Screaming Up The 1951 Bowman Charts!

Vargha

Jonh Branca now has a set rating of 8.08 and is just missing two high number commons. Between Mays, Mantle and the Kansas City Find, he has dropped over $300K into this set alone (and he is working on many others). What I am most amazed by is how he has so easily acquired so many difficuly PSA 8's in such a short period of time. I know he dwarfs me financially, but how is a guy like that able to get so many cards so easily when supposedly we have similar contacts looking for cards for us? I also have much more free time than he does to scour for these things.

thegemmintman

All right that's the last straw! I'm switching to Brancabucks...

zardoz51

Branka bucks all the way!

Perhaps the vargha buck is somehow tied to the Argentine Peso?

thegemmintman

Z (I can't believe I'm calling you that), maybe the Varghabucks will become collectibles one day. I'm going to keep a few of my mint specimens in case PSA decides to slab them.

mikeschmidt

It would not surprise me if some of the big players have "extra" cards in their personal inventory/stashes that they would be willing to let go of for exorbitant amounts of money. After all, when two heavy players get into a HUGE bidding war, driving the price of a 1933 Goudey Common in PSA 8 up to $10,000+, you never really see them sell their PSA 7, do you? Same would be said for when they upgrade to 9's.

When people are spending 6 figures plus on a set (EASY), it is quite possible that they just purchase high-grade raw sets, or completely graded sets for exorbitant amounts of money, and then have a personal stash that a) is good to have for trade b) is good to sell to people with Branca bucks and c) is good to keep from people competing with you on the Registry.