At times I feel that those of us immersed in this hobby have more money than brains. This auction takes it to a new level.

Often in these high profile eBay auctions, you get a bunch of kids and idiots that bid away like its all a big joke. Many times when the auction is over the winner is somebody's 12 year old kid who thought it would be funny to bid, and ended up winning. It happens all the time with eBay. And the other bidders very often refuse second chance offers a few days or weeks later, when the excitement of the auction has worn off.

If I was the seller of this card I would be quite pessimistic that I was actually going to get paid, whatever the auction goes for. I suppose there are high end card auctions for modern cards, that pre-screen bidders, like REA, etc?

Good point. There's a very good chance the seller gets stiffed in this auction. Looking at the feedback number on the high bidder right now, I'd say it's probably an eventuality.

I used to collect modern golf cards (yes, I know). But anyway, Tiger and Phil Mickelson cards (autos and swatches) would flucuate wildly based on their performance week-to-week.

Remeber the Mike Vick rookie autos....

If you look at the bid retraction and cancellation history, http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=190398394834
you'll see that there has been a lot of screening of bidders going on.

When I got on my computer this morning, the first thing I saw was the Yahoo article that JohnnyHarmonica has posted in post #93.

I was quite upset after reading this article. Not once did the author mention PSA or the Honus Wagner T206. How can a journalist write an article in this day & age without mentioning one of those two things. :rolleyes:

I did like the adjectives he used though, like "crazy-nuts" and "insane" although he left out my favorite...."stupid sick". ;)

Thank you for allowing me to inject a little sarcasm at this time.


Jantz

apparently there are 4 other fake ebay auctions for this exact card, they all claim they own the 1/1

hopefully ebay removes the fake ones.

Even if I had interest in this card, I wouldn't bid in this auction. It should be in a legitimate auction, NOT eBay. The seller has already had 71 bids retracted or canceled.
71!!!
If you're the winning bidder, you have to assume that your price was bid up by countless fake or deadbeat bidders. What a joke....

Just an update on Strasburg:

Nationals GM Mike Rizzo said that Stephen Strasburg is likely to need Tommy John surgery to repair a significant UCL tear in his pitching elbow. This will almost certainly wipe out the phenom's 2011 season, though the Nationals will seek a second opinion before going the Tommy John route. Strasburg's rookie season ends with a 5-3 record, 2.91 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 92/17 K/BB ratio over 68 innings.

That's really a shame, and is the very reason why it's crazy to spend thousands of dollars on these cards. But his health is far more important than his baseball cards.

Its over:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_yl...lug=tsn-166444

Stephen Strasburg likely will have Tommy John surgery

I hate to be the guy who spent all that money on that card now.

1/1s are killing set collectors
 

In this hobby we have completest. With all these 1/1s the completest which keep set collecting active will no go after this set because of all the 1/1s. I think its just lame how the card producers are trying to reproduce the rarity of cards caused by various elements such as pop-culture, printing presses, our parents flicking the cards at walls etc... The serial numbers are nice and all but I feel its just a fake sense of rarity. I mean that card has been on ebay multiple times now and if you look at it, it's the same card as his others just with some chrome. Does this 1/1 brand really bring us to 20k? I think not....
-John

I think *stupid* is probably the more accurate word to describe the $ paid for his cards a few months ago. Anybody who pays top tier HOF money for somebody who has played a half a season in the majors and just presumes that level of play will continue uninterrupted for 20 years, thus justifying the investment as a good one, is stupid.
JimB

+1,000,000

There was a story on Yahoo about the guy that bought this card off eBay and if I recall correctly he decided to buy it based on watching Strasburg pitch against the Pirates while out with his wife at a Buffalo Wild Wings. Too bad I don't have a 1/1 card because after a few beers I'd probably look pretty good pitching against the Pirates too. :D

+ 3.14159265...

Mark Prior 2.0

'Pretty crazy, but I would rather have that card than many of the high grade vintage PSA 9's and 10's which are trimmed. A 1965 Topps leader card sold PSA 10 for $120,000+ a few years back. That is MUCH crazier to me than the Strasburg.

Though still rediculous if you are referring to the Drysdale Koufax leader PSA 10 sold by Mastro to the leading Koufax collector on the PSA registry I think it was closer to 25k which is still absurd but a long way from 120,000.

You may be referring to a different sale if so please show me to which sale you are referring.

Stephen Strasburg Has 'Significant Tear' in Elbow Ligament, Will Need Surgery

Tough body blow for the hobby but we will persevere. Hopefully, he comes back better then ever! At least this kind of thing can't happen to a Cobb, Ruth, Mathewson, Lajoie, Williams, DiMaggio, Mantle, Horace Clarke, etc, etc, etc...

Lovely Day...

Iggy
 

Iggy-Man

Even a dolt like me might notice if Cy Young had Tommy John surgery...

We just have to worry about the card surgery being done...still painful to the wallet, but doesn't hurt your arm.

And don't you think I missed the Horace Clarke reference my pal...well played and very funny!

The Strasburg card in question was purchased by Brian Gray of Razor entertainment/Leaf sportscards to include in his repackaged product that is coming out I believe next week. Basically Brian bought the card for 20K to put it in his product that features one graded card per pack. I am sure he doesnt care if Strasburg has TJ surgery as he is not holding onto the card, just packing it out some someone else can have it in their collection. This card was supposed to be one of the high points of his product and I am sure it will still be regardless of the injury.

The other day I was at Target and noticed the Topps 2010 sets are advertising on the front of the box "Stephen Strasburg rookie card inside":D

I wish him the best in his career,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,lets see what happens next with the Las Vegas phenom Bryce Harpers' rookie card :D

Clayton

intentional rarity? absurd!
 

I cannot believe anyone would pay 16k for a manufactured rarity. Think beany babies and that will give you an idea of created rarity. Add to that the surgery and this is a crd waiting to plummet. Of course 84 bids shows there are a lot of folks waitnig for card companies to tell them what is rare. The fact that any card company can create a 1/1 means nothing. I see these presidential autographs packed in a card and suddenly it goes for more than the whole letter from the same historical figure. Absurd indeed.

The article I was referring to was about the guy who originally won it for $16k on the eBay auction mentioned at the beginning of the post. I'm guessing the guy you are talking about won it from Huggins and Scott?

Doug,

I believe that is correct.

I still have a hard time with the hardline manufactured rarity heat people bring up. This board is full of people who are completionists and have to have every card of any given set with all possible combinations. Cards like this are made for people like that. You have to have this card because it completes a master set. But you don't like this card because it has a number printed on it. If you collect rare backs or type cards, I don't understand why you would have a problem with manufactured rarity. Bowman didn't put a price tag on this card. Only a number. It's up to collectors to assign the value. So why get mad at the manufacturer when you're just as hungry for certain cards without numbers on them? You can have your every day Cobb with a Sweet Cap back or you can go crazy over a Brown Lenox. What's the difference? It seems obvious that Lenox, Uzit, Drum etc were all printed in lower numbers than the other backs. You have 52 Hi's and 52 lows both purposely printed in different quantities. But they aren't seen as manufactured rarity because they weren't meant to be valuable. I think thats just semantics.

That's a good point. It's all about what people want to spend their money on. We might think it's crazy to spend $20k on a modern card, but the people choosing to do so probably think we are crazy for spending that kind of money on cards of dead players. I guess as long as everyone is enjoying the hobby in their own way, to each his own. :)

I totally agree with you. I mean, for me it's hard to imagine why someone would waste hundreds of dollars on a Shag T206 just because people for whatever reason as a collective whole decided it was worth more money because of his haircut. But to each his own. I don't blame ALC.

I also love the "well he's just a prospect" mantra. There are many on this board who are more than willing to fork over thousands of dollars for a "no name" minor leaguer from the deadball era who died decades ago.

I personally don't buy rare backs or rare anything, but I can appreciate the difference between a card that is rare for what I would call natural reasons and a card that is rare only because a modern day manufacturer contrived to create a collectible by creating some meaningless variation like a numbered refractor.

Well how do you feel about the Goudey Lajoie, Ruth Butter Cream, or US Caramel Lindstrom? While not contrived variations, they were contrived rarities which was a conscious decision of the manufacturer.

It's too bad
 

I personally think this is a tragedy for this kid. He truly had the baseball world in his grip and now, at such as young age, is going to have to go through surgery. I know that the card sold for a ton of money, but he really did have me excited to watch him and follow him throughout the season.

Hopefully, he can make a full recovery and get back to what he does best!

Jeff

Both Tim Hudson and Josh Johnson have bounced back amazingly well since they had their surgeries. They might have even improved their abilities from pre-surgery performances. I'm hoping the guy makes a fast come back like Johnson did and dominates for years to come. It would really be something to see Strasburg and Pujols in their primes at the same time in the same league.

According to this ESPN article http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4403920 he got a $7.5 million signing bonus, $2.5 million 15 days after the approval of his contract and another $2.5 million on January 2010. It's an unfortunate situation, but from the looks of it he was already paid at least $12.5 million before the season even started.

A lot of people are feeling bad for the Nationals because of all the money they are shelling out but surely they had his arm insured?

he lasted 12 games........

Though possible, doubt early 1900's card manufacturers would have thought of creating the contrived scarcity of cards, the way it is done now. Mind set has developed in such a way.

Actually, as Packs pointed out, several card companies did exactly that, albeit for a different reason. Goudey, US Caramel, Butter Cream and others, with held, or dramatically reduced production of single cards to encourage set collectors to keep buying packs.

That is artificial rarity.

So let's say there's $15 million guaranteed already paid -- how many more millions in merchandise and ticket sales, etc. have been made because of him?

as stated before
 

My thought on the new cards and manufactured rarity is that it's just another form of collecting/gambling. Not really unlike a lot of what we do. There is nothing wrong with it. If it's what those guys enjoy, who the heck cares? It's their money.

As for pre-war rarities lets don't forget one of the reasons several card companies didn't produce many of a certain card. It was so they didn't have to give away too many prizes to folks completing sets and turning them in. regards

That's absolutely true. Topps has had one of their best years ever because of Strasburg. Now that he will be "yesterday's news", all attentions will be turned to Harper. It's the nature of the beast.

Leon,

The majority of the fine folks at Freedom Cardboard are wonderful, nice people who appreciate vintage cards. However, they have gravitated toward the modern. Can't we as vintage collectors extend the same courtesy to them and not pass judgement on what they collect? I certainly hope so. After all, it's only baseball cards.

I don't understand that last sentence.

I guess....
 

What is this supposed to mean? You sort of sound like my wife arguing the exact same point I am agreeing with? Maybe you didn't understand my post or I am not understanding yours? We are advocating the same thing.

To my mind not the same thing as artificially creating some stupid variation and arbitrarily making one of them. Not like Strasburg himself is a rare card, just some stupid variation colored red. But hey, whatever.

Leon, you nimrod, I'm not arguing anything. I posted that in agreement :)

I like that ....
 

My apologies....It's been a while since I have been called a nimrod. I kind of like that. It's so much better than the things I have been called by my wife. Glad we got that cleared up :D. Now back to whatever it was I was doing...

People who follow hype aren't all that wise and always seem to get burned.

They always want "what's in the news" and this goes for something like this (if he pitches 50 perfect games in a row, it won't hold it's value because there will a better 1/1 insert down the road) or the buying up autographs of a recently deceased individual (I watched a person win a Mother Theresa signed insert card for $12,000 following her death or those $3,000 Michael Jackson photos which are now selling for $300), it never pays off for them in the long run.

This isn't a tragedy, just delays what could be a brilliant pitcher in the making. ESPN made it seem like he had passed away, but I know have facts memorized noting indivuduals who had bounced back from this with more success.

And Kerry Wood.

DanC

Have to agree with Peter. However, probable that those same creators(of pre 1940 sets), put in the present, would do the same or similar. Exposed to present mindset, internet, historical perspective, etc, that would be likely outcome.