Ever Overpaid?

[Exhibitman]

Oh sure. If a card has certain attributes I am going to pay more than 'book' for it. Like this one:



At the time I bought it the card was in a 6 holder. I saw it on the last day of the National a few years ago and had to have it. Probably paid $50 more than a 6 was going for at the time.

This one too:



I had a really beautiful example of this card when I was a kid. I sold it a long time ago. I spent a while looking for a replacement but finding one with nice registration, centering and no print flaws is a real challenge. I paid a bit too much for it but haven't had any regrets; in fact I turned down an offer to buy it for more. This one is similar:




Ashburn is notorious for printing problems.

Paid up for these too, relative to other 6's:






I think it is self-evident why.

For a card like this, I don't even think of it as overpaying:



Rare issue, condition sensitive, top tier HOFer. I'm happy to own it.

I overpaid for this one but the story is nice:



When my daughter was little she wanted to play baseball with her cousin. He was part of a fancy little league where there was so much money sloshing around that they brought in pro coaches to tutor the kids (one year they had Reggie Smith tutoring on hitting, for example). We were park and rec league. I decided to teach her to hit. In researching and watching kids I realized that their biggest problem was bat control: they can't coordinate their swings. Power really isn't relevant to the little ones: they need control. So I trained her with a Charlie Lau-style open stance to get a better two-eyed look at the pitch, and split her grip so she could lever the bat at the last minute. We went to tryouts for the league and the coaches immediately started trying to 'correct' her stance and swing. I stopped them and said "just pitch to her." After she ripped a dozen shots into the deep outfield (sweet leftie swing), the coaches were silenced. She ended up leading her team in hitting (over .600 by my tally). So, when I saw this card I had to win the auction for it: validation.