Pull of a Lifetime

I have written in several posts about my return to the hobby in mid-2008 and the subsequent buying binge I went on, which reached an expensive climax right around Christmas. As my first run through the Hobby resulted in me buying lots of mid-to-late 90s retail wax and a few singles from my local hobby shops, I was blown away with the vast quantity of game used swatch cards and autographed cards available in every box. When I left the Hobby, jersey cards were just beginning to be inserted and autographs were extremely rare parallels. Every hobby box I ripped through contained more and more hits and I became more and more excited. The ultimate (pun intended) was the two boxes of 2007 Ultimate Collection football I purchased. Each box only contained 16 cards (4 per pack), but almost every card featured pieces of jersey and/or autographs. While opening my second box, carefully examining each card, I was completely dumbfounded when I flipped over this beauty:

Click image for a full sized scan

This gem is an autographed Adrian Peterson Ultimate Collection rookie card gold parallel #20/25. As a guy who once got really excited to pull a basic insert card of Michael Jordan or Emmitt Smith (like UD Choice Starquest), you can imagine the level of excitement this pull created. I immediatly dug out the 1″ Lucite screw down holder I had purchased years ago in case I ever pulled a really valuable card. I figured this card fit that bill. At the time, I still depended on Beckett’s online price guides. When I looked this card up, the excitement level kicked up a notch when I saw a $1,000 book value attached to the card. In my current knowledge, I realize how trivial book values are and know I probably could not actually get $1,000 for the card, but it is still an amazing pull.

So now, just like a lot of the other cards occupying space in my home office, I have to ask myself what I should do with it. Should I list it on eBay to capitalize on Peterson’s currently very high popularity and to help recapture a good chunk of change I dropped on wax last year? Do I try to track down a die-hard Peterson collector and negotiate a sales price or high profile trade? Or do I simply hold onto it and either hope his stock only continues to soar higher or tuck it away to always remind myself of the greatest pull of my life (so far)?

If you had pulled this card, what would you do with it? If you wanted this card, how much would you pay for it?

Opinions Wanted

As I venture into the world of eBay sales, I thought it might be cool to have a business card I can send along with purchases. I bought a pack of Avery business card sheets and threw something together quick last night so that I could get the first order sent out.

Click image for a full sized scan

What do you guys think? It looks a little cleaner in person. My scanner either needs to be really cleaned or replaced, because I admit this scan looks a tad crappy. “The Football Card Specialists” may have been a bit of a stretch, especially since I’m hoping to sell off most of my extensive basketball collection as well, but I definitely do plan to focus on football.

Any suggestions? New tag line? More/less contact info? More graphic elements? Anything you can suggest would be appreciated.

That Was Quick…

So I finally took the plunge and decided to start selling some of my cards on eBay. I broke a bunch of my doubles (and some non-doubles, including short printed rookies) into team sets so that I have a complete team set for all 32 NFL teams. After dealing with a sluggish Internet connection, I finally got 16 of the lots posted. Right after listing the 16th, I check My eBay, and I already sold 2 for the full asking price. SWEET!

In case you’re interested in anything I have listed so far, you can check out my eBay “Store” by clicking here.

Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come, because I am looking to unload a lot of cards in the coming months through eBay…