What if you could get it for 20% off?

Or 50% off?

Is there no discount at which you would decide you’re ready to buy?

I suspect most of the group has their price at which they would bite.

Not sure we will ever know why this one sold for less but it might be nothing more than everyone who could afford to pay more than 288K had no interest in adding a 55 Koufax to their collection. Might be a case were a straight for sale would have maintained the previous price point. Still a good price overall just not great news to those who recently paid more but this is what happens when you have skin in the game. I rather have a 55 Koufax 9 at 460 than an 86 Jordan 10 at 700.

Whenever I reflect on our hobby and try to figure out what something is worth the overly obvious phrase, it is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, pops into my head.

One thing we do know is that there are far more buyers for a 55 Koufax PSA 5 than there are a 55 Koufax PSA 9.

I've always maintained that for postwar mainstream cards, condition rarity is a risky bet, especially where the numbers are so large that only 0.01% of collectors are the market.

Maybe…But i don’t scour pwcc for bargains, i just dont participate there. I have never trusted certain Auction houses mentioned, so, no, it’s not worth my time to monitor their auctions. All you need are a few participants to opt out and prices can disappoint.

Who might be in the market for such a spendy card ? Not many to begin with, then consider 5 other sales in the last 3 years. Now we have less than not many who are honestly interested in shelling out big $ for such a card. Auction prices only go big when there are bidders who really want the item.

I followed the recent Memory Lane auction that had quite a few Hank Aaron's in PSA 8. The ending prices did seem a bit low all around - so yes, perhaps a softening of the post-war vintage market. Although most were not near perfectly centered, could have something to do with it.

Finally, the centering on the '55 Koufax - left/right ok, but top/bottom was 40/60 ish. More and more with post-war vintage the big prices now only come with near perfect centering. And with such an iconic card as the Koufax rookie, most I bet would want better than 40/60 to seriously consider shelling out for a PSA 9.

Now the prices this year for nice Ruth, Cobb & Wagner have been strong. They are more scarce than anything post-war vintage. In fact, with all the auctions already this year, hard to consider even the blue chip post-war cards scarce - I see so many continually offered. For instance, there have been many '54 Aaron's offered for sale/auction this year - there is a lot out there, more than I thought a few years ago.

Go Pre-War big names !

Interesting take. Centering has continued to gather steam as a very important price determinant.

I also think part of the Goldin pricing was due to the actual condition of the card, as someone else pointed out the card appears like it may have some issues.