Blog

Over the past few months, Rick has been tinkering around with a new plan to shrink wrap our unopened boxes. In the past we have always used a clear shrink wrap, along with a sticker on the bottom, of all the unopened items that we sell. We do this for a variety of reasons. First of all, its makes for great protection in shipping. Since companies did not wrap boxes with anything in the pre-1990 days, it helps get the item to you in one piece. We still get boxes shipped to us today that the packs are thrown all over in the box it is shipped in! Also, it helps to give the buyer of the item a little more confidence that we inspected the box to make sure it had not been tampered with. By adding the sticker to the bottom, it also helps identify that the box originally came from BBCE, Inc. Believe me, we sure are going to look very closely at the item to make sure of its authenticity before we attach our name to it!!

Starting today, everything that leaves this office will be wrapped in our new company shrink wrap. The company logo and name has been designed and built into the shrink (not stickers or attachments to the shrink). This is kind of what Topps and Upper Deck do with product that comes out today. Personally, I think the new wrap looks awesome! Check out the 3 links below and let us know what you think. Unfortunately, the box doesnt have any packs in it and it just used for display purposes.

Finally, I want to state that this process of shrink wrapping boxes with our company logo and adding a sticker to the bottom is NOT an end all guarantee. We have gone this one step further to help improve confidence and security of the items we sell. However, it is not designed to be 100% fraud proof (its better than the clear shrink wrap). If we ever go one step further and add holograms, sonic sealed holders, etc. we are then talking about a huge increase in cost. I do believe that this step we have taken will really help towards security on our products. Thanks! Steve Hart

NEW SHRINK WRAPPED BOX PICTURE #1

NEW SHRINK WRAPPED BOX PICTURE #2

NEW SHRINK WRAPPED BOX PICTURE #3

Friday, April 05, 2013
Website pricing, please read.
We are having a problem with pricing on our website. With my last buying trip I have raised the prices on a few of the items. However, if you've had an item in your cart and you go to check out with that saved cart, it will still have the old price. Our wesbite currently does not update the prices in saved carts. But, if you place an order for an item that has had the price changed, your order will be updated manually to reflect the new/current price. Sorry for the confusion. We are working with the website people to get this problem fixed. Thanks, Steve.

Saturday, December 08, 2012
12 Days of Christmas Day #4 is SOLD OUT!

We sold out of all 12 boxes of 1983 Topps baseball vending! Todays special lasted just under 4 hours only. We will have another special up tomorrow at 10:00 AM CST.

Thanks! Steve

Saturday, December 08, 2012
12 Days of Christmas Specials Day #4
12 Days of Christmas Specials Day #4
Today we are offering 12 boxes of 1983 Topps baseball vending for $50 per box plus shipping. There will be a limit of 2 boxes per customer. We will keep the box price at $65.00 per box on the website and will adjust it on our end. If you use a credit card, we will adjust it ourselves. If you use paypal, a refund will be sent back to you through payal. These boxes will last for the remainder of our Christmas sale, or until we sell out. We cracked open a sealed case for this special. Thanks! Steve

Friday, December 07, 2012
12 Days of Christmas Specials Day #3
Today we are offering 72 rack packs of 1984 Donruss baseball for $15.00 per rack plus shipping. There will be a limit of 6 racks per customer. We will keep the rack pack price at $20.00 per rack on the website and will adjust it on our end. If you use a credit card, we will adjust it ourselves. If you use paypal, a refund will be sent back to you through payal. These packs will last for the remainder of our Christmas sale, or until we sell out. Thanks! Steve

Thursday, December 06, 2012
12 Days of Christmas Special Day #2
Today, we will be offer all HAND COLLATED sets in all sports at 20% off plus shipping. This special is for sets from 1986 through the present only. This does not include Factory Sets, Traded Sets, Update Sets, etc. This special will run through all 12 days of our Christmas specials. Please add "12 Days of Christmas Special" to the comment section when placing orders. Thanks! Steve

Wednesday, December 05, 2012
12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS DAY #1 SOLD OUT
We have sold out of all 10 boxes of 1989 UD Baseball Lo Series at $69.00 per box plus shipping. The last box was sold at 5:07 CST. Any orders placed after that time will not receive the box for $69.00. We will have Day #2 special up at 10:00 am tomorrow morning CST. Thanks! Steve

Wednesday, December 05, 2012
12 Days of Christmas. Day #1!
Today kicks off our "12 Days of Christmas Special"! For the first day, we are putting up 10 boxes of 1989 Upper Deck Baseball Lo Numbers at $69.00 per box plus shipping. There will be a limit of 1 box per customer. These will stay at this price until 12 days go by, or well sell out, whichever comes first. I will update the blog if/when they sell out. The order must be placed through the website. The price on the website will remain at $90.00 and will be adjusted on our end. Please add " 12 Days of Christmas Special" to the comment section when checking out. Thanks! Steve

Monday, November 26, 2012
Black Friday Weekend Sale Has Ended!

Thanks to everyone who ordered over the last 4 days. Our sale was a huge success and hopefully we made a lot of customers happy too!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012
BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL!!

Black Friday Specials at Baseball Card Exchange will start at 12:01 A.M. CST Thursday, November 22nd, 2012 and run through 11:59 P.M. CST on Sunday, November 25^th 2012. All orders placed through www.bbcexchange.com during that time will receive 10% off the advertised website price and free shipping.

Terms: The minimum purchase to qualify for this special will be $100. Free shipping is up to $40. Orders will be processed in the order received. Orders will be processed as "fill or kill". "Fill or Kill" meaning that if you order 10 items, and we only have 2, you will be charged for 2 and the order will be processed. Free shipping is up to the first $40.00. This means if your shipping charges total $55.00, you will be charged the $15.00 balance. Free shipping applies to Standard USPS and UPS Ground shipping only. All orders will ship on Monday, November 26th (hopefully)!

Payment: If you choose credit card as payment, we will adjust the 10% discount and shipping charges on our end and charge your card accordingly. If you pay with PayPal, we will refund the discount and shipping fees back to your PayPal account.

International Orders: The minimum purchase to qualify for this special will be $200. Free shipping will be for one USPS Medium Flat Rate Box. A Medium Flat Rate box will typically hold 3-4 boxes.

Orders received prior to the start time or after the end time of the Black Friday Specials will be charged invoiced prices.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012
BBCE featured in the latest issue of SCD

A high ‘Exchange’ rate

For Baseball Card Exchange, hard work, lots of travel and superior customer service result in endless opportunities

In a shrinking industry mired in a down economy, many card dealers work hard just to survive. At Baseball Card Exchange, based in the south Chicago suburb of Lynwood, Ill., it’s quite the opposite; the five-person operation is flourishing and struggling to keep up with demand. After 20-plus years, owner Steve Hart and his crew have grown into one of the top operations in the hobby.

Many vintage wax dealers have come and gone throughout the years – Mark Murphy (Baseball Card Kid), Mike Parness (Waxman), and the late Paul Wright, to name a few – but it’s Hart who is considered the most knowledgeable person in the hobby today when it comes to authenticating unopened material. His reputation within the collecting community is unmatched.

When PSA decided to launch a pack grading division, Hart was their choice to be the sole authenticator. Since 2006, every single pack encapsulated by PSA must first receive his approval. In fact, every major auction house in the country seeks out Hart’s opinion on any unopened consignments they receive before they will list it in their respective auctions.

Servicing their customers

What differentiates Baseball Card Exchange (BBCE) from other companies in the hobby? Ask any BBCE employee, and you’ll get a diverse set of answers. Rick Oskierko, shipping and warehouse manager at BBCE, believes willingness to ship internationally has significantly increased their customer base.

“Selling different types of collectibles has earned us new customers from around the world,” said Oskierko, who has been with the company since 2005. “The other day we shipped several boxes of 1990s hockey to Germany, a few Michael Jordan inserts to China and some 2007/08 basketball to Australia. Our foreign customers are aware of how difficult it can be to ship overseas, and the repeat business we receive tells us we’re doing something right.”

Added Reed Kasaoka, director of acquisitions at BBCE, “Collectors have an immense thirst for knowledge when it comes to the real story about a particular item.”

Kasaoka thinks it’s all about their willingness to share information that sets their company apart from the rest.

“In our efforts to help educate collectors, we are sharing our decades of hobby experience by contributing a column in every Beckett baseball, football, basketball, and hockey issue about vintage unopened product. We’re also doing video box breaks featured on the Beckett website, where their magazine editors and ourselves open vintage packs and talk about what we find, while sharing all the great stories associated with that particular product.”

In addition to authenticating packs for PSA, Hart also facilitates “group rips” (splitting a box to open by the pack) for the members of the Collectors Universe message boards.

“For several years, unopened pack collectors and pack busters, alike, have pooled their resources together to break unopened boxes or cases of product offered on our website,” Hart explained. “One of the members keeps track of orders until all the packs are sold out – each member pays us directly – and then we ship out cards all over the world. When everyone receives their packs, they post pictures of what they got on the message boards. There’s no better form of advertising when someone buys just one 1981 Topps Football wax pack and pulls a mint Joe Montana rookie, or orders a 1975 Topps Baseball cello pack and finds the back of a George Brett rookie peeking through the cellophane, then jumps on a public forum to brag about his/her good fortune.”

Anatomy of buying a collection

The real answer to what makes BBCE so special is their ability to travel anywhere, anytime, to buy collections. Hart and Kasaoka offered a rare look into how they buy a collection, from start to finish.

“It all begins with advertising and self-promotion,” said Hart, whose company utilizes several forms of advertising to introduce themselves to past and current collectors. “BBCE runs full-page ads in every single major hobby publication – Sports Collectors Digest, SMR, Beckett – advertising our desire to buy cards; it’s costly but well worth the expense. Even though the hobby has fully embraced the benefits of being online, nothing is able to convey our message to buy cards better than a print ad.”

That’s not to say BBCE doesn’t have an established online presence. “In addition to our website, we chronicle what’s happening with our company on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/BBCExchange),” said Kasaoka, who posts regular updates about where they are traveling to next and pictures of all the unique items they find. However, he thinks what really seems to win over clients are the message boards.

“I encourage potential sellers to research us on various industry message boards like those hosted by Collectors Universe, Beckett, and Net54. Once they have a sense of what collectors have to say about us, they become confident with their decision on who they should be working with to sell their collection.”

At this point, Kasaoka, who does most of the traveling to buy collections for BBCE, isn’t ready to hit the road just yet.

“One of the most difficult things about buying a collection is trying to figure out exactly what’s there before traveling to see it in person,” says Kasaoka. He cites the number of inquiries from all over the U.S. and Canada makes it impossible to travel to everyone in a timely manner.

“Whether it’s over the phone or through e-mail, what I’m really trying to do is screen potential clients, to see if what they have to sell is of interest to us, and more importantly, if their level of expectation regarding value is in line with what market price is. I really grow interested when I receive a detailed description or inventory list – with pictures if possible. It lets me know this person is motivated to sell their collection and willing to put in the effort to showcase what they have.”

BBCE advertises they will travel anywhere – at any time – to buy a quality collection, and it sure seems like they back those words up with actions.

“One of the main reasons why I hired Reed, who I knew from his days as the head buyer at Dave & Adam’s, was his willingness to travel anywhere and do whatever it takes to buy deals,” said Hart, who previously did almost all the buying for his company. “I figured with two buyers, naturally we’d be able to cover twice as much ground, but what we’ve been able to accomplish over the past two years have exceeded my expectations.”

Part of the reason for being so busy was expanding their product base from just doing vintage wax and vintage PSA-graded singles, which Hart said has always been their “bread and butter,” to embracing the product lines Kasaoka had become familiar with throughout his years as a dealer.

“Two months after Steve hired me, I told him we should spend six figures on a store that sold modern cards, autographs, and coins in Durango, Colo.,” said Kasaoka. “Without any hesitation, he said, ‘OK!’ and because of his faith in me, I was able to show him all these different areas of the hobby I knew well but were new to BBCE – modern unopened product, autographed memorabilia, insert cards, and even coins. Do you know there was more than 3,000 ounces of silver in that store? After we returned from Colorado, Steve admitted if it was he who went to check out this store, he might have tried to buy the wax but would’ve left everything else, because he couldn’t think about what they would do with everything else. It took three 26 foot trucks to get it all back to the office.”

Once they arrive at the client’s home, business or storage unit, BBCE doesn’t automatically consider it a done deal. Both Hart and Kasaoka have sometimes traveled thousands of miles only to leave empty-handed.

“Though disappointing, not all negotiations resulting in us buying the deal,” said Hart. “It’s an unfortunate cost of doing business, but we understand that not all deals work out.”

However, while they have found their screening process has significantly improved the odds of buying a collection, it really comes down to negotiating honestly and fairly.

“Every collector can tell you at least one story about a dealer insulting them with a low-ball offer,” said Kasaoka. “While we can’t promise to always pay what the seller wants, Steve and I do believe that when making an offer, we should come out firing with our best shot. We don’t purposely start low and play the offer/counteroffer game like you see on shows like Pawn Stars. It might make for some entertaining TV, but all it does is insult the client and results in hurt feelings. We’d rather be unable to agree on a price and walk away with respect than buy a collection from someone and have them be upset about the entire experience.”

This article appears in the June 15, 2012 issue of Sports Collectors Digest (www.sportscollectorsdigest.com.)

Monday, May 14, 2012
A Funny Buying Trip Written By Reed!

When we travel around the country buying deals, nothing ever goes to plan, and you have to expect the unexpected. Steve and I could tell stories for hours, if not days, about all the stuff we've seen and experienced when on buying trips over the years. This is the story of our most recent trip.

I wake up at 3:45am on Wednesday, April 25^th. My birthday every year is usually just like any other day, except with a few calls from my family members and a bunch of posts on my Facebook page from many of my friends. I'm at the Holiday Inn Express in Schererville, Indiana, my home away from home, just down the road from the BBCE offices. Steve will be here in exactly one hour to pick me up and we'll head across the giant city of Chicago for our flight to Phoenix. As I wait outside in the cool morning air, I keep looking at my phone. "Steve's late; I guess I should text him." As I wait for his reply, I realize that sometime during the night, my phone has reset the time zone from Central to Eastern! I'm up an hour early! I make the decision that after almost 14 years loyal to Sprint (the parent company of where my dad worked for over 30 years), it's time to find another carrier.

Almost two months ago, Steve got a call from a gentleman named Marc in Arizona, who was interested in selling his aunt's collection. Her husband had passed away a couple of months ago, and in an effort to downsize her living space, she needed to unload the collection he had spent over 30 years building. Marc, after receiving a couple of insulting offers from local dealers, picked up a copy of the latest Beckett Magazine, read our ad, and decided to call BBCE. Over the next couple of weeks, the inventory list of unopened product he put together to share with us was quite impressive - 1984 Topps Football cases, 1993 SP Baseball boxes, 1986/87 Fleer Basketball packs, and so much more. Steve kept in touch with Marc over the next few weeks, making offers on everything he could quantify. I was busy myself, driving around the South filling a truck with several collections, but every time I talked to Steve, he kept telling me about this deal in Arizona.

We land in Phoenix at 9am. I slept the whole flight and now Steve and I are both anxious to make the three hour drive to Show Low, Arizona, to see this collection. First stop, the Penske dealership to pick up our truck. I have had a love/hate relationship with Penske for the past few years. While I won't even consider using U-Haul again, Penske seems to be failing in their customer service department, which is the main reason why I like dealing with them. I often show up at the scheduled time to find my truck isn't there yet, have been offered trucks with the cab littered in pet hair, have been offered a truck where the floor of the box was all wet from the rain, and many other various disappointments. As predicted, our truck was not there when we arrived at the dealership. Half an hour later, it shows up, and Penske graciously offers to clean it, inside and out, before they turn the keys over to me. When the manager tells me I'm all ready to go, he says something very peculiar, something I've never heard a vehicle rental employee tell me before. He says, "Yeah, if you ever have a problem with the truck, like if it should stop working, don't worry, we'll "make things right." We'll send a replacement truck and a crew to help transport your goods from one truck to another." What? Are you trying to jinx me by telling me this scenario? Or, do you know something about this truck that I don't know? I tell Steve what the manager just told me, and he's dumfounded as well.

I've been all over the United States, to places most will never even think of going, for both business and pleasure, but I had to look on a map to find Show Low, Arizona. Phoenix is three hours away. Flagstaff is over two hours away. Albuquerque is four hours away. In other words, it's in the middle of nowhere. Furthermore, it's not easily accessible by a 26 foot box truck. For over three hours, the road twisted and turned, over mountains and through the valleys, and we climbed over a mile in elevation. The Penske truck performed admirably, but I would expect nothing less. Whenever I rent from Penske, I never feel like the truck they have provided me is going to give out. I've backed into a drainage ditch before, got stuck in the mud, and even once loaded it with twice the recommended weight in cargo, but the trucks always came through. We finally make it to Show Low, check into the hotel, get some food, and fall asleep early. The work begins tomorrow morning at 7am.

Normally I would never suggest to a potential seller that we meet at 7am. I'm not much of a morning person, and besides, I need to get warmed up if I'm going to be loading a truck with several tons of cards. However, Thursday, April 26^th is unlike any other day. It's Day One of the 2012 NFL Draft. Those who have gotten to know me over the years understand what the Draft means to me; it's like Christmas in April. I never miss watching it. I've actually been to the Draft in 2005, 2006, and 2007, and in 2008, I was at Leodis McKelvin's draft party when the Bills selected him 11^th overall. Starting at 7am gave me hope that there would be a chance that we could be done by 5pm, and I could head back to the hotel and watch the draft unfold. To my dismay, after walking around the house and seeing how much product that wasn't already inventoried, I knew we'd never finish in time. Furthermore, this house didn't have cable or satellite, so I couldn't even watch the draft while I worked! Further still, the computer in the home was hooked up to the internet with dial-up access. Seriously? Getting updates on my phone (which was on roaming) had to suffice. It would be over two weeks before I got home to watch the Draft saved on my girlfriend's DVR.

As Steve and I walked around the house surveying all this "new"material that wasn't in inventory, I quickly mentioned to Steve all this would not fit into one truck. Since both of us in the past year had been pulled over and interrogated by the police, we are now considered commercial drivers and must follow all the rules and regulations set forth by the Department of Transportation. We have to keep log books, take rest breaks, and carry a medical card, just like truckers do. One can only imagine how much more difficult this makes our job and the additional expenses we must now incur when buying large deals. So already I'm telling Steve, we're going to need a second truck, and instead of flying back tomorrow, he's going to have to drive behind me for the next 1600 miles over three days.

For fourteen hours, we did it all - prepared a final inventory, agreed on a price, wired the funds to the seller's bank, boxed up all the loose items, and loaded it on the truck. We'd worry about transferring the extra weight onto the second truck tomorrow, since Steve would have to head out to Flagstaff to pick up the truck and come back to Show Low. We were ready to return to our hotel around 9pm, so I started up the truck. I had some problems with the truck accelerating in the morning, but didn't think much of it since it was only a two mile drive to the house, and figured the engine just needed to warm up. For 15 minutes, I tried rocking the truck back and forth on the slight incline of this gravel driveway, switching between reverse and drive, desperately trying to get this vehicle to move. The nosy neighbors from across the street came out to see what the deal was, but I guess hearing several minutes of me revving the engine would piss anyone off as well. Finally, I was able to get out of the driveway, but as I slowly drove back to the hotel, I realized the transmission wasn't shifting gears, and something was terribly wrong with the truck.

The 24-hour roadside assistance guy showed up within a half-hour of my call, and spent the next hour running a whole bunch of diagnostics on the truck and the engine. Finally, he told me, "Your transmission is shot." Great. Penske calls me up and tells me they are sending a wrecker, towing the replacement truck, and it will be there in a few hours. However, they would not be sending a team of people to help me switch the goods from one truck to the next, and offered no explanation as to why. We pretty much figured it's because we were hours away from the closest Penske dealership, but what about that promise they made yesterday in Phoenix? Steve could care less; he just wanted to sleep, and let me handle the matter. At 3am, the driver calls me and I meet him across the street in an empty lot. There's the replacement truck in tow, ready to go. Or so we thought. For the next half-hour, I watched the driver try to reattach something underneath the truck; there's some sort of piece they need to disconnect when towing the vehicle, and apparently now that piece was broken. Awesome! Two broken trucks in the middle of nowhere!

Finally, the driver admits defeat. He determines there is a NAPA auto parts store down the street, and when they open in a few hours, he'll be able to get the part and return the truck to operational status. At 7am, I get the call telling me the truck is now ready. Fine; I tell the driver to leave the truck in the parking lot down the street. By now, Steve is up and on his way to Flagstaff to get another truck to relieve the extra weight of all the product we have. I go back to sleep and several hours later, Steve's back, and we're ready to transfer almost 12,000 pounds in cardboard from one truck that doesn't work into two trucks that will hopefully get us back to the office in one piece.

When the dates for this deal in Arizona were finalized in the beginning of April, I started to think about what other sorts of deals could I pickup along the way. By the time I left Buffalo for Chicago on April 22^nd, I had stops scheduled in Nevada, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Now that Steve was here with a second truck, and three hours of unloading a deal we had just loaded less than 24 hours ago was staring us in the face, I reached the point where I was seriously questioning whether or not it was bad karma to continue as planned and drive 3,000 miles all over the country, including through and around the Rockies, in a 26' truck. I made the decision to cancel the rest of my stops, much to the disappointment of the potential sellers I had lined up. While I would fly to Montana to buy that particular deal the following week, I'm not sure when I'll be able to reschedule trips to those other states in the near future. In eight years, I've never been to South Dakota once to look at a collection!

Three hours later, the broken truck was empty. In an attempt to minimize the amount of effort we would have to expend to transfer all the product, we were able to back one truck up to the other, then run the loading ramp between the two, and walk across the bridge. Quite a funny sight to see something like this, but not so funny when you have to carry a 60 pound case across a narrow walkway and the wind starts to blow. Once we were done, all we did was drive and drive and drive, from Friday afternoon until Sunday night. We bought some great items, so it was all worth it in the end, even with the added expenses. All I need to do now is cool down, collect my thoughts, and place that call to Penske and have them "make things right."

Saturday, December 31, 2011
A Bad Luck/Good Luck Story For You To Read!
I was in Philadelphia earlier this week buying a few small deals. I met a customer at an Outback Steakhouse to buy an unopened wax box. When we got through eating we went outside and I was going to start my drive back home. Suddenly, the customer I was with noted that I left my back window down in my Ford Explorer. I looked to see and noticed glass shattered all over the ground and all around the window. Holy Crap! Someone shattered the back window out while we were eating! My stomach dropped as I was worried what was stolen. It appeared the thieves got my luggage and my briefcase. However, my briefcase was sitting on top of a factory sealed 1977 Topps baseball wax case that I had picked up earlier in the day. So I guess the thieves opted for my dirty underwear and all my IRS paperwork that I had in my briefcase as that was what I brought along to work on. Good thing they left behind the 1977 Topps wax case and all the other cases I had just picked up! Back luck and good luck all in one single break in!

Monday, November 28, 2011
Black Friday Sale Has Ended!

Thanks to everyone who made our Black Friday sales event a crazy ordeal! We were here 15 hours a day, every day, filling and processing orders!

THANK YOU!! Steve

Wednesday, October 05, 2011
New Items and Things Going On At BBCE!!!

Hello! It's been a long time since I wrote anything new on the Blog here at BBCE. I'm going to try to update it more often (whenever I can find a free minute or two!) You can also follow Reed's blog on facebook under Baseball Card Exchange. Reed updates his blog there much more often than I do. His blogs usually come from all the road trips he does for us buying inventory. I'll do my best to try to keep things updated here on new products, new interesting things and just basically whatever comes to mind.

First of all, I was out in California last week working for PSA. As most of you know, I do all the authenticating for PSA on unopened material. They had a TON of stuff out there for me to do and needed it done by the end of the 3rd quarter. Just let me say be very, very careful out there buying pre-1975 unopened material. I looked at quite a bit of it at PSA's headquarters and I would guess that 80-90% of it was re-sealed. It seems that eBay is the place most of this re-sealed stuff ends up at. Do your homework on this stuff before you make the leap on eBay. I also saw a large number of 1986/87 Fleer basketball packs that were resealed (or completely homemade!). People often ask me why my 86/87 Fleer basketball packs are $350.00 on my website when you can pick them up on eBay for $100-$200 per pack. Well, that is exactly the reason. BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!

Since the National Convention in early August, I think Reed has been on the road about 75% of the time! He mentioned to me that he slept in his own bed 6 nights in August alone. That is the main reason I hired him last year. I just simply cannot be out of the office that much. Plus with a 6 year old daughter at home, I need to be in my own house as much as I can. Reed has been all over the country buying all kinds of stuff. It has been keeping Rick, Mike, Andrew and myself busy all the time here at the office. We have been so busy since the convention that I have been here all day on weekends too! It seems we just can't keep up with all the business we do!

We added a bunch of new 1994-1999 unopened baseball products today and will add the same stuff in football over the next few days. Our inventory of 2000-2009 stuff has never been this full! There are tons of new baseball products from this era and mostly are high end! Coming in the next few weeks will a collection of unopened football wax boxes from 1968 through 1986. This collection is only missing a few years and will be sold on our website by the box individually. I will be picking these boxes up myself the week of October 17th on the West Coast. We also bought a collection of early 1980's baseball unopened cases that will be available later this month. If you have any specific needs please e-mail me and I can always have them drop shipped from the East Coast. This is where the cases are stored until I can get out there to pick them up. Thanks for listening! Steve

Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Are You Attending The National Sports Collectors Convention?

If you've seen us at a show before you know we bring a truckload of vintage unopened product along with sets and single cards. As much as we want to, we just can't bring our whole inventory. So, if you are attending the National, and you'd like for us to bring something specific for you, simply do the following: Place a website order and in the "comments" section just let us know that you'd like to pick it up at the National. We will process your order, minus the shipping, and bring your items to the show for you to pick up in person.

This would really benefit anyone looking to take advantage of the BBCE/PSA National Convention Promotion!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Are You Attending The National Sports Collectors Convention?

This would really benefit anyone looking to take advantage of the BBCE/PSA National Convention Promotion!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Are You Attending The National Sports Collectors Convention?

This would really benefit anyone looking to take advantage of the BBCE/PSA National Convention Promotion!

Monday, July 04, 2011
BBCE/PSA National Convention Promotion

BBCE/PSA National Convention Promotion

1. Purchase any unopened material from Baseball Card Exchange and open it at the BBCE booth. Cards must be opened at the BBCE booth to be eligible for this promotion. All other cards will not be allowed for submission.

2. Decide which cards you would like graded on-site with PSA. BBCE will place your cards in semi-rigids and submit them to PSA on your behalf. For this exclusive National promotion, the discounted grading fee is only $15/card; minimum five cards. (Regular price for PSA on-site grading at a show is $35!)

3. BBCE will take “before” and “after” pictures of your cards. These pictures will be for BBCE promotional use only.

4. You will be notified when your cards have been encapsulated and are ready to be picked up at the BBCE booth. You must show proper ID to receive your cards. If you should leave the show before your cards are encapsulated, BBCE will ship your cards at their expense during the week following the National.

ONLY CARDS WHICH HAVE BEEN PULLED FROM UNOPENED MATERIAL PURCHASED FROM BBCE AT THE 2011 NATIONAL AND OPENED AT THE BBCE BOOTH ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THIS PROMOTION.

If you have any questions, feel free to email Reed at ReedBBCE@gmail.com or call him at (808) 372-1974.

Saturday, October 02, 2010
My past week spent in court!

First of all, for those of you who love watching unopened pack breaks on Youtube, check out this new website. It's called www.packgeek.com and contains all types of vintage pack breaks! Cool stuff!!

I spent all last week in Cumberland County, PA giving expert testimony on a case involving unopened stuff being sold on ebay(along with coins, cards, autographs,etc). It was the first time I ever was asked to do something like this. Believe me, the money I was paid was not nearly enough to convince me to spend the week out there. However, if it helps clean up the industry some, then it was well worth it to me. You can check it out at this link: http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=11&threadid=789831 , which contains more links in it to the news about it. Thanks and be careful out there! Steve Hart

Monday, July 12, 2010
3 Weeks Until the National!

Hello!

Not too much exciting for the weekend here at BBCE. Got offered a high grade 1959 Topps set and a 1933 Sportkings set. We were close on the 1959 Topps baseball set (all cards were graded!), but not close enough to make the deal. The Sportkings set is all graded (lower grades), but still a vintage set from a very popular issue!

We started adding some non-sports foil boxes today that we came across. You can view them under the non-sports tab 2000-present.

Thanks! Steve

Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Where is the Vintage Unopened Matieral??

Over the last several months, we have just not gotten the calls to sell us vintage unopened material. I'm mostly talking pre-1981 stuff. It seems that in all 4 major sports there just hasn't been the material. We could really use just about anything pre-1981, but without much success! I guess this is good news for those of you holding this type of material! Of course, pre-1970 has been nearly impossible to find. But items we used to consider easy (such as 1977 and 1978 Topps baseball wax boxes) just dont pop up as often. Well, we have gotten some of each year in lately (77 and 78) but were completely resealed! Be careful out there. As the pre-1981 stuff gets harder and harder to find, the more resealed junk we will see hitting the market to try to lure in the buyers.

We added some more 1990-2000's unopened basketball and hockey boxes today to the website.

Thanks! Steve

Monday, July 05, 2010
1 Month Until the Baltimore National!

Hello! I hope everyone had a safe 4th of July holiday and still can count all 10 fingers!

We are only 1 month away from the National Convention in Baltimore, MD. I hope to see many customers there so we can match some faces with names. Make sure you stop by and say hello! I'm going to try to write into my blog daily leading up to the show.

It has been 2 months since we hired Reed Kasaoka and he sure has been busy! He has already made purchases in San Diego, Colorado and New York/New Jersey. In fact in Colorado, he bought out a 3400 square foot coin business of all its sports cards, gaming cards, comic books, coins, stamps and autographs. It's going to take (3) 24 foot trucks to get it all back as some of it is still sitting in Colorado. The coolest part of that deal was around 500 autographed index cards from the mid-50's. Included were Ty Cobb, Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, etc.

We put back into stock a bunch of baseball and football products from the mid 1990's through the mid 2000's.

Be back again tomorrow! Steve Hart

www.bbcexchange.com

Thursday, January 14, 2010
Last Day of the Buying Trip.

Today we made a trip to Lynchburg, Virginia. Getting there with our 15-foot box truck (completely full of cases) through the moutains was awful. I thought we were going to topple over on the sharp turns! Anyway, we rented a second truck (a 24-footer) for this purchase. This deal consisted of around 250 unopened cases and nearly 5000 complete sets (yes, that was 5000!). This gentleman would sort cards every night to make hand collated sets. They are mostly from 1987 on up. I think we bought the worlds supply of topps, fleer, donruss, upper deck, bowman, bowmans best, chrome, heritage, SP, glossy shiny-card refractor die cut numbered card sets!!! So we filled up the 24 foot truck completely with cases and sets. We still left more than half of it behind!!! We will have to go back in a couple weeks to get the rest (with 2 huge trucks again).

I guess this purchase goes to show that we buy everything! Even if sometimes it's newer sets that dont get me excited, we still buy it all. Thanks! Steve

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
DAY NUMBER TWO
Well, the deal with all the 50's and 60's sets fell through. We just didnt come to agreement on the prices. The sets were a grade or two too low, and the price was a grade or two too high! Oh well, thats what happens sometimes. Our next stop was on Long Island. We filled up our truck completely with unopened cases of wax,rack,cello and vending. It's mostly junk, but we are in need of junk right now! Tomorrow morning we will be in Virginia filling up another 24 foot truck with unopened material. Will check back tomorrow night. Thanks! Steve

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
BUYING TRIP DAY ONE

We made 3 stops today and made purchases at each stop! The first stop netted us a 1960 Topps baseball cello box from the second series. One of the packs even had a Yaz RC showing on top. We also bought 3 unopened rack packs from 1960 (second series again). Cool rack packs that still look like they never saw daylight and are as clean as could be! Our next stop wasn't too far from the first one and we bought a near complete 1934 Goudey set. Every card was graded by PSA as NM-MT 8's. It included mostly all of the HOF'ers and 1 of the Gehrigs. All high grade cards in PSA 8 holders!

Our final stop was in Brooklyn and was mostly just junk wax. Bought several cases and then finished the day. Early tomorrow we are looking at a bunch of sets from the 50's and 60's, included some 1951 Bowman sets with nice Mantle rookies. Hopefully, they end up in our truck! After that it's out to Long Island to pick up a few hundred junk wax,rack, cello and vending cases. From there, we are headed to Baltimore to look at a childhood collection of late 50's and early 60's cards. Will be back then to let you know how it all worked out! Thanks! Steve

Friday, December 11, 2009
Friday Dec 11th....
I just want to let everyone know that we are a couple days behind on shipments. I had to fly to New York for a funeral for a great friend of mine (who I actually met through this business). Therefore, I have missed the last couple days of work here at the office. Rick, who gets most of the shipping done, is out of town with the family on a Christmas getaway. That leaves Mike as the only one here. Since he has been busy invoicing, answer the phones and getting ebay auctions ready to go up this weekend, there has been little time for him to get any packages out. I will be coming in all this weekend boxing everything up and will have every package going out first thing this Monday morning. This includes all ebay, website and box breaks (CU forums) that will go out this Monday. Thanks for your patience and understanding! Steve Hart

Sunday, December 06, 2009
Last Day of the Show

Last day for the card show here in Valley Forge. Sales/purchases were very slow here. The crowd was kind of thick at times, but Hunt had great autograph guests here for the public! We didnt really buy much to speak of. We did pick up a nice 1977 Topps football box and 1977/78 Topps basketball packs that we are going to sell by the pack once we get back to the office. We area always out of those packs and they sell very well.

Most of our sales this time was for PSA graded Hall-of-Famers and not too much in unopened material. We had lots of people asking if we brought certain items with that are on our website(unopened stuff). However, we can't bring everything, so I guess it's going to have to be shipped.

Anyone who submitted packs at this show can be happy to know that I did all the authentication here. Therefore, the turnaround time should be very quick!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by just to say hello! It's nice to be able to match faces with people we speak with on the phone all the time.

Thanks! Steve

Friday, December 04, 2009
Valley Forge Show
We are here at the Valley Forge show. The public is being let in at 5:00 pm, so I have some time to kill. Our stop yesterday to look at an unopened collection turned out to be pretty disappointing. The person had a couple hundred wax boxes from the early 1980's until 1990. There was lots of 1982 Topps, 1983 Topps and 1984 Donruss. We can always use these products and the boxes were as clean as could be. HOWEVER, when we lifted the lids to start inspecting the packs we noticed that the boxes had loose cards piled in the boxes and not sealed packs! It looked like someone opened the packs in the year of issue and just then put the cards back into the boxes. Ugggg. We did find some boxes that were full of packs, but of course most of those turned out to be the 1988-1990 era. So I made him an offer of around $4000.00 for everything. This was pretty much our listed buy prices, so our offer was close to where we had to be and couldn't have much movement. The customer was shocked to say the least. His response was that "I've got $18,000 into the storage unit alone over the last 15 years." Unfortunately, the storage fees were something I couldn't really help him with!! So we got back into the truck and got on our way. These things happen sometimes, but it's just part of the business. Will let you know how the show was later tonight. Steve

Wednesday, December 02, 2009
On The Way To Philly!

We are traveling to Valley Forge for the convention. It is being held at the Valley Forge Convention Center this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you get a chance to stop by the show, make sure you come on over to say hello. We have the first 2 booths visable when you walk in the front door.

Our holiday sale offering 10% off and free shipping was pretty overwhelming! We didn't expect to get the huge response that we did. Rick and I were getting in at 5:00 AM in the morning and staying there until the evening, just to write invoices and ship packages! We want to thank everyone who placed orders and took advantage of the sale!

We have to make a stop in the morning to look at an unopened collection. Will write in our blog what we saw and if we were able to purchase it. Thanks! Steve

Sunday, November 29, 2009
Back from the 1 day buying trip

I got back late last night from my 1 day buying trip. Put in about 700 miles round trip, but got some great brats at the Brat Stop in Kenosha, WI! Anyway, the first stop was pretty good as I bought some high grade 38 Goudey Heads-Up cards, a high grade near set of 1954 Bowman (with a PSA 8 Mantle and Williams!), a Jordan RC PSA 10, and a Ryan collection that had 1968 through 1974 PSA 9's! We then drove to offer on another collection. The stuff was mainly sets from 1974 to present, along with a bunch of 1954 through 1970 HOF'ers. However, we were very far apart as to what he was asking and what I wanted to offer. I then headed home and got a phone call as I was pulling into my driveway. The friend of the guy who had the collection told him he would have taken a price for what I wanted to offer! Sometimes, I wonder why people have a pie-in-the-sky number, only to actually want less than half of that. Since the customer wanted such a high number when I was there, I didn't want to upset him with my offer, so I politely told him that we weren't close enough. Now I come to find out that we were actually at the same figures! Oh well, looks like I will have to drive back and now make the deal.

Also, the special 10% discount and free shipping will now be extended to Tuesday at 9:00. We have sold so much stuff over the past 3 days with the special that we will give it another day. Experts (who they are, I will never know) say tomorrow is the busiest on-line shopping day of the year. Therefore, I am extending the sale to Tuesday at 9:00 AM.

Thanks! Steve

Saturday, November 28, 2009
Black Friday

Hello! The first day of our 10% off & free shipping sale went over real well with our customers. Lots of orders on basically a whole range of items. I am heading to Green Bay today to look/purchase a couple of collections. Not sure exactly what is going to be there, but was told HOF cards from 50's & 60's along with sets from the 70's on up. Will post later what happens with them.

I think over the next few days I will write about how the BBCE came about 20 years ago and introduce you to the members of my team here. I also have a couple of buying trip in December and the Philly show I will report on too. Thanks! Steve

Sunday, September 27, 2009
Philly Show Review

It is the last day here at the Philly show and will probably be a slow day. Football kicks off in a few hours and it may be a ghost town here then! The whole show has pretty much been slow and unexciting. We did however purchase 2 really interesting rare items! The first item was a case of 1976 Topps football rack packs. Case contains 3 boxes, each box with 24 rack packs. That is a pretty rare case that we haven't seen in a loooonnng time. The next item that we bought I don't think I have ever owned. A complete 24-pack box of 1971/72 Topps basketball wax packs. Earlier this year I had some full boxes of 1971 Topps baseball that are very, very rare. This basketball box however is much rarer than the baseball box! I have owned more 1961/62 Fleer basketball unopened product than 71/72 Topps basketball product!! What makes this box special too is that it still contains the original Topps insert piece on top and the 24 packs are just mint. They appear to never have seen the light of day and are glossy as can be. We will be updating the website this week when we return home. Thanks!! Steve

Monday, September 21, 2009
We are heading to "The Philly Show"
Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are heading to King Of Prussia, PA this weekend for "The Philly Show". We will be bringing our usual assortment of unopened products along with some of our higher end PSA graded cards and sets. If you happen to go to the show, please be sure to stop by and say Hello! The show is Friday the 25th of September through Sunday the 27th. The show is going to have some pretty cool autograph guests including ... Ric Flair... Whooooo!!! Thanks, Steve.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Updates to the Website
We made it back from the National in Cleveland on Monday and have finished unpacking the truck. The show was a great success for us, both buying and selling. It was nice meeting all the people in person that we normally work with over e-mails. We have updated the website with all new boxes and cases that we bought. We will add the new graded and ungraded packs to the website tomorrow. We also bought a case of 1981 Topps football wax that was awesome. We put on them on the site as from a case. They were mint and non-x outs. Thanks! Steve

Friday, July 31, 2009
National Convention Day 3!

Hello!
   OK, I missed writing the blog last night. I had a 24-hour flu bug or ate something Tuesdat night that ruined me. I was sick all day on Wednesday and when the show ended at 9:00 pm, I went straight to sleep.
   I felt much better today and had a busy show. The most exciting part was the guys who opened 2 packs of 1955 Topps All-American Cello packs. Each pack had 20 cards and had many Hall-of-Famers. The best cards from the packs got graded by PSA with excellent results! There was a Don Hudson and a Knute Rockne that came back as PSA GEM MINT 10's! There was also a 4-Horseman PSA MINT 9! The cards were just amazing.
   We had a busy day, but didnt really buy anthing exciting from the people there. We did buy an 80/81 OPC hockey box that is a really hard box to find. The box was really fresh and mint too!

Will check back in tomorrow night with anything new and exciting! Steve

Monday, July 27, 2009
Cleveland National 2009!

We are on our way to Cleveland for the National Convention as I write this. Kind of bumpy trying to type from the passenger seat!

If you plan on attending the convention this weekend, please stop by our booths (#1608 and #1612) to say hello! We will have all types of unopened material for sale.

I will write a blog each day from the convention on anything exciting that happens. Look for it each evening throughout this week.

Our show has started with an exciting purchase already. Late last week I got a phone call from someone who said they bought about 1800 cards from the early 50's at an estate sale. They proceeded to tell me that the cards were "mint". Well after 20 years of buying from everywhere you can think of, I usually know what to expect when someone tells me they have "mint" cards. Most of the time I get there the persons definition of "mint" is that the cards are still in 1 piece!! So without having very high hopes we made the stop to see them. These cards turned out to be the best raw cards from the early 50's that I have ever seen. Someone must have opened the packs and never touched them again. There were about 75 cards from 1952 (all from the mid series) total. Somehow around 50 of them were dead centered both ways and all NM-MT to MINT. I don't know how that was possible! If you opened 15 packs of 1952 Topps cards today they would have centerng all over the place. There were also no doubles. Maybe someone back then threw away the doubles and kept the centered ones only? Just amazing how most all the cards were centered. The same thing with the 1953 Topps and 1955 Topps. There were also a large chunk of non-sports from the same era. Including some Davy Crockett cards with both Orange and Green backs that were just beautiful. This was by far the highest group of raw graded cards I have ever bought. I will be submitting several hundred cards to PSA Wednesday at the show. I will post the results on some of them to let you know just how beautiful the cards were.

I guess it just goes to show you that raw mint stuff is still sitting in attics and in shoeboxes (which is what the cards were still in!!)

Be back tomorrow night! Steve

Friday, May 22, 2009
Re-Sealed Unopened Material

Lately it appears that EVERY package that comes in from someone trying to sell me stuff is tampered with or completely re-sealed. I tend to believe that 90% of the customers trying to sell me stuff do not know it themselves, but got burned along the way by another scumbag. We have seen it all lately. There has been resealed boxes of 1975,1976,1977 and 1978 Topps baseball. 1975/76 Topps hockey. 1984 Donruss baseball. 19986 Fleer basketball. 1977 Topps football. 1970 Topps baseball. Packs from the 50's and 60's. And for anyone out there who thinks that rack packs are the hardest/most difficult, think again! We have gotten numerous re-sealed 1971 Topps baseball and football racks. 1968 Topps baseball racks. 1975 Topps baseball racks. They are the hardest to detect, but are being done the most (due to them being the hardest to detect).

I am going to say that most of this stuff is coming from ebay. I would estimate that 75% of all the stuff on ebay is resealed garbage. Customers are buying it from ebay and then offering it to me at a profit. Unfortunately, the stuff is no good. This hurts everyone in this aspect of the hobby/business. It brings down the prices of the REAL/AUTHENTIC unopened stuff. I've heard in the past that at the BBCE we sell stuff 20-30% higher than normal, but you get good stuff that you pay for. The problem here I see is that we are 20-30% higher than realized prices on ebay. HOWEVER, if it is 20-30% cheaper than our prices and it's 100% no good, did you really save anything?? We would GLADLY pay the prices that stuff seems to end up at on ebay. However, its mostly garbage.

Be careful our there! We would gladly offer our opinion on something before you buy it or after you purchase it for free. Thanks, Steve Hart

Saturday, March 28, 2009
Just Returned from Florida

Hello! I just got back from Florida in the Tampa area. I spent 10 days watching the Yanks, Blue Jays, Phillies, Pirates, Reds, Red Sox and a few others. Got nice and sunburned and had a relaxing time. White I was gone, we had Rick and Mike here taking orders and everything went smoothly.

If you need to talk to me specifically, I will be back to the everyday grind of being here! You can call me Monday morning starting at 9:00 am cst. Will be back to buying and selling if there is anything you need to discuss.

Also, if you are having any trouble with the website (logging in, viewing your cart, etc). Please let me know as I am still trying to work out a few very small bugs.

Thanks! Steve Hart

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Returning Back Home
I am heading back home from the Philly show. I wasn't able to update the blog much as my evenings were busy and I was not able to get a cell phone/internet reception in the convention center. The show was very busy and we were happy to meet many people we only deal with over the internet. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and said hello! We bought quite a bit of stuff at the show. We also met 2 people who lived in the area of the convention. Rick drove the truck home Sunday night with all the stuff from the show, but I stayed until Monday morning. I rented another 16 foot truck and filled it full of unopened stuff from the 2 customers in the area. It's mostly the usual unopened stuff that is fairly common. We did get some 80's football and hockey that we have been out of for awhile. We will be updating the website over the next week with products that we got back in. Thanks again! Steve

Thursday, February 19, 2009
DAY #4!
We only had the time to make 1 stop today, but is was a large amount of product! We shipped back 12 pallets full of unopened material and shipped them back on a semi. We also had to put some of it in our truck. There was all kinds of boxes and cases in all 4 sports from 1980 through 1990. I will have to run through it all when we return this weekend, but there was a large variety of stuff. It did have some more 86/87 Fleer basketball and 79/80 Topps hockey product in it! Will check in tomorrow, Steve

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
DAY #3!

Today we made 2 stops in PA. The first one was for mostly unopened basketball stuff. We bought some of the following products: 77/78 Topps basketball and hockey, some cases of 1981 Donruss Golf, some 1982 Donruss Golf (We haven't had that product in a long time!), some 1988/89 Fleer basketball including a full case, several 89/90 Fleer basketball cases, a few cases of 1979/80 Topps basketball wax boxes, 80/81 Topps basketball boxes, 81/82 Topps basketball and of course, dozens of cases of junk basketball wax. There seems to be an endless supply on the junk wax! However, we always need it so supply the customers who want it!

The second stop was a waste of time as it turned out to be nothing but a few loose odds and ends we didnt even offer on. Oh well, these types of deals happen once in awhile. Tomorrow is an exciting day as we will be purchasing a few hundred cases and boxes with some awesome product! Will check back in then, Steve

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
DAY #2!
Today we made 3 stops in and around New York city. What an awful day of driving! You can't take trucks on any parkways in NY, so that means our box truck wasn't welcome on most of the roads we needed to take. This made for some fun traveling through Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island. We could barely fit our truck down some of the one way streets in Brooklyn without coming within inches of the cards parked on both sides of the road! We only managed to buy some 50's and 60's sets in offgrade condition. We did look at some nicer sets with some nice non-sports also. However, we couldn't come to terms with the owners of the cards. We did pick up some mid's 70's unopened football wax and cello boxes. And of course, we got the usual junk wax. I think if someone could come up with a way to turn junk wax back into the trees they were made from then you could really make some serious money! Be back tomorrow evening, Steve

Monday, February 16, 2009
DAY #1!

Today we spent the whole day driving from the office in Lynwood, IL to Mahwah, NJ. No stops, just driving.

However, during the past week one of our stops on this trip actually made the drive to our office! I guess it saved us a little time as he was slightly out of our way on the trip. We purchased some Topps baseball vending cases from 1974,1976 and 1977. There was also a 1977 Topps football vending case. These tough cases just haven't been popping up at all over the past few years! There was also some 1976 Topps football cello boxes and some 1968 Topps baseball vending boxes! The 1968 boxes spoke to me to open them, so I gave in. The cards were absolute mint bricks, but just short on centering. If it was 50/50 left right, then they were 70/30 top/bottom. If they were 50/50 top/bottom, then they were 70/30 left/right. Oh well, it was fun and something I rarely ever do (rip open unopened product!) However, there is no way a can sell a couple of 1968 Topps baseball vending boxes as "unopened" when I have no idea the history of the boxes. Cards from vending boxes were packed alot looser than vending boxes from the 70's and 80's, so cards can easily be pulled in and out of the boxes.

Will check in tomorrow. Thanks! Steve

Saturday, January 31, 2009
We are heading back East!
We have had so many more phone calls to come back to the East Coast that we are making another buying trip! The week of Feb 15th we will be making stops all over from Boston down to Charlotte. We will be hitting cities all over in between. Please give us a call if you have items to sell and we will try to put you on our list of places to stop. I will also be writing a blog agin each night to update the travels and the purchases! Thanks! Steve

Monday, January 19, 2009
The Last Few Days

We made 1 final stop near Indianapolis on Friday and could not come to terms with the customer. He had some 1953 through 1957 Topps groups in off grade condition. Unfortuntely, we couldn't meet at a price. We got home Friday and I spent the weekend with my daughter after missing the whole week with her.

I am back in the office today and working on unloading the pallets and trucks. I should hopefully have the website updated this week. Remember, if a product came in that we never had before, you can view all of those new arrivals in the New Items categoy/link. However, if something came in that we had at one time before, it will just be put back up into inventory and wont appear in New Items, but rather where is belongs in order in its category.

Thanks!! Steve

Friday, January 16, 2009
DAY SIX!

We made 3 stops today. The first one was in the Charlotte area. We picked up 2 pallets of unopened material. It was mostly junk wax along with more junk wax.

The 2nd stop was in South Carolina and we picked up about 50 cases of stuff from 1985 through 1993. Lots of good stuff from that era!

The 3rd stop was more of the same junk wax stuff.

Tomorrow, we will make our last stop ijn Indianapolis and then head home. I really dont want to head back to Chicago as it has been the coldest in decades there! Will report tomorrow evening. Steve

Thursday, January 15, 2009
DAY FIVE!
Today was an all driving day to North Carolina. Nothing to report as nothing was looked at. Just glad I'm not back at home in Chicago where the weather is miserable! Have to offer on an unopened collection in the morning. Will report back tomorrow night! Thanks! Steve

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
DAY THREE AND FOUR!

OK, so last night I feel asleep in the hotel room and didn't quite update the blog with day 3. Therefore.....

Day 3 started out in CT by picking up some junk unopened cases, boxes and sets. We then drove to New York and bought some more junk wax. It wasn't much of an exciting day, but that was all in the schedule.

Day 4. This was one of the days we were looking foward to. We started early in the morning in NJ and filled 10 full pallets with unopened cases! We shrinkwrapped them and then loaded them up on a 53 foot semi and sent them back to the warehouse. This deal had some pretty cool cases and boxes in it. There was some 86 Fleer basketball boxes, some 79/80 Toppp hockey boxes, a run of Topps baseball vending cases from 1977 on up. There also was a sealed case of 1989 Score football wax. There was some 1990 Leaf cases and some other interesting items. It didn't have much post 1992, except for some 2001 cases with Pujhols and 2000 cases of football with Tom Brady. Hopefully we can get all this stuff up on the website next week.

Since that took up most of the day, we only had time to make one more stop today. At this place, we bought a partial 1940 Playball set that was pretty clean, a 1969 Topps Super baseball set and some late 1970's Topps sets.

Tomorrow, we drive down south into North Carolina and will report then! Thanks! Steve

Monday, January 12, 2009
DAY TWO!

Today was much better. No snow or conditions that hampered the trip. We made 3 stops today. On the first stop, we picked up half a box of 1962 Topps baseball cellos, a fourth of a box of 1961 cellos and some Beatles cellos. After that, we drove to an area near Boston and bought a run of Topps baseball vending cases from 1979 through 1985. There was also some Fleer baseball vending cases from the early 80s. Our last stop of the day was to look at some sets that we had no idea on what to expect. The seller was tough on the price, but we ended up buying a good portion of them. They were Topps baseball sets from 1953 through 1960 along with 1963 and 1965. He also sold us a nice Dan-Dee set, Red-Heart set and 64 Stand-Up set.

Tomorrow we will hit some spots in New York City and New Jersey. Will touch base again tomorrow night! Thanks! Steve

Sunday, January 11, 2009
DAY ONE!
Today was terrible! We drove 13 hours at speeds between 10 and 45 mph. The snow storm just followed us from Chicago to here in mid-PA! We only had 1 appointment today as the whole day was pretty much a driving day to get out east. Well, we had to cancel that 1 appointment until the next trip due to the weather. It was a little out of the way in the first place and it would have put us in a terrible timing position for tomorrow. Will check back in tomorrow evening. Hopefully, with better results! Thanks, Steve

Friday, January 09, 2009
Road Buying Trip!
We are starting our East Coast Buying Trip tomorrow as we stated from our last blog. I will report on the blog here each night as to the travels and purchases we made that day. It will be kind of interesting each day as to what we come up with! Unfortunately, the trip is beginning with some bad news. A snow storm has hit the Chicagoland area that is supposed to last today and tomorrow. Let's hope it doesn't move east on the same trip we have planned! Otherwise, this trip may be put off for a week! Talk to you tomorrow-Steve

Friday, December 12, 2008
East Coast Buying Trip!

Hello!

We are planning on making an East Coast buying trip in mid-January. We will be leaving our area here in Chicago and heading through IN, OH, PA, NJ, NY, CT, MA, DE, MD, NC, KY and possibly other states nearby. If you have a collection (or part of a collection), you are looking to sell then please give us a call or e-mail. We are looking for just about anything and everything in sportcards. Again, contact us and we will try to put you on our list of places to stop if your collection is what we could use. Thanks! Steve Hart

Thursday, November 20, 2008
Vintage Sets!
We made an 800 mile round trip today to visit a former major league baseball player. It was one of the most pleasant transactions I have had in a long time. He and his wife made us feel very comfortable and welcome in their home! After listening to a few of his interesting stories from the past, we got down to business. We ended up buying his 1951 Bowman and 1953 Topps baseball complete sets. EVERY card was PSA graded in each set. The best news was that EVERY SINGLE card was a PSA 7 or 8. There were no 6's. There were no 9's. They were completely 7,s and 8's. The highlight of the sets was a 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookie in a PSA 8!! Needless to say, we dont just buy unopened material, we buy vintage cards too! Steve Hart

Friday, November 14, 2008
Welcome!
Welcome to the new Baseball Card Exchange Blog! Here at this blog, I will basically write just about anything interesting happening in the card collecting hobby/industry. It may be something exciting that happened with a large find or purchase. We will let you know about upcoming shows we will be appearing at. We will also let you know about things to be on the lookout for as far as forged, resealed unopened material that I am seeing too often. Or maybe just talk about anything. Look here often for updates to the blog! Thanks! Steve Hart