Monday, December 28, 2009

How Not To Handle One Of the Most Valuable Cards Ever Made

This card was posted on Blowout's Twitter feed earlier today. I am in total shock as to the content of the card, but more importantly what someone (possibly the seller) did to this card. Take a look at the auction first, as the seller sure did a major hype job in the description -rightfully so.



Now, I have a few questions for you to ponder.

1. Why the fuck would you grade this card? Seriously. This card has no reason to be graded, not a single one. By letting someone arbitrarily work on this card, you can only diminish its value rather than helping it. Even if it grades a 10 by some ridiculous standard, who cares? Its not worth any more than it actually is. Some people idiotically believe that every card can gain value by having it graded. Some can, as the prospecting genre of collecting is pretty much based on that stupid but true fact. As for the others, ESPECIALLY the super high end cards that are not known for being in pristine condition, or even necessarily desired in pristine condition, have more of a chance of LOSING value than gaining it.

The funny part of this whole grading question is that this is a fold out card. The fact that it is a fold out card makes me even more confused as to why someone would desecrate a card like this with a Beckett holder. Guess he got what he deserved, either way, as the holder looks ridiculous. The person who did the grading will probably argue that this gives more protection, but honestly, that argument is demeaned by the general aesthetics of the results.

2. Why would you even entrust this card to a third party for an extended period of time? Im guessing you have to either leave it with those idiots at a show or (god forbid) send it through the mail. Considering this card is pretty much priceless, Im not sure why you would risk the grading knowing that there is always that slim chance that you may not get it back. Even with the insurance money, you probably wouldnt be able to even replace something like this if you tried.

3. Why would you by a card that is encased like this? The reason I ask is because the seller has made it infinitely harder to display, and infinitely uglier in the ridiculous case that Beckett used. You cant really crack it, mainly due to the value of what is inside and how you would have to get it out, so why not just buy the cuts yourself and make a similar card for that much cheaper.

Im not going to get into my feelings on the grading service business, or its scam potential, but I just couldnt help but scoff at the person who ran this through Beckett. Some people. Ill file this under epic fail.

EDIT: After some discussion on the boards, this card was possibly a result of one of the biggest cut signature fuck ups in industry history. Documented on HBO, a collector who had gotten a quad cut of four players including Ruth found out that two of the cuts used by Upper Deck weren't real. He was given a few cards to make up for it, this being the crown jewel I would expect. Notably, the others (known so far to be a Jordan/Lebron and a Tiger) were sold ungraded.

6 comments:

  1. Who gives a shit why the card was graded? I am more interested in exactly what kind of screw up UD did to have to create a card this valuable for a customer.

    That would make one hell of a story ...

    -Mario A.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As a matter of fact, I emailed the guy and asked how he expects anybody to be able to display that as a historical piece with Beckett and 9.5 slapped on it.

    That card truly is a once in a lifetime pinnacle success in collecting, and he ruined it with a piece of plastic.

    I'd love to give this guy an elbow off the top rope.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think it was the same guy who got the tiger and the Jordan cards because of the forged cuts that were put into that one card. The other two were sold ungraded though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would love to own something like this but I never because of the fact that more than likely one if not more of the sigs are fake and that crappy ass BGS holder. Anything lately authenticated by James Spencer has been questioned.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Actually if you read the item description it says:

    "The card was delivered to me directly from Upper Deck, already graded by BGS"

    So the decision may have been made by Upper Deck to grade and encapsulate it.

    As abhorent as all grading is, this is one time it actually may serve a purpose - not for the "grade" but for the encapsulation. This actually protacts the card in a way in which you can display it. If not for the encapsulation how would you display the card in a way in which it is protected?

    Regardless, no one has mentioned how crap the card itself is. Why? Because of the small pictures of the players. I mean if you are going to produce a cut signature card of the first 5 players into the baseball HOF the least they could do is put a full size picture of the players on the card, right Gellman?

    ReplyDelete
  6. You guys should read the whole auction listing. According to the seller, the card was already graded when he received it.

    ReplyDelete