I'm talking about the current state of prices. You seem to be suggesting some kind of longer term card price manipulation scheme which seems to happen more often than not in whatever markets you would draw your sales data from. Again, I just don't buy that. It's possible that it happens in some cases, but across the board would be a stretch and difficult to prove. I also don't believe that the influence of a PWCC encourages one-off collectors on a budget to suddenly re-adjust values in their minds to the top of the scale, just because of a few sales that may not have been totally on the level.

Agreed that additional "rich" speculation and other competing demands for collector dollars that are suddenly now not there are likely way more responsible for the boom than massive, covert price manipulation by big dealers and auction houses.

I've been selling into this wave for months and it is real. There are certainly some bogus transactions out there but I've been cleaning house on stuff I never thought I could sell except at massive discounts. My last AH consignment closed in January and the result exceeded my expectations by nearly 100%.

As for the $1200, $2000, or whatever, for someone making a good enough living to responsibly and regularly buy four-figure cards it is a financial blip. I am not wealthy and definitely not in a unique financial position, and I am telling you that the cards I bought in this horrible year had nothing to do with a stimulus check. I didn't even qualify to get one. For me it was not paying for all of the other leisure activities. I saved far more than $1200 just not going out to dinner over the last year and a multiple of that not going on any of the vacations or trips we planned. Hell, dinner and show for my wife and me is $300 or more, and a week in HI will cost us $5K. I go to a couple of concerts every summer. In 2019 summer I went to see Heart and Joan Jett (great show, BTW) with decent, not great, seats at the Hollywood Bowl and between that and dinner I dropped over $400. My floor seats for Green Day in 2017 plus dinner were over $400 for the pair:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...SizeRender.jpg

And worth every dime!

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...tthead%202.gif

My wife's salary got cut 20% at the start of this and we didn't even feel it because our spending dropped 35%. No dinners out, no maid, no trips, terminated gym memberships, no wardrobe since we are not going to formal offices, no commute expenses, no food at work costs, etc. That's where the money is. Plus, WTF else am I going to do with it, put it into the bank at 0.1%?

Great Shot of the stage! I'm definitely looking forward to going back to concerts again! As a side note, It usually involves me traveling a state or so over. For the price of one at the Garden, I can get better tickets in Philadelphia, plus pay for my gas, parking and a Cheesesteak!

More of echoing what I was saying earlier. Spending is down for everyone, might as well throw it into our Hobby! I cannot speak to the bogus transactions part, but at this point with the way certain prices are going, I might have to sell cards which I always said were "Unsellable" I have to get the money for some of the other cards I want somehow!

it was amazing! We were right next to the mosh pit. I am too old for that nonsense but it was a blast anyway. At 6'4" I am fine in a crowd like that, but my wife who is a foot shorter gets claustrophobic and refuses to go, so I have to go with my daughter, who is 5'10" and can throw an elbow like a power forward. A few more from the show:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...zeRender_3.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...zeRender_4.jpg

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-Bowman...IAAOSwZylgHI8t


How can this be explained ??????

This card has consistently sold between $5,500-7,500 of recent in 7 Grade now with 2 days left this $40,000 ???????

This one takes the cake......how does this make sense??

In this very thread is the same phenomenon I described above.

Can't be explained
There's a BIN for 18k up there psa 7
Nobody is paying 40k for sgc 7

I think you're right about that.

It’s my opinion that this same card will be relisted by the same auction within 1 to 3 months from now. Investors aren’t stupid or blind the fundamentals are not there for this said price. I understand momentum, this reminds me of GameStop. That’s just me that’s just my opinion I could be dead wrong. This card is a beautiful card in my personal opinion it could go between 10 and 15k but 40 with two days to go is pie in the sky in my book

I’m sorry I don’t trust this number as a true Value of said card.

Someone please shut me up if I’m off base but I adimentqly think the contrary.

Guys....the 40 k for that Mantle is out of line. But you're using some wrong numbers and not including all the details (that explain things a little more).

The '52 B Mantle in PSA 7 has never been 5500-7500 recently....the last one sold for 8400 in late December, and a month and a half is a lifetime ago in this market w/ what's happened with Mantle, Aaron, and Mays since.

The one listed for 18 k BIN is a really weak PSA 7. Four bad corners (for that grade), t/b centering not that great, print mark on the front. It just sold today too.

The 40 k one has the perfect centering, eye appeal, and PWCC-S thing that people have been paying up for forever.

40 k is still obviously very high for it, but it's not the impossible aberration that it's being made out to be

See that's what I'm talking about. You say that people have been paying extra for a certain classification from a certain seller. But do you know anyone personally who has?

I know some of us are giddy over this current trend. But the higher they rise the harder they will fall. Passionate collectors (like us) are being taken advantage of by these outside investors. Collectors are unknowingly protecting these investors bottom line by aggressively purchasing cards at any price point. Our nostalgic passion is being exploited, like an addict looking for a fix. Imagine if people had this much passion for owning a physical share of GM or Coca-Cola.

IMO you cash in or ignore the noise. This isn’t our childhood hobby anymore. It has been hijacked by Wall Street.

At this point, IMO "PWCC" means "ignore this data, it is probably BS"

The PSA 7 rookie sold for 115 k, so maybe the price isn't too far out of line. Time will tell if these prices are real or can hold. We went thru this in 2016, but this is much bigger affecting pretty much everything.

If 52 bowman is WTF
how do you explain this by a member


PSA 3 at that moment is around 12k, member here sold it for 29k, it is a VERY VERY nice3
same goes with the 52 bowman. it is overprice but someone might really pay for the centering(i'm not a center freak)

https://net54baseball.com/showthread...+mickey+mantle

52T Mays PSA 5.5 did $35,700 last night. My centered PSA 5 cost me $2900 in 2019, slightly overpaying during that time. With that rate of change and some extrapolation, retirement in my 40s seems justifiable. Hoping the investor boys keep this train moving for the sake of my retirement and GT3 fund.

The longer this goes, the more skeptical I become. I saw two examples occur last night that make me feel this way, both compliments of PWCC. First off, a PSA 3 '52 Topps Jackie Robinson sells for just north of $16k?! Yes, I get the idea that it has supposedly been undervalued for a long time and such, but seriously?

Also last night, I watched a PSA 3 '56 Topps Mays go for $616. That card could have been had for $150-175 for years. Right after that auction ended (another PWCC special), I watched a BIN which was listed at $399 obo get snapped up. Don't get me wrong, I'm not my dad here upset that bread isn't 5 cents a loaf anymore, but even $399 is quite a bit for that card. But that's how it happens. PWCC runs up an auction to a ridiculous level, so that a card that was somewhat overpriced suddenly doesn't look so bad, and it becomes the new normal for that card. This is now happening with PSA 3s! I have resisted wearing the tin foil hat and have shaken my head when I have seen other members indicate they are laying low for a while until this calms down, but even I am starting to think that might not be such a bad idea.

I really don't know what to think, and I may just stick to commons for my sets for a while and see what happens.

edit to add: I have a lot of cards that have risen in value dramatically, but I would sacrifice that in a heartbeat to be able to add stars to my collection at reasonable prices.

I was also watching that PSA 3 52 Jackie with the wtf thoughts as it finished. If that was a legit sale, there are some true dumb dumb entering the room. I am doing exactly as you mentioned, only searching for common set fillers until things take a shift (which they will).

On the bright side, the shift from big card purchases has reopened my eyes to some toy spending.

A PSA 3 1953 Topps Paige closed over $1500 (allegedly). A year ago it was a $250-$300 card.

I sold off one of my grotesquely appreciated cards yesterday and will be taking additional profits in the near future.

If we can collectively not bid on some items some sellers might exit the hobby.

This of course means you'll need to forego "stuff" in hopes to buy it later.

I have cards similar to what PWCC occasionally auctions off. I follow the bids, check up on closing prices - wow, tough to believe, but heck, could be reality.

At this point I wonder, If said card on PWCC closes for $10.k, could I sell my copy for the same $10.k if I listed it myself? Asuming centering/registration, etc is as good.

Also tinkering with the idea if $10.k gets the PWCC card, perhaps I could list at $11-12.k and sooner than later get the sale in this booming market.

Anyone have first hand recent experience doing this? Thx for input.

PWCC has

Vault (free tax)
international shipping
easy to sell if your card in vault
cash advances
payment plan

they sell more than cards, although i only buy from them twice, but i do see if i'm not in US, probably will buy more from them

And here's an example, pwcc vs non pwcc on 54 aaron psa 7, that pwcc one is nicer one. price about the same

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1954-Topps-...p2047675.l2557

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1954-Topps-...p2047675.l2557

Seeing 52 Topps Robinson and Mays cards multiplying in asking price for every listing is laughable. Who the hell is dumb enough to even consider paying half of current asking prices? Desperate attempts by dreamers. Looking forward to resuming some type of norm again. And no I don’t think these new prices, 52 Mantle PSA 1s at 30k plus, are real. Eventually people are going to start listing cards again and real prices will shake out.

I will admit that the heights the '52 Jackie is attaining are astonishing to me. 20+ years ago when I was young and dumb, I had a G-VG copy of that card with a hard to see crease that presented fantastically, and was dead-nuts centered. I think I let it go for around $500. Whoops.

I don’t think they’re coming down anytime soon with pwcc and hedge fund investors pouring money into Goldin...the 52 Mantle in a 1 might come down a little bit but will never drop drastically, no matter what condition.

Agree. But those bad ugly 1 you can get for under 30 still. The bearded mantle sold for 13k I think a week or two ago. But average looking one I think will hard to get down below 30

When there are more people trying to move cards at once and we see more than 5-10 examples active in the market, true prices will show. Current price increases can not sustain their rate of change.

It's not just baseball cards either. I paid 300 for an Allen Iverson rookie to give to my son for Christmas (2 months ago!) The card just sold yesterday for 3900.

There are a lot of new collectors that just want to buy stuff and they don't care how much it costs.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

EDITED OUT

You might want to read your post again. :rolleyes:

Oops, fixed.

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Haha, was about to say “hey now, easy there”

Two cards on my watch list are just befuddling me today. One, a 1973 Kellogg's PSA 10 Stargell is at just under $90 with a little time left. Of the last five sales, three 10's went for under $20, and the other two sold for $25 and $24.99. Getting 10's in this set is pretty frickin' easy, as it seems to almost be the default setting at PSA. I believe they don't come up for sale too often because there is no profit in them. Weird.

The second one is what I call a "Discounterpart" - a lesser valued card in the set that also contains the player's rookie card. It's a PSA 9 OC 1972 'Dr. J' All Star card, and it's at $209 with a couple of hours left!! Before Covid, I picked up a better centered PSA 9 OC version for around $35 all told.

Yowza!!!

I saw that Greg Morris had a 1976 Topps Jim Rice up over $50 the other day. That’s...something.

Holy mother of crap!!!!!!! The 1972 Erving I just referenced went for (with tax and shipping) over $500. Yoinks!!!!

When there is so much 1981 to present stock out there, how can the PSA10 & PSA9 be going for these prices. Everyone looking in their closet could have 9's and 10"s , then just submit, wait 10 months and reap the rewards.
Seems like the newer stuff would be subjected to a crash rather than low population vintage high grade. All sports