Questions about the hobby

[groundskeeper]

ANOTHER inexplicable one....

PWCC ebay auction today.

T206 Walter Johnson portrait PSA 4 Sweet Cap (centered) - $6,236.99

T206 Walter Johnson portrait SGC 4 Piedmont (centered) - $2,837.90

Someone explain that to me, please.
Do PSA slabs have a $4,000 premium over SGC now?

[Throttlesteer]

I highly doubt its fraud. Yes, PWCC continues to sell things way above current market. But, I think the anomalies are usually high quality for the grade or a bidding war. The T206 Johnsons were puzzling, as I thought the SGC version was a bit nicer. Someone got a dealand someone way overpaid in my opinion. I'm more irritated that some folks think a single PWCC result that's nice for the grade means that should be the starting price for all subsequent auctions.

[groundskeeper]

I agree I would have preferred the SGC myself. 4,000 dollar spread for simultaneous auctions of near identical cards.....sorry but that is just too weird to write off as a quirk of the bidding process.

Something is fishy.

[todeen]

Someone else, a week or two ago, was complaining about the price difference between PSA and SGC. I wouldn't know, I like raw cards, but he said he occasionally flips cards and he noticed that his SGC cards haven't reached the same prices PSA cards have (for identical player/year), and have even sometimes lost value.

As for something I agreed with on a different thread - just be patient, keep searching, and good deals come along.

[Goudey77]

Winning a PWCC auction requires 20% premiums like the big houses. So just keep that in mind

[Rhotchkiss]

What happened with those two Johnson’s is just not right. I understand PSA gets more than SGC, but the PSA was inferior and pulled more than double. I am throwing the flag on that one- very fishy. As for the rest, I think there are people out there spending stupid money. The National will be telling- if you see a ton of new faces, then there is a ton of new money. I suspect that is the reason in most cases. And of course, the new money pushes the old money to reach for things.

[ullmandds]

What's happening in the hobby? A lot of stupidity imo!!!!! There are many "mindless" "investors/collectors" walking around brainwashed like zombies muttering...PSA...PWCC. They see Forbes articles touting the powers of investing in BB cards when the data is being presented by the marketing machines of PWCC...PSA...who are getting fat with cash because of it.

It's similar to reading the business news and some analyst who has a vested interest in a given security is touting that security.

Time will tell...but these such increases are not sustainable.

With many auction houses now "allowed" by their rules to SHILL up their lots...if you don't think this is happening with PWCC...you're DUMB!

[buymycards]

Originally Posted by Goudey77

Winning a PWCC auction requires 20% premiums like the big houses. So just keep that in mind

What? PWCC doesn't have a buyers premium.

[Goudey77]

Originally Posted by buymycards

What? PWCC doesn't have a buyers premium.

Oh I didn’t mean PWCC adds a premium. If you want to win an auction these days you’ve gotta place a 20% premium on the bid price to have a chance. Overbidding is the new fair market value bidding.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by groundskeeper

ANOTHER inexplicable one....

PWCC ebay auction today.

T206 Walter Johnson portrait PSA 4 Sweet Cap (centered) - $6,236.99

T206 Walter Johnson portrait SGC 4 Piedmont (centered) - $2,837.90

Someone explain that to me, please.
Do PSA slabs have a $4,000 premium over SGC now?

"Investors" want PSA.

[mechanicalman]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

"Investors" want PSA.

Peter, don’t you also prefer PSA? Didn’t you just say “SGC is dead” in another thread? So why begrudge anyone, collector or otherwise, for paying a premium for PSA when they share your bias?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by mechanicalman

Peter, don’t you also prefer PSA? Didn’t you just say “SGC is dead” in another thread? So why begrudge anyone, collector or otherwise, for paying a premium for PSA when they share your bias?

Big premium, but sure why not.

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by groundskeeper

ANOTHER inexplicable one....

PWCC ebay auction today.

T206 Walter Johnson portrait PSA 4 Sweet Cap (centered) - $6,236.99

T206 Walter Johnson portrait SGC 4 Piedmont (centered) - $2,837.90

Someone explain that to me, please.
Do PSA slabs have a $4,000 premium over SGC now?

You have a lot in common with Ebay sellers I see if you think that sgc Johnson was centered. A big part of the price difference was probably PSA vs SGC. But I wouldn't be surprised if the centering and eye appeal of the cards was more important to the winner of the PSA card.

In general when you see outliers like this in an auction or vcp listing take a look at the card before jumping to conclusions. More often than not I'd be willing to bet it was someone stepping up for a card with eye appeal that transcends its assigned grade.

[Peter_Spaeth]

PWCC called it "wonderfully centered"

[drcy]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

PWCC called it "wonderfully centered"

As I recall, it also had alluring corners and sexy registration.

[pokerplyr80]

This is the only card I saw sold recently at the price mentioned. The centering is off left to right. Worse top to bottom. And its tilted. But yes other than that it was well centered. Just like the PSA example.

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by pokerplyr80

This is the only card I saw sold recently at the price mentioned. The centering is off left to right. Worse top to bottom. And its tilted. But yes other than that it was well centered. Just like the PSA example.

id be very happy with that card at that price!

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

id be very happy with that card at that price!

Yeah. For me, for most cards, if it's better than 60 40 or so I'm looking more at the corners and color and registration than on how perfect the centering is. But that's just me.

[Rhotchkiss]

PSA better centered but notice the flecks of what appears to be paper loss on the face and the upper left outline looks like ink is missing. For that reason, the SGC is nicer in my opinion. Regardless, I don’t think the PSA is x2 nicer than SGC. I guess the one thing the PSA has is the factory 649 overprint, but that’s not very uncommon/uncommon in a wajo Portrait (sorry, my phone is not uploading pics right now)

In REA, an SGC 6 Matty portrait sold for over $10k compared to a PSA 6 Matty portrait that I bought for $7800. The SGC Matty was superior to the PSA one, and my opinion, was worth the premium over the PSA one, but it was not more than double.