Health of Asset Class - Over/Under 1955 Topps Koufax PSA 9

[theshowandme]

I'm going over. Him and Mays are the last two baseball gods from that era.

Goldin will be blasting it all over social media I bet.

What a card!

[trambo]

Interesting thought on the over under. Looking at the PSA pop report, the card has a total pop of 25 in a 9. That makes it one of the most common 9s in the set. There are also 3-PSA 10s. To me, it's rare but not so rare and not a top pop so the set registry chasers may not chase as hard as they would if it there were no PSA 10s.

As for the slab, it's an old cert # and at some point after it sold for $204k at Heritage in 2017, it was reholdered.

I'd likely take the under here as I'd bet with a pop of 25 in a 9, there will be other opportunities to buy the card. I'm also biased because it's not an era I collect. I don't think it makes a ton of sense to plunk down that kind of money on a card from that era that is easier to find in higher grades. Plus, it would appear you can get an 8 for less than 10% of recent 9 sales.

Should be fun to watch! Thanks for the question, too!!

[steve B]

I think it will sell for more than the last one, but not with much confidence.
The sales history looks like that card in that grade only comes up about once maybe twice a year, with occasional years with none.

I think the number of people who can buy one is small, but also somewhat insulated from a changing economy. Right now is probably a good time to buy, as the actual state of the economy is less important than the uncertainty of what's going to happen.

I would disagree that this tier of the hobby doesn't affect others. Demand and prices have been driven by publicity and other pricing as long as I've been collecting. If it was really separated purely based on condition and price we would see easily spotted steps in pricing, here the 9s and maybe 10s included. We do see a huge drop off to 8s, but it's more gradual after that. If it was purely condition based, it might look like
10 Who knows
9 300K+
8 30K ish.
567.... whatever they go for now, but all priced right around the 6 price.
345 maybe half that or even less,
below a 3? a very cheap card like it was in maybe the late 80's. saleable, but with stagnant prices, since the only buyers would be beginners, people with little money, or as a temporary space filler in a collection.