Check out this copy of the first Baseball Cards Magazine that I found on eBay. $17,500?? For a Wagner??! Wow... Wish I would have bought a couple of those back in '81. Oooo! And a Mantle rookie for $1,100? Those were the days.

From what I can tell, there isn’t too much new to report on the Global Authentication front. I just checked its website and it still doesn’t work … Last thing I heard, they still are supposedly going to be fine and up and running soon, but the clock is ticking.

The California-based card, pack and autograph authentication company better show some signs of life this week, or else its credibility might dwindle away to nothing.

Kind of off-topic, but I thought I would mention it – I was at the Packers/Vikings game yesterday at Lambeau and I had the misfortune of sitting behind a couple of intoxicated Vikings fans. Now, I am all for having a couple beverages at professional sporting events, but I also like to remember the game.

I usually save the heavy partying for after the game.

Anyway, these guys were so out of control that I told my friend that I didn’t think they would make it until the end of the second quarter. Well, one of the beligerant Viking fans proved me right and got thrown out in the middle of the first quarter for fighting.

I just can’t understand how fighting and watching a professional sporting event mixes for some people.
Turns out that this guy was on a bus trip from Minnesota and probably spent a few hundred bucks on the trip. Well, his trip probably got a lot more pricey after the fine and he didn’t even get to see his team get clobbered by the Pack… He got what he deserved though. There is no place for that crap.

If you haven’t heard the rumbling going around about Global Authentication, read this story Click here.
Also, check out these links to the Vintage Baseball Card Forum: Here and Here

Obviously, people are wondering if GAI is going under, moving or just in limbo for some other reason.

Now, I don’t know if the company is in trouble, but I will say that they might want to communicate what is going on to its customers a little better.

I know if I had a batch of cards in for grading and all of a sudden I saw that its website and phones are not working, I would start to wonder what was going on. If the only thing going on is a simple move down the block, you would think that the higher ups of the company would have tried to prevent any misconstrued thoughts of what may be going on in Globalland.

This whole thing doesn’t make sense to me, but hopefully it is just a move and nothing more. That said, if that is all that’s going on, you would think that they would have a little explaining to do. Grading companies are built on trust and credibility. These latest issues surrounding GAI add nothing to either of these attributes.

Where is the best place to sell a piece of sports memorabilia?

It’s a question faced by anyone who has ever found a nice sports relic. Let me break down where I would go to sell and I want to hear your thoughts too, so don’t be afraid to chime in the “comment” section.

Major Auction House: If you’re not in a big hurry for the cash, a major auction house is not a bad option. You’re probably going to want to make sure that the piece is valued at least at a few hundred bucks before calling an auction company to see your piece, however. You are going to usually reach a wide audience of memorabilia collectors and a majority of those collectors may have quite a bit of money.

You never know when you are going to get two eager bidders going at a particular item, and as a result, really could drive the price up.

A major disadvantage with auction houses is you have to usually wait a long time to get your money once your item has sold.

I personally have waited for more than a half a year for my money. Most of the time I am happy with the results, but that wait can be brutal. Also, when they tell you it will take 45 business days before they send payment, remember that is more than two months.

eBay:EBay is usually know recognized as a wholesale market and not a sellers’ market, however, eBay has a much wider audience than any auction house (in the millions actually) and the price to list an item and consignment fee is much cheaper than a seller’s premium that an auction house will charge you.

Also, on occasion, if you have a really killer item you may do better on eBay than in a major auction. I am not exactly sure why this is, but I saw a Super Bowl II ticket sell this year for nearly $20K and I doubt it would have sold that high in a major auction.

Also, probably the best thing about eBay is you will get your money very quickly. If you list an item as a three-day auction and accept Paypal, you could get your cash the night of day three. That’s a lot better than waiting the 45 business days.
 
Local Newspaper: For those who are still afraid of the cyber world and want to deal with someone on a face-to-face basis, a classified ad is still a decent option. The cost usually isn’t all that much and you can get paid in cash and usually pretty quickly. You won’t reach a huge audience, but this isn’t an auction and you name the price. Sometimes all it takes is one person to see a classified ad. That said, I am not into a lot of self promotion, but I have placed a number of classified in Sport Collectors Digest and have had success. You are reaching some of the world's biggest collectors and a lot of times these guys are not Internet guys... That is a major benefit that SCD has over some of its online competition.

So, every week you go through your baseball card or memorabilia collection and see what you can part with in order to place a couple items on eBay. Every week you make a couple hundred bucks on everybody’s favorite online site and it is really nice because it gives you a little more cash that you can put toward your hobby and the wife can’t find out about it:)

Then, one day you get a letter from the IRS stating that you owe three years in taxes that you never reported from your eBay sales.

According to everything I have read, and also what I have been told from my accountant, is pretty much if you take in money at a rummage sale, sell something on eBay or take in money for babysitting your nephew, everything is taxable as income.

Now, I don’t think that this means eBay will be sending you a tax form any time in the near future, but it does mean that the IRS expects you to report all income you take in on the Bay.

This can be kind of scary if you think about it. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Click here to read an article on this topic

The first day of Mastro’s Classic Collector auction ends tomorrow.
The standard assortment of cards and memorabilia are offered in this 1500 plus-lot sale. I haven’t really gone through it too much yet, but plan to tonight when I get home from work.

Game Used Universe’s premier sale also ends this week, as does Heritage’s big sale. It will be interesting to see the results in both. I know Heritage is going to have a new bidding format for the trading card portion to its sale, different because it is usually only a live sale.

Heritage will present a new bidding format for the trading card portion of the auction, which will end on Oct. 26 in an extended bidding format. Each lot will close individually after 30 minutes of bidding inactivity following the 11 p.m. CST cut-off. Featured within this first session of the auction is an offering of high-grade single cards, complete sets and sheets.

GUU has some really nice game-used equipment featured, including a nice Ty Cobb bat, heck of a nice Elway gamer that is already over 10k and a sweet Ozzie Smith jersey. Good luck to Chris Cavalier for his first sale.

If you haven’t heard yet, the modern card portion of SCD’s Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards is being offered on disc. For only $14.95 collectors will be able to search more than 1,000 pages from the Bible of card collecting, all at the finger tips of their computer keyboard.