ok, what am I missing here T206 Magie

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Posted By: Charlie Barokas

Dan,

Sportscard pricing is not scientific. Any collectible or Sportscard is only worth what a minimum of 2 people think it is worth at any given point of time. As we know, people are emotional, irrational/rational etc. Therefore anything without much or any intrinsic value will flucutate in price dramatically. Perceived value is very volatile and sportscards are 99.99% perceived value. But that is the attraction. I don't think any of us want to buy and sell 1 dollar bills. Either as collectors or dealers. The price disloactions in this hobby/business make it profitable and drives our collecting juices. My overall point is that the price guides in this hobby are just that a guide. Cards like the Magie will always be undervalued in the guide. Cards like a 66 Topps Pete Rose in a "9" will always be overvalued. I think that as with most things in life, those that are the least obtainable will always be irrationally priced. Therefore as a collector/dealer one must decide whether it is better to buy a Magie at 4X SMR or buy the 66 Rose at 70% of SMR. Alot of people would see the Rose a value at 30% of the SMR price but I see that as a Value trap. I will buy the Magie everytime at 4x SMR and sell it for 5x versus the 66 Rose that I might have a hard time selling for 72%. I will use the stock market anology, From 1986 to 1999, Microsoft Stock was overvalued every trading day by any metric. But if you invested a $1000 the day it came public and sold it Decemeber 31st 1999, your profit would have been $800,000. But you would have had to listen to every wall street type tell you that it was overvalued. They probably would have recommended you to buy something undervaulued like IBM, which if you invested $1000 the same day in 1986 your profit would have been 0. Cards like the Magie, Wagner etc will rarely be undervalued and most likely will have price spikes that will confound to the upside whereas the the 66 Rose PSA 9 will continue to disappoint to the downside.

Charlie