Brady rookie card sells for 1.32 million

[81usaf92]

Card

1) how do people have this money to blow on a card during the pandemic

2) why wasn’t I into collecting cards at this time

3) What does it say that Brady’s rookie card is now the largest price ever paid for a card

 

[B1GTide]

1) The rich have gotten richer during the pandemic
2) Because you were smart - most people who collect lose almost every cent that they spend
3) That Barnum was right? I mean, these are little pieces of thin cardboard.

 

[81usaf92]

1) The rich have gotten richer during the pandemic
2) Because you were smart - most people who collect lose almost every cent that they spend
3) That Barnum was right? I mean, these are little pieces of thin cardboard.

Ive collected on and off. But it’s nowhere near as crazy as some go. Now I spend off time sending some of my old ones through the mail to get signed for my own collection. I really have no intention of selling but I’m not into the flipping a buck game that many of these collectors are in.

But if I had a Brady rookie card signed and graded then I would be hard pressed not to sell it. I think the overall value might actually be in the fact that Brady is one of the hardest athlete to get to sign stuff. He now only signs exclusively to Fanatics.com and private signings.

 

[bamaga]

There is a pandemic?

 

[DogPatch]

3) What does it say that Brady’s rookie card is now the largest price ever paid for a card

I'm guessing you mean football card, since a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 9 card sold for $5.2 million earlier this year.

 

[gamersfuel]

dang. i need to check my old baseball cards from the 80's.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Mine just came back from getting graded. I received an 8 on the card and a 10 on the autograph.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

1) The rich have gotten richer during the pandemic
2) Because you were smart - most people who collect lose almost every cent that they spend
3) That Barnum was right? I mean, these are little pieces of thin cardboard.

I'm not sure how card collecting and the current boom has anything to do with "the rich keep getting richer" narrative. The history of trading cards and how they've remained a constant in our society is fascinating. My middle son did a social studies project on it and finished 3rd in the state. The lion's share of people who gravitate toward the hobby (be it NFL, MLB, Hockey or NBA) do it because they love the sport and the fun of collecting. Keeping up with the "value" is always cool, but what's kept the trading card industry afloat and mainly responsible for the current boom are the true collectors, not the rich trying to get richer.

I would suggest to anyone who is interested, read the book "Mint Condition". It details the origin of "those little pieces of cardboard" and their path through our society. I've read it twice.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Card

1) how do people have this money to blow on a card during the pandemic

2) why wasn’t I into collecting cards at this time

3) What does it say that Brady’s rookie card is now the largest price ever paid for a card

1. Not everyone lost their jobs during the pandemic. There are sectors of our society who even saw a rise in business BECAUSE of the pandemic. So for those (not all of them "the rich") who weren't monetarily impacted by the pandemic or who actually made more money during it, should they have not spent their money on what they wanted to?

3. It says people determine the value of things and not everyone puts value in the same things. I can run you a list a mile long of things I cannot understand for the life of me why people pay what they do for them. But hey, it's not my money, so go right ahead.

3a. It's not the largest price ever paid for a card, maybe for a football card. But not a trading card in general.

 

[B1GTide]

I'm not sure how card collecting and the current boom has anything to do with "the rich keep getting richer" narrative.

My point 1 responded to his point 1 - how do people have this money to blow on a card during the pandemic

 

[B1GTide]

1. Not everyone lost their jobs during the pandemic. There are sectors of our society who even saw a rise in business BECAUSE of the pandemic. So for those (not all of them "the rich") who weren't monetarily impacted by the pandemic or who actually made more money during it, should they have not spent their money on what they wanted to?

So a middle class American bought this card for over $1MM? Context matters.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

So a middle class American bought this card for over $1MM? Context matters.

I'm not sure why that even matters or why "the rich just keep getting richer" has anything to do with this conversation. The overwhelming majority of collectors in sports card trading/buying started off as a collector as a child, when they didn't have an economic class label on them. A lot of the people buying these high dollar cards are not like Warren Buffet buying shares of stock on the NYSE. They are collectors and have been in some capacity their entire life. But, many of those collectors (like myself) can now as an adult afford cards that they couldn't as a child. I can now buy what I want to buy (within my budget) compared to what my mom used to tell me she would buy for me.

If I or anyone else have the money to spend on a card, regardless of the price tag, then what's it matter? These guys aren't becoming rich because of these cards, most are buying these cards because they're already rich. I really don't see the moral or social foul.

 

[B1GTide]

I'm not sure why that even matters or why "the rich just keep getting richer" has anything to do with this conversation.

Because of the first question asked, but whatever.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

My point 1 responded to his point 1 - how do people have this money to blow on a card during the pandemic

Because not everyone was financially impacted the same way during the pandemic. Grocery store directors received record bonus' BECAUSE of the pandemic. Companies who had licenses to disinfect schools and office buildings absolutely killed it in profits. It's not like the entire society lost their jobs during the pandemic.

 

[B1GTide]

Because not everyone was financially impacted the same way during the pandemic. Grocery store directors received record bonus' BECAUSE of the pandemic. Companies who had licenses to disinfect schools and office buildings absolutely killed it in profits. It's not like the entire society lost their jobs during the pandemic.

Dude - none of those people has $1MM+

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Dude - none of those people has $1MM+

Let's get to the most important issue. Doesn't my Brady PSA 8/10 look good?! I pulled that card back in 2000 out of a $2.50 pack of Fleer Showcase.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Card

1) how do people have this money to blow on a card during the pandemic

Well, Mark Cuban has a lot of money regardless.

I think the real answer is found in that the guy lived in Boston for 10 years. That'll warp your mind.

2) why wasn’t I into collecting cards at this time

Because this was probably around the age you had the poster of whoever you had on the wall.

3) What does it say that Brady’s rookie card is now the largest price ever paid for a card

That the world is full of idiots.

Card collecting went from being an innocent and fun thing kids (most pre-teen but a few into their teens) did to something adults went and ruined like always happens when adults get involved with kids.

I bought my first pack of cards in the fall of 1978. I got them because I had just found my Dad's shoebox collection at my grandmother's, and my God the cards HE had - Hank Aaron (1957 Topps), Willie Mays (1952 Bowman), Mickey Mantle (a couple, including 1958), Roger Maris.....you know, guys I had heard of when I was eight years old. Either my first or second pack of cards - I only got two that fall - had Nolan Ryan in them, but I didn't get any other real superstars, mostly the dregs of baseball cards like Mike Sadek, Steve Dunning, and Pete Broberg.

I collected off and on for the next ten years, part of the fun being trying to complete a collection - which was hard back then because there weren't stores on every corner.

And then came 1989.

I wandered into the room of a few friends and these guys are sitting there discussing card values and trades of guys who - like Gregg Jefferies - hadn't even played a full season yet. They were Johnny-come-latelys to collecting, but they knew all about it as if they were stockbrokers or something. They even had their own Wall Street Journal - the Beckett Monthly (designed in the deepest corners of Hell by the same guys who invented the advertising slogan "New and Improved").

They were arrogant. They were snide. And I'm watching them tell me the Jefferies card is worth than my Volkswagen downstairs (which was probably true but anyway)....when in the real world, Jefferies himself wasn't even worth as much as my baby blue 1973 VW beetle that leaked gas into the glove box.

Then I stood and watched dumbfounded as a kid maybe 12 years old or so forked over FIFTY-FIVE DOLLARS (or my entire allowance for the year 1979) for a Jose Canseco rookie card. Bear in mind Canseco missed half of the 1989 season due to injury, but his card was worth more than any Pete Rose card except the rookie year.

REEEAAAALLLYYY?????

I wanted to slug the middle-aged white dude Cubs fan who sold it to him, strip the kid of money for the next five years - and tell his mother, who would likely have done worse than that.

ADULTS ruined card collecting, plain and simple. It went from being about glossy photos of talented guys who could play a sport to "how much is this piece of cardboard worth that is being mass produced, oversold, and kept beneath sheets in mint condition so we can send our kids to college".

The hobby entered a recession in October 1991 - and it never really came out of it, either. And then they got RIDICULOUS with cards.

About eight years ago, I went through my collections and pulled all of the Hall of Famers OR potential Hall of Famers (guys who were close like Jack Morris or even Zane Smith if we can just get enough Braves on the veterans committee to put him in alongside Harold Friggin' Baines, who only got in because his former buds were on the committee).

I threw the rest of them away save for the complete 1983 Fleer set, 1985 Topps set (McGwire rookie), and the 1979 Topps set I compiled years ago. I DID keep all my cards pre-1984 before mass production.

Personally, I think anyone who pays that for a card - even if he has the money set aside - is an idiot who likely has a mental problem and wants to read in the paper about his purchase.

 

[81usaf92]

Well, Mark Cuban has a lot of money regardless.

I think the real answer is found in that the guy lived in Boston for 10 years. That'll warp your mind.



Because this was probably around the age you had the poster of whoever you had on the wall.



That the world is full of idiots.

Card collecting went from being an innocent and fun thing kids (most pre-teen but a few into their teens) did to something adults went and ruined like always happens when adults get involved with kids.

I bought my first pack of cards in the fall of 1978. I got them because I had just found my Dad's shoebox collection at my grandmother's, and my God the cards HE had - Hank Aaron (1957 Topps), Willie Mays (1952 Bowman), Mickey Mantle (a couple, including 1958), Roger Maris.....you know, guys I had heard of when I was eight years old. Either my first or second pack of cards - I only got two that fall - had Nolan Ryan in them, but I didn't get any other real superstars, mostly the dregs of baseball cards like Mike Sadek, Steve Dunning, and Pete Broberg.

I collected off and on for the next ten years, part of the fun being trying to complete a collection - which was hard back then because there weren't stores on every corner.

And then came 1989.

I wandered into the room of a few friends and these guys are sitting there discussing card values and trades of guys who - like Gregg Jefferies - hadn't even played a full season yet. They were Johnny-come-latelys to collecting, but they knew all about it as if they were stockbrokers or something. They even had their own Wall Street Journal - the Beckett Monthly (designed in the deepest corners of Hell by the same guys who invented the advertising slogan "New and Improved").

They were arrogant. They were snide. And I'm watching them tell me the Jefferies card is worth than my Volkswagen downstairs (which was probably true but anyway)....when in the real world, Jefferies himself wasn't even worth as much as my baby blue 1973 VW beetle that leaked gas into the glove box.

Then I stood and watched dumbfounded as a kid maybe 12 years old or so forked over FIFTY-FIVE DOLLARS (or my entire allowance for the year 1979) for a Jose Canseco rookie card. Bear in mind Canseco missed half of the 1989 season due to injury, but his card was worth more than any Pete Rose card except the rookie year.

REEEAAAALLLYYY?????

I wanted to slug the middle-aged white dude Cubs fan who sold it to him, strip the kid of money for the next five years - and tell his mother, who would likely have done worse than that.

ADULTS ruined card collecting, plain and simple. It went from being about glossy photos of talented guys who could play a sport to "how much is this piece of cardboard worth that is being mass produced, oversold, and kept beneath sheets in mint condition so we can send our kids to college".

The hobby entered a recession in October 1991 - and it never really came out of it, either. And then they got RIDICULOUS with cards.

About eight years ago, I went through my collections and pulled all of the Hall of Famers OR potential Hall of Famers (guys who were close like Jack Morris or even Zane Smith if we can just get enough Braves on the veterans committee to put him in alongside Harold Friggin' Baines, who only got in because his former buds were on the committee).

I threw the rest of them away save for the complete 1983 Fleer set, 1985 Topps set (McGwire rookie), and the 1979 Topps set I compiled years ago. I DID keep all my cards pre-1984 before mass production.

Personally, I think anyone who pays that for a card - even if he has the money set aside - is an idiot who likely has a mental problem and wants to read in the paper about his purchase.

The extent that I collect these days is maybe a pack at Walmart when I am bored or if a team changes their colors. But I have long stayed away from hobby shops because they are just filled with overpriced cards that are mostly there to “show off” than to really sell.

In the military a guy got me back into collecting comics, and after a few hundred dollars and dealing with donkey comic book store owners I just stop and asked “what the hell of I am doing”.

Comics and cards have the same problem in that people get into them after 18 mostly to make a buck, and don’t realize how stupid that is. How you really make money is load up on rookie packs and send them off to be signed then get them graded. That is still an insane amount of money and you are probably wasting way more than what you are probably going to get in return. The guy that had this particular Brady card signed had no idea this was going to be worth 1.32 million dollars. It was more likely though it wouldn’t be worth $.25. Then you have to factor in that you need a buyer willing to pay what you think it’s worth. If you go into hobby shops you see the same cards in the glass case because no one is willing to pay thousands of dollars for cardboard pieces.

But I pretty much agree with most of your assessment

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Then you have to factor in that you need a buyer willing to pay what you think it’s worth. If you go into hobby shops you see the same cards in the glass case because no one is willing to pay thousands of dollars for cardboard pieces.

This is really the central point of what made/makes it no fun.

American capitalism assigned a dollar value to it, and the rest was inevitable.

I remember suddenly finding out around late 1987 or early 1988 that the Mark McGwire Olympic baseball team rookie that I had was actually selling for more than I paid for that entire set. I toyed with the idea of selling it for that and then buying the card when it came back down to something more reasonable. Indeed, I probably should have.

 

[81usaf92]

This is really the central point of what made/makes it no fun.

American capitalism assigned a dollar value to it, and the rest was inevitable.

I remember suddenly finding out around late 1987 or early 1988 that the Mark McGwire Olympic baseball team rookie that I had was actually selling for more than I paid for that entire set. I toyed with the idea of selling it for that and then buying the card when it came back down to something more reasonable. Indeed, I probably should have.

Yeah I used to buy semi rare cards and comics but after people started putting premium price points on things graded in the 5 and 6 range it starts to make you angry. I’ve long wanted Greg Maddux’s autograph and I understand why there is a premium price to get it. It’s because like Brady he doesn’t sign for just anybody. But what I can’t understand is why should I pay 600 to 800 bucks for a beat to hell card just because his signature is on there.

People in the hobby just became jerks and show offs. I mean if you just want to show it off then show it off and don’t insult me with a ridiculous price point.