Latest news with #SportsCards
New York Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Why Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards in bad condition can command premium prices
Sports card collectors normally chase the highest graded examples of the card they're seeking, and they pay a pretty penny for the privilege. But there's a subset of the community that is chasing the lowest graded cards — the ones in the worst condition. And they're willing to pay massive premiums to get them. Advertisement What is happening with these Bizarro collectors, where 'Poor' condition is more valuable than 'Mint,' where up is down, black is white. Are they looking at cards through a display case or through the looking glass? Let's examine a recent example of this phenomenon. A PSA 1 (Poor) rookie Score Barry Sanders #257 sold in June for $208.05 in an auction, according to CardLadder, an app that tracks sales and card populations. That's 66 percent more than the last sale of a PSA 9 ($124.99). Remember, these are auctions, meaning someone else bid just below that $208.05. Did that auction just have two crazy people who were blindly chasing a card irrationally? No. And they are not alone. One of the things people are doing with cards from the '80s and '90s of iconic athletes, cards that aren't that expensive in higher grades, is getting the 'grading rainbow.' That means one example of the card in a sealed case from the same grader in every grade: 1, 2, 3, etc. all the way to 10. The challenge is that the cards in lower grades have low populations, because few collectors have traditionally bothered to grade obviously poorer condition samples. For example, CardLadder says that there are 12,969 PSA 9s of the Sanders card vs. just nine PSA 1s. So it's supply and demand. At the National Sports Card Convention in Chicago, The Athletic found a dealer who specializes in Ken Griffey Jr. cards, the 'Griffey Guy,' Matt Canaday of Arkansas-based GG2 Sportscards. He had rows of Griffey cards of the same type with all the grades in order. 'I've had a lot of questions about it from attendees so that's why I laid the full rainbow out in my case.' Canaday says it's very difficult for him to get the cards in lower grades. 'I search (social media) for people that either have the (lower-graded) cards they want to sell or somebody's looking to complete the run. I've already sold a PSA 1 (at the show). The 1s, 2s and 3s (condition Poor to Very Good on the 10-grade scale) go for premiums because the populations are so low. Once you get to 4s and up, it levels out.' By that, Canaday means that the card prices reflect traditional market dynamics — higher grades bringing higher prices. Advertisement What's strange about this demand for low-grade cards is that populations in higher grades are limited by their condition. In other words, they can't get any better. But every card that's in better condition than the lowest-graded ones can be cracked out of the case and purposely damaged in a manner that should earn a low grade. In theory, every single graded Sanders card can be worn and damaged into a PSA 1. But in practice, Canaday says this is much more difficult for collectors to achieve. It turns out the grading companies can tell the difference between natural and purposeful wear. 'I've heard of people throwing them in, you know, washers and dryers and just beating them up however they can — running the card over with a car,' Canaday laughed. 'But (the grading company) will either send it back not graded or with no number grade, as merely 'authentic.' Meaning it's a real card, but they can't grade it because it's beat up too much.' It turns out altering a card for a worse grade is no different than altering a card for a better one. This grading rainbow is limited mostly to late '80s and early '90s cards because the 10s are not that much money. For example, the Sanders rookie in perfect condition is about $1,500. While the Griffey rookie (1989 Upper Deck) goes for three times that in perfect condition, a Mint 9 is just $250 and then all the other grades can be acquired for about $100 on average until you get down to the lower grades. A Griffey rookie in a PSA 3 is $180, or 26 percent more than a PSA 8; a PSA 2 ($450, 80 percent more than a PSA 9). There's no recent sales data on a PSA 1, according to CardLadder, but 1s are more rare (165 graded samples) than 2s (208). Canaday says the rainbow is not limited to PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator), the largest grading company, and collectors can seek it from the other major graders — Beckett, SGC, CGS. 'But the key is that the entire rainbow has to be graded by the same grader.' Advertisement So for well under $10,000, a collector could get something pretty unique with iconic modern-era stars like Griffey and Sanders — a complete run of their rookie card in every grade. And it doesn't stop there. Players like Cal Ripken Jr. (Gem Mint rookie card costs about $2,000) and Mike Piazza (eight rookie card types ranging in price from $100 to $2,500), to name just a couple of Hall of Famers, can have their graded rainbow completed for comparable prices. Has this niche of the hobby jumped the shark with grading or have they found a new, creative way to collect? 'Collecting a rainbow of graded slabs is a unique method of 'super-collecting,'' says New Jersey collector and dealer Juho Wang, who perused the Griffey graded run at The National in Chicago. 'In one sense, attaining such a rainbow can be one of a kind. However, does it make sense to pay $175 for a PSA 1 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.? Personally, I feel this is a temporary product of low supply, high niche based demand.' Traditional collectors remain confused by the desirability of low-graded cards vs. higher graded ones of the same type. 'I find them hilarious,' said SquishfulThoughts on Reddit of the premium paid for low-graded/low population cards. 'It's like the card earning an award for getting its figurative ass kicked.' Zorloth on the EliteForum, where TCG (trading card game) cards are experiencing the same low-grade premiums, questions the meaningfulness of population reports of low-graded cards. 'They should really consider the PSA 1 pop of a given card as equal to the entire (graded) population of that card.' In other words, it's not how many cards are available in the grade, but how many are equal to or better than that graded one that really matters. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our coverage. When you click or make purchases through our links, we may earn a commission. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Exposing disrespect in The Hobby
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - JUNE 13: Rafael Devers #11 of the Boston Red Sox looks on in the tenth inning against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park on June 13, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by) Let's talk this week about disrespect. Not about disrespecting each other, but the things in the industry that tend to get too much heat from us collectors. What do I mean? We'll, let's start with: Authentic Autos : Ok, let's run through a scenario on this one: I have two cards for sale; The first is a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander autographed Prizm rookie card. In 2018 he signed a bunch of stickers that Panini eventually took and then put one of those stickers on a rookie card and put it in a pack. SGA never once handled the card. The second is a base SGA Prizm rookie that a fan handed to him after a game and he signed and handed back to the fan; the card was then authenticated by PSA, so we know it's legit. Yeah, you'll pay 3x for the sticker auto because it's 'the real version' instead of paying for an actual card that he hand-signed. I get it, I would too, but are we not giving Authentic Autos the love they deserve? Centering : Just ask my buddy Dave Gonos, who brought this one to light in a recent conversation he had with Michael Salfino . Instinctually we tend to poo-poo centering because 'hey, it's not my fault the card isn't centered!' Everyone spends too much time looking at the corners and not enough time focusing on centering. Second-Year Cards : Everyone is rookie chasing these days. I know the product hasn't been out too long, but a Victor Wembanyama second-year base Prizm has a pop of just five PSA 10s. As opposed to his rookie Prizm which has a pop of like a million or something. Talk about 'rare.' Tennis Cards : Ok, hear me out - we are currently witnessing the greatest generation of young tennis players and it may well be that Carlos Alcaraz will go down in history as the greatest to ever do it. Pin this email and come back to it in like 16 years. If he's not I'll buy you a beer. Yo! MTV Raps 1991 Cards : There will never be another set like this. Never. And you can get a wax box of 36 packs for under $40. It basically has the 'rookie' card of every rapper from the early 90's and prior. Kingfisher 1936 Typhoo Tea British Birds and their Eggs Cards: These are cards from 1936… of birds… and their eggs! And you can get the complete set for under $10. The Nightengale's (probably) rookie card is in this set! Someone held onto them for almost 90 years and is like 'hell yeah, time to make $8 off these bad boys!' 1929 Carreras Famous Women - Florence Nightingale Cigarette Card : Speaking of… you can get a Florence Nightingale rookie card for under $15 . Nightingale is the GOAT nurse. Bro, don't come at me with 'Mary Seacole was doing the same thing but as an independent nurse, bro!!' That's a garbage take. Give me Nightingale in her prime. No disrespect to Mrs. Seacole, of course. I know it's been over 24 hours at this point but with the Red Sox trading Rafael Devers this might be the last opportunity to get a decent return on his cards. Whenever a superstar gets traded his/her new fanbase tends to pounce on any rare or rookie cards of that player. That heat cools off a few days after, but you might be able to still hit the tail-end of the 'run on' Devers cards. This week in 'can't stop, won't stop': ladies and gentlemen, Gamestop is back . They did over $211 million in increased collectibles sales in Q1. This is cool . This collector collects all baseball cards that have Fenway's Green Monster shown on the card. Love it. The closest thing I have is a collection of every card that shows the Menendez Brothers sitting courtside at a Knicks game. Killer set! I'm super excited about this news . We have WNBA Downtowns coming. Obviously, Caitlin Clark is the big get, but right behind her has to be the Paige Beuckers rookie Downtown. That actually might fetch a resale value close to Clark's. The Wyatt Langford 1/1 Rookie Debut Patch Auto sold this weekend for $183,000 at Goldin. Which makes it the third all-time highest sale for a Debut Patch 1/1 card. I'm not one to tell people how to spend their money, but – you know what, actually, I can get behind this. Advertisement The Rookie Debut Patch Auto cards are super cool looking and Langford at 23 years old is already showing some pop in his bat. Nice buy by the buyer, who hopefully was Langford himself. Fanatics Fest is back, baby. Get pumped. And according to Michael Rubin this year's is going to be '10-times better' than last year's. I know it's easy to be cynical about these celebrity, star-studded events but to be honest stuff like Fanatics Fest and The National are a big part of what make the hobby thrive. It brings the sports and entertainment worlds together, it fosters and facilitates community and more importantly it focuses on creating experiences that engage and entice young collectors. If you're interested in hanging with the Mantel team in NYC this week, let us know here , and make sure to stop by Bleecker Trading after the show every night to trade, catch up and eat pizza. Your collection deserves a community. Download Mantel today.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Caitlin Clark Prizm WNBA Gold Vinyl 1/1 card up for auction at Alt
Clark's 2024 Panini Prizm WNBA Gold Vinyl 1/1 is headed to auction at Alt. (Credit: Getty, Alt) One of Caitlin Clark's top rookie cards hits the auction block at Alt on Friday morning, and the company believes it could set an all-time record when bidding concludes. The 2024 Panini Prizm WNBA Gold Vinyl 1/1 PSA 9 has never sold at public auction and was one of the biggest chase cards from Panini's flagship WNBA release. Advertisement The current record for any Clark card at public auction is $366,000, set in March, which is also the record for a card of any female athlete. The current record-holder is Clark's 2024 Panini Prizm WNBA Signatures Gold Vinyl 1/1 PSA 10/10. Unlike the card coming to auction at Alt, that card has an autograph from Clark. In fact, Clark's top three card sales all have autographs, with the top sale for a non-autographed card the $105,326 paid for her 2024 Panini Select WNBA Gold Vinyl 1/1 PSA 10 in February. The most expensive card sold through Alt is a 2003 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection LeBron James RPA, which cleared $560,000 in August 2024. Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.
