Upper Grade M101-4 Hooper Goes Crazy at HA.

[molenick]

I have a feeling that a random single M101-4 PSA 8 Pat Ragan as a stand-alone card would not have gotten $5000. Heritage was offering the whole set but without an option to bid on the set as a whole (probably wise after the Boston Garter debacle). So maybe someone wanted them all and decided they were going to win them at any cost.

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by molenick

I have a feeling that a random single M101-4 PSA 8 Pat Ragan as a stand-alone card would not have gotten $5000. Heritage was offering the whole set but without an option to bid on the set as a whole (probably wise after the Boston Garter debacle). So maybe someone wanted them all and decided they were going to win them at any cost.

Possibly, but someone wanting them all either already had the Ruth or laid out another $1.3M+ for that card on top of the few hundred thousand spent for the rest. And if you assume no shilling then you have at least two bidders going at it. I do agree that offering them all at once may give someone the juices to start or invest deeply into the set, not worrying about the time it would otherwise require if buying in dribs and drabs. Still, one could probably acquire near sets a couple times a year for far less money if not consumed with the almighty PSA high grades.

[oldjudge]

Great set, but I think some of these blank back 8s may have come from uncut sheets that were later cut up. Blank back 8s are around but ad back 8s are virtually non-existent. I think part of this reflects post production sheet cuts.

[nolemmings]

Interesting, Jay. I am not so sure but cannot say. I never thought they were recently cut-- do you have thoughts on that? I always wondered if not suspected that many sheets were printed for distribution that simply were not ordered, and that the surplus may have made its way into the public whether as sheets or singles. Still, I believe this happened relatively close in time to their initial production. I have not seen anything to suggest that there was some warehouse or similar find decades down the line, have you?

[oldjudge]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

Interesting, Jay. I am not so sure but cannot say. I never thought they were recently cut-- do you have thoughts on that? I always wondered if not suspected that many sheets were printed for distribution that simply were not ordered, and that the surplus may have made its way into the public whether as sheets or singles. Still, I believe this happened relatively close in time to their initial production. I have not seen anything to suggest that there was some warehouse or similar find decades down the line, have you?

Hi Todd! I didn't mean that they were cut recently. However, I did see a few NrMT blank back sets pop up in the early to mid-90s that looked like they had been sheet cut.

[packs]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Great set, but I think some of these blank back 8s may have come from uncut sheets that were later cut up. Blank back 8s are around but ad back 8s are virtually non-existent. I think part of this reflects post production sheet cuts.

I don't know that I would agree. My thought is that the blank back and Sporting News cards were most likely distributed via mail in promotion, similar to the 1915 Cracker Jacks or M116 cards the Sporting News also produced.

But an advertiser like, say, Gimbels,, would have likely given them out by hand on location, which might explain the inherent condition issues and lack of high grade examples.