Guy turns down what turned out to be an $80,000.00 baseball:

[carrrnuttt]

I am just going to quote this, as the Ford SVT forums I got this from requires that you register. The link is below, in case you are a member, or want to comment to the dude directly.

http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=421992

I figured I'd post this up, I finally dug up the picture....

Last year, my grandmother's good friend had this "baseball" that her husband had forever, and since he passed away, she wanted to get rid of it. My grandmother informed her that I do a lot of the e-bay stuff for fun, and I could probably sell it for her. When I spoke with her, she said all she wanted for the baseball was $1,000 , that's it. The baseball was signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and kept in a glass case, not touched by human hands or even opened since the day it was signed. SO, me, not being any good with baseball memorabilia, took some pictures of it, and checked on e-bay and other auction websites looking for prices. When I was looking around, I was seeing these baseball's signed by Babe Ruth going for $1,000 max, so I figured it wasn't worth my time, and told the lady I would have trouble getting $1,000 for it. So, she took it back, and then this is what happened.

Two weeks later, she called an auction house, described it to them, and they sent her two round trip tickets to new york for her and my grandmother. THEY APRRAISED THE BASEBALL FOR $65,000!!!!!!! That part alone made me feel sick to my stomach. So, she kept it at the auction house, and the next week, it sold for $82,500!!!!! That lady only wanted $1,000 for that thing. I am an idiot, and am still pissed to this day.... Sorry, I figured I could vent about it. Here is a picture of the baseball:

Here was my response to him in the same thread:

Jesus.

YOU could have called the appraisers yourself, even before you forked the money out for the ball!!!!!!!!!

Those two names...

My god. It hurts MY heart that those names don't send bells clanking in your head. Have you ever watched The Sandlot?

 

[Ghostvirus]

Who the hell uses Ebay as a bench mark for valuables? What an idiot.

 

[R0rschach]

Hey I'm not even American and I knew for a fact that ball was worth a fortune.
Damn, what a noob.

 

[Ahura Mazda]

That is mind boggling. The guy really was too ignorant and then I almost want to say stupid given he did not really do any research before giving up.

The first thing to do with anything is get it appraised by professionals and then if you want, sell it on ebay with a reserve price reflcting the appraisal value given.

 

[Erzengel]

That would be the prize in anyone's collection.