gogofast
Addicted Member
In the 90's, I was heavily into collecting sports trading cards. I was mainly into baseball cards - buying boxes and cases of premium cards such as upper deck SP series, bowman chrome, Leaf signature, and etc. Once in a while, I'd also be interested in other sports like football and even hockey, but for some reason, I was never into collecting basketball cards.
After work one day, I went into a usual store I frequent and bought some packs. While I was talking to the owner, a guy walks in with his trading card albums wanting to sell some cards. Now this was the time when the card grading/authenticating service was just kicking off. PSA was the only company, and among collectors, the idea of paying such high dollars for grading your cards was silly. I had none of my cards graded at that time - even some rare cards. The store I mentioned always had a PSA "10" graded Jordan rookie card in the display case, but no one ever bought it since it was a bit above market value....but still just a few hundred bucks price tag for the rookie card.
Anyways, this guy brings in 5 total Jordan rookie cards with 3 graded as gem mint "10" and the other two 9's. He wanted $350 for each card if I remember correctly. Whatever the exact asking price was, I remember thinking that it was unreasonably high. The store owner said since he already had a "10" graded card that didn't sell for months, he asked me if I wanted to buy them. I said that I wasn't into basketball cards.
I haven't been collecting since the 90's. Yesterday, I had a chance to go through my baseball card collection and check current prices for fun. While doing that, I was shocked to find out how much the Jordan rookie cards are fetching these days.......$100,000 for a PSA gem mint graded card....which I have none. I actually could retire now only if I had bought those cards.
After work one day, I went into a usual store I frequent and bought some packs. While I was talking to the owner, a guy walks in with his trading card albums wanting to sell some cards. Now this was the time when the card grading/authenticating service was just kicking off. PSA was the only company, and among collectors, the idea of paying such high dollars for grading your cards was silly. I had none of my cards graded at that time - even some rare cards. The store I mentioned always had a PSA "10" graded Jordan rookie card in the display case, but no one ever bought it since it was a bit above market value....but still just a few hundred bucks price tag for the rookie card.
Anyways, this guy brings in 5 total Jordan rookie cards with 3 graded as gem mint "10" and the other two 9's. He wanted $350 for each card if I remember correctly. Whatever the exact asking price was, I remember thinking that it was unreasonably high. The store owner said since he already had a "10" graded card that didn't sell for months, he asked me if I wanted to buy them. I said that I wasn't into basketball cards.
I haven't been collecting since the 90's. Yesterday, I had a chance to go through my baseball card collection and check current prices for fun. While doing that, I was shocked to find out how much the Jordan rookie cards are fetching these days.......$100,000 for a PSA gem mint graded card....which I have none. I actually could retire now only if I had bought those cards.