Collector's Conundrum

[bgar3]

This is essentially the plot dilemma in Flaubert's Bibliomania short story.

[Prof_Plum]

Whatever became of the blue Old Mill ....

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by bgar3

This is essentially the plot dilemma in Flaubert's Bibliomania short story.

Indeed Frank had a very sentimental education.

[bigfanNY]

I do not think B is a viable answer to the conundrum. If the market has valued card A with two known copies at $20,000 and an Auction that is live at the moment is verifying the market value then I do not believe that reducing the population by one you would dramatically increase the price. Just like finding 2 more of card A almost certainly not dramatically reduce the current market price.
Demand for the card would remain constant and supply reduced by 50% with constant demand might cause the card to shift slightly higher just as an increase of supply would cause a small downshift in price. So destroying the second known copy would almost certainly result in economic loss. Over Time that might not be true but the immediate impact would be negative.
And no real collector of Baseball cards would rather have one card when he could have two..
JMHO
Jonathan

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by bigfanNY

I do not think B is a viable answer to the conundrum. If the market has valued card A with two known copies at $20,000 and an Auction that is live at the moment is verifying the market value then I do not believe that reducing the population by one you would dramatically increase the price. Just like finding 2 more of card A almost certainly not dramatically reduce the current market price.
Demand for the card would remain constant and supply reduced by 50% with constant demand might cause the card to shift slightly higher just as an increase of supply would cause a small downshift in price. So destroying the second known copy would almost certainly result in economic loss. Over Time that might not be true but the immediate impact would be negative.
And no real collector of Baseball cards would rather have one card when he could have two..
JMHO
Jonathan

If anyone is contemplating destroying a 21,000 dollar card as a result of this thread, I can refer you to get the therapy you need. That's a better deal than Flaubert offered.

[T206Collector]

When you bid on the second copy of your card you are also simultaneously setting the value of the first copy -- both of them really. So every dollar you bid is another dollar in your pocket. It's free money. You're literally playing with the house money. No need to destroy the second copy -- you've got two worth half!

Or something like that...