You guys asked why I am not buying the 1953 Bartirome.
Actually I have bought about 10 of them, usually PSA 6's. I imagine I will buy a few more PSA 5's and 6's here & there, a few times a year going forward.
But I am not equally obsessed about "hoarding" the 1953 Topps Bartirome UNLESS it is PSA 7's & up, as I am about the 1952 Topps Bartirome in ANY condition.
I did win this 1953 PSA 8 last week:
& previously won a few PSA 8's on eBay in the $150 range.
I see a PSA 7 on eBay now from PWCC, so I will be bidding at the end.
I would love to find the 4 PSA 9's of the 1953 Bartirome.
I equally want to hoard the 2011 Topps Gold Canary Bartirome. 10 exist, and I have 1 of them.
I do not know why it does not interest me to go down the entire list of 1953 Bartirome listings & buy them all up. I did flirt with the idea of doing so a few times, but when I looked at the offerings, there were too many. Is discouraged the right word? There are a 100 listings right now, & I assume that a week after I clear the listings, another 100 would pop up. I assume there are 10,000's of them? So the fact that they are not rare, & we value & find "special" in what's rare is 1 factor why hoarding ALL 1953 Bartirome does not interest me. Also, I want a challenge & the challenge has to have me be able to at least see, if not reach the finish line. With the 1953 Bartirome, I perceive an endless supply & therefore the challenge seems impossible & pointless. Then there is the emergency doomsday factor, that if I did in fact need to liquidate (because as was mentioned, life happens, maybe a financial catastrophe happens or unemployment, or a combination of having to get a wedding ring, having children, & wife expenses happen - then I don't believe I could liquidate 1953 Topps Bartirome's except the PSA 7's and 8's. Gold, silver, $500/$1000 bills are easy to pawn/liquidate immediately. That goes for the 1952 Topps Bartirome too. Easy to liquidate for a fair share of my money back if it was an absolute necessity to do so. I don't want to pour thousands into 1953 Bartirome when I can never recover much of it back!
Finally, & most importantly, is the lack of story attached to the 1953 Topps set. The powerful story of the 1952 Topps set is what hooked me on collecting my family member's card! As a kid I would always see a single, ungraded, not even in a top loader, 1953 Topps Bartirome in my Dad's desk drawer. Never did I even know Tony had a 1952 Topps card. Never did my Dad even know! I played little league in the 1990's and idolized Griffey & mimicked his swing. My Dad was never a card collector, & was unaware of the 1952 Topps set. I was only aware of 1989 Upper Deck and the 1990 Topps No Name Frank Thomas & all cards after that.
So I saw that 1953 Topps Bartirome just sitting around in Dad's desk drawer for years & years, maybe even taking it to school in 3rd 4th 5th grade bragging how my family member was a pro baseball player!
We have always known the 1953 Topps Bartirome to be worth just a couple of dollars. We had searched it before on eBay, but never saw a 1952 Topps mixed into that search.
It wasn't until 2014 that I read the story of 1952 Topps HIGH NUMBERS. How it was a huge failure & they dumped cases upon cases into the ocean! Read about Alan Rosen & the 1952 Topps find in the guys attic. All the rich legendary stories about this card set!
Found out Tony Bartirome was in this set! I knew this set to be the famous Mickey Mantle card set, & was blown away that #332 was none other then my family member! Tony a part of the same set as Mickey Mantle's famous card!!! I printed out the numerous stories about the infamous ocean dump & how the high numbers came to be so rare, & gave my Dad some reading material along with a PSA 2 #332 Bartirome. I told him, "
Can you believe that Tony is a part of the most popular trading card set in history!?!?" & that it has this amazing story about dumping the last fourth of the cards in the set INTO THE OCEAN!?!?!? AND THAT TONY'S CARD HAPPENS TO BE IN THIS INFAMOUS FATED HIGH NUMBER GROUP!? LOOK AT THESE PRICES THAT TONY'S 1952 TOPPS GOES FOR!!!!!"
I showed him a printed out recent sales from eBay showing $100-$300 for Bartirome PSA 1's to 5's. He was so amused, & just shaking his head like WOW. We know Tony was not much of a ball player, but we are proud nevertheless that he made it & that he is part of this historic, most popular card set & legendary story about dumping high numbers into the ocean. He took that PSA 2 to his work where he proudly shows it off thanks to me.
I got a late start on collecting it, & have only been at it since fall of 2014, but I've made up for lost time well, nearing 100 #332's now. It sucks doing a google search for Bartirome #332 & seeing that these different auction houses sold #332 for much lower amounts then I am used to paying, but some of these sales I see go back to 2005. Wow, it would have been nice to have grabbed
this PSA 8 for $682 or
this PSA 8 in 2010 for $528. I would have bid $1,000+ on these!!! I even missed
this PSA 6 just last year for $170, are you kidding me!?!? $170!?!?!? I would have bid $400!!!! (just months before I became aware of the existence of the card, but still didn't think to look anywhere, but eBay until this month!!!!). Even once I was buying them up on eBay this year, I was unaware that sellers would be willing to sell them off eBay, so I even missed
this PSA 3 for $120!!!! I would have bid $300 for it!!! I see such higher prices on eBay, & so much more competition in the bidding, then these off ebay auction houses that are showing only 1 bid for some of these Bartirome's!!!!!! I don't know what would possess these websites to not sell what they get - on eBay! What's 6% ebay fees if you have an eBay store for $15 a month!? Well, now I know & last few weeks I have been signing up with every off ebay auction house there is. Disappointed only Heritage Auctions has an alert feature for BARTIROME search, & disappointed I just paid
$1,500+ for my first true PSA 8 from REA (with buyer's premium added) when I see HA had the most recent
PSA 8 sold for $597 just in 2013! I have been sending the owner offers through HA's offer tool, but the offers have gone unanswered. I did see a PSA 8 hit eBay very briefly last year when I just begun buying them, & did not yet comprehend that a PSA 8 is hard to find so when I saw the seller's $1,000 buy it now with offer option, I thought offering $700 was good enough, but someone offered $950 & the seller took it fast.
So can someone explain why even just in a 2 year period a PSA 8 would have stayed around $600 in 2005, 2010 & 2013 with these off eBay auction houses & then gone all the way up to $1,300 this month with my purchase?
Now you know the 4 reasons why I gravitate to the 1952 Topps Bartirome over the 1953 Topps Bartirome.
Thanks everyone for making this a great conversation.
I think I will post again with an updated picture of the collection. I will push hard to get 100 of them in the picture. A few $300 offers to buy a few PSA 4-5 ungraded condition #332's have presented itself, & waiting on REA's PSA 8 to arrive.