PSA 8 Old Judge cards in Goodwin auction now?

[cyseymour]

Originally Posted by conor912

Why the hell is he lying down and splayed out like some old west floozie?

He's sliding... or taking a nap.

[oldjudge]

High grade Old Judges do not command the premium of high grade T206s because there is no registry set competition.

[HRBAKER]

I think Jay makes a good point. It would be interesting to see if there was whether people would pay large sums for high graded cards with a non or barely discernable image, bc they are out there.

I think the earlier point is valid as well, with Old Judge cards and the image quality not being taken into account vis-a-vis a number grade; most collectors don't consider the plastic grade to be meaningfully accurate. They are much more concerned with image quality by and large than whether you can cut cheese with the corners and if the back is clean.

[smtjoy]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

High grade Old Judges do not command the premium of high grade T206s because there is no registry set competition.

I agree with Jay and add in many collector would rather have a 1-3 (back damage) that has an 8 image for 10-20% of the cost of that graded 8 (I know I do). Also comparing a blank backed card to one where the back really matters like T206 is not even comparing apples to apples. Exhibits pricing can do the same thing when the front is NM and the back has damage, they bring strong prices compared to very rough cards in the same grade.

[cyseymour]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

High grade Old Judges do not command the premium of high grade T206s because there is no registry set competition.

Agreed. But maybe there will a registry competition in the future for OJ's, who knows? I would rather own high grade cards of sets that the competition does not yet exist because they are far less expensive.

Of course, I realize that the fact that so many faded OJ's were already given high grades is an obstacle for set registry collectors. But maybe someday there will be a way of re-grading them?

Also, I think that (not faded) high-grade 19th Century cards are major condition rarities, just because they are so old. A high-grade OJ is far more rare than a high-grade T206, for instance.

[oldjudge]

Cy--I agree with everything you say. I think the major roadblock against developing Old Judge registry competition is that so many of the players are extremely hard/virtually impossible to find. The registry would have no one with anywhere near a complete set. Also, most of the Old Judge collectors who use TPGs tend to use SGC, not PSA. SGC has yet to develop meaningful registry competition, at least on the scale of PSA. This also hampers the registry premium affecting Old Judge cards. I think the last person to try to assemble a representative Old Judge registry set was Alan Sassoon. He had an SGC graded set with, if I remember correctly, over 470 different players. He sold his set at auction many years ago. Today, to even duplicate what Alan achieved would be very difficult.

[cyseymour]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Cy--I agree with everything you say. I think the major roadblock against developing Old Judge registry competition is that so many of the players are extremely hard/virtually impossible to find. The registry would have no one with anywhere near a complete set. Also, most of the Old Judge collectors who use TPGs tend to use SGC, not PSA. SGC has yet to develop meaningful registry competition, at least on the scale of PSA.

I agree that the fact that some of the cards are unique makes the set difficult to collect, and while SGC has a set registry, people aren't always competing on it as much as showing their cards.

Nevertheless, the original demand for high-grade cards stems not from a desire to win a competition, but from the inherent beauty of a well-preserved collectible itself (almost forgotten now).

I, for one, find the high grade OJ's with bold images to be very visually appealing. That they survived for so long, are so old and so beautiful, yet so difficult to find, makes me truly appreciate them.

[conor912]

Originally Posted by cyseymour

He's sliding... or taking a nap.

Sliding into what? Something more comfortable?