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Are you happy Carlos?

Carlos,

There is no doubt in my mind you are at your computer right now. What do you think? Are you happy with the results?

Wayne
1955 Bowman Football
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Comments

  • carkimcarkim Posts: 1,166 ✭✭
    Not really...I was hoping the 1972 and 1974 sets would push 10K.

    Carlos
  • Wayne, the Superior Auction is still running until 9:00 PM PST. Internet bidding is closed now, but the phones are open for two more hours for whomever placed their bids early.
  • carkimcarkim Posts: 1,166 ✭✭
    gemmint,

    Would they update the web site to reflex the phone bids?

    Carlos
  • I thought it was all closed. Hopefully Carlos will see some more movement in those sets? I'm really surprised the 72 set didn't push up a little bit higher than that. That seems to be a very popular set to collect.

    Wayne
    1955 Bowman Football
  • Carlos - yes, the website will continue to update. It's really a pretty stupid thing when you get right down to it. I can't tell you how many people have been confused by this. When the message on the screen reads "This auction is closed for internet bidding" it should also remind people who put bids in before 7:00 PM PST that they can still bid on the item until 9:00 PM PST but only with a phone call. It has to cost some seller's money.

    In case anyone needs the phone number it's #888-337-4492
  • carkimcarkim Posts: 1,166 ✭✭
    gemmint,

    Is the $2,400 what you expected on your set?

    Carlos
  • Yes I was pretty happy with the results. It was a little better than I expected image. It didn't look too good for me until today when the set's price basically doubled in value.

    It's funny. The set realized exactly the same amount as my '70 Kellogg's set that was in the last Superior Auction.
  • kobykoby Posts: 1,699 ✭✭
    Carlos- Do you know what the final prices on your auctions are? K
  • Damn...I'm so used to Mastro type auctions that run until 2-5AM! Which I love personally, because most are on nights I'm up until 4-5AM regardless!

    Oh well, was hoping to win that Goudey set and others...c'est la vive.
    Why do I get the feeling, that some cards are worth money, while others are not?
  • carkimcarkim Posts: 1,166 ✭✭
    LOT NUMBER CURRENT BID BID PREMIUM

    145............... $3,300.00.... $3,795.00
    147............... $7,000.00.... $8,050.00
    148............... $6,800.00.... $7,820.00
    149............... $445.00....... $511.75
    150............... $1,250.00.... $1,437.50
    151............... $1,500.00.... $1,725.00
    152............... $2,800.00.... $3,220.00

    TOTAL........... $23,095.00... $26,559.25
  • I really thought that at least two bidders (dealers) would step up to the plate and bid up the 1972 set. $10 per card seems pretty low to me, but it appears to be a buyer's market right now (outside of the truly rare and one-of-a-kind items).

    The real question for those of us who have watched the past few Superior and Mastro auctions is the future value of graded sets (which has been discussed thoroughly and intelligently on this board). It seems that the smaller sets (1964 Giants, 1970 Kelloggs) have a strong following because they are easy and relatively inexpensive to complete and flip; but as for the full-sized sets, perhaps the Set Registry is promoting Icarus-like behavior: (1) ambitiously decide to collect set; (2) buy and register (repeat); (3) complete set (or decide that set is too expensive or difficult); (4) sell set for loss to dealer who breaks set up, starting the cycle again.

    I know that I personally have bitten off more than I can chew: 1970 baseball, 1972 football, 1978 football. Completing these sets will require 1500 graded cards; even at $10/each, that's $15K. I'm into collecting cards for the long haul, so recent auction results have only slightly dampened my enthusiasm. How about everyone else? Has the economy / state of the hobby changed your collecting habits?

  • BasiloneBasilone Posts: 2,492 ✭✭
    It was a nice payday for Superior...they netted approx $5773.75 off the lots (27.77% of Carlos total share)...assuming a 10% commission and 15% buyers prem.



    << <i>the Set Registry is promoting Icarus-like behavior: (1) ambitiously decide to collect set; (2) buy and register (repeat); (3) complete set (or decide that set is too expensive or difficult); (4) sell set for loss to dealer who breaks set up, starting the cycle again >>



    It looks like the results for many issues are not that spectacular (just consider the grading fees alone). Who knows what the future may hold but it looks like the market for completely graded (large) set is not a strong as first thought. Hopefully this trend will change in the future.

    John
  • Like you nnpopp I am in it for the long haul. I will always see opportuunities to upgrade my beloved 69' set after completion.
    $10/ card seems low to me too. Flipping on this set just may not be very attractive on 50% of the commons. It seems that the set registry special has flushed out an abundance of high pop 8's in this set and they routinely seem to go for $10 or less now.
    For the 72' set builder this is great. It helps him get well on the way with the minimum investment. For a dealer looking to buy this lot perhaps the reward is not great enough at this price level for what work they would have to put into it.
    Dealer comments?
    Regardless Carlos; this was an awesome effort to complete and I highly respect your accomplishment.
    I am even chipping away at my starter 72' set myself :-)
    RayB69Topps
    Never met a Vintage card I didn't like!
  • DavalilloDavalillo Posts: 1,846 ✭✭
    Tough result for Carlos having to sell those beautiful 72 and 74 sets at such a low amount.

    On the other hand, Superior is a terrific place to auction truly vintage stuff--just look how well those Wilson Franks cards did!
  • Racing to complete a set and then selling it, isn't my idea of a wise investment. Assembling a set is a hobby that will occupy a hobbiest for months or years. Other people have different types of hobbies and have nothing to show for their investment of time and money when they are done. Every dollar they put into their hobby is gone. There's nobody handing them a check when they decide to move on to something else. When you assemble a set of cards that has the liquidity of a PSA product, you know that you are going to be getting something back when you are ready to check out. How much you get back is determined by how wise you were buying. If you race to be the first one done, paying record prices for lots of cards along the way, your return on your monetary investment isn't likely to be very good. If you take your time, buy raw wise, buy graded wise, it is entirely possible for you to make money.
  • I’m afraid that I have to agree with Davalillo on this one. The 1970 and 1972 sets went for far less that I thought they would. Other than one bid, I pushed the 1974 set from $4,500 to $6,800 (over $7,800 with commission). I was trying to call in and place at least one more bid at the close of the auction, but couldn’t get through (I called right at 9 p.m.). I have purchased two small 1969 sets (one 9% complete and the other 6% complete) off the registry and one 425 card graded 1975 set from someone who saw my set on the registry and contacted me. In all of these cases, neither I, nor the seller, paid any commission. Due to the fact that I already had a number of upgrades to Carlos’ 1974 set, coupled with the fact that 1974 PSA 8’s haven’t been selling well on eBay, I was willing to pay only $8,000 - $8,400 for the set. Had I known his set was for sale, I would have immediately cut him a check for somewhere in the amount above (I’m sure he would have refused). However, when the total lot price includes 15% commission, it really cut into the amount I was willing to bid on the lot. I feel very bad for Carlos. Frank
    Looking for 1975, 1978, and 1979 Topps Baseball in high end PSA 9 and PSA 10.
    ______________________________________
    The best presents in life are the ones you give yourself!
  • Nnpopp - I think your analysis is exactly correct.

    I do believe though that in time when a new bull market in vintage cards appear and as the demand for complete graded sets grows, the larger graded sets will have their day in the sun too.
  • I must admit i was stunned when i saw those final prices come up. I figured there would be some late bidders come in and push those set prices come up. There was even comments on these boards from some members that said they wouldnt let those sets go for around $ 10 per card. Im not sure who won those sets but maybe it was one of them.

    These results tell me the buying collectors puts very little extra value on the work that goes into these graded sets. Its like the thinking is this "I can buy any good raw set and have it graded out at any time" At a $5-6 registry special grading alone would be $4000-5000. Had there been no grading specials and we are talking $10 per card for grading alone and i bet these sets would of sold for much more

    Just my comments and just curious to see if everyone feels im accurate with the second paragraph

    Don
  • dudedude Posts: 1,454 ✭✭
    The '76 Basketball Set did well and I considered bidding on until it went over $2500. Congratulations there!

    Going off the subject slightly, I noticed this:

    1965 Topps John Roseboro PSA 9 (pop 2)
  • acowaacowa Posts: 945 ✭✭
    I did an analysis on the breakup value of the 1972 baseball set and it actually closed right around that price. I used numbers from online SMR and EBAY auctions. I was going to post it in the "What will these sets bring" thread...but I held back out of respect for Carlos. I don't think the auction was a total disaster ( w.r.t. the 1972's). There just wasn't a strong bidding war.

    In my analysis I used the following assumptions:

    Graded Stars and Superstars Listed in online SMR (was almost $1000)
    All non superstar high numbers were $16/card (roughly $1600)
    All non stars were $7.00/card (roughly $4550)
    All non superstar cards below PSA 8 were $125 for the entire lot of 50
    I think there were 25 PSA 9's that I added a $30/card premium to (roughly $750)

    That came to $8025.


    Regards,



    Alan


  • FBFB Posts: 1,684 ✭✭
    I can tell you honestly - that if it were me - I WOULD NOT BE HAPPY.

    The market deteriorated for the 72 set each passing week after Carlos consigned with Superior. Commons used to go for $13 apiece 6 months ago on eBay all day long. Currently they're selling in the $8 - $9 range if they're selling.... No way would I consider posting comons starting at $1 apiece like I used to.

    I think too that the PSA 7's hurt the price as well. The dealers would only go so high in order to ensure the breakup value would be sufficient. But, most collectors who would be willing to pay 5-figures are probably only willing to do so, if they figure that they won't have to continue to search and upgrade the hardest cards in the set. Carlos has many of the hard to find cards in PSA 8 but I think the perception hurt the end price.

    Frank Bakka
    Sets - 1970, 1971 and 1972
    Always looking for 1972 O-PEE-CHEE Baseball in PSA 9 or 10!

    lynnfrank@earthlink.net
    outerbankyank on eBay!
  • PSA68PSA68 Posts: 12 ✭✭
    "In my analysis I used the following assumptions:

    Graded Stars and Superstars Listed in online SMR (was almost $1000)"
    I did number crunching on this actual set using Carlos' set registry and their grades and came up with $12,161 total SMR . Here is how I came up with numbers:
    <p>
    65 cards listed in SMR (stars and superstars) in PSA 8 total: $3,122
    603 commons (#1-656) X $11 each in PSA 8 total: $6,633
    119 high # commons (#657-787) X $16 each in PSA 8 total: $1,904
    Net deductions for non-PSA 8 cards and net additions for PSA 9 total: net +$502.
    Total: $12,161 SMR
    <p>
    Regardless of whatever SMR lists for 1972 low # commons, I agree with acowa on $7 average based on ebay completed auctions past month. Thanks to set registry specials in past year, majority of cards in this set have relatively high populations in PSA 8, i.e. 20 to 30 each. $8,000+ bid on this set in Superior Auction is in my estimation a fair price for a dealer to break it into smaller lots and flip them on ebay in current market. Not many of collectors or dealers including myself have this kind of money on hand thus eliminating 90 percent of collectors from bidding on this set in first place.
    <p>
    I still have printouts on entire PSA population reports from August 21, 2001 which may be useful. Based on those printouts and current population reports there were 6,183 in PSA 8, 999 in PSA 9 and 23 in PSA 10, total of 12,798 in all grades in 1972 Topps set as compared to 15,967 in PSA 8, 3,405 in PSA 9, 79 in PSA 10 and 30,161 in all grades currently.
    <p>I admire set builders and I have sold many PSA cards to set registry collectors on ebay. Please don't let high populations on certain sets spoil your fun collecting them!
  • The newer sets can be fun and profitable for people to collect primarily because 8 quality raw cards are rather easy to obtain. If they are easy to obtain for Joe Collector, dealers know that they could also be buying these raw cards too. A dealer won't take these sets up to a very high level unless he is confident he can move it all out at a certain percentage. The typical collector of these sets won't take it up to a very high level simply because they don't have the money to do so. One of the things that attracted them to newer sets was being able to do it in lots of small affordable chunks. The only buyers above the dealer level would be more affluent collectors who can afford to collect things a set at a time. Maybe they never even considered a newer set like this, but the fact that they can pick it up all at one time is attractive to them. Others could afford to do it all at one time but prefer to put it together in a hobby mode - collecting a few cards at a time.
  • mcastaldimcastaldi Posts: 1,207 ✭✭✭
    Alan> Without doing too much research, I can say that my overall breakup ended at somewhere around $8k - give or take $500 or so.

    Did I do better than Carlos? I think it was about even, when it's all said and done. He had the seller's fees subtracted and I didn't. So I cleared a bit more cash. . .but I can assure you, breaking up a set this size and attempting to mazimize the return is darned tough. Based on the work I did for the sale of my 72s (web listing, eBay, various mailings and followups, etc) I would say what he paid in the seller's fee was fair.

    Do I regret doing the work to get the little bit extra in my pocket? Not at all. But I also think the "convenience fee" Carlos paid was very fair in light of the work it would take to get the equivalent dollar value.

    That said - I agree with FB. I wasn't particularly happy with what my set ended up at. The timing was terrible! I happened to sell at a time when the market for PSA8 commons had pretty much bottomed out.

    Mike
    So full of action, my name should be a verb.
  • Dan,

    The low pop 65 psa 9's have just been out of control. There are a couple of 65 collectors who will pay a VERY fair price to get them and another Dodger collector who bids very high on the psa 9 dodger players. This has led to some amazing sale prices.

    Everyone,

    Great points being made here. I don't think we can look at the results Carlos got and say that selling off a whole set at once is a bad thing to do financially. I think his final sales price for the 72 and 74 sets are more a result of the drop in the psa 8 card prices. I would bet that if the sets had been for sale 8 months ago they would have realized more money. I did something very similiar to what Alan did for the 1974 set and gave very little value for the psa 8 cards. The psa 8 market is drying up right now until more collectors start collecting graded sets. Many of us have been collecting graded sets for a year or so and have many of the higher pop commons. I believe the rush is over for 8's until more collectors enter the market. We'll see what happens. I wish they would have brought more but I believe it's just indicative of the softness in the market.

    Wayne
    1955 Bowman Football
  • If I might interject, the 71's are still pretty strong and the prices realized in the Superior auction will testify to that fact.
    THE FLOGGINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES
  • carkimcarkim Posts: 1,166 ✭✭
    Overall I am pleased with the outcome of my auctions. I had a lot of time, effort, and money in my 1974 & 1972 sets. However I had very little out of pocket cash for my 1970 BB, and all of my Basketball sets. If you take out the "time and effort" I did pretty well. These set have be paid for by other cards that I sold on eBay so this auction was "pure profit." Don't get me wrong, my sights were set on $40,000.00 and would have been happy with $25,000.00. If all the bidders pay I will net a pretty good amount of money, nearly half my annual salary (Just with flipping cards). Not to mention I still have my 1972 & 1961 Football sets that are debt free.

    Thanks to everyone who bidded on my auctions...And if you can help me with my Football set...LMK

    aponte@adelphia.net

    Carlosimage
  • There's one other thing to consider with selling complete graded sets. Although it takes great effort to build one in high grade, you run into the "volume pricing" factor. Just like with raw cards, purchasing a complete set is cheaper than purchasing individual cards and building it from scratch. As sound as the argument is that the effort to build a complete set is great and should command a premium, the market has proven time and time again that complete sets will not sell at or above the sum of the individual card prices.

    I think the fact that someone would pay close to $8k for a 1974 Topps set is a great indicator of the strength of the graded vintage card market and, particularly, the set registry.
    Please visit my eBay auctions at gemint
  • acowaacowa Posts: 945 ✭✭
    PSA68,

    I cut and pasted the online SMR into an excel spreadsheet and came up with $1052. This $1052 figure is not adjusted for some of the stars being 7's and not 8's. Rerun your #'s. We also have a $4 per common difference which is huge. There has to be some room for a dealer to have a margin on the set.

    The 1972's are soft right now, however, if you look at the 1971's...we had ourselves a little bidding war last night.


    Regards,



    Alan




  • << <i>the market has proven time and time again that complete sets will not sell at or above the sum of the individual card prices. >>



    That's not true. Net of fees, my 1970 Kellogg's PSA 9 set and 1964 Topps Giants PSA 8 set both sold for modest premiums to their break up values on the Superior Auctions. I acknowledge that it could have easily worked against me too.

    I've seen other sets as well with similar results. For example, a 1963 Fleer all PSA 8 set (except for two cards including the tough checklist) also sold for a modest premium to its break up value about a year ago.

    There's not enough evidence to conclude anything definite, but there is sufficient evidence to at least suggest that smaller graded sets might have a better bang for your buck at auction then their larger brethren. The cost is one of a number of factors. There's simply more people willing to shell out $3,000-5,000 then $10,000-20,000.
  • PSA68PSA68 Posts: 12 ✭✭
    acowa,

    I used pricing information from September SMR as I still have not received October SMR in mail. I went to online SMR and find that there are 63 star cards from 1972 Topps set. I have counted and rechecked several times. Exact total is $3,119. You probably put in prices from PSA 7 column instead of PSA 8 in your case. $1,000 for 63 star cards in PSA 8 would be terrific bargain at slightly less than $16 each! Also, September SMR lists 1972 low # commons at $11 each in PSA 8 and high # commons at $16 each whereas online SMR list doesn't show pricing for low # commons.
  • acowaacowa Posts: 945 ✭✭
    PSA68,

    That's really strange. I cut and pasted the numbers out of the SMR online into a spreadsheet. Since it was only 60 numbers, I cut and pasted each amount individually in the next column. The totals are different. Maybe it has something to do with the formatting...I was using the correct column and had gone in and erased the + signs. Anyways, I came up with the $3,162 when I did it. I didn't take $$$ away for some of the supers being 7's.


    So, assuming the set will be broken up, I guess the dealer has a 20% margin to work with...


    Regards,


    Alan


  • Just from a cost analysis, the 1972 BB prices were disappointing....787 cards graded at $6 each comes out to $4722 just for grading fees. PSA is the big winner.image
    Frank

    Always looking for 1957 Topps BB in PSA 9!
  • carkimcarkim Posts: 1,166 ✭✭
    It will be interesting to find out who won these lots.

    Carlos
  • BasiloneBasilone Posts: 2,492 ✭✭


    << <i>There's not enough evidence to conclude anything definite, but there is sufficient evidence to at least suggest that smaller graded sets might have a better bang for your buck at auction then their larger brethren. The cost is one of a number of factors. There's simply more people willing to shell out $3,000-5,000 then $10,000-20,000. >>



    Great point GemMint....I think you will see a increase in popularity of smaller sets in the next year.

    John
  • LJB17LJB17 Posts: 252 ✭✭
    Do you think smaller sets may be in greater demand because they can be displayed? One cannot display, easily a 700 card set, but the 33 card 1954 Red Heard set fits easily into a Penzioni Display case. I am not a representative of Penzioni, but it is the only display case that I am aware of. Maybe this should be persued in another thread.
    Looking for 77 cloth 9s and 10s.
    54 Red Hearts
    and now 64 Stand ups
  • I think the samller sets are in greater demand because of the lower percentage of commons. The 70's sets with near 800 cards are largely 90%+ commons, in excess off 700 cards in most cases. Then you've got the 64 Giants set which is nearly 50-50 between HOFers/stars and commons, or the 35 Goudey set which has 30 HOFers and 20 HOF cards in a 36 card set.
  • It's really simple. The smaller sets are easier to put together and are attracting more collectors because they are indeed smaller, yet they still have all or most of the stars of the day. There is still enough of a challenge for the collector where commons and short prints are concerned too. They're also more affordable even in high grade and in my opinion are more likely to attract a new vintage collector than a mammoth 600-800 card set (no offense to those that have the fortitude to go after such large sets). Pursuing 700 commons is not for me. Sure it's easier to display them too, but I don't think that's a primary reason at all for collectors' interest.
  • theBobstheBobs Posts: 1,136 ✭✭
    Smaller sets are cheaper to assemble, in general.
    Where have you gone Dave Vargha
    CU turns its lonely eyes to you
    What's the you say, Mrs Robinson
    Vargha bucks have left and gone away?

    hey hey hey
    hey hey hey
  • 787 cards graded at $6 each comes out to $4722

    Anybody see anything interesting with the formula above? I wonder how much of the "softness" that people see in the market for these newer cards can be attributed to something as simple as the grading fee. Some months ago, it would have read - 787 cards graded at $8 each comes out to $6296. Wasn't the cost even some time ago for most people $10 a card? Now it's $6, and even sometimes $5 a card. When the cards were $10 to grade, the easiest cards sold for a few dollars more than the grading fee. Now that grading is $6 a card, they sell at basically the same level - a few dollars more than grading. I'll throw out a wild guess that greater than 50% of the Carlos collection contained cards that cost $8 or more for grading. I think his greatest challenge in selling the set was having to sell it in the new $5 and $6 grading fee mentality environment. The cost of grading is very important when you are grading commons of no significant value. When the market for these cards is $10 and less, percentage wise, the holder cost contains at least 50% to 70% of the value. For older cards in the $50 type of range the cost factor of the holder is minimal. I think the new lower fees have a lot to do with the "minimum values" people place on cards based on their grading fee.
  • acowaacowa Posts: 945 ✭✭
    So the real issue is that PSA hosed Carlos. If they were to charge more for grading, his set would be worth more. Thanks for clearing that up for everyone. I thought the issue was that many PSA 8 commons are closing with a starting price of $6-$8 with no bids.

    On a serious note, the real issue is that there apear to be 3-5 serious players on most sets. After they get theirs...the bottom drops out of the prices. With 1972's, the top players already have theirs.


    Regards,


    Alan
  • acowa - You don't quite understand. Many times I've heard people say, "If I can pick cards up for the cost of grading, how can I go wrong." When you are putting cards worth pennies into holders, the cost of grading is like a starting point to some people on the minimum value they place on a card. Most dealers and many collectors have lots of most of these new common cards sitting around in boxes collecting dust. If they want some PSA 8's, all they have to do is send them in and pay the grading fee. If it's $6, $8, or $10, all they want to be able to do is sell the cards for a few bucks more. Collectors are not stupid. They too know they can find these cards for pennies, pay $6 and get their 8's and maybe 9's. If they can buy the cards already graded, they will, but it must be close to what they know they can do it for themselves. When this was $10 for grading, the price they were eager to pay for a graded card was higher than $10. Now that it's $6 for grading, they figure that now they need to pay less. It's not entirely based on demand when you're talking about the type of cards that are cheap and easy to find.
  • Alan,

    I think that you bring up a strong point....there are only a few players trying to do sets in PSA 8-9 condition. They may not be looking to buy a whole set of 8's because they already have 60% or 70% of those cards in the same condition. What do they do with all of the extras? Most people would't want to take the time to list them all on eBay or atleast I know I wouldn't want to do it. Plus once they already have 8's the prices drop and more will be graded. Patience is the name of the game.

    Buying 1957 Baseball PSA 8 or higher. Especially Checklists, and Contest Cards. Topps1957psa8set@aol.com
  • Right now there are 21 - 1972 sets listed on the registry with greater than 5% completion. Only 7 sets are above 50% completion, 3 sets are between 25% and 50%, and 11 sets are under 25%. In addition to the 21 "serious" sets are 30 "odds and ends" type of sets below 5% completion. If all 21 sets were completed in PSA 8 or better, it would consume 16,527 of the 19,451 cards currently graded 8, 9, and 10. Where are all these other cards? There is obviously more people collecting this set than are listed on the registry. The top 3-5 guys are certainly responsible for some of those huge $ figures we've been teased with in the past, but there does still exist a big demand for cards beyond those few guys. But it's more of a demand for cards at their pace and terms and not demand to pay record prices. The top 5 guys when complete will account for 3935(3776 currently) of the available cards.

    Also, based upon the completion percentage on all 51 registered sets, there are a total of 7,200 cards listed. They aren't all 8's or better of course, but assuming they are, that's 7,200 of the 19,451 total cards that have been graded 8, 9, and 10. Again, where are these cards?
  • jackstrawjackstraw Posts: 3,762 ✭✭✭
    wait till,explain this one?








    john
    Collector Focus

    ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
  • BasiloneBasilone Posts: 2,492 ✭✭
    Easy...theres only 2 bidders who happen to be either A.) 1978 fanatics or B.) Reds Fanatics. I doubt you will see a 3rd or 4th party join the party on this one. What happens after both of these guys finally get the card..history shows the next auction will probably be less. Also...how many people might run across this auction then submit even though they might not otherwise...thus flooding the market in 2 months.

    John
  • theBobstheBobs Posts: 1,136 ✭✭
    John,

    Whats up with the current project link in your sig line? It shows the checklist for 1965 topps, but no cards. But the set has stats? 10.7 completion percent? Have you ditched 65s for the Red Heart set?

    Brian
    Where have you gone Dave Vargha
    CU turns its lonely eyes to you
    What's the you say, Mrs Robinson
    Vargha bucks have left and gone away?

    hey hey hey
    hey hey hey
  • FBFB Posts: 1,684 ✭✭
    Jackstraw,

    I was curious on the two bidding $46 on the 72 Reds Team card. It is definitely two Reds Team collectors - fightin it out in my neighborhood! I've got a quarter that says the next one goes goes for under $25.
    Frank Bakka
    Sets - 1970, 1971 and 1972
    Always looking for 1972 O-PEE-CHEE Baseball in PSA 9 or 10!

    lynnfrank@earthlink.net
    outerbankyank on eBay!
  • acowaacowa Posts: 945 ✭✭
    <They too know they can find these cards for pennies, pay $6 and get their 8's and maybe 9's. If they can buy the cards already graded, they will, but it must be close to what they know they can do it for themselves. When this was $10 for grading, the price they were eager to pay for a graded card was higher than $10. Now that it's $6 for grading, they figure that now they need to pay less. >

    Waitil,

    I have picked up several of these cards at the minimum cost of grading:

    Example 1

    Example 2

    Example 3


    These cards all have SMR of $12 (over double what I paid). In these examples, I think it's evident that nobody "needed" these cards...and the cost of grading had very little, if anything, to do with the auctions outcome. The only influence that the cost of grading had is what the seller started the auction at. If the seller had $10 in the grading, I bet he would have started the auction at $9.99.

    There are quite a few auctions for 1972's in the range of $6-$9 that are ending with no bids...which brings me to my point. There are about 3-5 players for each set (give or take a few). After the big fish are full, it becomes hard for the fisherman to survive. When it becomes hard for the fisherman to survive, it makes it difficult for the guy who's selling him the bait, tackle, and other supplies. If the big fish are full, does it matter to the fisherman that his supplies cost have been reduced from $10 to $6...given the fact that the big fish are full already? You either need more big fish or less fishing supplies.

    Regards,


    Alan




  • gemintgemint Posts: 6,101 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Right now there are 21 - 1972 sets listed on the registry with greater than 5% completion. Only 7 sets are above 50% completion, 3 sets are between 25% and 50%, and 11 sets are under 25%. In addition to the 21 "serious" sets are 30 "odds and ends" type of sets below 5% completion. If all 21 sets were completed in PSA 8 or better, it would consume 16,527 of the 19,451 cards currently graded 8, 9, and 10. Where are all these other cards? There is obviously more people collecting this set than are listed on the registry. The top 3-5 guys are certainly responsible for some of those huge $ figures we've been teased with in the past, but there does still exist a big demand for cards beyond those few guys. But it's more of a demand for cards at their pace and terms and not demand to pay record prices. The top 5 guys when complete will account for 3935(3776 currently) of the available cards.

    Also, based upon the completion percentage on all 51 registered sets, there are a total of 7,200 cards listed. They aren't all 8's or better of course, but assuming they are, that's 7,200 of the 19,451 total cards that have been graded 8, 9, and 10. Again, where are these cards? >>



    I can give the background on my 1972 set as an example of one of the under 25% completed sets. The set is complete and mostly NM-MT or better. I started out a few years back by grading out the SMR listed cards. I then graded out the commons in which I had one or more high grade duplicates and also graded a few of the sharpest looking commons and a few of the low population commons like the Schaal IA. All the while, I was monitoring eBay auctions to pick up PSA 8's to replace <NM-MT raw cards in my set. I haven't been adding to this set for the past several months because I'm focusing on completing my 1969 set in PSA 8+. At some point, I'll return to grading out that set. I may wait and see if a $5 grading special ever appears for vintage commons. I'm building so many different sets that I can only focus on one or two at a time. I'll probably work on my 1968 or 1971 sets after the '69 set is completed.

    I think there are more people in my situation. At least some of those sets on the '72 registry are complete but only partially graded. The sets that have all the star cards registered are most likely to be the sets that are complete. Some people prefer to only grade out the money cards while leaving the commons in raw form.
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