10K for a Young portrait in a 5

[The Nasty Nati]

There are 81 PSA 5s, 34 PSA 6s, 19 PSA 7s, 14 PSA 8s, and 1 PSA 9—For a total of 149 Cy Young Portraits graded 5 or higher. I can’t get the SGC pop report to work right now, but let’s say its roughy the same, and we throw in some raw examples that haven't been graded for good measure, that brings the total pop of Cy Young Portraits graded EX or better to nearly 300.

It’s a great card and one of my favorite portraits in the set, but when there are nearly 300 others out there with identical if not better appearance, I just don’t see how you can justify paying $10k…but what do I know.

[Touch'EmAll]

In supply & demand theory, the quantity supplied refers to the amount of a certain good that people are willing to supply when receiving a certain price. Yes, there may be quite a few (relatively) out there - but that does not mean they are out there willing to be supplied - aka "available". These cards are tucked away and stashed in collections and can be considered not even available. I have several, but I am not going to sell them, or even try to sell them. So basically, may cards are not in the supply quantity, I am not willing to supply them to the market. Probably same goes for a lot of collectors holding nice T206's - happy to just keep them and won't be seeing the market anytime soon. Therefore, the true market supply is lower than we may think.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Well I would argue somewhat that not many 5's are going to look as nice as that one, but I don't disagree with your larger point.

[griffon512]

Originally Posted by The Nasty Nati

There are 81 PSA 5s, 34 PSA 6s, 19 PSA 7s, 14 PSA 8s, and 1 PSA 9—For a total of 149 Cy Young Portraits graded 5 or higher. I can’t get the SGC pop report to work right now, but let’s say its roughy the same, and we throw in some raw examples that haven't been graded for good measure, that brings the total pop of Cy Young Portraits graded EX or better to nearly 300.

It’s a great card and one of my favorite portraits in the set, but when there are nearly 300 others out there with identical if not better appearance, I just don’t see how you can justify paying $10k…but what do I know.

Thanks for posting this data. I have a very difficult time justifying the price as well, but I think it highlights how important eye appeal is in getting premium pricing. I very much doubt there is anywhere near 300 cards in this pop with the level of eye appeal as that card. I would guess that less than 20% of same or higher graded Cy Young portraits have similar centering and registration as the one sold. Centering and central image quality are more important than corners to many collectors. In addition, I think a lot of intelligent and/or skeptical collectors are focusing on mid-grade cards because it's less likely they were "worked on" than cards graded 8-10.