Photo asking prices - just insane

[Frankish]

Originally Posted by LincolnVT

I agree with a lot that has been said on this topic. I just assume that people are casting a large net on eBay. I scroll through sometimes with no intention of buying. That said, like postcards, photos are often 1/1 or very low pop unlike cards…so the cool images of key players will likely continue to be in high demand. I think that long term, photos that are historically significant are the best purchase in the hobby these days…lots of up-side and in some cases still somewhat affordable.

This is really it, I think. With really low pop items, sellers' greed can really go unchecked by reality for some time, often years. It might be nice to think your 1969 Topps Mantle PSA 7 is worth $25K, too, but the market provides enough information to deflate that notion rather quickly. In the Type 1 photo market, delusions of grandeur can demonstrate surprising longevity....

Now, to be fair, I think many dealers (and collectors) feel that Type 1 photos are significantly under-appreciated by the market and that things will come around. So, even though an amazing Type 1 Wilt Chamberlain rookie year photo sold for $200 last year, the one they have for sale now should be valued at $1200. I don't find that unreasonable, just a bet that collector (or even investor) interest will rotate into photos at some point.

Another data point for the low pop explanation is Japanese baseball cards. A year or two ago, I had a collector/dealer (really more of a speculator I guess) offer me some Sadaharu Oh rookie cards at a pretty steep price. They were very rare cards (even for 1950s menko) and in excellent condition, but the prices just seemed too high to me. Given the incredibly low pop in those conditions, he could really ask what he wanted. After I didn't buy them, I saw them appear on ebay at something like 5-10x the price I was quoted (and that meant over $100K each for a couple of the cards), though I don't believe any have sold. This just doesn't seem to happen with 52T.

This year, I've been selling some of my photo collection as a bigger move to just downsize in general and focus on fewer items I really love. I sold a few on BST but given the volume primarily just divided the sales up between several auction houses and consignors. My best experience was with Love of the Game auctions. Al featured a bunch of my photos in the Spring auction and did a wonderful, thoughtful job and got healthy (though not ebay aspirational) prices. Another great experience has been consigning items with Chris at Brigandi; they also buy items or collections, I believe, but I just went the consignment route. I believe Snapolit mentioned Brigandi, so I'm seconding them.

Finally, I have to plead guilty to having purchased a few highly marked-up AH flips off ebay. A seller had two photos I liked at pretty high prices. Some research showed he had purchased them for about 20% of his asking price a couple of years earlier at auction. I ended up offering him half his asking price (so still 2.5x his purchase price, or 150% profit), which he accepted. To this day, I'm still very happy with those photos! So I guess the flipping and listing sky high strategy does pay off sometimes....