Auction psychology

[raulus]

Originally Posted by BobC

LOL

That's okay, I'll be happy with the '54 and '62 Mays cards I already have.

And sounds like you're agreeing with me, it is not the pop reports causing what seems to be a bit of a pricing anomaly for these two cards. We'll probably never know what could have caused such a big price differential between those two PSA 9 Mays cards in that last REA auction then?

Obviously the bidders are responsible for the price differential. But beyond that, digging into why these two cards have the relative values that they have in relation to one another is likely to remain a bit of an enigma.

But the 1962T selling for 25% more than the 1954T seems to follow the historical relationship between these two cards pretty closely. Whether the bidders had that in mind in the heat of the action is unlikely. But that’s definitely where the chips fell in the end. The invisible hand at work!

[BobC]

Originally Posted by raulus

Obviously the bidders are responsible for the price differential. But beyond that, digging into why these two cards have the relative values that they have in relation to one another is likely to remain a bit of an enigma.

But the 1962T selling for 25% more than the 1954T seems to follow the historical relationship between these two cards pretty closely. Whether the bidders had that in mind in the heat of the action is unlikely. But that’s definitely where the chips fell in the end. The invisible hand at work!

And that factoid you are pointing out about more recent '62 versus '54 prices I find very interesting. I haven't really been actively collecting and paying attention to cards and prices from those sets for a decade or two now. But when I was, I always seemed to remember '54 cards going for more than comparable '62 cards. Maybe it also has to do with the higher grades for these particular cards, because as you speculated and pointed out, the full-bleed wood grain borders on the '62s do tend to highlight any edge and corner issues way more so than on cards with just white borders.

But then these are the kinds of conundrums that help to make, and keep, this hobby interesting to many of us. Good stuff!

[raulus]

Originally Posted by BobC

And that factoid you are pointing out about more recent '62 versus '54 prices I find very interesting. I haven't really been actively collecting and paying attention to cards and prices from those sets for a decade or two now. But when I was, I always seemed to remember '54 cards going for more than comparable '62 cards. Maybe it also has to do with the higher grades for these particular cards, because as you speculated and pointed out, the full-bleed wood grain borders on the '62s do tend to highlight any edge and corner issues way more so than on cards with just white borders.

But then these are the kinds of conundrums that help to make, and keep, this hobby interesting to many of us. Good stuff!

Just to be clear, I was only comparing the Mays items from those two years, not other items. The same ratio may or may not hold true more generally.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by raulus

Just to be clear, I was only comparing the Mays items from those two years, not other items. The same ratio may or may not hold true more generally.

No, I hear you. It is just that when your overall experience is that cards in one earlier set normally go for more than cards in a later set, you wouldn't expect the opposite to be true for one single player's base card in those two sets. Unless there was some special circumstance like the player's card in the later set was a short print, or maybe in the high number series.

I don't normally follow current card prices of individual players, like Mays, and am just surprised that a similarly graded '62 Topps card of his would go for so much more than his '54 Topps card. Defies logic to me. Oh well, live and learn.