REA PSA 3 T227 HLC Johnson

[Exhibitman]

Where's that one?

[scooter729]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Where's that one?

Here

It's the rare sideways tilt version that's driving the high price!

[Exhibitman]

Hard pass. When I analyze card prices I discard PWCC and Probstein results.

[G1911]

At least T227 isn't an easy set and has its profile raised by the inclusion of baseball players. I'm more amazed by the recent sales of T218's, at least one of which is a super-print and one of the most common of all T cards. There are more than enough T218 Johnson's to go around. And yet here's a beat up raw one that sold for $272 last week: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1910-Hassan...MAAOSwK2xgSZuX


And here's a PSA 2 MK that went for $416: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1910-Champi...UAAOSwgAFgQhxr


An SGC 3, and not an under graded or particularly nice looking example, for over $1,000: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1910-T218-M...IAAOSwMTdgPs3Y.


Perhaps most absurd of all is the prices on his 1938 Churchman, another extremely common (and usually high grade card) going for more than a complete set would a year ago. A PSA 6 sold last week for $162, a grade that is the norm for this issue: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1938-Church...kAAOSwBTpgRIwe. Or perhaps a raw one for $100: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-19...8AAOSwoyFgMGN5


His T219 for $1,500 (I paid $715 for a Miners Extra a few months ago and thought I was overpaying): https://www.ebay.com/itm/1910-T219-H...UAAOSw5T5fvc4n


His T218 Tolstoi (I paid $350 for a grade lower in 2019) for $2,000 looks like a steal in comparison to what the Hassan and Mecca's are selling at: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1910-T218-T...gAAOSw7Hlfvc6o


All March sales.

[Exhibitman]

People like the Churchmans cards. They are nicely done but so common. Boxing cards stagnated for years; I think we are overdue for some price rises, even on some more common stuff.

[G1911]

It's the 1,000% skyrocket raises in just months that are odd and seem a bit absurd to me, not some stuff gradually going up or being overdue. Though I don't think there are many people that interested in c. 1910 boxing which is why prices have been flat for so many years on this material, and stuff outside of Johnson are not inflating at anywhere close to this rate, if at all. I'm still picking up moderately tough cards off eBay for little more or the same as I did 15 years ago.


There are more people looking for T206 Red Portrait Cobb super prints than there are Cobbs, I'm not sure that is suddenly true of the T218 Johnson superprint. I highly doubt it is for the 1938 Churchman's. This doesn't have the trend line of growing interest or overdue recognition. Johnson's prices hardly moved when he was fairly prominent in the news in 2018 after receiving the pardon from President Trump.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by G1911

I'm still picking up moderately tough cards off eBay for little more or the same as I did 15 years ago.

True. I just looked at a 9 year history of the 1937 Ardath Louis on PSA's site and prices have basically stagnated throughout. Some stuff has gone very high:

--Johnson
--Tyson
--Modern RCs: Pacquiao, Holyfield
--early Clay/Ali
--PSA 10 1990s cards

Some stuff has been moving up but not spectacularly, mostly the heavyweight champs and legendary lighter fighters like Duran, Hagler, etc.

Makes me wonder what would happen if genuinely rare stuff was offered for sale.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

True. I just looked at a 9 year history of the 1937 Ardath Louis on PSA's site and prices have basically stagnated throughout. Some stuff has gone very high:

--Johnson
--Tyson
--Modern RCs: Pacquiao, Holyfield
--early Clay/Ali
--PSA 10 1990s cards

Some stuff has been moving up but not spectacularly, mostly the heavyweight champs and legendary lighter fighters like Duran, Hagler, etc.

Makes me wonder what would happen if genuinely rare stuff was offered for sale.

Your list is basically what I've noticed, it's this small subset of items going sky high. I've hardly seen any actually tough cards come up for sale since the pandemic response began, "don't see every day" cards that take some time and patience haven't moved on the whole, but I would suspect potential sellers are holding for now and that's why the listings have been dry. I just got a T225 G white border for $10, same price as my first one 15 years ago, but not a lot of stuff much tougher than this tier has been popping up at all.


Perhaps Johnson's prices will be sustained by the narrative around him, not sure anyone is really going to start caring about boxing history that much as the sport continues to generally be outside the mainstream. Glad I bought some Johnsons for my master sets when I did. Johnson T218 being 100X Jeffries T218 is insane to me, but what the heck do I know! The others seeing large price increases can be explained by the influx of free time + cash into the US, with a strong nostalgia element. Nobody who cared about Johnson is alive now, and unlike baseball history that remains a popular interest with people, almost none of the much fewer boxing fans care much about a century ago. I thought after his prices failed to change much in 2018, probably the last time he will be prominently pushed into the public eye much, that they weren't going to go up that much. I was sure wrong!


Still need both his Honest Long Cut T219's, and his common T218 Mecca S2-649 card. Those are sure going to hurt now.