Posted By:
T206Collector...it helps to sort of think of it as art. And PSA is an artist, of sorts. People are willing to pay for the best version of cards graded by PSA for many of the same reasons that attract collectors of art to Picasso, etc.
Moreover, there are a number of reasons that people want to spend any money on baseball cards, which, by definition, are luxury items -- right down to that $2.99 pack of Topps cards. I would bet that the reasons for that purchase are as varied as the reasons for a $10,000 Unglaub card.
There is no objective way to judge this purchase. Even if everyone but the customer thought it was a stupid purchase, the customer would still be right because, in the end, his supply and demand curve intersected at that point for him.
I do want to say that limited resources play a large part in all of our collecting habits, even for the most wealthy. We all pay what our own wallets will bear, factoring in trade-offs in other areas. If money were no object at all, then the $1,000+ bidders on the PSA 7 commons cards would have continued to bid each other up into the zillions -- but they didn't, they stopped, and one bidder was crowned owner. The reasons that the underbidders stopped bidding are very telling, in my opinion.
We all collect to our abilities and we all believe that certain prices are too high to pay for cardboard lithos of players. Where you land on that scale is a very personal decision, which factors in a variety of life choices. At the end of the day, harping about these prices is a struggle between and among classes. Those at the lower end of the spectrum may feel that the registry people are flashing their wealth, and that makes them feel bad or angry. Those at the higher end have a number of reasons for their purchases that may not have anything to do with flashing their wealth.