Matt, I don't think it is an issue of disparaging a marquee card, putting down someone else's spending choices, etc., and I understand that rare may equate to obscure and that high demand may equate to a high price. And I am by no means a condition bug. I really don't care about card condition...to a point. Most of my 'big' cards are lower grades; heck, I won this in the Sterling auction:
My question/observation is that the 1952 Mantle seems to have reached a point where simply having one is more important to some collectors than how it actually looks. The card in question is FUGLY--what we'd all call a filler for any other card--but still pulled in over $3800? I find that
incredible for a postwar mainstream issue with thousands of known examples.