OT: Michael Jordan Mania

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

And who has examined all the PSA 10 Jordans to be in a position to make any such determination? This isn't like saying the card is the best of the FOUR 52T Mantle 10s. How many are there again? Oh wait, 319. I respect your knowledge but that doesn't sound at all persuasive to me.

PWCC said it's the best Jordan 10 they've every had in their possession. To some, perhaps to most, that is meaningless. But to others, that means everything. PSA doesn't have a "black label" premium 10 like BGS does, but if they did, just imagine what the single most sought after card in all of basketball would sell for at auction. The buyer is a well known collector with an insane collection worth countless millions of dollars. It's a real sale. Some people just want to overpay to be #1. This guy is one of those people. He thinks this is the best Jordan rookie that exists. It is what it is.

As far as other Jordan 10s go, I have seen numerous slabs of these where there's no way it would get a 10 today if cracked and resubbed. The ones that are listed on eBay in perpetuity are often of this ilk. Most collectors know that those are really just 9s in a 10 holder, so they avoid them or they sell for quite a bit less. Not all 10s are the same, and in the high-end market the variance in sales price is extremely wide, just like it is with vintage baseball. I pointed out recently that in that exact same PWCC Premium Auction there were two 52 Mantles that sold, one was a 1.5, the other was a 3.5. The 1.5 sold for MORE than the 3.5 because of eye appeal. How do you explain that? It's not because the 1.5 was shill bid up. I know because I bid on the 1.5 myself. I was the 2nd highest bidder on it. It's the same thing with the Jordan RC. It's all about perception and eye appeal. You can say the guy was conned by the PWCC "Superior" sticker and provenance story of it being the only PSA 10 that PSA has given on a Jordan RC in over a year, or the inside stories about the graders at PSA calling everyone in to check out the card when it was there because they said it was the best one they'd ever seen and that there was video footage of it being pulled from the box. Maybe all that stuff is just nonsense marketing, but it mattered to some people and those people paid through the nose for it. The buyer is happy. I say let him be. No need for the conspiracy theories here.