Topps Dice Cards

[JollyElm]

As a favor, this post will attempt to head off the usual arguments before they can take hold (Yes, if you read any thread on Net54, you'll know that is an impossible goal to accomplish.):


• Since these Dice cards are extremely rare (Yes, here's where someone will correct me and say, "Dear boy, you mean 'scarce.'" ), if the winner decides to use an X-Acto knife on them (Yes, duh, they'll obviously use a more effective manner of cutting.),
then the entire world (Yes, of course I'm using that as a general term, and it shouldn't be taken literally.) will know they've been recently cut and are not 'as issued.'
(Yes, here's where someone will insist that once any card is removed from its packaging, it is no longer "as issued." You've really given us something to think about. Yawn.)

• How will PSA/SGC/ETC. grade them, knowing this to be the case? (Yes, here's where people will bemoan how TPGs already do everything wrong. We get it.)
The eyes of the world (see above) will be on them.

Side note: Eyes of the World is a cool Dead tune. (Yes, you can't stand The Grateful Dead, and prefer some band no one's ever heard of. Wow, you're so frickin' cool.)

• If they are each rightfully (Yes, someone will argue that it's "wrongfully." Good one.) slabbed as some form of "Authentic," are they still as valuable (Yes, here's where someone will tritely say, "They are worth whatever a person is willing to pay for them.") and, I guess,
desirable as the ones which were originally released, since there are so few of them around?

[raulus]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

• If they are each rightfully (Yes, someone will argue that it's "wrongfully." Good one.) slabbed as some form of "Authentic," are they still as valuable (Yes, here's where someone will tritely say, "They are worth whatever a person is willing to pay for them.") and, I guess,
desirable as the ones which were originally released, since there are so few of them around?

A few observations:

These are so rare that usually condition is less of a factor. You don’t have the same large value disparity between a PSA 1 and PSA 5 that you would have with most issues. Sure, there’s a difference. But not nearly as dramatic. A large part of that is simply because the number of people who want to be in this club is a big number, and the number of copies available is small.

There are several copies with pinholes, and they are graded as 1s. For the most part, nice looking 1s, but still 1s. And as we all know, not all 1s are created equal.

My guess is that if these were cut up (and not butchered) and grade as Authentic, then they would probably sell at a price similar to the ones with pinholes. Maybe slightly better, since they lack the pinholes? But even then, my guess is not a whole lot less (percentage-wise) than a copy that gets a number grade.