Another Big Gun?

Alfiewt

John Branca has registered his collection, and although most of his sets are not complete I think he has to be considered a big gun. He has a 1952 Mantle in PSA 9, and a 1951 Bowman Mays in PSA 9. I think the Mays is the card that was just recently sold for $80,000. Does anyone know more about John, and does he read these boards? If you read these boards John please join in on the discussions, we'd love to have input from one of the "Big Guns".

Vargha

John is an "intellectual property" attorney on the West Side in LA. He is related to Ralph Branca of Brooklyn Dodger fame. He has big bucks, is working on many sets and is a decent guy to deal with. I have sold him many of my 1951 duplicates. His personal secretary's main responsibility seems to be handling his collection transactions.

BTW -- the Mays card closed at $109,000 including the buyer's fees.

getupkid

Mr Branca is Mike Tyson's attorney if I'm not mistaken. His firm also handles many heavyweights in the music industry.

HalleyGator

So did he sell the Mays recently or buy it recently??

Vargha

He bought it.

Vargha

I did a little research on his 1951 Bowman set. Not only is he the owner of the $109,000 Mays PSA 9 from the last Mastro Auction, but he was likely the winner of lot #629 from the November 16-17 Mastro Auction as well. He has every PSA 9 card from that fabled "Kansas City Find" lot, including #10 Schoendienst, which is pop. 1, listed in the Set Registry. He also has the rare #289 Mapes PSA 8 card, which was also in that lot. What is strange is that he has no Mantle card currently listed and that lot had a PSA 8 Mantle in it. That lot sold for $86,000. Between that and the Mays card, that is $195,000 spent on 1951 Bowman cards in just two months!! Perhaps he bought them in conjunction with someone else. Nonetheless, I believe a new operative phrase needs to be coined and that is "brancabucks".