Does The Stock Market Influence Your Vintage Purchases?

[joshleon]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

A PWCC premier auction just closed. In it were two cards that sold a year prior. These are the same exact cards being sold again (not just same grade, but exact same cards)

One was a 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson, PSA 8. It sold in REA’s spring 2021 auction for $384,000 and the exact same card just sold in PWCC’s auction for $276,000.

Meanwhile, a t206 Magie error, PSA 2 sold in Heritage in May of 2021 for $20,400, and the exact same card just sold in PWCC for $24,000, a record for the grade

The Jackie is down 28% in a year and the Magie error (again same exact cards) is up 17.5% over the same period.

I understand it’s only one example, but it is interesting considering both are major cards, both were sold in major AH in spring 2021 and both were sold by same AH a few days ago with very different results.

Thoughts?

This anecdotal evidence could be indicative of the underlying market: that prewar is fairing better than post war.

However, I would say a better test would be two items of similar value head to head, Once you get into mid 6 figures on a card, the market is so much thinner, one day/year/card can totally be different than the next depending on who is bidding. I think the more liquid 4 and 5 figure market is more telling of the card market in general terms.