$4.6Mil logoman Luka Doncic
 

I am so happy Vegas Dave's Mike Trout card isn't the most expensive card being sold. Now he can stop bitxhing about that deal.

New record, $4.6M.... go figured!


https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/...t1wu7e5qfjvcsw

Not bad for a 3rd year player.

Not bad for an ungraded as well..

Whoever bought that card doesn’t care that it will be worth 1% of that hammer someday lol

There's a LOT of rich people, they gain a lot during the pandemic, wealth transfer from poor to the rich

Further proof that you don't need brains to be rich.

Private sale between "new business partners and friends."

For low pop cards, especially 1/1s...
 

I don’t supposed there would be a point in getting a 1/1 graded. Unless there was a question of authenticity.

Staged social media event maybe.

Lol, he wrote out a personalized check for it. No wrote transfer lol

How much potential upside is left at $4.6M? The purchaser is essentially gambling that a 22-year-old, third-year player, will ultimately have the GOAT crown when his career is over.

This will require winning multiple MVPs, championships, and scoring titles - all while avoiding injuries and off-the-court issues. This risk v. reward analysis is simply not there. Risk is way too high.

A nice-looking authentic Wagner just sold for $2.5M? So, in theory, the purchaser could almost buy two of the most iconic sports card of all-time for $400k more than he paid for an ungraded third-year NBA player.

To each his own. WoW!

Maybe there was more to the deal. Cocaine, Diamonds, Ransom, Blackmail...who knows. If you think about it, buying a ridiculously overpriced card is a good way to launder money. Like a NYC condo but easier to pack up and take home with you.

Since this is now public, the seller would have to pay tax on it . IRS is all over this. If they fake the sale, still have to pay tax, IRS won't believe what they say

No way. Might have been believable were it not for the check.

I guess we will see LeBron Logoman RC 1/1 has a $6M price tag next wk.

I never heard of the guy.

A lot of people think the card was signed by his mom.

Could it be an ill-fated attempt at creating a run? Suppose you were a Doncic collector and had several of his most valuable RCs. The market explodes and Jordan’s are going for mega-bucks. You think to yourself, “self, what if Doncic went to the moon?” And you thought that maybe you could make this happen by orchestrating an event with a 1/1 Doncic you happened to have. Stage a record sale of lunar proportions and watch your other Doncic boats rise with the tide.

Live near Dallas, love Luka. The price that card sold for had one, maybe two too many zeros at the end.

It could be the case here!

You guys probably didn't see the thread about basketball player Giannis A. showing off his collection of his own cards. Although many were cards Panini sent him to sign and put in packs, he never returned them. So he basically stole those 1/1 cards from Panini. Nice job, multi-millionaire.

But yes, a lot of this sounds fishy. But just like the guy who bought the PSA 9 Mantle for double it sold for last year and was "thrilled" to get it, they're basically spending the same amount as a Super Bowl commercial to get the press and articles explaining who they are. I think the card itself is secondary.

Hidden reserve was 4,499,999.99?


Top of the market, mark this post...

I've thought money laundering many times, it's the only thing that really makes sense to me when I see these prices for cards like this, or someone who has made millions on Bitcoin and to them the money isn't real.

Maybe the buyer was Monty Brewster of the Hackensack Bulls?

Only a matter of time until we see a Patrick Mahomes hits a million. And I don’t own a basic card of him.

I predict it'll happen in a few days :eek:

https://twitter.com/GoldinAuctions/s...55100573229056

I mean we see it in Fine art, I never thought cardboard would be used for it but at the current rate of this market, it wouldn't surprise me.

It really just blows my mind, it has to be Money laundering, it's the only reasonable conclusion. 4.6 Million for a signed card from a third year player? I know Doncic is good, but 4.6 Million? It's unreal. He could blow out his knee tomorrow and never play again.

At least with the Wagner's, Cobbs, Mantle's and Ruth's of the world, you don't run that risk.

Wow it does seem to be around the corner !

I had been thinking of the money laundering angle considerably since it's well known that over $40 BILLION in previous covid relief packages has been lost due to fraud (Link). These criminals have to try to "clean" this money somehow, so why not cards? However, saying that, a lot of the folks who are buying these record prices in cards are making themselves known, so if you are a criminal, you wouldn't want to publicize that you just spent millions on a baseball card and have it in the news.

On another note, I remember when we were in the throes on (Jeremy) Linsanity a few years ago, and people were buying his rookie cards for absurd prices like $75,000 (Link. However, those prices are peanuts compared to what prices are going for now.

How do you guys figure money laundering over a card would work? Unless you're saying the seller was laundering money as well? In order to launder money both parties need to be in the know.

Very low check number...hmmm

Perhaps they mean more like an alternative to secret off-shore accounts (assuming such things still exist). Once the money (post laundering, if appropriate) buys the card, the asset can be conveniently retained at a safe/secret location and perhaps beyond the reach of prying tax authorities, court judgements, ex-spouses, creditors, etc. Obviously the act of purchasing the card should create some trail, but over time the card may be easier to "hide" (or "liquidate") than bank/securities accounts. The card could also be used to pay for services on the "barter" economy.

That's not how money laundering works though. Money laundering is a system devised to conceal funds. The object is to illicitly pay for something from a vendor, which is actually a shell company you also own, and then through a series of transactions with other shell companies you own, the money comes back to you in a legitimate way.

You make an over-inflated deal for one asset in a safe country but the hidden part of the deal is for illicit assets that are not part of the paperwork; those trade hands separately in the country of origin. Perhaps you agree to pay $6 million for a property worth $4 million and the other side slips you equivalent in gold, diamonds, art or some other off the books illicit item that you can then sell for a lot more. You end up with the real estate here and a pile of diamonds over there, which you then smuggle out or sell into a burgeoning black market. The seller ends up with the cash here, and pays taxes happily here to launder the proceeds. Years ago I (briefly) had a case where that happened. I quit when I found out. I don't represent mobsters...just the usual assortment of celebrities, perverts, weirdos and junkies one finds in Los Angeles.

We all have standards Adam!

Drawing such a large amount of attention to yourself screams vanity rather than shady laundering to me.
If it's laundering you want to do you make the same deal in a dark room where no-one else knows about it.
Running up the price by purchasing high to 'pump' and then 'dump' your remaining stock is enormously risky.
First the attention will mean IRS attention.
Secondly, there are only a few players in that end of the market, probably no more than 2-3 in the close ball park high figure and then another 2-3 30%-50% below that.
All it takes is for the other potential buyers to see better value in a different patch or issue and leave that immediate market for the card and you're left holding merchandise worth 2-3 times what you can now get back for it.

Stuff like Lebron's 03 Exquisite patch cards, numbered to 99 or 23, have grown very organically over the last 15 years...even if that has become stratospheric in the last 12 months.
There is a large market who have the funds (in the hundreds of collectors for this exclusive issue) for his stuff and it trades consistently and regularly and higher and higher.

I think this Doncic number is far more likely a long term play by a collector or collector group who think the return in 10-15 years could be as good or better than the one made for Lebron rooks. They have the money that they aren't going to lose sleep if this card doesn't play out.
And GUARANTEED they have boat loads of cash into other players and feel good about making up with one card what they lose in another.

I already contacted IRS to look into this, they didn't charge sales tax on this transaction. (I am pretty sure the buyer would file such transaction on his own and pay the tax..... yeah right)

That's pretty effing weird of you to involve yourself.
I need to remember not to share what I buy and sell on this forum I guess, who knows which member is going to think it's their place to rummage.:confused::confused:

LOL... u know I was kidding right? I honestly doubt that was a legit transaction, certainly IRS wouldn't have any record. :) (May be Vegas Dave really contacted IRS)

I think this would qualify as an asset, though...

Nope, didn't know you were kidding.
Who publicizes a non legit transaction? It doesn't take long for the mass of eyes who are suddenly interested to start asking questions, and you look like an absolute dill weed if you out yourself as a simple agrandizer.
No more playing in the deep end of the pool for that person I guarantee it, most of these transactions happen because of VERY good faith that it will consumate.

Instead of ordering checks by going to the branch and ordering the checks through their automatic reminders with the checks I had I decided I'd order my next batch through on-line. Well, when I got my checks they were... 101-150. I was shocked but just wanted to point out the low number check might just be a different way of ordering.

Rich

The ONE fishy thing to me is that someone would write a personal check for 4 million dollars. If you're the seller, why would you ever accept that as payment? Wouldn't a purchase that large be made with a registered check?

There are a very few people I know and trust enough that I'd take a check from them for any amount.

Now, none of them could write a $4 million check, or would for a card, but if one of them hit the lottery or something yeah, I'd be fine with it.

Most other people....

A business would have a resale number and anything bought for inventory is sales tax exempt. (In my state at least, not sure about others. )

Now if it's still in inventory at the end of the year, they'd probably be taxed as profit assuming the inventory increased over the previous year.
My city also charges a tax on business inventory stored in the city.