Head scratching over t206 price boom

[GregMitch34]

As I posted elsewhere last week: I was very active on this board until about 4 years ago when I took a leave of absence. So I am no "newbie" but have sort of "fresh eyes" on some current trends. If this has been covered here ad nauseum let me know.

I was amazed last month to catch up with the t206 prices which seem to still be climbing, judging by last night's Heritage. Now I know some say the reason is just "more investors," or "boomers with more income," Covid boredom, or "long overdue." But when I see graded prices tripiing--or much more--even for the most common commons and common backs I have to wonder: Is this driven largely by new "low information buyers" who are, at least in part, falling for new description tendencies at auction houses and ebay? Or they don't care?

These sellers used to, by and large, reserve the "only x better" for very high grade or cards with non-Piedmont/Sweet Cap backs. Now I am amazed to see so many Piedmont/SC cards described as "only x better"--sometimes they add "for this card back and version/factory" but often not. And, of course, you can break down these into so many "special" types because of the 150/350/450 breakdowns.

So a new collector might see a, say, ultra-common PSA 5 with a 350 SC back that went for $95 not long and see the descriptive "only 3 higher" and figure it's scarce and pay $600. Have seen this many times without even searching. And, yes, Hindus always got a big premium but now....Cycles? EPDG?

So: this is part of it or not? And, in any case, what do you think is driving this boom?

Last night a NM Rhoads--with a SC back--went for, hold on....$6000 at Heritage. I can only think the long-accepted name misspelled make it seem to new collectors/investors like a true rarity. But then a NM Pelty--vertical, no less--of similar type went for $5000. Of course, that's exceptional, but still prices wild almost across the board.

Like many, I used to live and die by the "pop reports"--even though hard to search. Now those sites, and VCP, are so much easier to use--but I wonder how many new folks are using them? I might guess, in a similar way, that lack of research is also partly driving the surge in 1950s and 1960s prices for high-grade HOFers. Great cards, but do buyers even know or care that even many PSA 8s have a pop in the dozens or hundreds?