Originally Posted by raulus
Recently received an offer that intrigued me. As others have been posting about some of the moves they’ve been considering, and this one has a bit of a twist, I figured it would merit a broader discussion from the forum.
I’ve been thinking it over, and I figured some of you have probably contemplated similar deals in the past, and might have some observations to share based on your past ruminations.
A few important details:
The deal would involve me trading my current piece for a lower graded piece, and receiving a big chunk of change in exchange for my sacrifice to trade down.
In this case, the item in question is one of the Crown Jewels of my collection. I paid more for it than I’ve paid for any other single piece. And at the moment, it’s arguably the most valuable piece in my collection.
This particular piece is also very rare. For any given player, only a few are known to exist. In addition, this is a well known set that tends to be widely coveted within the hobby, so it’s not some obscure yet rare piece that no one has ever heard of. And my piece is the highest graded piece in the hobby for this player, who also happens to be an inner circle hall of famer. They don’t come to market that often, so they’re difficult to find.
I purchased my piece about 5 years ago, with a plan to keep it in my collection for a long, long time, likely until I decide to sell everything when I retire (still a long ways away).
The potential deal would involve me trading my piece for the same piece that is one grade lower. I would still have the second highest piece in the hobby for this player, which is a nice feature, and means that I don’t have to live with a gaping hole in my collection and in my heart. A close inspection of these two items suggests that they are very similar in quality. Some might even argue that the lower graded piece is as nice as the highest graded piece. And those arguments are not without merit. For purposes of this discussion, let’s assume that I’m familiar with the maxim to “buy the card, not the holder”. So for those whose response will consist of repeating this maxim, I’m hopeful that further repetition won’t be necessary. Although if I’m being honest, I’m a mindless fool when it comes to the registry.
In exchange for my “trading down”, the buyer would compensate me with some cold, hard cash. For purposes of this hypothetical situation, let’s assume that the cash component would represent about 120% of what I originally paid to acquire my piece 5 years ago. Since some of you may salivate excessively contemplating all of this cold hard cash, allow me to tip my cap to my fellow tax nerds: based on my righteous 40% tax rate on collectibles (fed + state), let’s assume that all of the cash I receive in this deal would not stay in my pocket for long, but would instead end up transiting immediately on to the tax man.
Obviously my biggest hesitation is giving up something that I haven’t planned to sell for a long time. Plus realizing that I’m giving up one of my Crown Jewels that is likely one of the best pieces I will ever own, and trading down for a lower graded piece, even if the new piece might not be very different. Plus the fact that I don’t get to really keep the cash seems to make the deal a lot less exciting to me.
What would you do?
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