The Willie Mays price boom

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Volod

You may be right, but where is the rationality behind the phenomenon, if any? None of those guys were lowered into the ground with their coffins stuffed with thousands of their cards, so what is driving the "bubble" expectation? There is, of course, the projected scarcity of autographed collectibles, but that aspect of the market is relatively small compared to vintage cards in general. So, is the anticipated skyrocketing in value simply due to Willie's unexpected longevity compared to his contemporaries, with marketers getting anxious that he might even outlive them and cause them to lose out on the bubble expansion?

I suspect it’s mostly a function of the attention and tributes that come when the end arrives. We humans, and Americans in particular, have a real short attention span coupled with an extreme recency bias. Something that grabs our attention and causes us to focus a bit on a particular person is likely to drive increased interest in that person, at least for a while. While not the end, think about how much Jordan’s pieces spiked in value simply because the attention from the ESPN 30 for 30 special. Similar phenomenon here, with maybe slightly less attention than the special received.

It would be interesting to see how long the phenomenon has lasted in the past, and whether some portion of the price increase sticks long term. Naturally, you would have to filter out the more general market increases (or decreases) to try to isolate just this element.