again.

My hobby enthusiasm took a hit this month thanks to a couple orders that never arrived. First was the Mike Mussina '04 Chrome black refractor I bought though Sportlots. I was able to get a refund for the $6 there without much trouble. But more frustrating was a $30 order through Beckett Marketplace. The seller basically brushed me off when I asked for a tracking number to check, and I can't find anywhere on the site to formally request a refund or even "open an issue" with the order or anything. Really seems like eBay makes it tougher on sellers while Beckett Marketplace makes it tougher on buyers. Looks like I'm gonna be screwed out of $30 (and more importantly, several set needs I was excited about). Needless to say I don't plan to make future orders with stinky "BM" any time soon and specifically this seller (Diamonds in the Rough, which sucks even more because they're local, near Portland, so the cards should have arrived in a day or two).

So yeah, that frustration had dampened my outlook on collecting lately. But now this "once in a (collector's) lifetime" situation with the 2004 Retired refractors setbreak has got me worked up. It's got me stressed. Should I miss out on any of the elite 8 needs, it's gonna hurt. If my bids get blown out of the water on multiple cards, the defeat would be brutal enough to where I might need to take an extended break from collecting. Maybe I'll just being overly dramatic, but if the dust settles around 7:45 Thursday evening and things haven't gone well for me, I'm gonna be devastated, no other way to put it.

Another fear is that my high bids will come out on top but be near maxed out and I'll be sitting with a huge bill to pay. Probstein123 is known for shill bidding inflating their closing price.. or at least allegations of such behavior, so it's definitely a real concern. If I end up winning at all my top bids, it'll be a lot of money-- not exactly sending me to the poorhouse, but I might have to do some financial tap-dancing.

I know there are big names like Mike Schmidt and Ernie Banks which will go for a lot. But there are also lesser names like Jimmy Key and Bucky Dent that hopefully stay at a reasonable price range.

I'll also put in less-aggressive bids on cards I have but want to upgrade, such as Yogi Berra and the Wally Joyner I showed off just a few posts ago where the autograph is a little faded.

There are three 12/25 cards among the setbreak, all cards I already have: Hank Aaron, Ryne Sandberg, and Dennis Eckersley. I'll put in a decent bid for the Eck, but Hank and Ryne are gonna go for too much. If these auctions were spread out, perhaps I could try, for example, winning the Hank and then selling my old non-Christmas Card copy to help recoup most of the money. But will so many balls in the air, that ain't gonna happen.

The current prices with over a day left (as I type this, not when it's published) are all over the place. Vida Blue is $1.25 while Rob Dibble is $155.50! What the hell? As far as my 8 needs, the big surprise for me is Alan Trammell at $142.50.. that's over twice where Johnny Bench is currently ($68). Hank Aaron is the active leader at $455. Curious to see how things shake out. 

Regardless what happens, I'm sure I'll end up spending a lot of money and will have to cool it on card purchases for a while. But I'm fine with that seeing as this has been my top priority goal for so long.

One other thing I should mention is that Probstein screwed up the listings a little. All the listings are titled "2004 Topps Chrome Black Refractor (player name, with "HOF" if applicable) Signed AUTO (x)/25 (team pictured)". So they don't mention "Retired" anywhere. Lucky for me I expanded my searches a couple years ago to catch mistitled listings like this. Maybe a few other collectors chasing Topps Retired refractor autos will have them slip by thanks to the key word being absent. But Probstein auctions tend to get a lot of eyes on them, so again, I'm curious to see how it goes tomorrow.

Thursday, June 24, 2021, afternoon

Geez, Trammell is up to $227.50 with about 4 hours to go. That's the highest of the ones I'm going after. My top bid (that is, scheduled snipe) is $555.55, but I might need to beef that up to a beastier number. No, I should just let it ride. It was just a few months that another Trammell was put up at a stupid low Buy-It-Now that I missed out on by just a few seconds. Ouch, a haunting memory. Still kicking myself over that one. But yeah, one might come up at a better price one of these days, so maybe I shouldn't get too obsessed with this one. It's freaking Alan Trammell we're talking about. I wonder if this is some of that "shill bidding" I've heard about, or really just a couple of Trammell supercollectors battling it out. Weird.

Wally Joyner and Jimmy Key are still down around $2, bless 'em. Hope I can land them cheap and I won't even be bothered by how I just a month ago payed like $168 for a worse Joyner. That'd be one regret I can live with.

Ok, I gave in and bumped my Trammell snipe to $606. That's my second highest behind Schmidt. I want that damn Schmidt, LOL!

Really I'm just hoping my grand total is no more than $1491.56, which is the balance remaining on the stimmy card my wife let me go nuts with. That's just "fun money" helping the economy recover, right? Probstein, eBay, and whoever consigned the cards to Probstein are in for some economic recovery with my assist. And let's not forget the Postal Service getting a cut of the action. Look at me putting America back to work!

Thursday, June 24, 2021, evening

Ok, it's all over. Deep breath. It went well. Only one I lost was the one those damn Trammell supercollectors made off with.

Ernie Banks was the only other close call for me. Took my top bid of $555.55.

Schmidty was landed for a modest $147.50. Really other that Trammell, only Jimmy Key surprised me with how high it ended up ($168.49). Yeah, Jimmy Key cost me more than Michael Jack Schmidt! Crazy! Must've been a Jimmy Key supercollector out there, or maybe somebody else working on the 2004 Retired refractors who really needed that one. Orel and Yogi went for a lot too, but I was expecting that.

Here's the top 10 from the Probstein setbreak:
$840.02 Hank Aaron (Christmas Card) [didn't bid]
$818.33 Canseco [didn't bid]
$616.00 Trammell [bid and lost]
$555.55 Ernie Banks [bid and won]
$483.55 Gwynn [didn't bid]
$460.00 Musial [didn't bid]
$428.55 Nolan [didn't bid]
$428.23 Sandberg (Christmas Card) [thought about bidding early on, but folded once it hit $150 or so]
$343.55 Brooks Robinson [didn't bid]
$339.84 Mattingly [didn't bid]

Out of the cards in the top 10 that I already had, I'm happy to say that I'm pretty sure I paid significantly less for all of them back when I bought them. ..well, most of them.

I scored the Eck 12/25 for $46.

Joyner upgrade ran me $96.

Yogi upgrade came to $224.50.

Gotta wonder if I would have won the Trammell if I rocked the devil horns and bid $666.66. Oh well, just a "What if? scenario for me to ponder while I wait for another '04 Trammell refractor to pop up for sale. Hopefully I don't have to wait years and years. But you know, collecting 75 of the 76 refractor autos is still a pretty darn impressive accomplishment, and even if I'm on my deathbed lacking Mr. Trammell (who by the way was MVP of the 1984 World Series against my Padres thanks a lot jerk), it won't bug me that much. I love these cards and I've been driven to get as many of them as I can, and I've done pretty well. I feel like if I missed out on two cards, it would have been more of a gut-punch; only one name left feels real close to the light at the end of the tunnel. And.. you know... The real thrill of the hobby is in the hunt, and for me the hunt remains, though with a much tighter focus now. And I suppose I'm also still kinda working on 2003 and 2005 Retired autos-- with a long way to go-- but those aren't as close to my heart, but rather more of a "side quest" project for me.

Wrapping up my thoughts on the night.. No regrets! Went big and landed a bunch of whales. My grand total was a bit over my target (essentially, Yogi is the overage), and by far the most I've ever spent on cards in a single day, but between the stimulus money burning a hole in my pocket and some savings, I should be able to cover it without too much pain. But yeah, gonna have to tighten the ol' purse-strings for a while. 

Unless another Trammell pops up. Then anything goes.

Friday, June 25, 2021, morning

I take back what I said about Beckett Marketplace seller Diamonds in the Rough. After I emailed the guy for a second time (11 days after he said he'd look into it and get back to me), he was totally cool and issued me a refund. That's very appreciated, though I'd still prefer receiving the cards. If they do eventually show up, I'll be sure to make it right with the seller. But again, he never provided a tracking number for me, so who knows what happened there. And I still don't like how Beckett Marketplace doesn't make it easy for buyers to open an issue.

Anyways, back to my big Probstein order, this morning I was invoiced for my total (bringing shipping down from $40 [$4 each for 10 cards] down to $16 [which is still more than it should be, but maybe they're taking more insurance on it or doing signature-required or something].

I had hoped to do ~$1400 on the stimmy card and the other ~$300 on another card, but I don't seem to be able to split the source of funds like that, unfortunately. I guess I'll need to talk to my wife when she's in a good mood and feel out her thoughts on the best way to pay. Sometimes the Discover card gives 5% cash back on Paypal, so if that's on, I should probably do that. Otherwise, maybe I'll just pay with my old credit union account, the only account not a joint account with my wife.

Saturday, June 26, 2021, morning

Payment made (Discover). Now we wait for shipping and then refresh a tracking number countless times until the cards make it into my hands safely. God bless my wife for being cool with her husband dropping dumb money on pictures of baseball men.

Bought 10 cards, getting 7 of my 8 "highest priority needs" and 3 upgrades (2 bolder signatures and 1 Christmas Card). I'm considering this a successful cataclysm. Now I'll retreat into mostly worrying about my organization project(s) and less about buying new cards.

Actually, maybe I'll go on a selling spree here soon. I'd much rather trade than sell, but don't have much luck rustling up high-dollar card swaps. But essentially all 10 cards I bought were upgrades (I consider refractor autos upgrades over the base autos that I already owned), so there are 10 cards I no longer need. My base autos of Ernie Banks, Mike Schmidt, and Orel Hershiser could help me get back a good chunk of those funds, as would my partially-faded Yogi refractor.

Sunday, June 27, 2021, morning

I've received notification that the cards have shipped. Now the hope is that it arrives before the July 4th postal holiday (observed 7/5 this year). But coming all the way from New Jersey, my guess is they'll arrive July 6th.

My wife gave me mild grief over the expenditure, but was thankfully cool about it. I suppose my goal now is to not spend any more money on cards this year other than what's left on the stimmy card and perhaps proceeds from card sales.

I'd really love to chat with the guy who broke up the refractor set. How the heck did he do it? Why did he decide to sell now? 

Monday, June 28, 2021, morning

Dang it, now there's a 5% eBay Bucks promotion. I thought about delaying my payment till I was nearing the limit just in case such a promotion popped up, but I wasn't expecting one until probably early-mid July. Bummer.

Wednesday, June 30, 2021, afternoon

Happy to report the cards arrived safe and sound, showing up a day earlier than the tracking number originally estimated. Nice! Nice! Nice!

Tuesday, July 6, 2021, evening

Probstein has today relisted a couple of the cards from the set break: Canseco and Strawberry. The winning bidders must've not paid. Gotta admit I was kinda hoping I might be seeing the Trammell again for a similar reason, but no, I guess some guy actually paid that much for it. LOL. Oh well, waiting for the next one to pop up.

I should probably publish this post one of these days. I still need to take photos of the cards. I've been pensive about posting this post. It's very long and I talk more about money than is customary on the cardsphere (feels kinda taboo), but it's hard to tell the story here and be vague about it. I suppose I could just be like "Here are some new cards I got from my favorite set, 2004 Topps Retired refractors. Down to only Alan Trammell left to track down!" and leave it at that.

Sunday, July 11, 2021, evening

Ok, I should probably post this if I'm ever gonna. I've decided to post it as a "page" and then just bury the link in another post so the "true believers" can read it if they want but hopefully casual readers don't bother, because it's kinda embarrassing and maybe a little taboo. But hopefully an interesting read to anybody who made it to the end. 

I plan to take a closer look at each of these on the blog soon enough, but for now here's an overview of the big haul. My babies! lol

Thanks for reading.