The Right Place @ The Right Time

[sanjosefuji]

Back in the late 80's, a magazine called Legends Sports Memorabilia entered our hobby. In short, it was another price guide that included uncut sheets of sports cards and postcards. However, the paper stock used for this magazine was of much higher quality compared to Beckett, Tuff Stuff, Baseball Cards, and Sports Collectors Digest. I guess you could call it a highend price guide.


I was able to acquire several issues of this magazine during a recent flea market find and in one of the issues I stumbled across this offer:

I thought it was pretty cool, because you could buy a special anniversary issue that was autographed by Tony Gwynn for only $15 postage paid.

Well... Tony Gwynn just happens to be my favorite baseball player, so that got me thinking... I wonder how much these magazines sell for on eBay?

Unfortunately, there weren't any completed listings. However, there just happened to be an auction for one ending later on that afternoon. I couldn't believe my luck. Had I not skimmed through these magazines that afternoon, I would have never started this search.

And that wasn't the best news. At the time, the auction was under $6 with less than four hours remaining. Of course, I waited until the very end of the auction and entered a maximum bid of $20.

Here's how the auction ended:

Final price: $12.16 + $5 shipping = $17.16

I know what you're thinking... it's $2.16 more than collectors had to pay back in the early 90's. But c'mon guys... there's something called inflation. I currently have myself on a very tight spending budget, but there was no way that I was going to let this Gwynn slip away without a fight.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!


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