Two Unbelievable Auctions, I Cant Stop Laughing

Well, since every single person and their mother uses Beckett to sell their shit, Im not suprised that they got these two cards. Both cards are amazing, really huge pulls that have the possibility of breaking $15K. However, a few things about these auctions make me laugh really fucking hard.

The first card is one of the Hair Cut cards I discussed a few posts back, with this one being the best of the best. The cut is nice, the hair is creepy, but overall, its not suprising to see it reach the price it did because of the circumstances. The funny thing about this auction is that the card has a 5 cm piece of the hair. At least the Washington card had a good strand, this one, however, is crap - despite it being weirdly included in a baseball card set. Again, a piece of our country's history is destroyed for profit.

The second is a 1/1 Mantle Bat Barrell that was out of Topps Sterling. Besides it being sold by Beckett, this auction screams "I AM THE STUPIDEST PERSON IN THE HISTORY OF CARD COLLECTING!" about its seller. Let me elaborate: first mistake, this fucking idiot sent his prized pull to the hobby's number one source on douchebaggery. Good idea, idiot. Secondly he had them slab it in this fucking "ROZDUCKULOUS" case because its obvious the foldout cards are beyond Beckett's capabilities. Big suprise there. Lastly, Topps couldnt include some game used jersey in this card? Instead they used some stark white old timer game jersey? Cmon, that is fucking stupid. However, the funniest thing about this idiot and his card? He had them grade it.

Let me repeat that so you get the full gist of this.

HE HAD THEM GRADE HIS 1/1 MICKEY MANTLE BAT BARRELL CARD. Please, someone, tell me why he decided to do this? If the slab wasnt funny enough, his card is forever a 7.5 for all to see. Did he think it would be worth more as a 9.5? Who fucking cares! This could be the dumbest thing I have ever seen, no doubt. Just to remind you, if you grade a 1/1, you deserve to be shot.

Tales From TWGM 2: Judgment Day

Listen, I already posted on how people use eBay as their own personal collection showcase, but it gets a little nuts when most people wouldnt want the cards. For me, I love to go through the high listed auctions on TWGM because 75% are fucking laugh factories. Here are my lowlights for this edition of Tales from TWGM.

Ever wanted a 1/1 Joe Namath base card from some weird UD set? Yeah, me either, but this guy seems to think he has struck collecting gold. I guess he expects people to want this 1/1 over that 52 Mantle, or even that Toyota Camry they wanted, but I dont think its going to happen.

This auction is twice as good as the first, mainly because the card offered is really nothing special at all. My favorite part? He put a reserve on the card because he wanted to make sure he got what he wanted. Obviously a people would buy this over the Pristine 10 Jordan RC offered right below this, I know I have my credit card company on stand by.

As for this dufus, its not the auction per se, but what is being offered. Let me ask you a question, in all seriousness, if you have this card - arguably one of the most valuable cards ever - WHY WOULD YOU HAVE IT GRADED? As if a $10,000 dollar card would get MORE valuable with a grade on it. Give me a fucking break, you dumb Joe Collector. This borders on grading a printing plate, or a logo patch 1/1. What is the fucking point? Jesus.

Same goes for this idiot.

This is Beyond Ridiculous Pt 2: Even More Ridiculous?

After reading the second part to "For the Love of Sitting Around and Flipping Through a Price Guide" I might just stop going to baseball card shops all together, just to spite this guy. Holy fucking shit, man! The Baseball Card Blog (no link on purpose), has created a world where Baseball Cards have ceased to exist all because, wait - sit down for this, price guides have stopped their publication. It begins with the descripion of a pure utopia in collecting (my commentary, fire joe morgan style in italics):

"Here’s the situation. The list prices in price guides have been deemed useless on such a massive scale that Beckett and FW have ceased their publication. With no widely available prices, the majority of collectors now consult eBay for accurate card prices."

I love it. No longer will a douchebag ridden magazine set the prices for the 50% of uneducated idiots that still consult beckett for prices.

"Dealers do the same. And after they view the umpteenth autographed patch 1/1 card go for less than $20–pulled from a box that dealers paid a premium on to sell–they stop ordering high-end products from the manufacturers. The dealers understand that if they’re seeing these auctions on eBay, their potential customers are winning them."

Ba-what? Dealers who see the card pulled from a 500 dollar box stop ordering wax because their customers cant sell their pulls for a lot of money? How hasnt the customer part not happened already? I guarantee that the dealers will not stop ordering boxes because people are going to eBay to sell what they get. You know why? It already happens every fucking day, you arrogant ass. Dealers like Northridge Sports Cards and Santa Monica Sports Cards make their bread and butter selling boxes where people pull nothing and sell them for nothing. Do they fucking care that their customers cant sell them for shit on eBay? Sure, but only on a personal level. What they care about is that it has become more convenient for their customers to buy WAX on eBay rather than paying INFLATED prices at a shop. Once again, Im sorry that it sucks you cant spend 30 minutes bullshitting with Blowout Cards, but it is a necessary evil. Despite this trend, both the shops are doing fine. Seriously, if your shop is relying on singles to function, they NEED to go down with the ship.

"So many dealers stop ordering these cards that the manufacturers have a difficult decision to make: finally listen to dealers and put more value in each box of product, or dismiss dealers altogether and work exclusively with big box stores like Target, Kmart and Wal-Mart. It comes as no surprise when the manufacturers go with the latter choice."

This could be the worst paragraph ever written in the history of sports card blogs. Manufacturers will never go with the second choice because Target, Kmart and Wal-mart will NEVER, EVER, EEEEEEEVAAAR pay 500 bucks for a box of cards. They have flat screens and plasmas to sell rather than that bullshit. I would see UD and DLP sell to eBay directly before they do this.

Upper Deck to Target: Umm, yeah, we want to market Exquisite directly to Target.
Target: Sounds great, how much does it cost?
Upper Deck: At cost, about 400 bucks a box. You would probably want to mark it up to 599.
Target: *Click*
Upper Deck: Hello? Hello?

You dont think they have enough problems with security and shrink on their current stock? Now they gotta worry about protecting this shit, let alone SELLING it to collectors like me that would MUCH rather buy it from a trusted source without weirdo 50 year old men fondling our prized investment every 5 minutes...Ugh, it gets worse.

"Because the majority of shops deal primarily in new cards, they start to close. Collectors don’t notice right away, as most of them are tuned to eBay. And besides, the hobby’s gone through this before and survived, so what’s the big deal? Also, everybody’s got a Wal-Mart near them, so who cares if one more shop goes out of business? Shops sell off their inventory and shutter."

Again, this has already happened, but guess what? Shops are still open. Ebay is currently the hobby's biggest card shop. Other shops survive because they have found innovative ways to stay open and because they know what to sell: WAX and lots of it.

"Dealers at baseball card shows don’t feel the same pressure right away, though many of them do feel their brethren’s plight. Instead, without book prices to consult on every transaction, desperate, frenetic dealers result to using their best judgment. Collectors, fully aware of the situation dealers are in, refuse to be charged “judgment call prices.” Many dealers, citing lack of meaningful sales at shows, stop booking booths. What few shows remain shrink in attendance until they cease to exist. The National is the lone exception, chugging away, though it’s a magnet for news media to lament the hobby crisis. “Ain’t in the Card$,” is the New York Post headline."

Or better yet, dealers use eBay prices and collectors finally find a great marketplace - outside of the scam ridden internet - to buy their cards. Or even better than that, Dealers, who have paid eBay prices to get their cards, stop marking it up and decide to open shops rather than booking tables at shows and sell their cards back to the collector on ebay. Now, because the New York Post would never write such and awful headline, nor post an article on collecting with this as its subject, I wont even address it.

"Without dealers, the manufacturers are no longer in the dominant bargaining position. They’re at the whim of the big box stores. Product’s gonna be late? OK, we’re diminishing your shelf space. The manufacturers are not used to their role as ‘just another product.’ What happened to all those dealers they used to push around?"

I dont understand the point of this. So without dealers they decide to stop producing despite having a perfectly good marketplace in eBay where they can still make the same, if not more, money? This is pure dribble. I dont even know where to go. Oh, but wait, there's STILL MORE!

"If I haven’t given my critics enough fodder already, here’s some more:

• The future of the hobby most certainly will not play out the way I’ve got it, though certain aspects of it are very close to happening now."

Trust me, you have given me a gold mine of material. However, thanks for acknowledging that your above written was basically a practice in stupidity and was not worth the space it was printed on (nothing).

"• No matter how much we distrust the prices within price guides, they’re essential to the well being of the hobby. If you’ve got a plan for injecting realistic card values into the hobby without killing hobby shops and show dealers off, please, I’m all ears."

First of all, they are FAR from "essential." They are a way for a magazine to justify their worthless existence on the planet. Other than that, price guides are worth less than nothing to the hobby. As for the second part, do you enjoy paying inflated prices for your cards? Why are you set on keeping shops and dealers in this hobby if they continue to sell you cards at twice the price you can get on a true free marketplace? I love the way you support dealers and shops PAYING eBay prices to get their cards but selling them to you at double.

My plan? Hobby shops should get out of singles. Period. Then, they should focus on selling two things: guaranteed autographed memorabilia and wax. I say this because wax prices are the only thing that eBay cant guarantee as the lowest price. With shipping prices at 10 dollars plus, stores can compete with using their own mark ups. As for guaranteed memorabilia, eBay cannot compete due to scams. Fake autos are so rampant, Im weary of even buying PSA/DNA authenticated stuff anymore. Shops have the ability to get their own materials and and get them auto'ed. Buy from PSA and other authentic sources and save me the trouble of going through places I dont trust for my auto'ed stuff.

"• One last thing: I wanted to work graded cards into this somehow, but never found a good spot. If raw singles aren’t really worth their book value, what about graded cards? I know that entire price guides cater to graded specimen, but will/should these prices be combined with prices for unslabbed cards? Or would that negate the values assigned to those that have been slabbed? Also, why does it feel to me that dealing in graded cards is going to be what saves shop owners and show dealers?"

This whole "one last thing" makes no sense, but what else is new? Graded cards are pretty much one big conflict of interest to begin with. Besides, it was solely created as a mechanism for, *gasp*, eBay and the like. It protected the buyer from unforseen........oh forget it. Just look here and here.

I know its against my better judgement to take on one of the biggest blogs out there, but still, who wants to put up with this shit? I hope the sheep dont take what he says as gospel. Just to set a precedent: after this, I will not be reading his blog without a very strong bias, and I encourage you to do the same.

As collectors we are thrown to the wolves almost daily by the very sources that are sworn to be our advocates. Why is this guy supporting everyone's enemy? His platform supports paying higher prices because it keeps the good ole days in tact, it supports price guides because they supposedly provide a non-existant backbone to the hobby, and lastly it supports underhanded dealers and shops who do their best to scam you out of your hard earned money because they dont have any.

Thank you, Woody Paige of sports card collecting, you have opened my eyes!!

The Grading Service Vs. The Grading Business

Grading cards started as a practice to help collectors identify things they may not see with the naked eye when buying cards over the internet and in person. Basically, it protected the buyer from unforseen condition problems when they don’t have the card in their hands (eBay) or when the card is not necessarily available to look at outside of a case (high end buys at shows). In my opinion it went from a service geared towards protecting the buyer to a service geared towards helping the seller make money.

High grade cards carry a huge premium, as expected, and are the staples of many seller's inventories. I don’t really have a problem with people buying high grade cards, because it is only natural that the high grade ones sell for more money. I have a problem with the services themselves. The reason I say this is because I see certain sellers on eBay with a plethora of pristine graded cards from PSA and BGS when the population reports for those cards show that a high grade is usually outside the status quo. I also see BGS selling their own cards as discussed before, which creates a conflict of interest, and I start to wonder how much of grading is being the best at grading a card and how much is being good business people.

Being a good business person means you reward your good customers and still maintain your quality of product and your ethics. This makes me think that services who receive thousands of submissions from a person are more inclined to reward them with higher grades because they spend thousands of dollars on the service. Now, im not saying they take cards that should be a 5 and make them a 9.5, but I question whether they look at every card close enough to determine whether it is a 9 or a 9.5. Once its in that case, no one will question the authenticity of the grade because collectors know that it isnt worth the idea in their head. Yet, I can see that a collector submitting 1000 cards per week would be more likely to get a 9.5 on those 9s because he/she is spending so much money. I also see that the guy who has nothing but PSA 10s cant possibly have THAT many high end cards in THAT condition. It spreads beyond possibilty that every card he gets is a PSA 10, especially when most of them are bought from other collectors.

Im sure a lot of you are wondering if I have ever graded a card or if I own graded cards. The answer is yes and yes. I own two graded cards, an 8.5 2002 Joe Mauer Chrome Auto, and a BVG 4 1953 Eddie Mathews Topps. The Mathews is graded because it was losing condition sitting how it was in my collection, and the graded case protects that. The Mauer I bought graded because the set is so condition sensitive that I knew I couldn’t trust eBay to provide me with a good card. 8.5 was cost effective so I bought that one. As for grading cards I have only used it once for profit. I graded my Topps Finest Santana Rookie and got a 9.5, then sold it for a ton.

Do I say that grading should go away? No, I think it is a necessary service. Do I think that the sheep collectors should maybe question the business part of it before buying? Hell yes, all is not what it seems. In fact, I think that "Sports Card Buying: All is Not What it Seems" (AINWIS) should be the slogan of the industry. There is so much deception, that I think we have just accepted it. Its like the OJ Mayo situation in that we all know its going on behind the scenes, but we will wait for that big story before taking action. Until then, its all swept under the rug.

Convict of Interest

I was just looking over some things on eBay and I saw that Beckett has their own eBay store on the site. On the site they sell a lot of things, including graded cards. Because BGS is such a trusted source for grading, I dont think anyone would really question the cards that are up for sale - unless you consider who is the seller.

BGS 9.5s and 10s carry such a premium that it would be quite easy just to throw up a few cards with 9.5s and not worry about the actual grades the card deserves. Sure makes Beckett and the card owner some more money, plus no one will ever question it after it leaves the auction block. A few months ago I would have thought that integrity of BGS would prevent this from happening - but Beckett's integrity has been greatly questioned as of late.

Hmm, more on this later...