1914 Mathewson in Memory Lane

[Sean]

A 1914 Cracker Jack Christy Mathewson just sold for $37.4K last night in Memory Lane's auction. It was a PSA 1. And it was even missing the top left corner! Does anyone have an explanation? I know.... two rich guys who both decided that they couldn't wait for another one to come up for sale. Does anyone have a better answer?

Or is this the new going rate for 1914 Mattys. Let's find out: here is my card, also a PSA 1 and also missing the same corner. Anyone want to offer me $37,000 for it? I'll even throw in the extra caramel stains at no extra charge. Anyone....?

scan0011.jpg

[Sean]

Yeah, I didn't think so.

[iowadoc77]

It’s comical when 2 people decide they have to have something. Yikes. That’s a chunk of change. Does anyone have an idea how many of those exist?

[uniship]

There were a lot of new price levels throughout that set in last nights auction. Indeed the Matty price stands head and shoulders above the rest. However, it’s widely considered one of the top five or ten cards in the entire hobby and they just don’t seem to come up very often.

I believe the total graded population is around 45 and Lord knows that probably includes many resubmissions so who knows what the real pop is- but it’s extremley low for such a massive card.

Congrats to the seller - and the also to the buyer who just got one amazing card.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by uniship

There were a lot of new price levels throughout that set in last nights auction. Indeed the Matty price stands head and shoulders above the rest. However, it’s widely considered one of the top five or ten cards in the entire hobby and they just don’t seem to come up very often.

I believe the total graded population is around 45 and Lord knows that probably includes many resubmissions so who knows what the real pop is- but it’s extremley low for such a massive card.

Congrats to the seller - and the also to the buyer who just got one amazing card.

Being in the hobby quite a bit I am congratulating the seller. As for the buyer, just don't watch any auctions the next couple years and all will be fine. It's a fairly scarce card.

[calvindog]

Accepting gigantic offers.

[jad22]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Accepting gigantic offers.

Wow.

[Bigshot69]

Thats a beautiful card, Sir.

[Rhotchkiss]

Unreal card Jeff.

Seems that Heritage's next auction will have a 1914 CJ Matty. There is no picture on the site yet, but I say we take bets on the over/under.... Right now, sight unseen, I have the over/under at $20,500.

[MR RAREBACK]

I think this is his best looking card

[PiratesWS1979]

Beautiful CJ and Mathewson run!!

This could turn into a "Show your Matty" thread.

[megalimey]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Accepting gigantic offers.

will you consider a tempting trade ,
10 cases of 36 : 1987 Topps Sets
15 cases of 36 : 1988 Topps Sets
14 cases of 36 : 1989 Score Sets
67 cases of various makes of Baseball card complete sets
1990 - 2001 yes there are 2 or 3 1989 Upper Deck complete sets included
plus 2,700.000 various 1990's loose Baseball cards un searched !!!!!!!
also a ,10 x 15 storage unit filled to the top of really great collectible baseball items
circa 1990's , most in their original boxes ,
one years rent included so you can sell at your convenience
and finally will also throw in 15 large pallets of "NASCAR" collectibles not all are made in China,
I will arrange the semi truck to deliver them to a location of your choice at no charge,
Deal of life time
thanks for your consideration

[pawpawdiv9]

I was just looking at the Heritage site (on past sales)
Noticed something odd or just my eyes gone bad;
The 2011 SGC 10 that sold for 7767.50 IS that the same card that just sold here in the PSA slab??? It looks to have the same torn corner and some creases.
But notice the difference in the pics, how one looks bright and clean.
OR am I wrong in thinking they are the same card??? then I apologize

2011 SGC 10 image


Memory Lane 2017/18 image

[philliesphan]

Quite a few auction houses digitally alter their scans.

[calvindog]

That's the same card!

[PiratesWS1979]

Originally Posted by philliesphan

Quite a few auction houses digitally alter their scans.

I guess congratulations to Memory Lane for honestly representing the card.

The Heritage scan almost make Battlefield look respectable...what a shame.

[rainier2004]

Heritage makes all their cards look like that...we'll just call it "nuclear" clean, and yes, definitely the same card.

45 graded copies on record of the card, but there are crosses and cards that were simply broke out like mine...yes, I freed a 1914 CJ Matty.

Why did it go for what it did? Someone else started a thread on this recently and I will reiterate what I said before. Leon states that in collectibles that demand trumps all and we see this all the time. So there are set collectors, they want one. There are HOF collectors, they want one. There are master set collectors than can go on the cheaper side with 15s, but they still need the 14 Matty. Then there are folks like Jeff who collect Cobb and Chase that made the decision he wanted one.

The 1914 Matty is THE ultimate CJ, hands down. At one point the Chance card was actually more valuable than the Matty and Cobb overtook both of them for a while and then Jackson overtook all of them. The Matty has become one of the biggest cards in the hobby, prices have soared, corrected, whatever you want to call it. I don't think the price is going south any time soon.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by rainier2004

Heritage makes all their cards look like that...we'll just call it "nuclear" clean, and yes, definitely the same card.

45 graded copies on record of the card, but there are crosses and cards that were simply broke out like mine...yes, I freed a 1914 CJ Matty.

Why did it go for what it did? Someone else started a thread on this recently and I will reiterate what I said before. Leon states that in collectibles that demand trumps all and we see this all the time. So there are set collectors, they want one. There are HOF collectors, they want one. There are master set collectors than can go on the cheaper side with 15s, but they still need the 14 Matty. Then there are folks like Jeff who collect Cobb and Chase that made the decision he wanted one.

The 1914 Matty is THE ultimate CJ, hands down. At one point the Chance card was actually more valuable than the Matty and Cobb overtook both of them for a while and then Jackson overtook all of them. The Matty has become one of the biggest cards in the hobby, prices have soared, corrected, whatever you want to call it. I don't think the price is going south any time soon.

I was shocked for a while how relatively cheap the 14 Matty was. To me it was an incredibly cool card and unlike the rest of the 14s, it was a unique image not repeated in 15. I blame David McD for turning me on to it. His example is sublime.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by PiratesWS1979

I guess congratulations to Memory Lane for honestly representing the card.

The Heritage scan almost make Battlefield look respectable...what a shame.

Heritage's scans are disgraceful. At least PWCC knew enough to stop with such scans.

[Kawika]

Originally Posted by calvindog

I blame David McD for turning me on to it. His example is sublime.

The offending exemplar

[calvindog]

And I STILL like yours better than mine.

[3-2-count]

No offense to anyone else's Matty! (I wouldn't kick any of them out of bed)

But David, your example is by far my favorite in the hobby and never grow tired seeing it.

[rainier2004]

Originally Posted by 3-2-count

No offense to anyone else's Matty! (I wouldn't kick any of them out of bed)

But David, your example is by far my favorite in the hobby and never grow tired seeing it.

Yup...

[MVSNYC]

Jeff/David- ridiculously incredible examples.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Heritage scans are obviously too bright, but on the other hand provide fantastic detail on corners and edges.

[Kawika]

Jeff, Tony, Steve and New Jersey's Most Interesting Man - Sarno. Nice to see some familiar faces. Thanks for the Matty love. It's about the nicest card I've got.

Here's a scan of the back for those that like that sort of thing.

[MVSNYC]

At the risk of embarrassing David...he, without a doubt, has one of the most sophisticated collecting eyes I know of.

[Kawika]

Originally Posted by MVSNYC

At the risk of embarrassing David...he, without a doubt, has one of the most sophisticated collecting eyes I know of.

Thank you, Michael. But that's the first time in my life I have ever seen the words "David" and "sophisticated" in the same sentence. There's a lot of exquisite stuff out there to appreciate and maybe covet.

[Jay Wolt]

David & Jeff, I'm green w/ envy
I appreciate just viewing the cards, can't imagine how cool it would be to own them

[dplath]

I was the underbidder on the Memory Lane Matty. There were three of us until about $30,000 (incl BP). I always do my research a few days before an auction closes and come up with a max price. In this case I went into the night thinking my max was $25,000. That was only the second or third time that I didn’t stick to my number. I rationalized it because I’ve “overpaid” for big cards before and never had buyer’s remorse. I’ve only regretted the ones that I didn’t buy. Plus it’s a nice 1. Still looking for one and willing to pay top $.

[joshuanip]

Sorry if I am off topic, but purchased the '14 CJ Walter Johnson in that auction. Just came back to buying cards again. Does the staining really impact the card value? Doesn't matter for me. Going to be put away and probably out of the hobby circulation until I give it to my son. But curious.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by joshuanip

Sorry if I am off topic, but purchased the '14 CJ Walter Johnson in that auction. Just came back to buying cards again. Does the staining really impact the card value? Doesn't matter for me. Going to be put away and probably out of the hobby circulation until I give it to my son. But curious.

The staining doesn't bother me or most collectors unless it's really distracting. 1914 CJ's touched the cracker jack in the box and thus most are stained. It's expected.

[3-2-count]

It was a beautiful example.

Congratulations.

[Bicem]

David's CJ Matty is incredible.

[MattyC]

Originally Posted by calvindog

The staining doesn't bother me or most collectors unless it's really distracting. 1914 CJ's touched the cracker jack in the box and thus most are stained. It's expected.

I concur. In fact I prefer a CJ to have some caramel staining, ideally away from the image's focal point. Sort of a badge of honor, authenticity, character, if you will. Especially the 15s.

And that Matty 2.5 is to die for.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by dplath

Still looking for one and willing to pay top $.

I take it you weren't impressed with my card in post #1.

That's okay, I'm not really looking to sell.

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by Sean

I take it you weren't impressed with my card in post #1.

That's okay, I'm not really looking to sell.

passive aggressive coffee today

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Sean

I take it you weren't impressed with my card in post #1.

That's okay, I'm not really looking to sell.

It might be because it was a really high price when not caught up in the moment. I have been wrong before, will be wrong again, but regardless of everyone who has said the sky's the limit on this ugly of a specific card (even though it's Matty and scarce), I just disagree. To each their own and time will tell. For the buyer's sake I hope I am wrong.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I concur. In fact I prefer a CJ to have some caramel staining, ideally away from the image's focal point. Sort of a badge of honor, authenticity, character, if you will. Especially the 15s.

And that Matty 2.5 is to die for.

When CJs look too clean I suspect bleaching. I don't mind a bit of staining.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Slightly off-topic, but this card demonstrates, to me at least, a ridiculous aspect of the standard grading system. Or maybe I just don't understand it--always a possibility! If your system goes from one to ten, presumably the differences between each grade should be about the same, no? Otherwise, why give them numbers where the difference is exactly the same between each grade? Give them names instead, like it used to be. Anyway, back to my point: This example of a beautiful card gets the same grade as a card that had been tossed into a puddle of diesel fuel, run over by a tank, then eaten and disgorged by a camel before being submitted to PSA. On the other end of the scale, you would need an electron microscope to tell the difference between a 9 and a 10. Somebody please explain this to me.

[MattyC]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Slightly off-topic, but this card demonstrates, to me at least, a ridiculous aspect of the standard grading system. Or maybe I just don't understand it--always a possibility! If your system goes from one to ten, presumably the differences between each grade should be about the same, no? Otherwise, why give them numbers where the difference is exactly the same between each grade? Give them names instead, like it used to be. Anyway, back to my point: This example of a beautiful card gets the same grade as a card that had been tossed into a puddle of diesel fuel, run over by a tank, then eaten and disgorged by a camel before being submitted to PSA. On the other end of the scale, you would need an electron microscope to tell the difference between a 9 and a 10. Somebody please explain this to me.

Hank,

You just hung a lantern on what has always struck me as the "fatal flaw" in the grading game. It's why I take their grades with a grain of salt, and why above all, we collectors are the ultimate judges of what's best to our eyes.

[botn]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Slightly off-topic, but this card demonstrates, to me at least, a ridiculous aspect of the standard grading system. Or maybe I just don't understand it--always a possibility! If your system goes from one to ten, presumably the differences between each grade should be about the same, no? Otherwise, why give them numbers where the difference is exactly the same between each grade? Give them names instead, like it used to be. Anyway, back to my point: This example of a beautiful card gets the same grade as a card that had been tossed into a puddle of diesel fuel, run over by a tank, then eaten and disgorged by a camel before being submitted to PSA. On the other end of the scale, you would need an electron microscope to tell the difference between a 9 and a 10. Somebody please explain this to me.

Not sure we want graders making their assessments that would include subjective eye appeal as part of the final grade. Grading is already inherently flawed even with specific technical guidelines that are supposed to be followed at each grade level. I think that is where the grader's responsibilities stop and the end user's begin. This Jax was my card and it is graded 100% accurately, technically, due to severe damage to the reverse. This card will always sell for a premium over an example which has been given the same grade due to corner wear, creases and staining, etc.

[DeanH3]

Originally Posted by Kawika

The offending exemplar

Holy smokes David. That is truly a dream card.