auto racing cards

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Why grading these days is a joke. IMO this card should be a 9 or at worst an 8. SGC LOL.

SGC tough on Panini's and foreign issues. If there's the slightest dimple or print smudge on the card stock, they're going to nail you for it.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

SGC tough on Panini's and foreign issues. If there's the slightest dimple or print smudge on the card stock, they're going to nail you for it.

...

[Peter_Spaeth]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115887676223

Astonished by this.

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115887676223

Astonished by this.

Always happy to see this thread get bumped.

I was watching that Petty card, but had not looked to see where it finished. That price is shocking. Even beyond the hammer price, there were four bidders above $1,577 and three above $2,200.

I wish I had kept all my Petty STPs. At one time, I had three of them. But I sold two of them on here for under $200, which was a fair price at the time. I get it that it is Richard Petty, but I did not see this type of explosion coming in his rookie card. Auctions for 1972 STP cards seem pretty few and far between these days.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

Always happy to see this thread get bumped.

I was watching that Petty card, but had not looked to see where it finished. That price is shocking. Even beyond the hammer price, there were four bidders above $1,577 and three above $2,200.

I wish I had kept all my Petty STPs. At one time, I had three of them. But I sold two of them on here for under $200, which was a fair price at the time. I get it that it is Richard Petty, but I did not see this type of explosion coming in his rookie card. Auctions for 1972 STP cards seem pretty few and far between these days.

A PSA 6 sold in Goldin in 2021, which generally is considered the peak of insanity, for under 1000. I do not get it at all. Pent up demand maybe? There was a defect in his hair too.

I have two of them (only 4s) and I always joked with people that it was the 52 Mantle of miscellaneous sports but maybe there is something to that.

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

A PSA 6 sold in Goldin in 2021, which generally is considered the peak of insanity, for under 1000. I do not get it at all. Pent up demand maybe? There was a defect in his hair too.

I have two of them (only 4s) and I always joked with people that it was the 52 Mantle of miscellaneous sports but maybe there is something to that.

My remaining 1972 Petty is also a PSA 4. I have a complete, 11-card set of 1972 STPs. I have told this story before, but when I was putting together the set, I bought some STP cards off an elderly lady in Connecticut who picked them up originally as they were given away at the STP sponsor table at the 1972 Daytona 500.

Anyway, the woman included a handwritten note along with my cards saying that she wanted me to call her to talk about the STP cards. I felt super weird calling an old woman I did not even know, but she was such a nice lady and was informative about the set. One of the comments she casually made was that she thought her full set of the cards were probably worth about $2,000, and all the value was in the two Fred Lorenzen cards from the set. When I put together my STP set, I didn't feel any huge excitement about picking up Petty cards from the set. My excitement was in finding the Fred Lorenzen white whales that some long-time collectors had chased for over 20 years. The woman I talked with on the phone explained that fans could grab as many STP cards as they wanted that year at Daytona (and few fans were interested) other than the two Lorenzen cards. Those two cards were not available at all.

The Petty STP card has skyrocketed in value over the past few years, yet cards of the second winningest NASCAR driver of all-time (David Pearson) are still worth next to nothing. It is a mystery why Pearson is not in the STP set, yet journeymen like Elmo Langley, Dick Brooks, James Hylton and Charlie Glotzbach are. Pearson doesn't have an iconic rookie card like the Petty STP card.

With regard to the 1952 Topps Mantle of miscellaneous sports cards, I think the 1982 Hulk Hogan Wrestling All-Stars is a great candidate. That thing has exploded in value over the past years, and examples used to sit on eBay forever as BINs for under $200.

The 1983 Dale Earnhardt Uno card is another card that has exploded in value in the past five years. That is his true rookie card, but I really dislike the Uno cards as an option.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I hate the Uno Earhardt. Recent sales all over the map, an 8.5 selling for double a 9?

A miscellaneous card that does not get any recognition is the Karelin 1998 Culture House. Very hard to find one, a great looking card, and depicts arguably the most dominant athlete ever. I think he went a decade without a POINT being scored on him. Not only that, perhaps surprisingly given his appearance, he was an intellectual -- a chess player and student of the arts. He went on to politics.