Foiling the price gougers

This is no surprise to anyone who reads this blog, and I've written about this very same thing not that long ago.

But each time I come across it, I marvel at the brazenness, the balls, the unmitigated gall of online sellers.

The online card world is full of price gougers. I'm sure there are people out there, plenty of collectors, who believe this is fine, or at least they accept it as a necessary evil. That's the price of capitalism, they'll say.

OK. That's what I think, too, or at least what I say. But deep down, where my real feelings are that sometimes don't come out, I have little use for those people. What they're doing is not cool. They should be ashamed. Slapping unrealistic prices on cards in the hopes that you can reel in a sucker? Does that feel good? Are you happy with yourself? What would your mom say?

I'm not against making a profit. But cards should be priced at the going rate. And, let me tell you, 99 bucks for a 1977 Kellogg's George Foster card is not that.

These were my only choices for obtaining the George Foster card, the last card I needed to complete the 1977 Kellogg's set. I grabbed the George Brett card several days prior and then started hunting down the final card -- which happened to be No. 1 in the set -- George Foster.

For weeks and weeks, I'd return to ebay and the above two sales were all that greeted me. I knew that the Foster was available for cheaper prices because the completed listings yielded a handful of Kellogg's Fosters that sold in May and June for 3 to 5 bucks.

The $99.50 card from Dean's Cards is just outrageous. Grading gives sellers the excuse do all kinds of suspect things and overcharging is my chief complaint. Yeah, the card is mint. I would have accepted excellent and been perfectly happy. And you didn't need to encase the thing. (The explanation that there's a whole group of collectors that go for nothing but graded cards is not much of an answer for me. Congratulations, PSA, you've duped an entire generation of collectors).

Knowing that I should be able to get the same card for $5 and seeing it sell for $99.50 is something that I could never explain to someone who didn't collect. They would look at me like I grew a third nostril. Nothing I could say would make that person respond with, "OK, that makes sense."

As for the Foster that was selling on COMC for $22.10, I dismissed it immediately because I'm not waiting four months for my card to be shipped. And, oh yeah, it's still priced about $17 more than it should be.

Alternatives to ebay and COMC did not exist when I was looking. Every time I turned to sportlots, the Foster was not available. I really wished there was a card show because sometimes I just luck into cards like that at shows. But card shows are not an option these days.

So, I waited.

I thought for a little bit that I might have to pay $22 for that Foster. But that thought went away quickly.

Finally, just a few days ago, I decided to look up the Foster card on sportlots again.

It was there.

It was there!!!

I looked at the price.

And I laughed.

2 dollars.

TWO DOLLARS, YOU GUYS!

TWO DOLLARS, PRICE GOUGERS!!!!!!!

Mercy.

There it is. It's a beauty. Sure there's a little nick. Who cares?

And now my 1977 Kellogg's set of 57 3-D Super Stars is complete.

This is the first Kellogg's set that I fished out of boxes of Frosted Flakes as a kid. And it's the first Kellogg's set that we ordered off the side of the cereal box. My two brothers and I split the 57 cards equally, so at one point I owned 19 of the cards. I have no idea what happened to them. Because when I started this completion quest, all I owned were the Dodgers and a handful that I had acquired recently.

This is the second Kellogg's set I've completed since starting my mission to get as many of the Kellogg's sets from 1970-83 complete as I can. I finished the 1976 Kellogg's set six months ago.

Like my '76 Kellogg's set, each of my '77s are sleeved and placed in a top loader and then stacked in order by card number. The '77s are slightly out of order because, as you recall, I picked up the Mark Fidrych graded and I'm not breaking it out. It's sitting at the bottom of the stack.

So, what's next?

The natural instinct is to start with the 1978 Kellogg's set. That is another one from when I was stuffing my arm into cereal boxes (when my mom wasn't looking, of course). It's also very gaudy, just like the '77 set, but that's why I love it so.

I don't have very many '78s left in my possession. You can see this Seaver card has a few minor issues. I may try to upgrade, we'll see.

I don't know of many toughies in the '78 Kellogg's set. I'm guessing Eddie Murray, since that was his rookie year. But beyond that I haven't researched it thoroughly.

I realize that the Kellogg's sets I'm collecting aren't all that difficult to obtain -- it's not like I'm going for that 1972 All-Time Greats set or some of the other early '70s Kellogg's sets that are known challenges.

I can only imagine what the gougers are demanding for those.