What happened to T3's? - hijacked

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by T3s

Hello,

Thought I'd chime in, but essentially just to agree with the points made in each of the previous comments on this thread.

I can remember 10 years or so ago, buying a stunning T3 common on Ebay with a BIN of $300. At the time, I couldn't believe I was paying so much for a T3 - easily the most I'd ever paid for a common - and hoping I wouldn't regret it. Sometime around 2005, when PSA started grading them, I sent the card in and it received a 6. I ended up trading that card for a pile of other T3's (actually wish I had it back, but it was an offer I couldn't refuse), that were probably worth about $3500. That was an insane deal, and I certainly couldn't get that much today, but the right buyer would still go $1500+ for that card.

I remember being angry and a bit confused as Dave Levin paid what seemed like way too much for some nice commons on Ebay one day. Only to discover that he was being shrewd and must have known that PSA was beginning to grade them and prices would most likely rise. Very, very shortly thereafter, the big slabs appeared. Well played, Dave.

So in short, the T3 market has absolutely come back down to earth, relative to the start of their debut with PSA. However, when compared to the late 90's and early 2000's, they're still way ahead. Further, most PSA-3 thru PSA-5 examples right now are a great deal - in my opinion. Over the years, I've loosely tracked the PSA pop report and it's easy to see that submissions have slowed to a crawl. Certainly expensive to submit, but not that many more out there to be submitted.

I hope you enjoy them. They are beautiful cards.

Happy Collecting,
Craig

Very nice, thorough analysis, Craig. Seems spot on, IMHO. I think that you'll see that they will be somewhat cyclical in nature re their prices, with that cycle trending upwards over a longer period of time, since for the most part, they are relatively available. In practical terms, their values will surge when they start to look like veritable bargains compared to other cards of the era. Their beauty is truly beyond dispute; because of that, they have tremendous power to reach out and grab you, transporting you right back to that era of play.

Best wishes,

Larry