A great example of a newly discovered "hoard" was mentioned earlier on a set I am now collecting, the 1953-55 Dormand Cards. It is interesting how this effected the price.
A little history (I learned through searching here on net54)...these cards were produced to be sold at the stadiums and for the players to have something to hand out from 1953-1955. The players received a brick of 700 postcards. Gil Hodges never received his allotment for whatever reason, making his card SUPER rare. For years this was considered one of the rarest, if not the most rare post-war card out there.
Fast forward to the 2000's, Mr. Dormand passed away, and relatives while cleaning out his basement found the 700 Gil Hodges cards in pristine condition. These were turned over to an auction house that sold the entire lot of 700 for $22k. The poor soles who paid thousands for their example prior saw their investment go south.
Fast forward again to today, and I have no idea how the person that bought the lot doled them out, but it is now rather cheap. Funny...they were initially sold for around $31 a card (700 divided by the $22K). That person could have buried that lot and not made them public. Obviously that didn't happen. A few weeks ago I bought a NM raw example for $20. Graded goes higher of course, but this tells me the person who paid $22k most likely didn't do well, or those who picked them up since are taking a loss. Either way, the accidental hoard and it's release really tells a pretty fascinating story.
Whats funny to me is that even at 700 cards released, that is still a very low population...if this set ever becomes all the rage I could see those going up in value in the long run. Glad I got mine for cheap.
Anyway, enjoying this conversation. I've overpaid several times over for some of the cards mentioned...64 Flood...I actually had 7 61 Hal Smiths come with a lot I bought a month ago, I just cracked up when I saw that...he didn't get them all as the lot was new to market. I bought a 52 lot from the same person last year who had a Baritrome in it that went to a net54 person, and at the time I didn't even know the story on it. I was educated quickly...
