Wow Rare Air 52 Mantle SGC 5 REA

[Johnny630]

300,000 with juice wozer

https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...?itemid=112451

That 9.5 should easily go for 15 million plus

[bobbyw8469]

That is insane...I remember when these were 10k not too long ago.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

That is insane...I remember when these were 10k not too long ago.

When was that? On the PSA site, the cheapest 5 I could find was around $14K from 2006 to 2011 with quite a few higher than that during the same time frame. SGC 5s may have been cheaper, but it seems like it was more than "not too long ago" that they would have been $10K.

[Jewish-collector]

Russ - Mazel Tov !!! You did well you old geezer, you beer chug.gif

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by jayshum

When was that? On the PSA site, the cheapest 5 I could find was around $14K from 2006 to 2011 with quite a few higher than that during the same time frame. SGC 5s may have been cheaper, but it seems like it was more than "not too long ago" that they would have been $10K.

I wanna say within the last 10 years. Which is a blink in the realm of collectibles.

[Johnny630]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

I wanna say within the last 10 years. Which is a blink in the realm of collectibles.

Could a SGC 5 52 Mantle Now be a 5 Million Dollar Card In 10 years I have no idea.

I just feel like the high bidder is buried with it at 306,000.

The consigner has to be jumping for JOY ! Congratulations to him/her :-)

[GaryPassamonte]

The card has nice centering, but the quality of the image sure isn't that great.

[rand1com]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

That is insane...I remember when these were 10k not too long ago.

Maybe 20+ years ago. That is a pretty long time in the card world. I bought a raw one in 1995 for $6K. I thought it would grade 5 and would have been worth $8K in that grade at that time. It graded PSA 4 and I sold it for $6K. Good old days but I lost the grading fees. Fortunately, the grading fee at that time for Express was $25 for Mantle as well as I can remember so I almost broke even. Have never owned another one. $300K for an SGC 5 is crazy!!!!!!

[GaryPassamonte]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I can't see the enormous premium put on near perfect centering. The quality of the image and its eye appeal always matter most to me. I'd prefer an card with OK centering and excellent photo eye appeal over a perfectly centered card with weaker photo eye appeal.
Placing such a premium on centering at the expense of photo quality is like preferring an Old Judge card with square corners grading a 7 with a light photo over an Old Judge card with rounded corners grading a 2 and having a sharp photo. The image quality is paramount to me.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I can't see the enormous premium put on near perfect centering. The quality of the image and its eye appeal always matter most to me. I'd prefer an card with OK centering and excellent photo eye appeal over a perfectly centered card with weaker photo eye appeal.
Placing such a premium on centering at the expense of photo quality is like preferring an Old Judge card with square corners grading a 7 with a light photo over an Old Judge card with rounded corners grading a 2 and having a sharp photo. The image quality is paramount to me.

It's definitely a relatively new phenomenon in my experience, yet there are guys whose eye is so good (or OCD so deep LOL) they can instantly spot and reject a 51-49 card I swear. I personally am not obsessed with perfect centering and like you I don't really understand it, but it definitely explains some big premiums on some cards.

[JollyElm]

564. Centerrifical Force
The way your eyes immediately tell you if a card is rightfully centered enough for you personally, independent of what other collectors or TPGs may think.

[MattyC]

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I can't see the enormous premium put on near perfect centering. The quality of the image and its eye appeal always matter most to me. I'd prefer an card with OK centering and excellent photo eye appeal over a perfectly centered card with weaker photo eye appeal.
Placing such a premium on centering at the expense of photo quality is like preferring an Old Judge card with square corners grading a 7 with a light photo over an Old Judge card with rounded corners grading a 2 and having a sharp photo. The image quality is paramount to me.

I think both aspects have to be fully present, or I don't go for a card. I agree that a card without a focused image is a huge turnoff and total nonstarter. Same for centering. I like to wait out a card that has both aspects and then go all out, take home the one I want to look at before bed and when I wake up.

[Snowman]

I'm one of those hyper OCD folks that Peter describes above as being someone who can spot a 51/49 centering "issue" at a quick glance. My eyes ALWAYS go to the borders first. I don't even notice the image or the player at all until after I've assessed the centering. If the card passes my centering test, only then will I move on to the image and condition. It's just how I'm wired. I've also made friends with other collectors who approach their collections the same way. I think it's difficult for those of you who aren't OCD about centering to see valuations from our perspective in the same way that we have a difficult time understanding why others would want to pay $$$ more for nicer corners. Cards that are well centered just have an entirely different pricing structure (especially in vintage). Obviously, we all know that to some degree, or as a basic principle, but when I read through these sorts of threads, I often find myself surprised by the non-centering OCD collectors.

When I saw this 52 Topps Mantle SGC 5 in REA, I said, "there's no way it sells for less than $250k". You just can't look at other 5s and think, "maybe 150k plus a bump for the centering?". That approach will always leave you well short of the hammer price for a high-end card with good eye appeal and low pop counts. Everyone around here says that the 52 Topps Mantle is not a low pop count card. Sure, that may be true if eye-appeal doesn't matter, but for a collector like myself, or MattyC, all those other off-centered or tilted, or diamond cut cards might as well not even exist. We have zero interest in those cards in any grade.

For the OCD crew, centering isn't just a question of whether the image is in the middle of the frame. It also matters HEAVILY whether or not that image is tilted. I will reject an otherwise dead-centered card with even a 2-degree tilt or diamond cut every time. I just have no interest in it. It's also why I roll my eyes whenever I see Ken Kendrick's PSA "10" Mantle (it has a significant tilt to it). And when it comes to centering shift, left to right matters more than top to bottom to us OCD people. That's why this SGC 5 Mantle sold at such a premium. The Left to Right is 50/50 and the T/B is 58/42.

If you want to have your mind really blown, wait until a truly dead-centered 50/50 both ways Mantle surfaces in a 5 holder from PSA or SGC. I'd wager good money that it eclipses $500k at auction. But it could be years before one surfaces (or decades). There just aren't enough of them out there. I would estimate that there are fewer than 20 truly dead-centered crease-free 52T Mantles in existence. I'm not just pulling that number out of thin air either. I did a deep dive into the data on the 52 Topps Jackie Robinson a few months back when a dead-centered PSA 4 hit the market. It's my favorite card. I literally went through every single 52 Topps Jackie Robinson on VCP that has ever sold and tallied up how many of them were crease-free VG-EX or better with perfect 50/50 centering and how many were close (50/50 one way and ~47/53 or better the other). Out of ~1,000 total transactions with images, only 9 (yes, NINE) were perfectly centered, with another 22 that were close. To someone like me, that means this 52 Topps Jackie Robinson is really a pop 31 card, only 9 of which I truly want. The premium I'm willing to pay for a dead-centered copy would blow your mind.

I ended up winning the auction for that 52 Jackie for less than half my max bid. The hammer price was $20.4k. It's a PSA 4 (shown below along with my Minoso RC - which I also paid a premium for). I got extremely lucky in that auction. That Jackie sells for $40k+ if the right buyers had seen it (I'm one of them). But an average 52 Topps Jackie in a PSA 4 sells for ~$15k.

I think the best analogy I can give in terms of figuring out what these centered key cards are likely worth to someone like me is actually with ultra-modern cards. You have all these thousands and thousands of copies of a Luka Doncic RC or Acuna, Soto, whoever. But those Gold Parallels that are serial numbered /10 sell for HUGE HUGE multiples of what a regular base card or "silver" parallel sells for. Centered cards are to vintage what Gold parallels are to ultra-modern. It's not just a small bump that some people are willing to pay (though it does manifest itself like that for some cards with less demand). With key cards, the sky is the limit. Especially when there are only a dozen or so in existence.


Here's my Jackie. And no, I wouldn't trade it for your 55/45 PSA 8.

Note - the tilt on the top is just how this card's image is shaped. This is what a perfectly centered 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson Type 1 looks like (there is a Typ1 1 and a Type 2 Jackie just like there is with Mantle, in case you were unaware).

[russkcpa]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

300,000 with juice wozer

https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...?itemid=112451

That 9.5 should easily go for 15 million plus

Made many investment mistakes in my life and have enough capital loss carryover for the next 200 years. Fortunately my PSA 6 and 7 '52 Mantles should wipe the slate clean

[Johnny630]

Originally Posted by russkcpa

Made many investment mistakes in my life and have enough capital loss carryover for the next 200 years. Fortunately my PSA 6 and 7 '52 Mantles should wipe the slate clean

You're in the driver seat my man! Congratulations :-)

[mr2686]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

300,000 with juice wozer

https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...?itemid=112451

That 9.5 should easily go for 15 million plus

I now laugh when I think back to the first issue of Baseball Cards Magazine for the Spring of 1981. On the cover were: 1952 Mantle worth $1100, and $17,500 value Honus Wagner card. I gotta get working on that darn time machine.

[53toppscollector]

I completely agree with Snowman's comments about OCD and centering. It is the first thing my eyes focus on, and cards that are diamond cut give me anxiety, lol.

As I transitioned away from post-war vintage like the 50s Topps sets, I've almost had to retrain my brain as to the kind of cards I find acceptable. As we know, T206s (my main collecting interest now) are rife with printing problems, miscuts, diamond cuts, etc. It has actually been good therapy for my brain to learn to accept these imperfections, because if I didnt, there is essentially no way I'd be able to put together this set, given that I am not extremely wealthy. That said, my centering OCD has mainly forced me to be much more accepting of other flaws like terrible corners, paper loss, and wrinkles/creases. A surface wrinkle (especially if its truly a wrinkle and not a crease) is much more acceptable to me than a card that is wildly off center or diamond cut.

[MikeGarcia]

Originally Posted by 53toppscollector

I completely agree with Snowman's comments about OCD and centering. It is the first thing my eyes focus on, and cards that are diamond cut give me anxiety, lol.
a card that is wildly off center or diamond cut.

And tonight ladies and gentlemen , for your viewing pleasure , the quality control staff of The Topps Corporation proudly presents :

..

..

[53toppscollector]

lol that made my eyes twitch. Imagine seeing that card at the factory and saying "yes, yes this is goooood"

[brianp-beme]

1941 Goudey cards can often remind you of being in a funhouse where the floors and walls are all slanty and askew.

Brian (please avert eyes if these cards will potentially cause your brain to seize up)

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by MikeGarcia

And tonight ladies and gentlemen , for your viewing pleasure , the quality control staff of The Topps Corporation proudly presents :

..

..

Hahaha, my eyes are bleeding!!! Here, I'll fix it for you