Posted By:
boxingcardmanI think you are right; between dealers and wealthy collectors, there is definitely a floor for almost any significant card or group of cards.
That raises an interesting issue: what constitutes the "market" or is the sales climate accurately described as a single market? Take Hal's collection as an example. Frankly, I have zero interest in what his cards sell for because for me personally, what is being offered is simply out of my league, and for me it really doesn't matter whether a particular card of his sells for $100,000 or "only" $60,000 since that is about $59,000 more than I can spend. It has no effect on the cards I collect or the market in which I purchase them. I suspect that many other collectors feel the same way and are so sidelined by the high cost of the lots in Mastro and REA that they approach the auctions as curiosities more than anything else. The stratospheric prices on the big cards make for nice conversation and good examples to give to the non-collecting spouse to justify the $50 I just spent on something, but have nothing in the way of real world impact on the average collector.