Wanted 1950 toleteros josh gibson
 

I am looking to acquire for a client. Will pay very well. Pm me what you have.

Good luck. Been looking for a few years and they are hard to unlock. Fell just short on the stamped one about a month ago.

Yep, $100K should do it.

When they were selling in the $10-$20K range, the rationale was that it was a post playing days card so the upside was limited. Where did this all change?

It most likely changed when the Negro Leagues were recognized as the Major Leagues in 2020, and the vast majority of baseball fans and baseball card collectors began seeing Josh Gibson’s name.

Great for him and baseball in general, but lousy for collectors who now want an original card of his….

From REA Auction archives:

This is a card which is so rare, its existence has been documented only within the last fifteen years, and its significance as Josh Gibson's only known standard card issue has propelled it in this very short time to being one of the most well-known baseball cards in the collecting world.

Many collectors concentrate on collecting Hall of Famers. Josh Gibson has always presented a problem for these collectors because for decades he was simply not found in any card sets. The discovery of his inclusion in the 180-card 1950-1951 Toleteros set, the third and final year in which this company issued cards in Puerto Rico during the Puerto Rican Winter League season, was momentous. Finally, a card issue featured the legendary Josh Gibson, the greatest slugging star of the Negro Leagues. Similar in spirit to the 1940 Play Ball card of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the 1948-1949 Leaf card of Babe Ruth in that this card was not issued during Gibson's playing career, this card is unique and of great significance: there really are no equivalent alternatives.

Well to REA’s point, that Jackson card in a 1 grade most recently did $1,250. That Ruth card in a 1 grade most recently did $2,500. Compare that to the Gibson card which is rapidly approaching $100K in a 1 grade. Nowhere near being even remotely close to it. Yes, all 3 are post playing days cards with the primary difference being that Gibson had only one other individual card issued previously while Ruth and Jackson had numerous.

BTW I owned one of these back in 2008 in a 1.5 grade due to a small, stray pen-written line on the blank back. Paid $20K for it and auctioned it 2 1/2 years later for $13.5K, a whopping $6.5K loss. Now, 13 years later, someone else benefits from a 7X increase in value while I sit back and chalk up another loss on another 6-figure card in today’s world of crazy prices.

You were ahead of your time to see the importance of this player and card in the hobby, and sure you sold for a good reason at the time. I hope one day you have the opportunity to re-acquire it, should you desire to do so.