Posted By:
Frank WakefieldHey, Jay. I'm confident it was the high prices realized from the lots in the Goodwin auction. Goodwin sold a T210 Stengel in his previous auction, which sold very well. The card owner was quite tickled with what it brought, I talked with him face to face about the sale.
He then consigned his other T210 cards to Mr. Goodwin, with the cards broken into 8 lots, one for each series. Most lots had 3 or 4 serious bidders, a couple of lots only had 2 serious bidders. But 2 is enough. And again, the seller was tickled at the great prices. The only thing that troubled him was the size of the check he wrote out to the IRS, 'cause he has little faith in the wisdom of our government, doens't think much of how government spends money, and figures that those dollars are going to an entity incapable of spending it wisely. But I digress...
The high prices have changed how I've thought about my T210s... can I collect more at those high prices? Would I not be better off to sell the ones I have at those prices?? And might JB above be right about the "bubble", could I sell the cards now, and then wait about 10 years and buy them back for less than I sold them?
I gave up on collecting all of them about 3 years ago, and let go of several cards then to focus on series 6. I now lack 7 cards. Some the T210s I sold generated funds for filling out T206s, and getting some Goudey cards. Now, with these high prices, I don't know if I'll get those remaining 7 T210-6s.
It really is a great set. If you start reading through the old Spalding Records (red books, not those nasty green Guides), you see the movement of minor leaguers up, and then back down. Folks supported local minor league teams better, there was no internet, TV, or radio coverage of the major league games. And imagine 100% daytime baseball! If you start reading about these guys you really get attached to the cards. Fred Toney won 139 ML games pitching for the Cubs, Reds, Giants, and Cardinals. He was born in Nashville, an hour away from me. In May of 1909, for Winchester of the Blue Grass League, he won a game, going the distance, 17 innings. He did not allow a hit. In his next start he pithed another 3 no hit innings. I think he won that next game, too, but gave up one hit in the 4th inning. 17 innings of no hit out door daylight baseball, that is pitching. And that is one tiny reason I collect those little red border cards. Or I used to, before the price skyrocketed.
So the price has brought them out. And part of that price was that in times past we seldom saw that many for sale at once. I think the price will settle down a bit, but not a lot.