Quote:
Originally Posted by investinrookies
half a million for a PSA 8?
your gonna have to elaborate on that logic? If that's the case these beaters are a steal at current prices
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In the late 1980's, a contrived rule of thumb was that each increase in grade doubled the price of a graded card. Thus a 2 was worth twice a 1, a 3 worth twice a 2 (4 times a 1), a 4 twice a 3 (8 times a 1) and so forth. This arbitrary "rule" continues to dictate the asking prices of many graded cards. The rule was applied in conjunction with catalog prices where you considered the MT price for an ungraded card as a graded 5, then doubled it with each grade increase from 5.
For example, the 1988 Standard Catalog prices the 1985 Mark McGwire #42 rookie card at $11 in MT. If that's the value of the card when graded as a 5, then a 6 is "worth" $22, a 7 $44, an 8 $88 and so forth.
During that time, many sought to project what a card would be "worth" by applying the doubling the grade formula to price lists for ungraded cards routinely produced in weekly and monthly baseball card publications. Those seeking to profit from such "insider" information drove the prices further out of proportion.
[Added a little after the original post.]
So to spell it out, if the PSA 1 pictured above is worth the asking price of $3,950 and you apply the old doubling rule, i.e. a 2 would be worth $7,900, a 3 $15,800, and so forth. Thus using this arbitrary rule, an 8 would be worth about half a million.
Today, most of the cards the rule was applied to in the 1980's have falling far short of their expected value.
One should appreciate the fact that the lowest grade possible is a 1. While a dog with both ears can receive a 1, one missing an ear still can get the same 1 grade.
Obviously it was only graded so someone could say, "See, it's authentic." A card that beat up is only grading so it can be sold, and not collected. Anyone buying it should look at it and not at its holder, or they'll fail to recognize the card as merely the space filler it is.