Lemieux OPC RC

[DenJ91]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_983wt_1398

so here's a lemieux opc rc bgs 9 mint which is pretty awesome in my opinion. must be fairly rare and a tough score to get.

my questions would be, what is a fair price for this, or what would you guys expect this to go for? i'm not going to bid on it, so it's not about that, but just curious about it's price and how you value something like this.

also, after a player is long retired, in the hall of fame etc., what makes their card values go up if at all, just the fact that time goes by and it's considered an older and older card? because it's not like the player is still playing, putting up stats, or does something special.

it just becomes a rc of that player as time passes. same goes for gretzky. does the mere fact that the card gets older over time increase the value?

cause you could look at it from another perspective, we've been in a recession and people are generally paying less for cards than maybe they would be, so that may have hurt values of gretzky and lemieux for example.

so yeah, just curious as to what makes these cards go up and or down and what values they are at. thanks.

[30ranfordfan]

A couple of things.... and take my opinions with a grain of salt.... becuase they are just that, opinions :)

I suspect this Lemieux was probably Laser Cut from a sheet recently, and not actually packed pulled. For some people this makes a difference, others it does not. For anything cut with modern tools (as opposed to the ones used in the mid-80s) it makes getting a 9 MUCH easier. I think his opening bid is pretty fair. Maybe a little high - but in the right ball park.


As for retired players in general, I would suggest that they need to do something to renew interest in themselves.

Gretzky, in fact, has done nothing but fall in price for the last decade. If you look up what his OPC RC guides for, it will be something in the range of $900 - depending on where you look. That's the same thing it was worth 15 years ago...... when $900 went a lot further. His game used and autographed cards continue to fall in sale value, as the market becomes more and more saturated with them. I bought an autographed Gretzky card last year - Hard Signed, pictured as an Oiler, BGS 10...... and I only paid $140 for it. 10 Years ago, something similar would have cost double.

The Hall of Fame certainly helps though. I suspect that interest in the players (especially GU, Autos, and RCs) jump up when the player is selected. Likely there was a window last year where Mark Howe, for example, was selling better than he had in 10 seasons.


The age thing - I think it can only help cards from the early, maybe mid, 70s and older. Cards like Mike Bossy's RC, or Larry Robinson's - They're actually VERY easy to find, and readily available in good (but not perfect) condition. That hasn't changed since the early 90s, when I started collecting cards.

If you go back to cards like Dryden, Dionne, Orr..... and older..... then they're a little trickier to find in decent shape. I would suspect that cards like this would go up in value over time (they *WILL* get harder and harder to find) but even these cards, or other big names from the 50s and 60s like Richard, Howe, Hull, etc - They really havn't gone up much in value in the last 20 years.... and with inflation - that actually means they've dropped (like I said earlier with the Gretzky).


While the cards become more rare with age, interest also drops (at least IMO). New collectors get into the hobby, but more and more they're only interested in modern players. Small minority of 'new' collectors that are interested in vintage guys like that.

[DenJ91]

that was a very good explanation and made a lot of sense, thank you!!