Why the Spike in Price for 1914 Cracker Jack Bresnahan No Number Variation?

[ctownboy]

esd,

To paraphrase a Budweiser commercial from a few years ago, "Why ask why?".

A similar thing happened to me a few years ago with Newsboy cabinet cards. Over the years, I had been buying the cards of actors, actresses, famous persons and buildings because I couldn't find or afford one of a baseball player (I lucked into a baseball player when I bought a large number of cards from one seller).

Anyway, I had about 110 different cards (some with same number and name but different pose) and decided to sell them because they were taking up room in the safe deposit box and I wasn't finding very many "new" different ones to add to the collection. I called the various auction houses and described what I had and NONE of them were interested because the cards were mostly the actresses. So, I listed them on eBay as one lot ($1,100 dollar starting price) and thought that would be a good deal for someone.

The cards didn't sell.

I relisted them at the same price and a Best Offer and a big time board member eventually bought them for $900 dollars to add to his collection. A little over a year later, one of the big auction houses (Legendary?) had 66 Newsboy cards in one of their auctions. These cards were in about the same condition as mine and they were mostly actress cards. Lo and behold, those cards sold for $3,600 dollars.

So, in short, the SAME thing happened to me as you; my cards weren't good enough to be auctioned and I sell them for a small amount of money and shortly thereafter, a lesser number of similar cards sells for a much greater sum of money.

The only good thing about my cards is that I know they went to a person who is going to take care of them.

David