What is GAI Doing?

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

Does GAI need money so bad they need to start slabbing reprints?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=106178&item=5214251132&rd=1

I know SGC did the Wagners, but I think they learned there lesson and have not done any more.

Lee

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Posted By: jay behrens

reprint or not, they are cards and some people do collect them. As long as GAI is labeling them properly and someone wants to pour money down that hole, then that's their choice. At least no one will be trying to pass it off as a real t206.

Jay

My place is full of valuable, worthless junk.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

This really is twisted. What possible value can there be in a reprint? Perhaps people collect them just to have the images of these great cards, but do they have any intrinsic value in varying grades? If they insist upon slabbing them, why not just slab them for the purpose of keeping them safe? Why assign a grade? Does a reprint in 9 have such a better value than one in 8? Why not just slab a two-year old's drawing of the same card as a reprint as well? Is one reprint more official than the next?

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Posted By: dan mckee

There was a time when condition didn't change the value of original cards. In 1973, I pulled 3 1960 brooks robinsons out of a guy's case. One creased down the middle, One mint but OC, and a nice EX. All were .25 each and I bought the EX. A much better time to collect when you only had COLLECTORS who were actually interested in the cards.

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Posted By: calvindog

I was sifting through some junk at my mother's house and found the first Baseball Price Guide from like 1978 (it was the blue, soft-covered book, I can't remember who put it together). Anyway, the value assinged to the entire 1952 Topps set in NM condition was like less than 1K....

Ugh.

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Posted By: dan mckee

Yes, stuff was affordable back then, it was a great hobby. I am not fond of having reprints slabbed but I see no big deal as long as they are labelled as such.

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Posted By: Frank Evanov

GAI is doing us a great service here. First, we are assured of getting a real reprint and not an original card. Secondly, we are certain that the reprint has not been trimmed or altered. Finally, we can identify the true collectors who are willing to spend $5 -$10 to encase a card worth 5 cents.

Frank

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

What if it was a fake reprint? Would GAI refuse to encase it?

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Posted By: Glenn

You're all passing up a great opportunity here. The GAI Joss reprint is far more rare than the PSA Wagner original, but (for now) the price is still lower.

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Posted By: Steve D

If I did not read the description, the title does not say REPRINT just R hard etc
the flip does not show clearly that it is indeed a reprint. Private auction? Im thinking that this seller is fishing for an uninformed person to buy this card. i wonder then why he started the bidding so low?

dan back in 78 we made less money too. cards were cheaper yes, but we were not making the 100k that we make today. In fact i was working for the Scarsdale Police and was making 13k if memory serves me.

Steve D

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I don't criticize a grader if their label is accurate. It isn't their job to be arbiters of taste ... Though I do wonder what is the point of having a cheapo reprint graded. Perhaps the seller used it to get GAI's bulk discount.

Besides, if eBay has taught us anything about T206 reprints, it's that to get top dollar in today's market you do not want the card in mint condition. You want the card to look like it spent a season as lining in a rat's nest. And you certainly don't want a reprint labelled a such by a reputable grader. Where's the mystery and "being sold as ungraded and unauthenticated" allure in that?