1952 Topps PSA 4 #332 Baritrome
 

Besides that one weird guy that posted on net54..is there any other reason the bidding is crazy on this ebay listing for a PSA 4

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-Topps-3...UAAOSwLnlWmIhS

Looks like really between two bidders....I wish I could buy a stock that says this card would go for less than $200 in a year. SMR for a PSA 5 is $140......

Is anyone on net54 that actually bid over $300 for this card and is there anyone out there that knows if that one guy is still buying cards at 3-7x prices...

I don't think it's appropriate to call him a weird guy in a public forum. If I remember he had personal reasons for wanting these cards, like he was related to the player and wanted them for his whole family. Or something along those lines. From the sale price my guess is he was involved in the bidding. Perhaps that card is now hard to find for set builders because of the same guy buying them up so someone else bid it up as well.

Saw that too. Pretty sure the card price is driven by that one collector. I remember years back when I needed the 1953 Haddix rc to finish that set. I put ridiculous bid after ridiculous bid in for the card ... and was always the runner up because Gary Alberelli was buying that card as a key piece of the big lots he was selling on Ebay. He thought the card was a key card for the set given the huge prices they were going for. In reality, he was just stopping me from completing my set and I was bidding him through the roof on the card. I finally wrote him and asked him to let me win one, with a promise I wouldn't bid him up in the future. I think the price of the card fell 50% almost immediately!

And I agree with you. I'd short this card like crazy. Although I must admit, I'd interested in seeing how much he'd go for the red overprint version. And if folks don't know what I mean, one of the high number sheets had a run where the red on back was printed in excess, and blurred out most of the white lettering on back. I know there are about 4-5 of these still out there - including the one on Ebay that has been offered at $1,000 for a long time. This card is truly a one of a kind Bartirome card, and happens to be in nice condition. I wonder how high he would go for that!

Cheers,
Patrick

He gave a false name, was discovered to have done internet scams, went to prison for the scams, and then sent threatening emails to members.

set builders with the real money aren't worried about psa 4s...they going for psa 7 + like the top 40 or so registry sets....can find raw cards that grade out as 4s....its not registry people that are interested in that psa 4 I can tell you that.

I forgot the best part where he threatened to activate his multiple stealth accounts.

If you look at bidding history, there's an h***h that's won both of the recent Bartirome auctions and he hasn't joined on this party yet.

He won the last two auctions with a late bid:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...p2047675.l2565

and

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...p2047675.l2565

You can see the current two bidders on this auction r***5 and y***r were involved somewhat in the bidding on the others.

I think this particular 4 will go higher once h***h joins in.

Yes!! The dreaded stealth accounts. I didn't sleep for days:D

that h***h guy buys a lot of 1952s....

Are you suggesting that's weird? :D:D

H**H also bought the raw one for 799

edited: oddly enough of the thousands of 52 topps I've sold, he has never bid or bought anything!

Weird
 

Cliff-- everyone makes mistakes, give him some slack :)

Now, if he was collecting variations I would be right there with you

It got way, way more weird. Personally, I think the guy should be incarcerated before he hurts someone. I think he is a danger to himself and society *(seriously). If anyone saw the emails I got from him I think they would agree. I even contacted authorities about him.

+1 Do we have we have any behavioral or forensic psychologist on the board. His posts were so meticulous and carefully constructed to deceive that I would love to see someone do a profile on him.

Plus, wasn't he all about buying the same card over & over again to inflate the price?

pokerplayer disagrees with you apparently...

It is ok to disagree on the board.

Short this card like crazy? Sorry, but does that mean underbid it or purchase as many as you could in order to shorten up supply to increase price?

I wasn't aware of the blurred white lettering so I checked mine and it appears to be OK.

Being relatively new here, I guess, I am finding out all kinds of info about the 52 Topps set, which I appreciate, but is there a site/link, info somewhere that explains all these anomalies/errors or other things about the 52 Topps set that someone fairly new to all this would find very interesting?

Curious, seeing this card graded for what it is, any idea if my card would grade the same or better, or worse? Centering is off on mine but I do believe, overall, mine is in better shape?

I recently read the bio of Roberto Clemente and Bartirome featured prominently as the team trainer in the 1960s. If the card wasn't so expensive I'd want one just for the interesting back story. Kind of like my favorite 1970s basketball player, Slick Watts, who was short and bald in a league that was neither.

[QUOTE=irv;1494243]Short this card like crazy? Sorry, but does that mean underbid it or purchase as many as you could in order to shorten up supply to increase price?

No he is saying the card is going to decrease in price...and if there was a mechanism like the stock market...where you can sell a card now at current price and agree to buy it back in the future ...you would want the future price to be much less than that you are buying it today...that's generally what he means by shorting.....

I think your card is about a psa 3-4 if you want to make anything on the card I would get it graded now and sell it..or maybe put a BIN now it for for 700 or so and see who contacts you...it is very very possible in a year your card may only be worth 75-200 bucks in the open market in a year..

For anyone interested, here is the thread with the guy who was trying to go Hunt Brothers on this card. Spoiler alert: he's not actually related to Bartirome, though if eBay's sold listings are any indication, that hasn't stopped him from paying obscene prices for them.

irv
 

Irv---if you search this forum section for 1952 Topps you will find several discussion of oddities in that set


http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=172391

http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.co...th-two-mantles
http://aug13.hugginsandscott.com/cgi...l?itemid=59354

[QUOTE=1952boyntoncollector;1494249]Thanks for the info 1952, I appreciate it.

Going by the link and the rating this guys card received, I was thinking mine would be at least a 5, but being new to all this and unsure what exactly is used to determine a grading, I will trust that you are likely in the ballpark?
http://api.viglink.com/api/click?for...UAAOSwLnlWmIhS

Holy crap!! Like what was said when I briefly opened the link, "That guy must have a lot of relatives"!

Does beg the question, if his story is fake, why is he so interested in all the 332's he can get his hands on?

Thanks ALR, I will be sure to check those out, :)

Apparently I stopped following that thread too soon. Sounds like it got interesting and weird. From the other comments it sounds like your assessment of the guy was correct.

[QUOTE=irv;1494258]There was some speculation about that towards the end of the thread; if you've got a solid half hour/45 minutes free, it's worth a read. The leading theory seemed to be that 1) he was trying to corner the market on that card, and 2) cornering the market never works out.

[QUOTE=egri;1494266]I never read it yet, but seeing as it is 11 pgs long, I may not, LOL.

h***h
 

h***h has joined the party on that card...

We really need a popcorn emoticon for occasions such as this.

amazing Deans card sold his for 1600 or so and a 5.5 a few days sold for 2250..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-Topps-3...p2047675.l2557

You know things are getting out of hand if someone's willing to pay Dean's prices.

X2. Wonder what the draw is to fetch that kind of money? It's a high number, I get that, but seeing this, does that mean all high numbered cards are worth around that in same/similar condition?

Does't appear so...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-Topps-3...p2047675.l2557

More on the h***h front, since I haven't seen it here. It may be common knowledge to all of you, but h***h also got this 1952

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...p2047675.l2565

I wonder how high he was prepared to bid on that card...he has won several of my 52's in 2015 as well....

WOW! h***h has some serious money to play with!

So much for that theory. Still wondering what the draw to that Baritrome card is exactly that would make someone pay over $2,000 for it? What am I missing?

nothing...theres artificial increase since there is one buyer that appears to want every card but noone knows if that's true now...who knows...but psa 4s were gong for 100 bucks early last year....once the guy stops paying above market the card value will get back to where it will be as no one else values this card more than a high number common...its a pyramid scheme..the moment you pay 1000 for the card..no one will want it except for 100 bucks so you will be out big money. a raw card looks like psa 2-3 on net 54 just sold for 90 bucks last week or so..maybe that guy pays 1000 for it....SMR is still $210 for the psa 6