Wayne Gretzky rookie card sells for $3.75 million
RufussCkingston
Posts: 1,640 ✭✭✭✭✭
Private Sale publicized????
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RufussCkingston
Posts: 1,640 ✭✭✭✭✭
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The under bidder from the first time it sold must have really wanted it then. WTH
same card? there are 2 now, i believe...
Oh, Didnt know that. POP 2 wow
How is that card a 10? There is an issue on the bottom right, white showing on the top edge... Not a guy to get a date with Cindy Crawford and spend the entire evening complaining about her mole, but that one is kind of rough.
yes, but id be curious if it was actually the same one. talk about the flip of quick flips.
They show a pic in the article, different flip # than the December one....
The BVG 9.5 on Ebay on right now for 200k sure seems like a steal in comparison.
Yeah, but it's sheet cut.,,,
I'd much rather have a sheet cut one - don't like the fuzzy edges.
The new money dudebros in the hobby don't care about such things.
This should double the price of the unopened packs.
surprising that when the pop doubles the price increases to this degree as the market has been softening.
I wonder if this sale is legit or a pump.
private sale, neither buyer or sellers name is released.
things that make you go hmmm...
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
yet.
definitely legit. been a pop 2 for a while. it was subbed and landed at the national a couple of years ago.
Great looking card. Much better than the other PSA 10.
I have said this before - but a rare top card in the hobby always surprises me how low they go. I am not wealthy - but if I were a billionaire and the Gretzky was on my top 10 card list - I would pretty much not stop until I won it. The price I would go would be much higher than this. My marginal happiness of having the Gretzky would be worth more than a couple of million dollars in the bank or in the stock market. It always stuns me that two people don’t feel that way more often and just go crazy. $10MM to someone with $1B is the equivalent of $10K to someone with $1MM. There are 614 billionaires in America - if three of them ever collect cards then these prices would go way up.
Here’s one of mine that isn’t close to a ten, but sure is pretty. The nicest color I’ve ever seen on one. No enhancement on the scan.
Lol that card is so under graded. An easy 6 and probably a 6.5 or 7 under PSA's old standards
Nah, the grade is correct. The card is about as perfect as it gets for this issue. The rough cut edges are the result of OPC cutting these cards at the factory with wires. Centering is typically terrible, print lines and dots infected 90% of the cards, and the corners so rarely come to a sharp point. All of the stars aligned on this card. It's beautifully centered, the corners are perfect, and the surface is amazing in its color and free of any lines or dots. People who collect this card (I have 8 of them) would never buy one without the rough cut edges. If it doesn't have the rough cut edges, it's either sheet cut or trimmed. With the rough cut edges, you know it was cut in the factory and hasn't been altered.
Here's my two PSA 8's for comparison.
This statement always bothers me every time I read it. I see it often and in my experience, it's simply not true. It always makes me wonder if the people making it weren't around collecting in that era? I have been collecting for almost 50 years, my father longer than that. I have complete sets of every set from 1973 to 1995 and a bunch of cards after as well as before back to the early 50's.
While the cutting methodology is true, the results you describe are not, especially "If it doesn't have the rough cut edges, it's either sheet cut or trimmed.". My Gretzky rookie has virtually perfect edges. It was opened from packs the year it was released. I was there when it was opened. Still have some of the empty wrappers and gum. It's not just a Gretzky fluke. Probably 95% of my cards from that year have similar edging. Edging wasn't nearly as difficult as centering. Now you could wonder "did he just get lucky and buy boxes that were cut when the wire was fresh"? This doesn't really add up either given that 95% of them have very good edging, they were not bought by the box etc. These were bought pack by pack over a period of time from a tiny Texaco gas station in the middle of nowhere.
For me, it's pretty disappointing that they accept flawed edges on a 10 when good edging most definitely exists. As I said, in my experience, centering was the bigger issue. If they are going to make an exception for edging, it should be made for centering. If we know there are well centered copies and we know there are well edged copies, a 10 should not be assigned unless it has both. If the card surfaces that has both, it's a farce that it would be assigned the same value as something lesser. Perhaps that's why it would be better to have .5 grades?
Lets see your pack fresh Gretzky with no rough cut, please.
>
exact opposite camp. edges are fine to me. same w cards like the ‘54 aaron. i actually want to see them frayed.
when it comes to centering, its means everything on this particular card. the gretzky may be the only card that has 4 levels of centering. to me at least.
first is left to right. second is top to bottom.
after i get past the t/b & l/r centering, i shift focus to what i refer to as the “red drip”. kinda like the “w” soto or “rc badges” in prizm, once youve seen it, you can never unsee it again.
ideal centering:
not ideal:
after i get past the first 3 hurdles, i move on to the hardest one, imo. the oilers logo as a whole. extremely hard to ever find one thats ever dead centered
ideal for me:
not ideal:
after all that, i flip the card over and hope i see skate lines. urban legend is that these indicate a “first printing”. whether or not thats true is something to be debated. but either way, collectors do seek them out and premiums do tend to be paid for them.
finding one that fills all these holes is the needle in the haystack.
You'll have to wait a couple months because everything is in storage while I finish renovating and moving but sure, no problem. Keep in mind, no one is saying the card is flawless. As I said, north/south centering is off and such. Edges are definitely better than some of what they have graded as 10 (hell I've seen 9's with better edging).
I'm sorry but suggesting that any card from then with good edges is doctored is just flat out wrong.
No matter how clean OPC edges may look, they are still rough cut and are easily distinguishable from blade cut. While there can be large visual differences, it wouldn't make sense to vary the grade based on how well the wires cut.
ETA: The centering of the flame, logo, etc is all related to registration. Find a perfectly registered version and the centering of those print items will take care of themselves.
While I agree that it's possible to get an OPC Gretz with relatively clean edges, a perfectly centered one with perfectly clean edges probably doesn't exist.
I'm surprised that OPC was being sold at a small gas station in Texas. I know that Americans could get OPC but would think standard candy store type distribution would be Topps.
That's not what is being suggested. What is suggested is that cards that appear to otherwise be 10s, with perfectly smooth edges, with their only defect being slight surface wear, are quite often sheet cut and thus less desirable. This is one rationale for collectors' preference for rough cut edges.
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/877393/1979-o-pee-chee-wayne-gretzky-recent-acquisition#pagetop
Here is one of mine that I acquired in the early stages of my "adult" collecting. I now have five OPC Gretzkys with four of them being of the first print run variety. Just glancing over it, there is a little info about the first print run.
ETA to add @fsh403 those 8's are stunners!
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Did you, perhaps, confuse Texaco gas station with Texas? I assumed North Ontario. I also assume it would have been difficult to get hockey cards of any kind in Texas in the 1970s, especially outside of hobby shops.
Yes, my bad. I grew up out West and don’t recognize that brand. My eye saw Texas for some reason.
Having gone through thousands of 79’s stand by my position that rough cut, on some level, is how these cards came out of packs.
Video shows the origin of Gretzky's rookie
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I have very little/almost no rough-cut edges on mine and intuitively, the cutting wires must have started as sharp before dulling:
I have opened quite a bit of 79 OPC hockey and 4 clean cut edges on a card is pretty rare straight out of the pack.
Robb
Beautiful card. I see a rough cut on all 4 edges, great example of what that card would look like out of a pack.
OPC rough cut. I'd rather see the rough cut than a perfectly smooth sheet cut edge on a card like that one.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Exactly. I've opened a ton of 70s OPC wax over the years and rougher cut on at least 1, if not multiple sides, is standard for this issue. I'm guessing the guy above is talking about his 79 Topps Gretzky not OPC.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.