Buy the card, not the label

[danmckee]

This is just insanity. I know it isn't a pre-war card but it shows how ridiculous 3rd party grading is to the hobby.

This is a $25 card that 2 people ran up to $20K !!!!

I know, they didn't buy the card, they paid for the "10" that some kid that has been in the hobby about 3 years, placed on a label.

Simply sick.

http://www.milehighcardco.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=23485&searchby=0&searchvalue=None&page=0&sortby=0&displayby=2&lotsperpage=100&category=1&seo=1979-Topps-%23116-Ozzie-Smith-PSA-10-GEM-MINT

[barrysloate]

It's hard to believe anybody would want that card at that level.

[uyu906]

Absolutely shocking -

[bbcard1]

No doubt it is a lot, but a centered Ozzie rookie does not come along very often. it is truly a hard card.

[bn2cardz]

I am going to have to start putting this little phrase in all of my auctions:

" it would be wise to bid aggressively for this treasure"

[Ronnie73]

This is the perfect example of why I don't buy PSA 10's for pre 1980 cards. I've seen alot of PSA 9's that look just as good as a 10. For 20 grand, you can probably build 2 complete sets of 1979 topps in PSA 9 condition or 100+ complete ungraded sets. Out of the million+ cards I own, I only have 3 pre 1980 PSA 10's. One of them is a 1973 OPC #271 Tom Hutton PSA 10. PSA POP Reports show it as 1 of 1 and only 2 at PSA 9 level. He's not at the same level of a player as Ozzie is but more rare of a card and older too. Any takers at 10 Grand? :rolleyes:

[CMIZ5290]

EXACTLY WHY I DON'T BUY THEM ANYMORE EITHER. ANYONE WANT SOME GEM MINT 1987 BELLINGHAM GRIFFEY ROOKIES?:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[kcohen]

Truly mind-boggling. Just goes to show you've been barking up the wrong tree all these years, Danny.

Your new motto should be: BUY THE HOLDER, NOT THE CARD.

[CMIZ5290]

What is absolutely amazing is that this card in a psa 9 is a $350-400 card! How in the world could a psa 10 be worth $20k?? Alot of psa 9's look like 10's anyway.

[Runscott]

This is just insanity. I know it isn't a pre-war card but it shows how ridiculous 3rd party grading is to the hobby.

This is a $25 card that 2 people ran up to $20K !!!!

I know, they didn't buy the card, they paid for the "10" that some kid that has been in the hobby about 3 years, placed on a label.

Simply sick.

http://www.milehighcardco.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=23485&searchby=0&searchvalue=None&page=0&sortby=0&displayby=2&lotsperpage=100&category=1&seo=1979-Topps-%23116-Ozzie-Smith-PSA-10-GEM-MINT

Ebay is even worse. The kids are buying the slabs and the old guys are still wanting to pay 1960's prices. The gap between graded and ungraded is amazing.

[novakjr]

It happens, but I'm sure whoever won the card is happy to have it(and money clearly wasn't an issue), much like I'm happy with my off-centered one with a few edge dings, and that's all that really matters..

As illogical as this seems. There's no way the buyer bought this as an investment. He bought it for the love of the card, and as much as it hurts to say, the slab is currently a huge part of this card.. It is a beautiful card.

Anyone know what the other 3 psa 10's look like? This could be the best of the bunch.

[Leon]

It happens, but I'm sure whoever won the card is happy to have it(and money clearly wasn't an issue), much like I'm happy with my off-centered one with a few edge dings, and that's all that really matters..

As illogical as this seems. There's no way the buyer bought this as an investment. He bought it for the love of the card, and as much as it hurts to say, the slab is currently a huge part of this card.. It is a beautiful card.

Anyone know what the other 3 psa 10's look like? This could be the best of the bunch.

That buyer might have bought it for the love of the card although a 9 would be a 10 on any given day, imo. That being said, I don't care if folks pay a million dollars for their PSA 11s, but I think it's more about being a half a point higher on the registry than it is about the card itself. As I say, I don't care if they want to play the registry game, I am sure it's fun, but I just don't think someone could get 19k more pleasure out of a 10 over a 9 on that card. The buyer probably swatted a friend from the top registry spot with it, and to him, that makes it all worth it....which in reality, is all that counts. Who cares if they collect for a different reason, more power to them!! (maybe I am wrong too, who knows?)

[Mrvintage]

I collect mostly vintage like the rest of us on here, but I also follow modern cards as well and that card is pretty iconic in that shape. Just to give you an idea of how tough this card is there are 3 52 topps mantle Psa 10s out of 1062 graded and 4 10s out of 4062. You also have to take into account that a good percentage of the ozzie cards are pack pulled, sleeved, and shipped directly to Psa......and still only 4 10s!!!

[Exhibitman]

Never underestimate the desperation of those who suffer with small genitalia.

[D. Bergin]

Somebody posted a PSA 10 OPC Ozzie Rookie on these boards not too long ago with a 5K price tag.

Seems like a bargain today, especially considering the condition issues for OPC. I'd guess it's tougher then the Topps in that condition.


Neat card, but I wonder how many of these cards in their slabs got dropped on the ground or jostled in shipping just enough to bring a 10, down to a 9, while still in the slab.

Hell, I know from my own clumsy experiences, just the act of slipping a card into a penny sleeve could easily touch up a corner.

[kcohen]

It happens, but I'm sure whoever won the card is happy to have it(and money clearly wasn't an issue), much like I'm happy with my off-centered one with a few edge dings, and that's all that really matters..

As illogical as this seems. There's no way the buyer bought this as an investment. He bought it for the love of the card, and as much as it hurts to say, the slab is currently a huge part of this card.. It is a beautiful card.

Anyone know what the other 3 psa 10's look like? This could be the best of the bunch.

Yep

[Ronnie73]

That buyer might have bought it for the love of the card although a 9 would be a 10 on any given day, imo. That being said, I don't care if folks pay a million dollars for their PSA 11s, but I think it's more about being a half a point higher on the registry than it is about the card itself. As I say, I don't care if they want to play the registry game, I am sure it's fun, but I just don't think someone could get 19k more pleasure out of a 10 over a 9 on that card. The buyer probably swatted a friend from the top registry spot with it, and to him, that makes it all worth it....which in reality, is all that counts. Who cares if they collect for a different reason, more power to them!! (maybe I am wrong too, who knows?)

It is fun playing the Registry game but at what cost? When I don't have money to spend, I usually work on simulated "what if" sets. I try to determine what the cost would be for a certain type of set in high grade and how long it would take to build it. After figuring out the cost to be number 1 on a registry list for a modern day set and 100 thousand dollars later, I think about how many SGC 50/PSA 4 T206's could be bought for the same money and how much more enjoyment they would be. A PSA 10 1979 Topps set cost is about equal to a PSA 3/4 T206 520 card set.

[Fred]

Wow, for a minute there I thought the final bid on that 1979 Ozzie Smith card was $20K.... :eek:

I'm still amazed that someone could spend that much on a modern card when they could have had a handful of really cool Ruth, Cobbs, Wagners, Mattys and Johnsons. Ok, maybe not in PSA10 shape but still...

[Sterling Sports Auctions]

What amazes me is how PSA 10s can have off center backs. I have never understood how a card can have an offcenter anything and grade out a 10.

Fools with too much money :rolleyes:

Lee

[barrysloate]

I have no problem with someone paying 20K for a baseball card...just not that baseball card. Come on, a 1979 Ozzie Smith? That's not a high demand card.

[wonkaticket]

Never underestimate the desperation of those who suffer with small genitalia.

LMAO funniest thing I have read on here in years! :D

[Leon]

LMAO funniest thing I have read on here in years! :D

You must have missed the ALL Time best post ever (imo), when Brucii was going to sue Archive. Archive fought back though and hired a high falutin' lawyer himself and Brucii backed off. It was touch and go for a few seconds!!

[brob28]

A fool and his money...

[Vegas-guy]

It's all relative! If your someone with really deep pockets 20K is for most of us like 100 dollars! My wife works for a very rich man and everyday we talk about how the hell could he spend that kind of money? He'll drop 17k on first lass air fair overseas or 20k on a private jet and not think twice. If you've got 100+ million 20k is nothing!

[Runscott]

It's all relative! If your someone with really deep pockets 20K is for most of us like 100 dollars! My wife works for a very rich man and everyday we talk about how the hell could he spend that kind of money? He'll drop 17k on first lass air fair overseas or 20k on a private jet and not think twice. If you've got 100+ million 20k is nothing!

If he inherited it maybe, but you don't get to that point by making decisions like this one.

[Fred]

Scott, no $hit, really - that's good insight. :p

[Vegas-guy]

If he inherited it maybe, but you don't get to that point by making decisions like this one.

Umm maybe? But your mind set changes, they might not be thinking of it like you and me but more of a want instead of investment/other. There are only a certain # of 10s and he/she wants one, doesn't matter how much.
I look at it like this, when I was young and had no money there was no way I would have paid even 20 dollars for a steak dinner, now I see one on a menu for 48 maybe even 60 and if it's a nice place think hmm that's not bad or go buy a 100k car I know as soon as its off the lot I've lost 20k but I wanted it. It just gets to the point of thinking about thing different than "normal" people. Now having said that could you do things like that every day and still keep all your money NO but a want is a want and if you have the means your not thinking about the cost. Just my .02

[Mrvintage]

As for the Ozzie Smith rc not being a high demand card I would beg to differ. There are alot of people that collect 79 topps baseball and that is obviously the key card in the set. Saying that card is not in high demand is like trying to tell a 33 goudey collector that Lajoie is not really in high demand...lol. Just because it's not pre-war and some of us don't collect it doesn't mean it's not in high demand. The most high demand cards on the market right now are probably Michael Jordan 90s inserts. They go for crazy prices as well. Will you see me buying them? No. Are they in high demand? Absolutely. Just my opinion.

[Ease]

Never underestimate the desperation of those who suffer with small genitalia.

You should trademark that, absolute classic!

[ValKehl]

Once this guy who bought this Ozzie Smith RC and whover bid against him discover pre-War cards, the prices of real nice Ruths, Joe Jacksons, etc. will escalate even more!
Val

[Runscott]

Umm maybe? But your mind set changes, they might not be thinking of it like you and me but more of a want instead of investment/other. There are only a certain # of 10s and he/she wants one, doesn't matter how much.
I look at it like this, when I was young and had no money there was no way I would have paid even 20 dollars for a steak dinner, now I see one on a menu for 48 maybe even 60 and if it's a nice place think hmm that's not bad or go buy a 100k car I know as soon as its off the lot I've lost 20k but I wanted it. It just gets to the point of thinking about thing different than "normal" people. Now having said that could you do things like that every day and still keep all your money NO but a want is a want and if you have the means your not thinking about the cost. Just my .02

Reg, I really don't know - not knocking your opinion. I do know this - people don't generally start behaving illogically once they become wealthy. Yes, they could, and I'm sure there is plenty of wild splurging, but I haven't seen such a pattern among card collectors. I knew an extremely wealthy collector who used me as a broker. It didn't matter what number I gave him - he wanted it 10% cheaper. He had that attitude on the way up, and he still does. But on the other hand, if he got into a bidding war with someone, he was going to win, just to show them he could. Maybe that's what happened here.

Or maybe the winning bidder was Forrest Gump.

[Runscott]

Scott, no $hit, really - that's good insight. :p

Yeah, I know - a waste of keystrokes stating what's obvious even to the most trivial of observers. But if you tattoo "Gem Ozzie" (with a slash through it) on your forearm, and it works, I expect a cut when you become a billionaire.

[Vegas-guy]

I totally agree most people aren't like that. Maybe it's because I'm in Vegas, here people throw money around like it's just paper. It not uncommon to have a 3 or 4K bar tab at a club here..:)

Maybe it was Ozzie himself that bid on it and wanted one of the best known examples of himself..:D

[kllrbee]

Maybe it was Ozzie himself that bid on it and wanted one of the best known examples of himself..:D


I was thinking that myself....

[Runscott]

I was thinking that myself....

You think he flipped when he saw it?

[YankeeCollector]

I have no problem with someone paying 20K for a baseball card...just not that baseball card. Come on, a 1979 Ozzie Smith? That's not a high demand card.

+1

[Jantz]

You must have missed the ALL Time best post ever (imo), when Brucii was going to sue Archive.

+1


I wonder how much the first 2012 Topps Skip Schumaker-Skippy the Squirrel RC Short Print PSA 10/BGS 9.5 listed on Ebay will go for?

20K for the Ozzie is alot, but if the buyer is happy, I guess thats all that matters. I'm sure the consigner is happy!!



Jantz

[doug.goodman]

He bought it for the love of the card

No he did not, he bought it for his "love" of the grade.

If he "loved" the card, he would have bought a thousand raw cards, or a few hundred slabbed cards (the slab protects cards from the elements) and covered a wall in his house with them.

I'm happy that the buyer is happy, but he's still an idiot. In my less than humble opinion.

Doug

[novakjr]

No he did not, he bought it for his "love" of the grade.

If he "loved" the card, he would have bought a thousand raw cards, or a few hundred slabbed cards (the slab protects cards from the elements) and covered a wall in his house with them.

I'm happy that the buyer is happy, but he's still an idiot. In my less than humble opinion.

Doug

No, I agree, there is definitely a massive amount of idiocy that played into the purchase. Also, in my post, I noted that the Grade is a huge part of what this card is. Right or wrong, the card is no longer, just a '79 Topps Ozzie Smith. It's a Gem Mint PSA 10 1979 Topps Ozzie Smith.. of which there are currently only 4. Again, I'll admit that the grading is subjective, and doesn't mean that much to a good amount of people(myself included), and that some 9s are possibly better, and would be a far better value in terms of price. But then again, they don't have that magic number 10 on their slab..

[YankeeCollector]

Paying 20k for a 1979 card is flat out dumb!! How many more PSA 10s are there in unopened wax and cases? But give PSA credit, they have made their registry like the Super Bowl for graded cards and in an ego driven world, everybody wants to try and have something better than the other person.

The Registry is nothing more than a glamourized show and tell and an ingenuous idea by PSA.

[Ease]

The Registry is nothing more than a glamourized show and tell and an ingenuous idea by PSA.

Show and tell is a big part of the fun, and the registry is the smithsonian of show and tell. I can't knock anyone for wanting the best, if they comfortably can afford it, whether its a 79 topps wizard rookie or a t206 wags.

[CW]

Paying 20k for a 1979 card is flat out dumb!!

Ironically, some people would say the same exact thing about a collector buying a PSA 8 version of the card for $100... "Paying $100 for a 1979 card is flat out dumb!!" The same might be said about a collector paying $10K+ for an example from a rare 19th century set (eg. Just So or Kalamazoo Bats), although that would be perfectly sane to most folks here. It's all relative.

I think it's good to know, in my opinion, that some collectors out there enjoy card collecting enough to spend $20K on an Ozzie RC from 1979. It can be a waste of time to criticize a fellow collector about the items he spends his money on, or the amount he spends., because at the end of the day we're all pretty dumb for spending cash on old pieces of cardboard that have no intrinsic value.

[ScottFandango]

I know an avid collector who spent $50,000 in one weekend on three Different PSA Pujols 2001 rookie cards..he passed me on the pujols rookie registry with these cards to become #1...

Some specific modern cards do garner big bucks....especially rookie cards of all time greats (Pujols)....

We can't let the haze of tobacco stain cloud our perception of modern HAll of famers.... A hof is a hof, no matter the time frame...

No go back to hunting for that next t206.....

[paul]

I paid $5 for my 1978 Family Fun Center Ozzie Smith. I have Ozzie's true rookie and the guy who dumped 20 grand on his 79 Topps card probably doesn't. And if I had to choose between the two cards and knew I could never resell them, I'd take the Family Fun Center card over the gem mint Topps card any day of the week.

[ChiefBenderForever]

Charlie Sheen wrote a $30000 ck to a hot skank hooker and couldn't even remember doing it so 20k on 0z don't seem so bad when compared to this but both are pretty insane, I mean you can get both for a lot less.

[freakhappy]

Charlie Sheen wrote a $30000 ck to a hot skank hooker and couldn't even remember doing it so 20k on 0z don't seem so bad when compared to this but both are pretty insane, I mean you can get both for a lot less.

Well put, Johnny!

It seriously depends on the scarcity of the card and how much someone is willing to dish out for it. And because of the PSA registry craze, I'd say a lot!

That being said, some people have no clue and these grading companies are laughing all the way to the bank :eek:

[Bilko G]

Back in May 2011, a collector paid $94, 000 for this 1979 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky Rookie Card.....


http://i40.tinypic.com/20pa691.jpg



There was a ton of debate over the PSA 10 grade and OPC rough cut. Some agreed with the grade and others didn't.

[freakhappy]

Bilko,

Thanks for sharing that info...made me feel good that I have common sense :D

[Mrvintage]

I know the guy that currently owns that Gretzky and I promise you he knows what he is doing. He is a big figure in this hobby and I trust his judgement on that card.

[doug.goodman]

Charlie Sheen wrote a $30000 ck to a hot skank hooker.

But she was cute...

[gnaz01]

I know the guy that currently owns that Gretzky and I promise you he knows what he is doing. He is a big figure in this hobby and I trust his judgement on that card.

Agreed Andy, you can't compare Gretzky to Ozzie IMHO

[kcohen]

But she was cute...

Cuter than Ozzie?

[2dueces]

Cuter than Ozzie?

I heard she did better back flips and a whole lot more. :)

[ChiefBenderForever]

But she was cute...

She's at the cathouse in Vegas and going for a lot less than what Charlie paid.

[ChiefBenderForever]

Cuter than Ozzie?

In fairness to Ozzie, he is a 10 !

[jmk59]

You must have missed the ALL Time best post ever (imo), when Brucii was going to sue Archive. Archive fought back though and hired a high falutin' lawyer himself and Brucii backed off. It was touch and go for a few seconds!!

Oh hell no. hahaha. That is a hilarious post and that was a hilarious thread. Good one Leon.

J