I started a thread about the Namath card too:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=204243
Not that I look to this hobby for income, but if I ever bought a card for 16K, it would probably drop in value - someone might be getting a huge return here...
I wonder if when the TPGs started anyone anticipated... I don't know what to call it - it's kind of a "contrived scarcity". In theory a card that isn't really scarce at all could sell at a huge multiple as long as its the highest graded or among the highest graded. it reminds me a little of the Dmitri Young collection - I don't know the exact figures, but I recall reading some of those cards were around $100 in the PSA
8 grade (which is a pretty good grade), but his 10s sold for a heck of a lot more.