Interesting Sporting News results on ebay

[nolemmings]

Last night Probstein sold 26 m101-4 Sporting News backs on ebay at remarkable prices. The cards were almost all PSA 6-7 (a few lesser), and the market on these has been fairly flat for awhile, with prices in the $75-110 range for ex-mt and $115-150 for nm commons, subject to caprice from team chasers and specific player collectors. Many of the Probstein sales far exceeded these, and included an incredible $565.00 bid on a PSA 7 Seaton. Others that popped off the charts included a Connolly PSA 7 for $338; Williams PSA 6 at $293; Beck PSA 6 for $269; O’Neill PSA 7.5 $260 and Scott PSA 7 for $225.49.

What I find curious is that these exact cards were all sold by PWCC 30 months ago, and although the market has grown very modestly since, most of the Probstein offerings crushed the prior sales price, as seen from the following comparisons:

Seaton: Probstein $565; PWCC $108.50;
Connolly Probstein $338; PWCC $86.11;
Williams Probstein $293; PWCC $67.00;
Beck Probstein $269; PWCC $57.00;
O’Neill Probstein $260; PWCC $107.50;
Scott Probstein $225; PWCC $99.00;
also
Foster PSA 6.5 Probstein $181.50; PWCC $63.00;
Getz PSA 6 Probstein $122.54; PWCC $45.00; and
Flack PSA 5.5 Probstein $129.50; PWCC $38.00.

Many others doubled the prior price realized, and there really is little to no PSA registry fighting on these to explain it. Needless to say, this caught me way off guard when I set my snipes, and I barely got on the board, winning one plus a downgrade that looks nicer. Anyway, I thought it interesting that the two power ebay sellers selling the same cards in a mostly stable and rather flat market could generate such divergent results. Draw your own conclusions.

[oldjudge]

I think M101-4/5s are grossly undervalued and the market is probably just catching on to this (or a sceptic might believe that was something funny was going on). I assume these were all blank backs. The real rarities are the ad backs.

[Snapolit1]

30 months ago can be ancient history in this game.

[biggsdaddycool]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

30 months ago can be ancient history in this game.

+1


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[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

I think M101-4/5s are grossly undervalued and the market is probably just catching on to this (or a sceptic might believe that was something funny was going on). I assume these were all blank backs. The real rarities are the ad backs.

Jay, these were all TSN backs.

Yes I know alot can happen in 30 months, but it hasn't happened with m101-4 TSN commons, regardless of seller--nothing like this anyway. Really there hasn't been much movement of these cards in these grades at all. It will be interesting to see if things are taking off for this, the most easily found ad back of the m101 sets.

[oldjudge]

Thanks for the clarification, Todd

[Leon]

I agree, Todd. Haven't seen movement on this series, except for ad backs, in quite a long time. Personally I think the blank backs are most common and then TSN.....here is a scan from my first collection (don't own any longer)

Originally Posted by nolemmings

Jay, these were all TSN backs.

Yes I know alot can happen in 30 months, but it hasn't happened with m101-4 TSN commons, regardless of seller--nothing like this anyway. Really there hasn't been much movement of these cards in these grades at all. It will be interesting to see if things are taking off for this, the most easily found ad back of the m101 sets.

[nolemmings]

Nice display Leon-- at least one of those has found its way into my collection

You are correct-- blank backs are the most commonly found m101. TSN is the most common ad back.

Unfortunately, over the years the pop reports have lumped so many different cards into the m101-4 category that they provide no meaningful degree of accuracy. Mostly blanks and Sporting News, but other ad backs as well. It's basically pointless to rely on them. As for sales, TSN backs and to some degree Famous & Barr have not moved much, which is why these Probstein sales caught my eye. As we know, sometimes collectors jump into new projects when they see a couple dozen offered at once--maybe that sparked the interest here. Similarly, maybe the guy who won them from PWCC two+ years ago got discouraged at not adding much to the set and just moved onto something else.