Memory Lane Auction Any Surprises or WOW's
 

Good Morning Everyone

The Auction just ended a little while ago at 6:05 am

Just wondering

Any Surprises or WOW moments.

Prices higher or lower than you thought?

Any bidding wars you were part of or saw?

Anything you missed out on?

Any Pickups that you are proud to share?

Not the right place since it was a photo, but why not put it here vs the RMY thread:

I was also happy to grab the DiMaggio photo the day he broke the minor league hit streak at game 50 games as a San Francisco Seals. I also own a program from that game a great pairing.

There was an absolutely gorgeous T205 Cy Young (PSA 7) that I was following. I had hoped that if it stayed in the 15-20K range I would make a play for it, but I feared it would go for more like 25-30K. It went for over $110,000. I think that has to be a record for any PSA 7 T205 card, and by a wide margin. Even a PSA 8 Cobb sold in 2019 for about the same amount. Not sure what the etiquette on here is about this, but I'd love to hear from anyone who was seriously involved in the bidding, or even the person who won. Congratulations!

(I did win something which I will post when it arrives. :))

The 52 Mantle authentic altered that I believe someone here was bidding on ended up $45k w BP.

In general Ruth and Mantle all ended up being the head toppers. The most expensive a 1953 Bowman PSA 9 $473k.

A 1933 Goudey #92 Gehrig altered autograph went for $43k w BP. The bottom was cut off. A Ruth Yellow Goudey also cut off with a nice signature $135k.

I agree with the poster above regarding the T205 Cy Young. It's a beautiful card.

1952 topps salesman panel 1700, tough item, but dont remember them ever selling over 500 or so


1952 topps yuhas psa 7 1083, no sales over 400

It's a really nice card but not super great looking, to me. I think it was probably a registry play. It is like my Cobby in a 6 holder, a little o/c top to bottom. Great card but the price was much greater....
.

I would love to see that Cobb!

here ya go...(shown many times)

https://luckeycards.com/tyt205.jpg

The 1959 Topps Mays Catch PSA 9 went for almost $8k! :eek:

I know this gets posted every time but the fact it ends at 6am is ridiculous. No clue why they don’t go to item by item ending at some point.

Agreed 100%, feels archaic at this point with the other major AH's having already evolved their closing methods.

+1. It's just stupid.

edited to add, but it seems to be working :eek:
.

A lot of middle grade postwar vintage stars went very reasonable that’s a good sign that we are starting to see normalization away from those numbers of this past January through August.

Very beautiful, thanks!

As Leon states it's a great card, but I can think of so many other cards I'd rather have for $110K. Congrats to the winning bidder though :)

The cards of Ruth, Cobb, Gehrig, Johnson, Matty and Young I followed all ended with strong prices.

I was involved in the Young bidding but did not win it. Was the prettiest version of that card I'd seen in quite some time, and happy that it sold for a big number.

Completely agree. Was up until 4:00am EST and got fed up. Made me question some of my bids - if they were being made intelligently or out of exhaustion - so I just logged off. Much prefer the lots closing individually with the 15 minute rule.

Plus 2 it’s beyond stupid and I will never leave a top all bid.

Surprisingly I woke up to see my high bid held on the Cobb in Memory Lane. Was happy to win the Mathewson Brother cabinet from RMY which closed a little after midnight.

I was outbid on the Kalamazoo Bats cabinet of George Wood

1915 CJ PSA 2 Cobb went for a ridiculous price of $18,300 before premium.

Chad

The hammer price of that SGC 8.5 Babe Ruth 1933 was a disappointment compare to that PSA 9 The National Break Mantle. Pretty sure they thought they would get over $1Mil to $1.5Mil from that Ruth based on the PSA 9 sold in their last auction.

Great stuff so far! I woke up to see that my max bid on the 1943 Satchel Paige photo held up... Barely!

The stuff I was watching
 

all ended pretty strong - Seems like the high grade high demand HOFers (Ruth, Cobb, Mantle, etc) are reaching new heights - many mentioned earlier in this thread. The 55 Jackie salesman panel closed pretty strong as well as did both Mantle Briggs items. The hobby is alive and well! Agree 1000% about the 6AM closing! Left this one empty-handed.

I was on the Young thinking I'd have a near cinch of a shot at it with $30k as my max. I stopped watching for a few hours in the early evening and was glad I did as when I came back it was at an absurd level. Sure, it's a great card but I do think that's a record 7 sale for any t205 as you said. Guess I'll be happy to be "stuck" with my PSA 6.

As for me, 3 cards in the "W" column last night/this morning with one big deviation from my tobacco era only PC.

Me neither. Signed off a midnight EST. No auction is worth staying up all night for. There will be another 6,000 of them in the next few years.

I guess most of us agree. I am not comfortable putting max bids on things like these.
I prefer 1 bid at a time. And very hard to stay awake all night for this.
Tough part is Memory Lane always has some great items and makes it hard for many of us to resist.
Hopefully the board had many winners to make it worth their efforts

Young was really tough for me to find in high grade. For my t205 set of 208, it was the most expensive card after Cobb. I think you had 2 registry guys chasing it.

Troy, I guess I missed out too then, since I very much enjoy buying your old T205s after you've upgraded!

Memory Lane has a lot of good stuff. You might say they are one of the best auction houses extant.

I was surprised this 1915 CJ Branch Rickey went for nearly $17k


https://memorylaneinc.com/site/bids/...e?itemid=61933

thats funny!!! I agree prices on quality superstars were strong...I thought some mid grade caramels like the e93 young went a little higher than recently comps. These are scarce cards relatively speaking and thats a unique pose.

What the hell? Someone explain.

1915 top tier CJ HOF’s continue to rise.

The PSA 2 Cobb ended @ $22K after the BP

The PSA 3 Joe Jax ended @ $45K after the BP.

I’m glad to of added both some time ago!

krike...is a hacked briggs meat mantle really worth 31K??

SO maybe their ending, we dislike so much, works LOL....
Looking at the auction there were crazy high prices on things. an E91 Matty in a 3 holder for over $8600!

Was watching the T206 Cobb green PSA 5. It didn't budge from the bid about a week ago - with BP went $38.k. Considering what other stuff went for, was expecting little higher, but heck, still strong price. Don't know for sure, but could be new high price for that card in that grade.

It was centered with oversized borders. Surprised there wasn’t a MC on the grade. Great card whoever won it.

Scarcity is starting to be a more defining characteristic of the collecting hobby IMO, as opposed to simply the most popular issue being chased.

That's good I believe in the long run, but yeah, that was a pretty crazy number for a Briggs Meat card.....

Yea I can as pretty shocked on the 1915 grade 2 Cracker Jack Cobb for 22k (not including potential buyer sales tax!)

The 1915 cracker jacks is one of my favorite sets of all time, but am surprised how much they seem to be jumping!

Glad I completed my set many years ago!

I was surprised that the PSA 7(Print Defect) E121 Ruth went for so much. With all those black horizontal lines (not to mention the black on the sides) that is really a pretty ugly card. Congratulations to the consignor and ML, not so much to the buyer.

I'm also surprised how high the Young T205 went, it's 1 of 8, 5 higher, so not so tough in that grade. Maybe Cy is starting to be the next one to really rise(?)

I was blown away how high the Green Cobb 5 went.

I was surprised the SGC 7 52 Mantle stayed under 200k.

Out of curiosity, why did you think this would only go for $25-30k? Were you more just hoping for that, or did you research recent comparable sales first that led you to believe that was it's range?


I was bidding on that Mantle as well, but I was probably the 4th underbidder or so. I dropped out when it crossed about $35k or so with BP since I already have a very similar card. I have an authentic altered Mantle with similar eye appeal that I also paid $45k for. Which is interesting, because there is no public record of my sale since I bought it with Bitcoin, and there really are no other similar comps for this card in recent years. So for both to sell for the same price within a 2 or 3 month window by multiple independent buyers, despite no recent comps, means we are all probably using similar methods to estimate its value. I was called an idiot and a sucker for paying that much for it when I posted it here not very long ago.


Yes, it's extremely annoying.


Ruth, Cobb, Mantle, Mays, Jackie and a few others will likely continue to outpace the rest of the vintage market. Ruth and Mantle in particular. I'm grabbing whatever I can while I still can.


I think Branch Rickey cards are likely receiving a bump because of the history between him signing Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers back in 1945, and changing the future of the game. A lot of attention has been paid toward civil rights in recent years, and Jackie Robinson's cards have strongly outpaced other stars from that era as a result. I see this trend continuing.

I was hoping to see SGC graded cards sell stronger....that 52 Bowman Mantle SGC 8.5 didn’t go crazy. Whomever won that card got a good one !

[QUOTE=Snowman;2152699]Out of curiosity, why did you think this would only go for $25-30k? Were you more just hoping for that, or did you research recent comparable sales first that led you to believe that was it's range?

There aren't a ton of comparable sales because there are so few of the T205 big four (Cobb, Young, Johnson, Mathewson) in grades of 7 or higher, but in December, Heritage sold a PSA 7 Mathewson for 15K, a PSA 7 Johnson for 18K, and a PSA 7.5 Young for 43K, while Goldin sold a PSA 7 Johnson also for 18K. I was estimating largely from those numbers, with a little market inflation built in.

There were a lot of strong sales in this auction, but there were quite a few bargains as well.

I don't know what comps are for it, but the 1955 Bowman Mantle PSA 8 selling for $12k sure seems like a hell of a bargain to me considering the PSA 9 sold for $375k. The Mike Trout blue auto refractor RC selling for $20k seemed like a steal to me as well. The Dan Marino BGS 10 Pristine RC selling for just $4.8k while the PSA 10 sold for $6.8k was a great score. Whoever consigned that is going to be pissed lol. I saw quite a few good deals on some of the more modern cards, especially non-baseball.

I won a few cards. About half vintage, half modern. I got the Sport Kings Ruth, a 33 Goudey Ruth, a 53 Topps Mays, and a ticket stub to Jackie Robinson's last game (1956 World Series Game 7). I also picked up some basketball cards. My biggest purchase was a dual signed Lebron James RC that was signed by him and Michael Jordan. That's the only card I went over my budget for, but it really has no comps. I was prepared to pay almost anything for it, within reason. It was the only "I have to have this one" card in the auction for me. Really excited for that one to show up. It's probably my new favorite card in my collection. Other than that, I grabbed a Steph Curry Gold RC, a Kobe jersey patch auto card, and a Lebron Topps Chrome RC that I really didn't need but just thought the price was too good to pass up.

Ya, I thought that seemed like a steal for $29k

Yes that card was a screamer !

Yes this auction there was no true reason for the highs and not so high on some of the cards

Like to me this card where Ruth looks like he is a cartoon in prison went for $28k.

Unique for the Grade” & the Finest 1933 R337 Eclipse Import #402 Babe Ruth PSA 7 NM – “Pop 1” & the Highest Graded Example for ALL 24 SUBJECTS on the Combined PSA & SGC “Pop” Charts!

On the flip side I thought who ever won the Felix Mendelssohn Ruth for $43k did really good. I thought the price was light.

The 2 1926-29 Ruth Exhibit Postcards 1 went for less then 5k and 1 less then $4k. I think those buyers did well also.

The Goudey Ruth’s and the 1921 and e121 Ruth’s throwing pose seem to go for strong prices.

The 1922 w575-1 Ruth throwing pose seemed to go for less than I thought it should have

Then there was the 1933 Cigar Ruth and the 1922 e121 photo montage Ruth I believe those went for about the right price

I won the two Marriot Signed Art Prints lots ! I was so happy. The 3 Mantles, Two Willie Mays and one Bob Feller :-(

I was bidding on several of those Ruths. The 1922 w575 I would have much a much stronger play for had I not spent the same amount on the Michael Jordan/Lebron James dual auto card. Had someone bid me off of that card, I was planning to win that Ruth. It was still quite a bit lower than I would have gone on it. I pegged it in the $45k-$60k range value-wise. And yes, I thought that Felix Mendelssohn Ruth went cheap as well. I felt under bankrolled and underprepared for this auction. I think there were a lot of opportunities missed in this one.

Happy to say I was able to snag the Felix Mendelsohn Ruth! Really excited for this one!

Wow Congratulations on picking up the Mendelssohn Ruth

Welcome to the family

Thanks Jeff! You have a great copy! I actually had/ have an sgc 1 I got last year too, this is an upgrade for me! Might be my favorite Ruth I think!

Congrats Erick, love that card too.

Thanks Jeff!

Erick, fantastic upgrade!

Thanks Pete!

Congrats Erick. I am glad it went to a well deserved home. I woke up last night at 4am eastern and came very close bidding on it, but I didn’t, and knowing you won it makes me happy I didn’t bid (or at least bid you up).

It always amazing me what the set registry will make people do. PSA 9 sold for $2500 last year.

https://memorylaneinc.com/site/bids/...e?itemid=61710

52 Topps PSA common for $64k

Thanks Ryan! Me too :D

I've always felt the same way (about what people will pay for PSA 10 commons from the '50s), but I can at least understand this one a little more.

You so rarely have a '52 T PSA 10 hit the marketplace. I can't remember seeing any in the two years I've been back in the hobby, though I easily could've missed something during that time.

Given how '59 T PSA 10 commons could fetch $10 k pre-pandemic (and 7 x more of them exist), I'm not too surprised to see a hallowed '52 commanding $64 k

I mean, to each his own, and whatever floats your boat, but it's not like you walk down the street and are mobbed like Paul McCartney or Mick Jaeger because you moved up from 41th to 39th on a PSA registry. Amazing people feel so strongly about it.

I agree. A $30 raw card.

$63,970 buys a great Jagger-esque party, complete with endless hookers and blow.

[QUOTE=Snowman;2152699]Out of curiosity, why did you think this would only go for $25-30k? Were you more just hoping for that, or did you research recent comparable sales first that led you to believe that was it's range?


Your question was to another member here but since I was looking at it as well, I thought I could answer as to the why the $25-$30k range on the Young. Last sale (which was awhile ago) was about $10k if memory serves. PSA 7 HoF guys (think Johnson, Mathewson) were in the mid-high teens recently and a 7.5 sold in the low $40ks less than a year ago. Using those data points and knowing the pop report show them all somewhat similar made me come to that conclusion.

I don't think it was a registry buy for whomever bought it but I can't be sure. Regardless, it was a gorgeous 7!

...and here's my big 3 from my set. I wanted the 7 but am pretty happy w/my 6!!

Agreed. I always found it absurd, that in the sports card world— or perhaps these days the best word is "market"— there are those who will pay exponential price increases for infinitesimal (if any) increase in card quality.

The recent Memory Lane auction bears this silly dynamic out in so many cards. Just take any of those PSA 9 Mantles. There has never and will never be any convincing this collector that a tiny degree of sharper corner here or there makes a "9" worth $400,000 more than an "8." Paying more for overall eye appeal that I can actually see when holding and viewing the card, that I get. Paying such a multiplier over other readily available options just for the sticker— a sticker applied by a company that has had so many widely known miscues? Seems crazy to me. But as many have said in the hobby, "the Registry is a powerful drug." That's always been a perfect analogy, because gobs of money have certainly been spent on drugs by addicts.

From the first day I got into hobby I was buying PSA and SGC about equally, so never paid any mind to the whole registry concept.

Portrait PSA 1 MK $4,554.00
Batting SGC 1 3,421.00

I thought the batting pose went a bit light; the portrait was right for the grade. I think all of those 1920s exhibit Ruth cards are soon going to be $5k+ cards in virtually any condition.

It is a very powerful drug. I have one psa registered set - my 526 card t206 set. Initially, I didn’t care about the grade composition, but later decided that (excluding the big 6), I wanted all commons in at least a 5 and all HOFers in at least a 6. And as I started upgrading my set, I started moving up the registry, which I liked. And some cards are weighted more, so I found myself considering Zach Wheat in a 7 merely because his card was weighted a 4 vs other HOFers who are weighted 3. It’s stupid, but I fully got caught up. And then I got to #4, stayed there a week until the guy I jumped made an acquisition to take back #4. My first thought was what can I do to get back into 4??!! Anyway, only need two more commons in a 5+ and I have all HOFers in a 6+, and, to some dealers’ dismay, I have decided to stop upgrading. But I can tell you first hand that the registry is like crack.

As much as I have issues with PSA, I will concede that the registry is nothing short of sheer genius and, in my opinion, the sole reason why SGC will always play second fiddle

Hi Ryan,

I do not totally understand the weighting of it to get on the list and to move up or down it.
But I do disagree with 1 premise.
In my opinion yours should be #1 because your shows as the only set 100% complete. That should be the biggest weighted factor in my opinion.
Regardless you have a great set and congratulations on it

+2. I loved that green T206 Cobb. If I didn't have one, and had the money, that one was a keeper. Beautiful card. I have paid 2x vcp for the best of the best. And will do it all over again. (hopefully)

Ryan, I commend you for this most insightful post AND for your ongoing willingness to share various aspects of your collection with us, which most collectors with fabulous collections don't do. Whether you are #4, #5 or #6 on PSA's T206 set registry, your accomplishment is tremendous, IMHO.

Adam I love the Ruth Exhibits--I was the buyer on the Batting SGC 1---I also just had these 2 graded by SGC (thanks for your help)---Don---I also love all the color variations on the 1926-29 (can drive you crazy)

Thanks Jeff and Val. I guess I was 5th and then got pushed to 6th :(

Maybe one day I will pay way too much for some BS upgrade, just to jump Joey for a few days before he does the same and over takes me. And, of course, it will be wholly unacceptable if Brady jumps me, so if I drop to 7th than I will have to email Bill B and pay up for some Southern Leaguers in a 6+ (bc they are weighted 2), so I can put Brady back in his place! The registry is literally a crack-infused, digital dick-size competition and it’s amazing what some of (us) dicks will pay to be one spot higher. I mean, look how close I am to having an average grade of 6…. For a mere $50k at most, I could get there. Seriously, it was the most brilliant thing PSA did and the reason it will (unfortunately, bc they are not good at their job) stay on top.

Am I the only once who has got emailed 3 of the same invoices since yesterday afternoon?

I got the email twice. I guess they are reminding us to pay.

No, you are not.

Also, they made this big charade about their zelle email had changed, and never once put what it was. (Spoiler ) I dont think it changed

I got two as well.

Chad