1939 Ted Williams Play Ball PSA 8 rookie Heritage auctions

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by MW1

....that are spending money.

Agreed. But again, that is not inconsistent with an effort to establish higher prices, if in fact that is happening which I have reason to believe.

[MW1]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Agreed. But again, that is not inconsistent with an effort to establish higher prices, if in fact that is happening which I have reason to believe.

So there's a group of deep-pocketed buyers who are spending large sums of money on key rookie cards, pushing prices higher, in order to establish higher prices? That's circular reasoning.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by MW1

So there's a group of deep-pocketed buyers who are spending large sums of money on key rookie cards, pushing prices higher, in order to establish higher prices? That's circular reasoning.

It's not circular at all. Higher prices greatly increase the worth of an existing portfolio of cards.

And if I had to guess, I would guess some of these sales involve people buying back their own cards, so they are only paying the fees.

[MW1]

Ok Peter.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by MW1

Ok Peter.

Michael there is nobody I respect more in the hobby than you and I mean that seriously. I would defer to you virtually 100 percent of the time. I am pretty confident in this assessment though as I am basing it on direct reliable information not speculation. If I'm wrong, so be it, it won't be the last time.

But even without the direct information, it defies reason that the breathtaking rise in certain prices is just the result of some new buyers. We are talking prices that double in a month, quadruple in a year in some cases. And we are not talking about rare cards, we are talking about cards that are almost commodities. Anyhow, off my soapbox.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Michael there is nobody I respect more in the hobby than you and I mean that seriously. I would defer to you virtually 100 percent of the time. I am pretty confident in this assessment though as I am basing it on direct reliable information not speculation. If I'm wrong, so be it, it won't be the last time.

But even without the direct information, it defies reason that the breathtaking rise in certain prices is just the result of some new buyers. We are talking prices that double in a month, quadruple in a year in some cases. And we are not talking about rare cards, we are talking about cards that are almost commodities. Anyhow, off my soapbox.

There is no doubt a little bit of everything goes on....investing, collecting, hoarding you name it. I think a lot, if not most of it, is speculation and investing. Many of the high grade cards being bought are being bought solely for their flips.
Its obvious when you see high grade cards (flips) that sell for crazy amounts, which don't come close to lesser graded ones that look better, but still sell for much more due to the number on the paper. Where did aesthetics go in collecting cards? As for the '39 Playball of Williams...I think he tags onto some of the rookie HOF hysteria.

[Snapolit1]

Honestly doesn't seem that complicated to me. Stock market has had a very nice run for 8 years, which is a very long bull market, and it totally on fumes about to plotz. High end real estate in the big cities has gone parabolic because of foreign money and priced out even a lot of well heeled speculators. Hedge fundies and others have scooped up tons of depressed Florida, Las Vegas, etc. real estate and gotten all the juice out of that lemon. The places to make a quick buck are drying up in front of our eyes. (Forget about interest in banks. We may be paying them soon to hold our money.)

Then one day you settle down in front of your computer and read a Marketwatch.com article about some dude flipping a Mantle card and making 100K is how many months. Or one of the recently discovered troves. And the light bulb goes off. "Holy sht. . . . I can make real money in rare baseball cards. . . . how much fun will that be."

Maybe baseball cards are the new gold. No matter how crappy the economy gets there will only be so many 52 Mantle cards and another Billy Crystal around the corner who wants one.