Good Business or bad taste

torc

I wanted to get a few opinions on what other collectors/investors thought about this subject.

3 days ago, Luc Bourdon a Rookie with the Vancouver Canuks was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident.
This post is made with respect to the family and friends, no disrespect meant, just looking for opinions and comments.

There has been some huge postings and comments on his cards selling on e-bay lately.
Comments have ranged from poor taste to business savy on whether or not to sell his cards.

Some posters on another board have been blasting sellers for "profiteering"
others have defended the sellers saying business is business.

What do the rest of you have to say? Myself personally, I think selling now, when emotions are running high is the best time to sell, 6 months from now you probably won't be able to give the cards away. Just wondering what others thought of selling cards within hours or days of players that have died. Mind you, this player in particulars career has ended, no trophies, no Stanley Cups, no HOF.

Bosox1976

Good business.

Bad taste is a funeral home selling coffins at a 400% mark-up over CostCo prices.

jimq112

I always thought that if you needed to either cheat someone else, take advantage of someone else's ignorance, or profit from someone else's misfortune to grow your hobby, you need to find a different hobby.

It's nice if you can buy a card at $1 or something and something great happens and the card gets ridiculous.

JMO and I can see the other side, selling something while it still has some value. I don't understand people who want to pay big dollars during the hysteria after something like that happens.

otwcards

Depends on the individual. Most that are complaining are those that don't have any of Bourdon's cards. Some of them are probably the same folks that sold off Kirby Puckett, Darryl Kile, Cory Lidel, Josh Han-"rooster" (amazing that this name is censored) and others after their untimely passings. I'm not sure what's worse, those that sell them or those that pay insane prices to add cards to their collections that will be available for pennies on the dollar in a matter of weeks.

Now, the other question, and it's based solely on specualtion and is expected, is the selling of material when an older player passes. It is accepted for the most part. Examples of autographed items from Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Eddie Matthews and Mickey Mantle all saw price jumps upon their passing. It was to be expected as would be the new threasholds of autographed material which obviously would not return to the pre-passing prices. Morbid? Sure, but its the nature of the beast.

storm888

"...Most that are complaining are those that don't have any of Bourdon's cards...."

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I suspect so.

Based on history, it is usually best to sell into the frenzy.

Selling is neither disrespectful nor in bad taste.

MeteoriteGuy

I fail to see how waiting to the card is worth less to sell it, makes one respectful.

EagleEyeKid

Selling is neither disrespectful nor in bad taste.

I agree. I believed Bourdon had a bright future with Vancouver
and could of been a very good d-man. There could of been people
buying up his cards based on potential. Now they just need to unload them.

fur72

I dont believe this is in bad taste. For instance when the finals of any sport takes place you can usually find many more offers for the teams involved. Its the nature of the business. I remember when Dale Earnhardt died all of his diecasts and cards went through the roof for about 2 months after. On the opposite end the buyers want a piece of history to feel connected to the experience or as in tribute.

BobaFett72

good business.

Ironmanfan

for every seller there is an equal number of buyers

WinPitcher

I have no opinion.

Imagine that.


Steve

scooperqpr

When steve Irwin died his crocodile hunter cards went through the roof.

xphunk

i am sitting on a 5000 count box of pucketts that i had long before his untimely death. in the couple days proceeding his death i saw his one dollar rookies going for $50+ and i thought to myself "i should probably list these now". long story short, i didn't. it felt dirty at the time, and now i have no idea why.

Allen

I remember when 9-11 happened people were listing WTC stuff like crazy on ebay and it was going for insane money. Someone had a receipt from some store in the towers with the 9-11 date on it where they had bought something that morning. It sold for like $100 buy it now and I thought that was crazy, but that was actually probably a pretty rare thing and might bring big money as an Americana collectible in a major auction house if you could authenticate it. Same thing happens when a space shuttle blows up or a limo crashes.

When I saw that ESPN story about the coach of the Summerville Basketball team who was one of the Charleston 9 firefighters killed last year I wondered if any of the former students went looking for year books he signed or something like that. I don't think you can stop the trading of a persons auto just because they die, no matter if it is tragic or not.

Now autos of serial killers is a different thing. (O.J. is exempt)

clydecoolidge

I think it's good business, and I don't think that it is necessarily "bad taste." Anyone in the public eye, wether it's a movie star or sports star (even if they weren't all that "famous" before they died) have to deal with public scrutiny or obsession on a daily basis. When someone like this dies, it's only going to further those aspects. If you think about it, if you don't personally know the famous person, then your love/obsession for that celebrity is only based on the movies or games that he/she's played in, and really nothing on an acutal personal level. I'm not saying any of this is right, but it's how our society has turned, now more than ever with the whole "reality" show thing.

For me personally, I think I would have a problem selling something hours after someone died. I have never done that, and probablly will never. Maybe if I had something that spiked in value tremendously I would consider doing this to help my family or something.

Leiascards

Speaking of WTC there was an unused ticket to the observatory for that morning that sold for around 1000 dollars or something like that.

The day Dale Earnhardt was killed there was a woman who got him to sign a photo and date it so she could later prove it was signed at the Daytona 500. It sold for nearly 2000 dollars as it is believed to be the last auto he signed..

When Steve Irwin was killed, the local Dollar Generals had DVD copies of his movie for 2.00 each I sold about 30 of them for 34.99 each.

Its good business if you got them to sell them at that point.