T205 Wilhelm Suffe ed Help Needed

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Posted By: Lee

Hello Everyone,

I just bought this t205 Wilhelm Suffe ed variation on eBay for $55. I know it is pretty rare and there are only 18 on the PSA pop report. I know little about t205's, so here it goes: Do you think this was a good deal and what do you think the card is worth?




Thanks,
Lee

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Posted By: barrysloate

This is the common variation. The one that includes the "r" is the rare one.

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Posted By: Lee

It seems that there is something making the suffe ed more valuable than just a "common" variation....There is a PSA 4 on ebay right now at $510 with one day to go and another PSA 4 for $315 with 5 days to go and they are both suffe ed. Plus the PSA pop report says only 18 of suff e ed have been graded, where suffered has 35 graded. I have noticed the suffered sell for more though, in ebay auctions. Thoughts? I just don't know how relately rare this card is to others.

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Posted By: J Levine

Here is what is happening with the Wilhelm.

First off...the "suffered" version is much tougher than the "suffe ed" version. What is driving the price is the stupid PSA population report.

PSA, in it's infinite wisdom, split the variations last year in a horrible way. What they did was dump all the T205 Wilhelms previously graded, whether they were suffe ed or suffered, into the "suffered" category making it look as if there were far more than the suffe ed version. Since then, not many have been graded and the numbers are totally off.

Believe me, the "suffered" version is extremely difficult.

Joshua

PS I think you got a fair deal, not great, not bad.

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Posted By: Lee

Thanks Josh!

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Posted By: Brian H (misunderestimated)

PSA (sigh)


Yes, PSA decided the recognize the variation -- which in fact was only acknowledged(even by most serious T205 collectors) fairly recently. At the time they had graded a fair number of Wilhelms and of course they had no idea which ones were "suffered" and which ones were "suff red." I'm not really sure what they should have done since their are not many people who collect T205 master sets to begin with.

Anyway, since labeling the incorrect version the same as the ones they had already graded would have been contradictory to the labels and grading card companies can't practicably do "recalls," they started labelling the errors as they came in. Yes, reading the Pop report without any other knowledge now suggests that the error is the more scarce of the two version which is wrong. I really have trouble blaming them for this though. At least they responded to collector/customers and started to distinguish which I find commendable.

Regardless, Wilhelm was always among the very toughest cards in the set so even the more common version is still plenty hard to come by. From a dealer/seller/investor perspective I guess any Wilhelm is not too bad an acquisition at the price initially posted.