Need help from the T207 guys
 

Just had a question about the Anon. 3 backs. How difficult are they to obtain? Should I expect to pay a premium, and about how much?

Since I wasted space for a new thread might as well SHOW'EM IF YOU GOT'EM

T207 Anon 3's
 

This disappeared very quickly.


Short answer: it depends.
Long answer: it *really* depends on the player, class, and grade.


Would love to help any way I can - what players and (approximate) grades are you looking at?

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Mike

Ditto to what Mike said. The Anon 3 backs are generally regarded as the scarcest T207 back when dealing with the Recruit series cards and about on par with the Cycle backs when dealing with the Broadleaf/Cycle class cards.

On Recruit class cards, I have noticed approximately a 2-3x premium versus the Recruit back. Furthermore, the Anon backs are only found on about half of the cards within the Recruit series.

On the Broadleaf/Cycle class cards, I have seen very little if any premium vs the Broadleaf back (despite the Anon backs being considerably scarcer) and a value of around 10-25% LESS vs the similarly scarce Cycle back. All of these cards are pretty difficult...some extremely so...no matter which back you are talking about.

Those are very general observations and, as Mike so accurately stated, within these subclasses there are many sub-subclasses of scarcity depending on the player/series. So unless you are comparing identical cards, player and condition-wise, you can probably throw those figures out the window.

In addition
 

One other thing to consider is that except for certain crazy folks :D that are after subsets like that, the average collector isn't going to bat an eye at the card and pay a premium for that back. Flipping it could be a problem - keeping is different, obviously.

Its the whole rarity/scarcity conversation all over again. There just isn't the demand unless its a special card, like Speaker or Wood or ... fill-in the blank. For what its worth, just last month an Anon 3 Hooper in SGC 20 only went for $200+ on eBay, so that's a yardstick.

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Mike

Mike brings up a good point about the Hooper that just sold. I should have clarified in my post that I was referring to basic commons when I quoted the 2-3X value premium. With HOF'ers and other high demand cards like Hooper, Speaker and Wood, that gap would likely narrow as those cards are in many cases already scarcer and more valuable.

I also agree that this set is not really made for flipping. There seems to be a relatively small and dedicated group of collectors that have completed or are making a serious effort towards completing this set. Most of those people seem to be very aware of the rarities and quirks of the set and follow the sales pretty closely. So I just can't see a sudden new wave of demand for the Grover Hartleys and O.C. Peters of the world that would make a quick and profitable resale very likely.