Cards you wish you sold in the last 3 years

[parkplace33]

Originally Posted by raulus

Maybe two data points I'll share. One was a sale I was tempted to execute, and another sale I actually completed.

As I've recounted in other posts, I picked up a 51B Mays in PSA 8 in May 2020 for what is now an otherworldly price of $48k. The seller had actually just marked it up the week before from $42k, so I missed out on an even better deal. Fast forward a few months, and the price started spiking. Going nuts, Through the roof. To the moon! At one point, it hit $325k.

I certainly had thoughts of selling, with a plan to buy it back later when it came back down. However, I ultimately demurred. Primarily, I was focused on the notion that this was a crown jewel of my collection, and you don't sell the crown jewels. I'm a Mays collector, and as such, you don't sell his rookie in one of the highest grades on the planet if you're a Mays guy. The other factor was the taxman. Paying 41% of my gain (fed + state) would have been painful, big time.

Ultimately, it has come down a bit today, closer to $200k-$250k, depending on the auction. But it would have been a stretch to buy it back today after paying the tax man. It might go down from here, for sure. But living without it for several years while I wait for it to come back down, and all the sleepless nights that come with it wouldn't be worth the potential upside of trying to time that market on one of my crown jewels.

On the other hand...

I picked up a 1987 OPC Barry Bonds PSA 10 a couple of years before the pandemic. It's a nice little card. Hard to find at PSA 10. I picked it up for around $2,750. While it wasn't nothing, it certainly wasn't an important part of my collection, and it definitely wasn't one of my crown jewels. I sure wasn't going to lose any sleep worrying about whether I could replace it in the future. A couple of years ago, it started to go nuts as well. $5k. $10k. Then it spiked up to around $24k. At which point I put it on eBay with a BIN price at $24k.

I got a few nibbles, and then finally got a bite. I took a little off and sold it for $23k. Definitely don't regret it. While there are a few examples on eBay right now with BIN prices even higher, a few have sold at auction in the last 6 months in the $10k-$15k range, and I'm 100% confident it will come back down even further.

Great decision on both cards. And great pickup on the 51 Mays!