Paying a premium over VCP and SMR

[Neal]

I have noticed, besides Mantle, that many HOF players have been selling for a lot more than VCP, and certainly more than SMR - which I have always viewed as solid bathroom reading material.

That said, there have been a few cards over the years that I have paid a little extra ... maybe $300 for a card that normally is $250, just to give an example.

I am not or have ever been concerned about future/present value when it comes to adding a choice example for the grade. Centering, print issues, corners, etc. all come into play for me personally, and I will pay more for it. Sometimes a whole grade higher.

Does anyone else feel this way? I talk to a few collectors from time to time and they are starting to see my point. One of my buddies is very strict when it comes to "VCP price" and disagrees with my thoughts. To him, a PSA 6 is a PSA 6. To me, there is often a world of difference ...

I would like to hear some other collectors opinion. Thanks in advance.

[jmb]

Originally Posted by Neal

I am not or have ever been concerned about future/present value when it comes to adding a choice example for the grade. Centering, print issues, corners, etc. all come into play for me personally, and I will pay more for it. Sometimes a whole grade higher.

I am comfortable paying more if the card meets my criteria, like you stated above. I recently bought a PSA4.5 41PB DiMaggio that I know is perfect for me and I'll never need to upgrade or replace it based on it's eye appeal. I felt I overpaid at $2k for it until PWCC just sold a PSA5 for $2775 that the 4.5 blows away in the eye appeal department. So, it appears I got a pretty good deal now.

[Neal]

Thanks for sharing that, which is a great example of what I was looking to get across.
Nice pickup!

[DeanH3]

I can't tell you how many cards I have overpaid for if you went by SMR or VCP. I always tell people, as long as you're happy with the card, don't worry about the so called "book" value. I have yet to regret, well maybe once, about overpaying for a nice quality card that checks all the right boxes for me. Good luck Neal!

[MetsBaseball1973]

I will happily set a snipe that is 2X the VCP average for a card with great centering, when I see every card pictured on VCP's past sales has bad centering.

Average prices are for average cards.

[pokerplyr80]

It all depends on the card and the eye appeal. Look at that SGC 5 52 Mantle that sold for over 70k or the 4 for at goldin for over 50k. VCP on both is less than half of that. If a card is hot, or so rare that there isn't much data VCP can be way off. And I rarely worry about SMR. You can throw VCP out of the window on any well centered Mantle or other high end card these days. People are paying big premiums for nice cards.

[Neal]

Originally Posted by MetsBaseball1973

Average prices are for average cards.

well said!