So this posting should resonate with any guy (or girl) who's ever collected sports cards and/or memorabilia.
One hot summer day after I'd graduated from high school, I wandered into a local sports memorabilia store next to a Baskin Robbins. I was flush with cash from relatives, and it was, as usual, burning a hole in my pocket. I had long since given up on collecting contemporary sports cards (since the market had been flooded with a glut of sports cards since the early 1990's), but had maintained my fascination with old cards. I began perusing the counters and shelves, and did a double-take when I saw a truly ancient-looking card innocently resting between a Hank Aaron and a Roger Clemens. It wasn't in great shape, but it was a 1914 Honus Wagner tobacco card.
Honus Wagner, a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the early days of the "modern" era of baseball, was staunchly anti-smoking. Once he found out that tobacco companies were using his likeness for cards inserted in tobacco boxes, he demanded they cease and desist, as he feared children buying the addictive weed just to have his baseball card (which is what I would have done had I grown up a kid in the 1910's). For this reason, Honus Wagner tobacco cards are extremely rare and valuable, fetching hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars in auctions - most famously by Wayne Gretzky. Most Honus Wagner cards in existence today feature advertisements for candy on the backs. Evidently smoking was bad, but rotten teeth and diabetes were bully! Anyway, the lady behind the counter, who told me she thought no one would want this card because it's "so old," was selling this card for $150. The money lighting up my pocket had found a home.
As you can see above, the card is not in great shape, but given its age would not be considered to be in as bad a shape as if it were a card from, say, 2000. Based on Becketts and recent EBay auctions, it appears that I could realistically clear $2000 for the card were I to sell it today.
And herein lies my dilemma.
Without a doubt, a return on investment of over 1000% in eight and a half years is pretty good. And, without a doubt, I could use that money. BUT, the problem is that it's a pretty damn cool baseball card, and would be difficult to give up.
The question for you, dear readers, is what would you do in this situation?? At what point is it ok to sell prized baseball cards/comics/toast with the Virgin Mary burnt into it??
Comments would be much appreciated.
Disgruntled out.
3 comments:
How badly do you need the money? Is there any reason to think the value will rise or fall in the near or intermediate future? Maybe you could put it on eBay with a hidden floor price, say $2500. If it doesn't hit the price, you don't sell; and if it does, you're richer than Bill Gates and Carson Daly put together.
BONUS: Did you know Honus is a nickname of Johannes, so it's actually supposed to be pronounced with a long A, like in Han Solo? The problem with shit like this is when you pronounce it the right way, people still look at you like you're a moron because you're the only person who knows how to pronounce it correctly.
(This phenomenon happens to vegetarians all the time.)
I don't need the money right now or anything, more of a rhetorical question than anything. Like, at what point is it ok to go, I'd rather have $2500 than HAHnus Wagner's baseball card?? I mean, it's a sweet ass card, but again that'd be a hell of a return on my $150! Just all part of a larger discussion I've had with people here at work when I should be actually doing work. The consensus here seems to be take the money.
By the way - fascinating about the pronunciation. I had no idea, and here I've been saying HOHnus all this time like a jackass!! If I were him, I would have gone with Joe Wagner, but I guess that's not quite as gee.
If you don't need the money, keep the card. It may well appreciate faster than a cash investment would, plus you keep the sweet card.
Just make sure the Disgruntled Dog doesn't shit on it.
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