I agree, except that I would not have been a bidder even if I had the money. Maybe save the venom for the real villains of the world. Like the Joker or the Riddler.

With all the vitriol being flung his way, I would not be surprised if the winner never makes his or her name public.

Yes he and Kendrick could do a side by side before a game.

Post #56 above (real tough to find)

"Thousands of people will die this winter because they can't afford gas or heating oil or electricity and will freeze to death and some guy spends millions on a friggin baseball card. I wonder if he gives a shit about them. I will guess he does not. The priorities of things has gone to hell."

This comment doesn't say what you claimed. Where does the writer blame the Mantle winner for people freezing to death?

Not sure if you were joking or not, but Derek Grady works for Heritage, and he is the one who had to decide where to send the Mantle for grading (on the seller's behalf). He used to be the head grader at SGC for some number of years. He also knew PSA wouldn't give it a 10, and he didn't want it in a PSA 9 holder because he thought it was nicer than all the PSA 9s and two of the 10s.

👍 👍

Yes, that's why I used the smiley. But thank you for spelling it out, probably not as widely known as I assumed.

Perhaps you should actually try reading members' comments before you start railing against them as "haters". (I guess it's "real tough to read"!)

Self-edited (see prior comment immediately below). Some people really get my goat. But ultimately it’s better to use the “block member” function than to cuss on a public forum.

I always appreciate when someone is willing to show who they really are. :)

I get that people are excited about record sales that could help produce profits on big cards or even middle cards as publicity is great, but the repeated hyperbole, misreading of anything not serving this purpose as hating, and more is extreme in these threads on this card.

Disclaimer: The 52 Mantle is a great card. Mabtle was a great player. I like it and I like him. This copy presents well. I hope all of you make tons of cash from your cards.

Misreads a post and uses that misreading to criticize people. Responds by cussing out the person who points this out and is factually correct.

What is it about this card that makes people go crazy? It’s a unique phenomenon.

Yeah agree it drives people crazy - like I can’t figure out why you seriously spend time to go out of your way to hate on it. It’s the most iconic post-war card. Accept that fact and move in with it and you’ll be happier. Your pop and non rc arguments against the card are a bit like yogi’s no on ever goes there anymore because it’s too crowded.

In my opinion, the large sums of money which typically trade hands these days when the card is bought/sold.

Quite a few people here remember a time when a lower grade '52 Mantle was somewhat attainable. That ship has now sailed for many of us. Some people get on with their lives. For others, it continues to grind their gears.

To me, it underscores an often valid maxim; the worst regrets we have in life revolve around things we didn't do.

Yep, I should have bought that card when I had the chance. I didn't. Oh, well.

I have sold many cards I should have kept, but by far the bigger regrets are the ones not purchased.

Actually I don't think it is just this card. I think it is certain people. I think long gone are the days where collecting cards was a hobby. Sure in 52 it was a hobby. Maybe even until the early 80s. In a short time it became an industry and there are a lot of people who have a lot of money invested. And that figure is all relative based on one's economic status. Either way, it has certainly brought out a great deal of sensitivity and shown sides of people that might not otherwise have been seen.

It is too bad that now we can now reduce fighting and unprovoked off base aggression to cards. Maybe those who keep coming unglued should take a time out and catch their collective and collector breaths. Someone's Sun was wrecked and now we got two collectors whose entire Tuesdays have been decimated due to a discussion over a baseball card. Really?

Many people love collectibles. And some people in the world become excessively wealthy. Therefore, it's easy to have a marketplace where the prices for the most prized collectibles get incredibly high.

This is not anything new. Priorities are not "going to hell" all of a sudden. It's just how one part of the planet's economy has always functioned.

And the buyer might even have a big philanthropic side as well; there's no way of knowing (at least not yet) if he's the Mr. Burns that you guys want to assume.

But regardless, it's so pointless and unhealthy to let wealthy people spending their $ on an asset bother you so much.

I agree with you and the evolution into a investment area and ego measuring contest. This card in particular seems to being out the worst though. Even threads about the trimmed Wagner don’t have such deranged fury as these do. When a Wagner or a Ruth sells for a ton of money, it’s a fairly benign thread. The Mantle seems to bring out the hair trigger tempers that just cannot take any hint of a different opinion that isn’t about pumping up the market through the roof without flipping out. Can’t wait for the next person to go nuts over an inconvenient fact.

If you want to be really bothered about money that could have helped needy people being wasted, look at some of the line items in reports on waste in the federal budget. One Mantle card is chump change. Now, back to cards.

+1

+2

+3

I agree with you 100%. I was going to provide a similar response, but decided against it. Who are these people to say how the buyer/bidders spend their hard earned money? Cracks me up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is actually pretty comical reading grown men come unhinged needlessly defending a card. A real popcorn moment.

How was your Tuesday, by the way? As good or better than your Sunday?

I can remember Al Rosen *Mr. Mint" after his amazing 1952 High number find selling a nice 52 Mantle for $1,500 when the national was in St Louis. He probably had around 100 at the time, so has to be some other 9-10's in the bunch? The buyer told me to go get me one, but I didn't--oh well?

None of us are perfect, one of my imperfections is that I enjoy watching adults meltdown over any hint of dissent to their narratives, especially when the offending statement is a statement of actual fact and not even a dissenting opinion directly. That many adults are outraged when they discover that other people do not have the former's financial investments as the driver of the later's views is endlessly fascinating.

It's been a lovely Tuesday. Work was undramatic, I got lunch with a friend and baseball historian, and we disagreed on some points with reasonable debate and free of any meltdowns or screeching. I pulled down my 53 Topps master set (p-vg and treasonously raw) for cataloguing the black/white text variations in my spreadsheets, and mailed out some tobacco cards to a hobby pal. I'm spending the night curled up with a warm coffee and my old friend Hesiod. While it would have been a nice bonus if others pumped the stocks I'm holding and we had an up day on the market instead of a down one, it has not ruined my day or made it worse that others are not putting their efforts into driving narratives financially beneficial to myself. I never even felt the desire to spew invective at people for saying things that are true but I wish were not true. I hope that yours also did not contain unbridled rage when confronted with people who do not share a fiscal interest you have or an inconvenient fact, sir.

Well facts are very hard for some to accept. Inward looking eyeballs will do that to one's perspective.

So let me get this straight Greg...at no time did you or your friend feel the urge to condemn one another for dissenting view points? No F Offs were exchanged? Surely there had to be bile in that discussion so one of you had to be thinking to tell the other to F Off, no? I am glad to hear that you did not feel compelled to push an elderly lady down a staircase because your portfolio did not appreciate today. I am guessing it was not too hard to resist.

And thank you for asking. I had a great Tuesday. I was productive at work. Was able to cut out a few hours early, in fact. I would have been able to leave earlier had I not been sucked in by two grown men losing it here. Hit the gym, ran a few errands and had dinner at home with the wife, kid and dog. Caught up with each others' day and spent an hour looking at my severely off center (60/40 both ways) 1953 Bowman set to see which cards I needed to upgrade due to too much corner wear. Not once did I think to check the market, look on Zillow to see if my home went up or down in value or get upset that there has been no appreciable increase in the value of my Auth 52 Topps Mantle.

I'd rather learn how they previously invested their hard earned money.
;)

I am always somewhat intrigued at how some people are judged by others, who have never spoken to them, let alone gotten to know them really to the core.

I have friends that I've known for years. Some have shown their true colors and are no longer friends, and others volunteer their time at the local children's hospital and food bank. It took me years to find out their values and what they truly care about, and this happens over time.

Yet somehow, someone spends a lot of money (which is always relative) on a collectible (or a car, or art, or a purse) and that shows the world what their values are and how they are deep in their core? I doubt that. We don't even know their name.

I’ve never seen this amount of vitriol, anger, and bitterness over a Frigging Card. You either have one or don’t who the hell cares what other people do with their money? God Bless them. I’m just happy with what I have.

+1

+1

I don't understand this. As a child, I spent a nickel for a pack of cards. As an elderly man I spent six figures on one card. While this may indicate a lack of personal growth on my part, it doesn't mean that I don't care about the homeless. And we certainly don't know how the buyer of the Mantle card feels about problems around poverty. Poverty, homelessness and hunger have been with us for as long as I'm aware. We've spent countless dollars and the problems are still here. And every advanced society has had the idle rich, who take much more from society than they contribute. But to imply that a guy who spends huge money for a card is heartless, or for that matter to imply any connection between his spending and poverty is wrong.

You can feel any way you like about his spending that much money. I personally couldn't care less about the card. But that's no reason to imply that he's a bad person.

I know it sounds crazy, but there was no F off situation! I even had to stand factually corrected and abandon an argument when I misrecalled a statistic and Baseball-Reference proved me factually wrong. We even disagreed on faith as my reverent agnosticism does not align with his Catholicism. No screeching was had nor was anyone condemned to Hell.

Sounds like a good day to me, but I must express some surprise at one component. You mean you, sir, own a 52 Topps Mantle but are NOT ignoring inconvenient facts, what people you might be criticizing have actually said to argue against something they did not say but is easier to attack, and abandoning all dignity and connection to reality to spew complete fiction mixed with outraged fury to serve the obvious purpose of pumping the end of the market you are invested in and this card in particular? That is possible?

I hesitate to disagree with Howard, because he's a good friend, and has helped me immeasurably to get close to finishing my Master Mays set. He's also been a tremendous font of knowledge about almost every regional and oddball issue that is out there. And he's a true gentleman, so the last thing I want to do is start some sort of a Net54 spat, rife with ad hominem attacks, personal insults, and dirty words like "investor". So hopefully he will excuse my disagreeing with him.

But I sure hope he's wrong! Simply because when prices go up, it means that my dollars don't stretch as far when it comes to picking up great pieces for my own collection.

When I think about items with insane prices that are unmoored from reality, typically I think about things like original artwork, high end real estate in Vail (or her sister cities, of which there are many), wineries in Napa, rare classic cars, etc. When it comes to these items, I would posit that the biggest factors are:

1) Universality - they are sought by rich people around the world with money to burn.

2) They are extreme status symbols. There's nothing quite like owning an original DaVinci to show to the world and especially your filthy rich friends that you're a big deal, and possibly an even bigger deal than your other filthy rich friends.

I would argue that in many ways, at least on the baseball side, most of our cards don't have universal appeal. While certainly baseball is played outside of the U.S., including in South Korea, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, and all around Latin America, I'm not convinced that for crazy rich people from those areas, collecting cards from U.S. players is going to be a huge draw. Not to mention all of the crazy rich people with money to burn from most of the rest of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, etc., just aren't going to be as excited to acquire American baseball cards compared to original artwork from a master.

When it comes to status symbols, baseball cards just don't have quite the same cache and panache as many of the other items that are out there. They're certainly not nearly as visible, and therefore usually not nearly as public. While I'm a poor excuse for a coastal elite, whether you're talking about the old money crowd, or even the new money crowd with all of the tech money, I just don't get the sense that a lot of them are looking to spend a lot of cash on our world. I would surmise that in some ways, those groups would not get the same amount of street cred amongst their peers from buying high-end baseball cards that they would get from buying other high-end items.

At the same time, $12M already has a lot of crazy priced into it. As others have observed, the odds are good that the Gretzky T206 Wagner or some of the PSA 10 1952T Mantles would probably fetch a higher price - possibly $20M, $50M, or more. And obviously at those prices, there are only so many houses in Vail, original pieces of art, and classic cars that would routinely fetch those prices.

So bottom line for me is that I have a hard time really seeing that our world will truly rival some of those other markets in terms of prices. But at the same time, maybe we're already kinda sorta there!

Not that I haven't been wrong before, and the odds are good that I will certainly be wrong again. But I really hope that I'm not wrong about this.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...us%20cards.jpg

Some other random musings:

We often fall into the trap of binary thinking. Issues are complex. People are complex. I know people who are filthy rich but whose idea of a fine night out is a trip to In N Out for a burger and fries (hint: ask for animal fries with chopped chilis). I know people who will drop everything to help a friend but whose politics are of the "let them eat cake" variety. It isn't all one thing or all the opposite.

I agree that we are really still ramping up as a transition to an alternative asset class. Look at the money not only pouring into the hobby infrastructure but also professionalizing it. We're seeing vertical integration, scaling of operations, etc. Then there are the rising marketplaces like Whatnot that are democratizing the live auction experience. I would not be surprised to see a National moving closer to the Comicon model in the next decade. It all points to a cross-over from a low-brow to a high-brow vision of collecting.

The Mantle is a great example of the art-like transition of the market. You can own a work by Roy Lichtenstein on a budget, but it will be a print or serigraph, not an original canvas. Very few could piss in the tall weeds with the big dogs who chased down the 9.5, but lots of us could get into a low-grade 52 T Mantle with some savings and liquidating of existing cards.

Which brings me to my next point, why people react so strongly. It is frustration. I've been there too. I was so frustrated with card prices 15 years ago that I stopped buying mainstream baseball cards and moved to regionals and Exhibits. I wish I'd spent some of that money on a midgrade Mantle when it was still a middle-class card, but I was too butt-hurt about not being able to afford every card I wanted that I just pulled a Cartman: "screw you guys, I'm going home."

https://media.tenor.co/images/7d4bbb...cca6d7e041/raw

Seems to me being all bent out of shape over someone else's good fortune is a waste of time and only hurts you; the rich guy who bought the card doesn't care one iota that you are frustrated. Won't do anything except make you mad. It's all just stuff; what is real is how we react to it. We can control that. Like James Brown sang: "You don't miss nothing you never had but you miss so much you wish you could get, hah!"

Something such as this Mantle are so far out of my range of owning, I just cannot say one way or another. It is like hitting the lottery on one side and buying a crapload of tickets on the other side and being off by one on each of the 6 numbers.

Just cannot begin to fathom if it is too much, not enough, or just right.

I'll stick to porridge.

Cheers,

Butch

I think we can all agree on whoever bought the card is nuts.

Or if you prefer eccentric.

Or a billionaire who wipes his ass with hundred dollar bills.

It's a frickin' piece of cardboard that was mass produced.

Yes, someone traded a lot of pictures of dead presidents for one picture of a dead baseball player. Not really life and death stuff.

I personally do not agree that there is anything wrong with spending $12 million on a card, though I never would and do not care at all what anyone but myself does with their money. You want to spend a mansion’s worth of money on a mass produced cardboard picture, go ahead. God bless America.

However, the “butt-hurt” and “bent out of shape” replies are people openly cheering for higher and higher prices, not these folks. We’ve had two people lose it, both clearly on this side. None of the people who have said they think spending $12,000,000 on a card is absurd have flipped out, cussed out people who were factually correct but corrected their BS, or posted dishonest accusatory rants straight up lying about what has actually been said in the transcripts here.

Wow two grown men who conducted themselves respectfully and civilly. Next time you really need to throw punches, that is if you want to be a part of this hobby and really fit in. Public temper tantrums when not warranted by grown men are so underrated. Especially ones that will be saved for eternity on a chat board. I suppose when you collect things which were created for 8 year olds that acting like one, again, 30 or 40 years later can come with the territory.

Well to be honest. My Mantle is Authentic has a tilt and horribly OC at 70/30 both ways. Leading price pumpers of that card would not even consider is a 52 Mantle.

I hope your Wed is as great as your Tues.

Just curious....how much in taxes does the consignor have to pay?

assuming the sale goes through.

100% agreed. I stated on one of the various threads, that may or may not have contained a member or two losing his shit, that the 12.6 sale was great for the hobby. Also stated based on the scans that the card appeared over graded. That someone can spend that on a card is incredible and while it potentially makes it harder for me to buy stuff, it shows that the card industry, which not long ago was simply a hobby, is being taken very seriously.

It's not great for the hobby.

It's great for sellers and auction houses and holders of Ruth, Wagner & Mantle.

It's pretty awful for collectors.

They have just found out they will never get certain cards...and possibly all levels, PSA1 thru 10.

Now that being said collectors HAVE to adjust their mindset and go to Authentic, Altered, Miscut, etc. If they want these cards. It's still the same card, just a lot worse shape, kind of like your wife when you first married her.

You still love her, she just ain't Mint10 anymore, get used to it, live with it.

We will never know, but it would be fascinating to know what the sale price would have been if it had been graded a 9 (probably more accurate given the toning) and not designated as the world's greatest 311. The cynic in me says a significant amount less.

I understand your perspective but I do not think that every card in grades 1 - 10 will now jump up because someone spent 12.6 on an over graded 52 Mantle. The huge money that has poured in has been on elite caliber cards that guys like you and me were never going to be in the market for. Does this mean that a 54 T Snider in PSA 6.5 will be unattainable?

The market overall has already seen huge appreciation over the last 2 plus years. And like many things that go up they can go down and back up again. For most cards, prices are down sharply from where they were at the highs, yet we still have at least 2 people who did not care and slugged it out for the 9.5 Mantle. Sales of T206 Wagners have gone through the roof too. If you are referring to those cards, you are right. Most collectors are SOL. But they have been SOL well before the sale of the 52 Mantle in the 9.5.

Bottom line is that nothing stays the same. Change is inevitable. Adapt or be left behind. I have made my choice.

With a PSA 8 going for almost 3 million quite some time ago now. I think if it had been a PSA 9 with the same provenance it may well still have done 12.6.

SGC 9 is what my hypothetical was meant to say though. Still the same?

Will depend a bit on selling costs that go to the auction house. Just for fun, let’s assume the seller nets $10,050,000 after they pay the action house their cut.

So the gain would be $10M.

Federal income taxes on collectible gains are 28%. Plus I think you get to pay a bonus 3.8% for Obamacare taxes on investment income.

Plus you get to pay whatever your state rate is. I thought I read somewhere that the seller is in NY. Plus you get to pay NYC taxes if they are in the city. Just for fun, let’s call state plus city 15%. I might be off a bit, but that’s probably pretty close.

So if we round it off, that puts the seller at a total tax rate of about 45%, which comes to roughly $4.5M if the gain is $10M.

Naturally, you can take a bit off if the seller isn’t really in NY and NYC.

It's an interesting philosophical debate. Would buyers pay slightly less for this card if it were in an SGC 9.0 holder instead of SGC 9.5?

My gut tells me that there is probably a difference. But I'm guessing it might not be as much as we would expect. I wouldn't be surprised if it still got to $10M+ even at SGC 9.0 instead of SGC 9.5.

Maybe but at SGC 9 it probably doesn't get a flip saying it's the best one in the history of the universe. Would that matter?

Could be! It’s just tied for best in the universe on the SGC pop charts?

So maybe it only goes for $8M?

I mean who knows but I think that designation had to be worth a couple of million especially if the buyer is investment minded.

I guess part of the question for me is whether the buyer plans to cross it over to PSA. Obviously that takes some real boldness. But if they did, are they assuming it would cross to a PSA 9? And what would a PSA 9 be worth?

But maybe it would cross lower?

But the odds are good that the buyer isn’t planning to do anything more than stick it in the vault at home and wait for it to go up.

But then it becomes one of what, 6 PSA 9s along with 3 10s? Kinda loses its claim to fame.

Mr mint was always known as a man of integrity and his salemanship was free from hyperbole.

Likely.

I guess I was musing about whether a PSA 9 would be worth $15M or $20M, in which case it might make sense to cross it over. You could still claim that it’s the same card, with the same claim to fame, but now with a PSA flip to add to the flip collection.

Of course, it’s not my card to faff with, and I doubt I would touch it, even it if were mine.

Plus the added benefit that at $15M or $20M, the people who freak about $12M will get that much more excited.

Provenance: a record of ownership of a work of art or an antique, used as a guide to authenticity or quality.

Chase the one I feel skewed the market and made it untouchable for a while for many was the SGC 5 52 Mantle Sale in REA last month for $306,000. That killed a lot of guys' chances for the time being for being able to obtain one in a 5 or less. I feel it’s the reason why guys are asking, and cards are selling in major auction houses the same grade and less, grades 1-5, for ridiculous numbers for grades 1-3.

To me that SGC 5 1952 Mantle was the game changer. I can’t make any sense of the price it sold for, $306,000.

Man, in the day who knew, eh John? Even with a relatively small truck could have backed it up.

No issue with $12.6 million for a baseball card. My only issue is that the card is overgraded (which is not based on my opinion of what a 9.5 should be, but the actual published standards of the grader themselves who have ignored their own standards for some reason. Can't image what that reason is...) and the laughable appeal to Mr. Mint's authority. The pumpers will not only ignore any reality that doesn't sync up with the agenda, they will go ballistic if confronted with it.


Whether it's good or not, I'd say it's probably good for the industry and bad for the hobby. Depends entirely on how one sees cards, as a relaxed hobby or an industry to generate revenues.

Neither of which, personally, I find wrong or assign any moral value too. I've never been in the market for a 52 Mantle in EX or better condition so it doesn't affect me, I'm just again complete bullshit being passed off as true. Apparently this is a hot take in the hobby these days. As there is no moral value in this being about profiteering or 'true collecting' people could just be honest about their objective instead of making crap up, denying blatant facts, lying about what others have said, and acting as if Mr. Mint's marketing statements are objective reality. "I don't care if SGC has overhyped the grade and Mr. Mint was a lying scumbag, I believe this sale will help pump the top end of the market and I stand to profit from this; what's good for me is good for me and that is what matters to me" would be a reasonable take.

Agree, and less than 3 years ago, lol. I just can’t get the $306,000 for a SGC 5 52 Mantle.

I think some people are thinking along these lines:

Anyone who can be suckered by hype and overpay for a misgraded card doesn't deserve $12.6 million in disposable hobby income.

It's a flawed mindset, of course. However, I can see more than a few people adopting it.

It's hard to get one's head around, elite centering and all.

Wow, this one spun off like the comment section on an opinion piece in the editorial section.

personal opinions only and not even worth 2 cents:

• Would I have bought it if I had the money - No.
• Would I have given away all my savings instead to meet the current socialistic dream program agenda and pat myself on the back with the usual follow up Ted Talk about how awesome I am? - No.
• Would I have spent it likely on something else that someone would likely consider more wasteful like a garage with an F40, F50, and an Enzo and had maybe enough to start a decent house next to the garage? - more than likely, we all have vices. :)

Honestly, it was sold in a free market auction and as long as it's paid for in the end that's what it was worth that day, tomorrow it could be more or less. I have no arguments.

Yes to this. The card is overgraded and was a PR move for everyone involved. Is this any worse or any better than the BS that takes place with TPG slabbing bad cards hand over fist for insiders? The whole grading game is a steaming pile. The grade of 9.5 simply illustrates what we all know but fewer can admit, that grading is far from perfect. It does permit for manipulation of the market/hobby/industry when not done 100% ethically.

I think the sale shows health in the world of cards. With any market that fluctuates, the best time to buy is not the best time to sell. When prices were more stagnant it was always a great time to buy and sell. Now it is a timing thing. Now you have pumpers who unhinge easily, investors and flippers. The hobby is no longer just dealers and collectors. There is more volatility and there is more money.

Like you I am not in this area of the hobby. Doing 5 figures on a card would be a stretch for me. I still like seeing vintage cards like this one sell for obscene numbers. I am not envious or angry that I cannot play too. Happy doing what I do the way I do it.

This. Otherwise, time to find another hobby.

Exactly. We must always be able adapt.

I hope this isn’t hijacking the thread, but I am curious where folks think the 52T Mantle will be at price wise in the next 5-10 years. I personally think that given the significant price increases across the board in the last few years that we may be in a few years of price stabilization. Hard to envision much of a price decrease in the next 5-10 years. However, I do share the concerns mentioned by some that current teenagers may not hold the card in the same esteem that many in the 30-70 year olds do. I do think it would be fun to come back to this thread over the next few years and see how close our predictions are.

Adam

Slower but still steady increases is my prediction on the icon cards like this. I never saw Ruth or Cobb play but still hold their stuff in high esteem. Who knows though.

For what it's worth, here are the latest sales from VCP for an Uncle Jacks Ruth. Some are quite old but a PSA 2 sold for nearly $59K a few months ago.

Yeah based on that sale the price seemed right to me.

Sorry....I posted the Ruth sale in the wrong thread...it was meant for the "Insane Babe Ruth Card" thread.

I'm going to go a bit contrarian and suggest that there's likely to be a drop in prices, at least overall. For blue chip pieces like 52T Mantle, particularly in high grades, maybe not so much. But overall, I expect prices will come down a bit.

A big part of my thinking is that prices have run up so much over the last 2 years, give or take. Depending on which basket of cards you look at, and how you do your math, the increases are pretty easily 200%-500%, and sometimes more.

When I think about the underlying factors that have contributed to the jumps in pricing, the factors that mostly come to mind are:
1) People coming back into the hobby because they had extra time on their hands during the pandemic.
2) Some pumpers jumping into the action because that's what they do.
3) Lots of people with a lot of extra cash on hand.
4) Every asset class, and I do mean every asset has been on a crazy run over the last 2 years. Okay, maybe there's a couple that missed out. But almost every asset class.

Certainly it will be interesting to see whether #1 has any staying power. Certainly #2 won't be around for long, and arguably a lot them are already gone.

I think for #3 and #4, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of the recent runups in asset prices more generally start to unwind. Certainly most assets have come off of their highs, even including housing. But there's still a lot of froth in a lot of markets. If we hit a soft patch in the economy, or especially a major recession, and people who are crazy leveraged end up having to repay their debts, then there will be a lot more asset sales, and prices will come down. Once they start coming down, that process can accelerate, and really start to pick up steam. The number of people who end up having $100k+ to drop on a luxury like sports cards and memorabilia will decline in a hurry.

When you start looking around at the broader market, including basketball cards, soccer cards, game-used memorabilia, pokemon cards, football cards, just to name a few, there is a lot out there, and if you started counting it all up, there are a lot of pieces that are 6 figures or more. A lot.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not predicting a collapse in the market, where we'll go back to the good old days of trading 52T Mantles for our lunch money, your mortgage payment will be $30 a month, and candy bars will be 5 cents. But I wouldn't be surprised to see baseball card prices broadly fall by 20%-50% if the economy goes badly enough. And even if the economy gets by without much trouble, then prices could still easily pull back 10%-20%.

Bottom line for me is that there's just so many pieces trading for such high prices, there's really only one way to go, and it's not up.

This just in from Heritage

We are excited to offer five examples of 1952 Topps, two of 1951 Bowman, and two of 1952 Berk Ross. The 1952 Topps Mantle card was released in short supply and survives in numbers that nearly equate to pre-war issues, and has arguably become the most iconic card of the post-war period.

I am not shocked there are 5 1952 Topps coming I am shocked they did not get 14 of them. Anyway the part that confused me was the part in bold. I have no idea what the graded population is for the 52 Topps but I have always thought of it as a card that is abundant. And the graded examples do not reflect the over all population of them. I know of several collectors whose examples are still ungraded.

In no other time in oir hobby has an auction house accepted more than 1 or not a max of 2 of the same cards in the same auction even remotely near each other in grade. Its become a game of hot potato. Very few are holding these assets even though the ability for increased prices is so high. Aside from Signed ones, I think we're seen the top with the 9.5 sgc Rosen. In typical Rosen Fashion!

PSA has 1,849 graded copies alone. It is available in large supply. The 52 Topps high's are tough, only in comparison to other Topps series. Dozens or Hundreds are for sale every year, year in and year out.

They've graded 2,510 of the 51 Bowman high Mantle's for comparison, 4,895 of the 1953 Topps card from the very common first series. Neither as popular as the 52 of course, but expensive cards that tend to get graded at a high rate.

Demand absolutely exceeds supply but nothing limited about their availability. Gee I hope that fact is not going to upset any of the pumpers. I would hate to ruin a Sunday, especially one that falls on a holiday weekend.

Another gem from our resident economist.

You guys are acting like Matty "got unhinged" from just a mention of some facts, but I think it's the tone that bothered him. I've seen quotes like this above (another was something like expressing "that second year double print" as a pejorative), and they probably come off like someone taking a shot at the desirability of his favorite card.

Not saying that it merits an emotional reaction. Just that there's a little more to it than simply someone getting upset from unfavorable facts.