Very Interesting How Certain Stars are valued

[Throttlesteer]

Player fame can definitely be tied to an iconic card as much a famous event or even a poem. I believe Mantle's 52 Topps has a fair amount to do with the values of his other cards. Sure, Teddy's 1939 Play ball is iconic to hard-core collectors. But it doesn't have the same recognition to casual fans and collectors. Outside of the T206 Wags, its the most famous baseball card.....for a number or reasons.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Throttlesteer

Player fame can definitely be tied to an iconic card as much a famous event or even a poem. I believe Mantle's 52 Topps has a fair amount to do with the values of his other cards. Sure, Teddy's 1939 Play ball is iconic to hard-core collectors. But it doesn't have the same recognition to casual fans and collectors. Outside of the T206 Wags, its the most famous baseball card.....for a number or reasons.

I would partially disagree with this. From the early 70s to the mid 80s the 1952 Topps Mantle was the most valuable Topps card and one of the top 5-10 cards in the hobby. Yet Mantle's other cards had similar values to Williams and Mays.

Mantle cards took off in value due to a group of east coast dealers buying up his cards. At a time when the hobby exploded, they marketed them to new collectors, many Yankee fans. This created demand from other collectors due to FOMO as they saw all up arrows in monthly Beckett price guides.

Now for new collectors today, I would agree that the 1952 Topps Mantle is a factor drawing collectors to his cards. It is the face of Postwar modern cards, a card that collectors desire. It is natural for collectors to be drawn to his other cards because of that.

[packs]

You have to be more than just good. George Sisler was about as fine a hitter as there was but who cares, right?

Then there's a guy like Satchel Paige. He only played 5 seasons and one game of a 6th. There are no quantifiable stats that would suggest he was one of the greatest pitchers of all time. But he has a story and he has anecdotes and he has a general mystique around him that make his 3 available cards very expensive.

[trdcrdkid]

Originally Posted by packs

Then there's a guy like Satchel Paige. He only played 5 seasons and one game of a 6th. There are no quantifiable stats that would suggest he was one of the greatest pitchers of all time. But he has a story and he has anecdotes and he has a general mystique around him that make his 3 available cards very expensive.

Actually, there are now pretty good statistics available for the Negro Leagues, thanks to the researchers for the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database. They show Paige in a close competition with Smokey Joe Williams as the greatest pitcher in Negro Leagues history.

https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/p...rID=paige01sat

https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/h...tab=metrics_at