Just how important is certification/Authentication ?

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Posted By: T206Collector

The sale and resale that Rich referenced are here:

Compare this card purchased on ebay a few months ago:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130160776548&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=003

...with the same card sold at auction a few weeks ago:

http://americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?Auction_ID=40280


To me the biggest difference is not the certification, but the forum. I have been buying and selling signed T206 cards from "the Pittsburgh Find" since April. What I can tell you is that when I have resold these cards with a certification by SGC/JSA, there is a marginal increase in value. But it is in the realm of $100-$200 -- not $1,000. When these cards sell on ebay, they tend to go for $200 - $300 raw and $300 to $400 authenticated. And the reason for that is that most of the same people who would bid on the authenticated ones would also bid on the not authenticated ones -- but primarily from THIS collection. That is, those of us that have been tracking the slow breakup of this collection understand that they are real (except for the Harry Covaleski cards, which are secretarial). As such, we bid on them raw or encapsulated -- and we bid the same.

Now, take the American Memorabilia auction (or even the October Huggins and Scott Auction that had the Rucker/Snodgrass sell for $1,200), what you have there is two bidders ratcheting up the card(s). That is, the market for signed T206 cards is a little bit more of a specialty niche and, as such, two people may just "have to have" the card because it will never come up again. On ebay, these bidders just set their snipes and walk away. On American Memorabilia, they go after each other until the auction ends.

That's my take. Oh, and I am going to test my theory a little further by consigning one or two more doubles to REA at the end of the month.

T206Collector

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