A new breed of whale

[aljurgela]

Matt,

I actually have the belief that this card is not trimmed, but it is hard to know until I get it in hand, so I might have SGC look at it again with many other copies of the Billikens that they have graded. The image in much better than the one that I currently have and the SGC 60 that I traded away last year.

On the "market cap idea"... of course, this is just a general discussion and your analysis on the Leaf and the 1953 Topps is the right one. If people prefer these sets, this will cloud the analysis.... as will card grading .... as will the assumptions of what percentages of cards from an issue are graded vs not.... as will the quality of the card stock (if there is just one beater of one player of equal stature and just one nice copy of the comparable player from the same issue, we would incorrectly assess those cards as equally valuable based on the number of available copies).... at the end, we end up where we began....

Value is relative and subject to interpretation. And the intrepretation of myself (and at least a few other collectors) is that the negro league stuff is rare and has room on the upside, even at these high prices.

Another interesting conversation is where do people go after they have completed their Leaf and 1953 Topps sets? These rare issues - especially the phtographic Punch, Billikens and Aguilitas are amazing. Every time I bring out one of these to people who have never seen them the reaction is the same: "Wow, that's so cool". It is. For many years the 1948 Leaf Paige was my dream card and when I got it, I said "now what?" I think these cards blow away any of the other stuff I used to collect.

This is just my take.