Quote:
Originally Posted by Vintagedeputy
Value of a specific collectible is determined by a buyer and seller at that moment. If I buy a 52 Topps Mantle at a garage sale for 50 cents, the value of that exact card is 50 cents because that’s what I paid in cash for it. If I sell that same card for 1 million dollars, then the value of that specific card is now 1 million dollars because someone paid me that amount in cash.
|
If I buy a 1990 Fleer Jose Uribe for $30,000 that doesn't mean it's worth $30,000, and if I buy a 1952 Mantle for 50 cents that doesn't mean it's worth 50 cents. The value of a specific collectible is its market price - the equilibrium price at which buyers are willing to buy it and sellers are willing to sell it
in general.
That's a basic explanation which obviously doesn't work well for rare cards - but for cards like a 1952 Mantle, the market is what determines the price of a card - the general trend of sales, not a single sale.