Huggins & Scott have the Holy Grail

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

If these guys are busting open cases as a form of gambling, it's pretty unlikely they are going to stay in the hobby and develop into serious collectors. When they get bored looking for chase cards they will move on to something else.

Or when the bottom drops out of the value.

This relates to something a couple people have stated in this thread - to the effect that any attention or drawing in of new collectors is a good thing.

Not true if they become disillusioned or feel cheated by the hobby.

In the late 1980s to early 90s, people were diving into the hobby...only to evacuate later and mostly never return. These people felt (rightly so) that the card companies had played them for fools. The promise or implied promise of profits was a lie. For a lot of these people, even the mention of baseball card collecting will cause a shudder and a bitter taste. Many of them don't even differentiate between the 80s/90s junk and the pre-war stuff that has always had good value and interest.

I think the inevitable collapse in value of an item like this which has grabbed the attention of the public is bound to be bad for the hobby.

Just my opinion...

Cheers,
Blair

[HRBAKER]

Blair,
Well stated. I think we all know the long term prognosis for these cards' value. Maybe I will be wrong but I am not willing to play and find out.

Jeff

[Matthew H]

I wouldn't compare this to the 80's 90's stuff.
These cards are legitimately scarce. If there were machine stamped 1/1 rookie card color variations from 80's topps sets, They'd probably be worth money.

[Jantz]

I happened onto Beckett's website a few weeks ago to check the show calender and one of the headlines was about the Bowman Chrome Strasburg 1/1, that had recently sold on Ebay for $16K, being graded by Beckett. I believe it had received an overall grade of 9.5. The board members on Beckett's message boards were ripping Beckett for clearly overgrading the card. After looking at a scan of the graded version myself, I had to agree with the board members. I know grading is subjective, but according to Beckett's grading standards on their website, the card was definitately overgraded. I felt like they gave it a 9.5 just so they could ride the publicity train that this card was generating.

Jantz

[Matthew H]

Jantz, Beckett has a video on youtube explaining how a flawed card can still be gem mint. It's actually kinda funny to watch them hold that card and explain how an off center card can be gem.

[ullmandds]

I'm confused here...does Topps own Bowman? And if so...is topps producing both topps/topps...and bowman...made by topps cards?

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

I'm confused here...does Topps own Bowman? And if so...is topps producing both topps/topps...and bowman...made by topps cards?

Topps has owned Bowman since 1956.