Money in the hobby

[Leon]

Taking the bluff might not be that bad for you down the road. It wasn't that bad for me. My return was much better than 20%.
My wife never thought I wouldn't do it either. Now I just tell her in 20 more years I will do it again.

Originally Posted by kailes2872

Some day she is going to call my bluff and say - sell it all and I will have to explain that it really isn't that much above what I paid for it - if any at all - after fees are taken into account.

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by Leon

Taking the bluff might not be that bad for you down the road. It wasn't that bad for me. My return was much better than 20%.
My wife never thought I wouldn't do it either. Now I just tell her in 20 more years I will do it again.

+1. When you have something that you've held for a lengthy period, and you've made such a good selection regarding the item in question that the auction price is 10, 20, 30, or more times what you paid for it, the 20% juice doesn't make much of a hit at all, from my perspective. At or about 1990, the Standard Catalog, if I'm not mistaken, had the M101-4 and M101-5 Ruth at $1800 in near mint. Now frankly, this was conservative, but I recall bidding in a Sports Collector's Digest auction for one in ungraded ExMt in the mid-nineties. Unfortunately, I bid up to $5500 and it went for $6000, but compare that to the current Heritage auction, where, when I checked a couple of hours ago, the PSA 7 example was at $480,000, including the buyer's premium.

Best wishes,

Larry