The Quarter Box

[mrmopar]

Speaking of Quater boxes...what ever happened to Frank? He seems to be more lurker than anything these days???

Anyway, what I enjoy the most about shops these days is digging through the bargain boxes. Nothing like pre-priced cards that you can either buy or pass on...no haggling, no questions about pricing...just plain simple gold digging!

Here are some recent discoveries at my local shop. Now bear in mind that I have little idea of real time value. I collect what catches my eye and still love those 90s inserts. I have partial sets spilling out all over the place, so some of these cards MIGHT not even be worth the quarter I paid. The important part is that they were worth a quarter to me.

The highlight was grabbing a 1978 Topps Nolan Ryan record breaker card, thinking it was a nice deal for a quarter, only to later discover a 1985 Topps Mac RC hitching a ride in the same toploader! Now I KNOW that Mac has suffered major market depression, but I also KNOW that 12.5 cents for a Mac RC is a deal no matter where you are! A Kevin McHale RC was another decent RC find.

Enjoy a trip back in time, WAAAYYYY back to the 90s! Not a bad haul for $9 if I don't say so myself.

 

[Hoyt55]

100% agree with you, digging through those types of boxes are easily my favorite thing about the hobby, mainly just because of the whole sense of "you never know what you'll find" mystery in any box. My local card shop is good, but everything is behind the counter and organized by set, so you have to ask for everything, and you pretty much know what you'll be finding in the box, which takes a bit of the fun out of it.

Was just at a small card show this past weekend, and three different dealers had dime or 12/$1 boxes set up, and I looked through every single card of every box and brought home around 400 cards for my collection. Even at huge card shows, I mainly go for the bargain boxes. I'd rather come home with a huge bag full of dime/quarter cards I want, rather than a small pile more expensive cards for my money, which is the main reason I've more or less strayed away from collecting GU or Autos over my last couple years of collecting.

My biggest purchase from the last card show around here was a '66 Jim Bunning...which I paid a whopping $1 for. Everything else was from dime and quarter bins.

 

[Boots]

It's lots of fun digging and finding those "deals," even if they are deals only to you. I remember doing that back in the day when stuff I was working on could be found in those boxes. It is a very satisfying feeling to bring home that stack of cards you've worked hard to compile and paid relatively little for.

Nice haul mrmopar. I'd gladly pay you $ 1.00 for the McGwire, which would be an 800% profit!

Frank

 

[valediction]

The Ryan, McGwire, A-Rod Sportflics, Kareem 87-88 Fleer, and the McHale rookie all seem like very nice pickups for a quarter each (or 12.5 cents in the Ryan/Big Mac case), and it's hard to go too far wrong with a dufex card or 25 cents and just about anything of The Human Highlight Reel has always been undervalued in my mind, but I'm partial to that era

 

[theplasticman]

Nice! I love the quarter boxes too.

 

[giants1249er]

100% agree with you, digging through those types of boxes are easily my favorite thing about the hobby, mainly just because of the whole sense of "you never know what you'll find" mystery in any box. My local card shop is good, but everything is behind the counter and organized by set, so you have to ask for everything, and you pretty much know what you'll be finding in the box, which takes a bit of the fun out of it.

Was just at a small card show this past weekend, and three different dealers had dime or 12/$1 boxes set up, and I looked through every single card of every box and brought home around 400 cards for my collection. Even at huge card shows, I mainly go for the bargain boxes. I'd rather come home with a huge bag full of dime/quarter cards I want, rather than a small pile more expensive cards for my money, which is the main reason I've more or less strayed away from collecting GU or Autos over my last couple years of collecting.

My biggest purchase from the last card show around here was a '66 Jim Bunning...which I paid a whopping $1 for. Everything else was from dime and quarter bins.

Love those bargain boxes....found some vintage cards (late 60's-early 70's) for 25 cents at a few shows at the local mall...no superstars though but still nice to have in the pc. The only downside is my neck...it gets really sore after going through those boxes for a few hours.

 

[Hoyt55]

Love those bargain boxes....found some vintage cards (late 60's-early 70's) for 25 cents at a few shows at the local mall...no superstars though but still nice to have in the pc. The only downside is my neck...it gets really sore after going through those boxes for a few hours.

Same here, I keep having to stop and look up for a minute or two periodically because my neck keeps stiffing up.

A guy at the local flea market around here has two huge boxes, one is a 100/$7 box full of newer stuff, the other is a quarter vintage box (much like the one you described). There were a good amount of stars in each, but especially the vintage (found a '66 Catfish Hunter in one of the boxes), condition on them wasn't great, but I don't really care about condition on my PC cards so it didn't matter. He must've had a huge inventory of them, because he always had new ones out each week.

 

[David K.]

Nice bunch of cards! I pulled a few of them myself! Best regards, David

 

[timfsu2k]

Love the bargain boxes for sure! Got a card show coming up on the 18th and I'm looking forward to digging for gold.

As for Frank, I haven't seen him around in a while either. We had some good trades back in the day, I still remember getting two Derek Jeter teddy bears and a Derek Jeter plastic bag from him in a trade ha ha!