Bi-Weekly Market Report - August 9, 2006

A Fresh Look at Sports Collectibles News

"The efforts of an Ohio collector and his cousin to sell a T206 Honus Wagner will be the focus of a segment that debuts Aug. 15 on HBO’s “Real Sports” documentary series.

The card in question is being sold in an Aug. 12 auction run by Bob & Sallie Connelly, an auction and appraisal house located in Binghamton, N.Y. The card has a $300,000 reserve. Why has this particular card captured the attention of HBO? The owners say they have tried to sell the card several times in recent years, with many of those sales cancelled when questions surrounding the card’s authenticity have surfaced. The sellers say their card has been authenticated – not by card-grading services but by companies whose expertise is printing and paper analysis for materials from the early 1900s. And they also claim that racism may be playing a role in their unsuccessful efforts to sell the card."

Wow. After reading the whole article I feel horrible for John Cobb (the owner of the card). Cobb decided to not let PSA and other card authenticating companies grade the card because PSA wouldn't let them be present at the time of the grading (a reasonable request for a piece of paper worth over a quarter million dollars). So instead they had it authenticated by paper and printing experts from the time who all attest to the card's validity. But collectors who are brainwashed by said authentication services refuse to recognize the experts that Cobb took the card to.

Also, I generally hate throwing the race card out there in 2006 (I like to think we're better than that now), but based on the stories told in the article it's hard to think that race didn't play a factor. And lets be real, if someone won't say it, I will - collecting is a largely upper-middle class white guy hobby. Don't believe me, check out Beckett's demographics. They might not mention race in there, but I've been to quite a few card shows in my life and generally the attendees are at least 75% white, at least.

I'm going to wait to see how this plays out, but I smell a feature article. This story encompasses all that is wrong with collectibles in my mind.[read article]

"McFarlane Toys salutes six legendary ballplayers in the fourth edition of our Sports Picks Cooperstown Collection. The upcoming series honors a pair of pinstriped legends, the leader of the Big Red Machine, perhaps the most dominant left-handed pitcher ever, one of the all-time best fielders and the greatest hitter who ever lived."

The Cooperstown series includes Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Bench, Ted Williams, Roger Maris, Steve Carlton, and Ozzie Smith. MLB 17 includes Josh Beckett, Jim Thome, Robinson Cano, Eric Chavez, along with Yankees and Cubs three-packs.

Cooperstown Collection's are just so cool - DiMaggio and Williams are absolute legends and it's nice to see McFarlane honor someone like Roger Maris who often goes unnoticed. With all of the steroid "allegations" being tossed around, it's looking more and more like his season of 61 home runs is still the greatest in history. [read release]

"A winning bid of $220,100 was recorded this afternoon on eBay for the baseball that Barry Bonds hit in May for career home run No. 715, vaulting the San Francisco slugger past Babe Ruth to second on the all-time list.

'Let's just say that Bonds has a public relations problem," said Rob Lifson, president of Robert Edward Auctions, an auctioneer of high-end sports memorabilia. "If some other player would have hit 715, the ball would go for a lot more. Bonds has a black cloud hanging over him because of the steroid accusations.'

Bonds' PR conundrum probably cost the seller three-quarters of a million dollars, and maybe more. Consider that the ball Bonds hit for home run number 700 sold from more than $800,000 in October 2004, before the BALCO steroid scandal surfaced in earnest."

OK, so it kind of sucks for the dude who caught the ball. For his sake it would have been nice if Barry wasn't juicing...err, hadn't been accused of juicing. Then again, he just got $220,000 for going to a baseball game. He's got the right attitude though. In the article he says "It's like having $220,000 literally drop from the sky,how can that be a bad thing?" [read article]