auto racing cards

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

A PSA 6 sold in Goldin in 2021, which generally is considered the peak of insanity, for under 1000. I do not get it at all. Pent up demand maybe? There was a defect in his hair too.

I have two of them (only 4s) and I always joked with people that it was the 52 Mantle of miscellaneous sports but maybe there is something to that.

My remaining 1972 Petty is also a PSA 4. I have a complete, 11-card set of 1972 STPs. I have told this story before, but when I was putting together the set, I bought some STP cards off an elderly lady in Connecticut who picked them up originally as they were given away at the STP sponsor table at the 1972 Daytona 500.

Anyway, the woman included a handwritten note along with my cards saying that she wanted me to call her to talk about the STP cards. I felt super weird calling an old woman I did not even know, but she was such a nice lady and was informative about the set. One of the comments she casually made was that she thought her full set of the cards were probably worth about $2,000, and all the value was in the two Fred Lorenzen cards from the set. When I put together my STP set, I didn't feel any huge excitement about picking up Petty cards from the set. My excitement was in finding the Fred Lorenzen white whales that some long-time collectors had chased for over 20 years. The woman I talked with on the phone explained that fans could grab as many STP cards as they wanted that year at Daytona (and few fans were interested) other than the two Lorenzen cards. Those two cards were not available at all.

The Petty STP card has skyrocketed in value over the past few years, yet cards of the second winningest NASCAR driver of all-time (David Pearson) are still worth next to nothing. It is a mystery why Pearson is not in the STP set, yet journeymen like Elmo Langley, Dick Brooks, James Hylton and Charlie Glotzbach are. Pearson doesn't have an iconic rookie card like the Petty STP card.

With regard to the 1952 Topps Mantle of miscellaneous sports cards, I think the 1982 Hulk Hogan Wrestling All-Stars is a great candidate. That thing has exploded in value over the past years, and examples used to sit on eBay forever as BINs for under $200.

The 1983 Dale Earnhardt Uno card is another card that has exploded in value in the past five years. That is his true rookie card, but I really dislike the Uno cards as an option.