Crazy Eights

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Posted By: Marc S.

I'm not sure how high these cards will go. Certainly numerical grade seems to be less important once you get to 8 - if you see a PSA 9 selling for less than a PSA 8. That said - the people buying these cards often have literally seven figures in their collections, so overpaying is not something that is really going to make a dent on their retirement. But - at the end of the day, whether the cards are funked with or not, T-206 is often considered the premier pre-war set, and it is one of the few sets that you can probably put together in Near Mint or better condition if you have enough money and time [save for a handful of cards...] There are dozens of people putting together T-206 sets, and many of them seem to have collecting budget dollars available to upgrade their sets.

Me? I don't personally have that sort of coin to spend on T-206s [although I picked up two PSA 9s a few years ago that I am happy to house in my collection]. I can tell you that I often see PSA 5's sell in the $75-$125 range, with some examples selling for much, much more. If that is what a PSA 5/SGC 60 is worth, and they come up pretty darn often - perhaps it isn't too out of whack to have the 8s sell for as much as the do. I'm a free-market man, and I believe in the power of free markets. There is enough ego and cash to swing the market on many of these sets significantly - but, at the end of the day, it's not one or two people swining the entire T-206 market [like Branca did on the 1951 Bowmans] - it is a bunch of people. And when that is the case - the outcome seems to be more efficient in terms of economics than anything else.

Just my thoughts.