Cards selling over 1 million dollars in 2024

[Snapolit1]

Some guy is sitting on an Ohtani 1/100 signed card for his kids college fund, blissfully unaware that by now there are probably thousands of them.

I think it took people many years but they finally caught on with Trout. How many 100,000s of "nice" Trout cards must be out there. Boggles the mind.

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

100% agree. Absolute rarity is wonderful. When you have a truly rare item, you can set the price and hold out to get it.

I am contemptuous of condition rarity. It only matters when a card is abundant enough across the grades to be readily acquired for the asking if the money is there. And modern PSA 10s are a joke. When you have a ton of cards kept in pack-fresh condition and a mountain of unopened material, there will be a ton of pack-fresh cards to grade and inevitably a big stack of 10s. Consider the card that many think of as the granddaddy of modern cards, the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. Total PSA population of this card as of January 14, 2023, is 176,667, of which 4,091 are unqualified PSA 10 graded cards. The people trying to sell these cards will tell you that PSA 10 are only 2.3% of the total population of PSA Griffey cards. True, but meaningless, because there are still over 4,000 PSA perfect 10 Griffey cards. And, of course, the distinctions PSA makes over these cards is so trivial that you can put a bunch of PSA 9 Griffeys with a 10 Griffey in a pile with the labels covered and the vast majority of collectors will not be able to choose the PSA 10. I also am disgusted that massive value swings result from arbitrary and opaque decisions made by unknown persons at the TPG, and the TPGs have a dismal track record of approving altered cards. Lots of 10s with a shave and a haircut.

I loathe manufactured rarity. The problem with manufactured rarities is that demand for them hasn’t built organically and over the long term. The manufacturers keep churning them out, year after year, in every series and set, and they get hyped relentlessly to push the issue out the door, until the next wave of cards is issued and they become yesterday’s news. Also, when every card has a rainbow of parallel manufactured rarities, player collectors get frustrated and burned out, and they quit. The result is a mountain of very low print run cards that fall in value after issue and stay way down by comparison to the initial price run. Reminds me of bad IPOs.

[sb1]

PCGS released a list of the top 30 coin sales for 2023. 20 brought 1 million or more at auction, so there were probably others sold privately as well...

https://www.pcgs.com/top-selling-coi...fmc_id=5960600

[brunswickreeves]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

The BN Ruth, which sold for $7.2mm, was purchased two years prior for $5mm (it was all over the news), fractional shares were offered on Collectible at a $6mm valuation, and for a year the card was available on Collectible for outright purchase for $8mm - nobody bought it. I don’t know why/how people thought it would go for $10mm+, let alone $8mm+. That said, I agree Corey that $7.2mm is a ton of money, and further, an amazing price under those circumstances, representing a $2.2mm increase (almost 50%) in only two years. Phenomenal result.

One ‘easy’ way to become a millionaire.

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

100% agree. Absolute rarity is wonderful. When you have a truly rare item, you can set the price and hold out to get it.

I loathe manufactured rarity. The problem with manufactured rarities is that demand for them hasn’t built organically and over the long term. The manufacturers keep churning them out, year after year, in every series and set, and they get hyped relentlessly to push the issue out the door, until the next wave of cards is issued and they become yesterday’s news. Also, when every card has a rainbow of parallel manufactured rarities, player collectors get frustrated and burned out, and they quit. The result is a mountain of very low print run cards that fall in value after issue and stay way down by comparison to the initial price run. Reminds me of bad IPOs.

Reminds me of the overproduction of cards in the 80's. Too many rare/desirable cards produced by the manufacturers that ended up swamping the demand.

[brianp-beme]

I always assumed omphaloskepsis was complication of an infection that causes internal inflammation, sometimes leading to death, within the Oompa Loompa community.

Brian (I know, I know...I really should refrain from such inflammatory comments when it comes to the little people of the chocolate factory)

[EddieP]

Originally Posted by raulus

Maybe this is too simple.

But it seems like it’s largely a function of whether the right cards come to market. If enough T206 Wagners and PSA 9 311 Mantles and Baltimore News Ruths come to market, then we could get to an unexpectedly high number of 7 digit sales.

Obviously the other part of the equation is that almost all of the modern cards that were hitting 7 digits over the last couple of years would fail to hit that level now. So all of those Tom Brady and Derek Jeter cards won’t be on the list this year.

I would also add PSA 8/9 Goudey Ruths.

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by Fred

What still blows my mind is that people were paying north of $1M for new modern 1/1 cards. That I'll never understand. Does anyone think that trend will continue? What are people's thoughts about how much those 1/1 cards that were fetching 6 digits would now bring at auction today?

I still remember it was big news when the 2010 Stephen Strasburg Bowman Chrome Superfractor 1-of-1 sold for $16,000 before Strasburg had even made his Major League Debut... and the guy who bought it sold it for $21,000 a month later! (What's that card worth now?)

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by Gary Dunaier

I still remember it was big news when the 2010 Stephen Strasburg Bowman Chrome Superfractor 1-of-1 sold for $16,000 before Strasburg had even made his Major League Debut... and the guy who bought it sold it for $21,000 a month later! (What's that card worth now?)

That’s a blast from the past. I remember seeing it at the National in Chicago in 2015, the last National I attended.

https://www.radicards.com/baseball/s...-superfractor/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MACollector]

Originally Posted by jsfriedm

I would actually be surprised if a 1951 Bowman Mays PSA 9 didn't hit at least 2 mil, considering 8s sell for around 250K, and that I don't think a 9 has sold for 15 years or so.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the only 8.5 Mays would eclipse 1m. There are several Aaron 8.5’s that have sold for 3-4x the price of an 8 in the past year.

[here2havefun]

A large portion of the 2021 and 2022 sales are just the Contenders Brady auto RC and the Lebron RPA. Those cards are still selling quite often these days, but they just are no longer breaking $1mil.

According to Card Ladder sales data:

20: Number of Brady Contenders Auto RC sales over $1mil 2021-2022
13: Number of Lebron RPA sales over $1mil 2021-2022

And throwing this in just for perspective:
8: Number of 52T Mantle sales over $1mil 2021-2022

[joshuanip]

Originally Posted by Topnotchsy

Does this one have a shot?

https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball-c...ription-071515

Maybe not in this auction, but still a few days to go and extended bidding. I wouldn’t be surprised if a mid grade blank back hit 1m 5, or 10 years from now. (Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s at the same price either)

[BeanTown]

2024, 11 is my guess as we under estimate the shiny refractors, patch, 1 of 1, And auto cards of players who are still playing and are close to making it to the HOF. These are status symbol cards for some heavy hitters

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by joshuanip

Maybe not in this auction, but still a few days to go and extended bidding. I wouldn’t be surprised if a mid grade blank back hit 1m 5, or 10 years from now. (Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s at the same price either)

I do not see that as a million dollar card right now. I believe it sold for 612k a year or so ago and it is already beating at that with BP($630k) but I do not believe it has enough bids left in it this point to get to $1 million.

It is off center but it does have a nice front, a clean back and is the highest graded by SGC and PSA only has only 2 graded higher (both 7’s and 1 of them sold 2 years ago for over $2 million)

Part of me would be happy if it went for a million now as it help would drive all rookie card values up

[jsfriedm]

There's a PSA 8.5 52T Mantle in Heritage's February auction that is already over $1 million.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by Leon

I predict there will be 7 in 2024...

.

I was thinking no more than 6-7 this year myself. Any big sales will be the few FOMO sellers that missed the boat, but are going to try to catch it before it leaves the horizon.

The biggest card of 23', The Topps co-signed Ruth/Ohtani couldn't break 114 last week. This would have been wayyy more just a year ago.

https://goldin.co/item/2023-topps-de...JkSW5kZXgiOjB9

I think they'll be some people holding for a bit and hoping for some dream modern rebound. The only million dollar cards this year are most likely to be 85% vintage.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

I came close to buying a million dollar Jasson Dominguez refractor. Then the drugs wore off.

Good one. Imagine the next morning waking up next to the invoice on your phone in the bed with you and wondering what happened!