$3.75 million Hockey Card!

[morasha7]

I just found this article that a Gretzky card broke the record for selling price (again). I can only dream of adding a card like that to my collection.... $3.75 million!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...RDj2lS&ampcf=1

If you could afford to buy any card in the world, what would be your dream card?

[30ranfordfan]

The guy who bought the other one in December, for a (then record) 1.3 million, must be very happy with his investment.

I'm not sure how to answer your question though, lol. Outside of my Oilers & Ranford collections, I don't have much of a desire to expand my collection. I suppose if money were no object, and I could acquire any one card, it would be a McDavid Cup RPA /99. If you told me "what's the one card you want to see show up on an eBay auction next week?" (but money *IS* an object) my answer would be immediate, and the same as it's been for more than a decade: A 1998-99 Upper Deck MVP Superscript #188 Bill Ranford /25.


For me: The only card that was ever something (IMO) readily available, I didn't own, but I thought "one day, I want to own that card" was a Wayne Gretzky RC..... but I picked one up 5 years ago. Obviously not a GEM Mint though, a PSA 5.

[RGM81]

The knock-on effect of this sale will be felt throughout the hobby - every time we get another "record sale" it pulls up the value of everything else. It's why PSA is so overloaded that they've stopped accepting new grading submissions. People hear about these, they decide "now is the time" to finally get that really nice looking HHOF'er RC graded. I've got a pretty nice Patrick Roy OPC RC that I've had for years and years now, and my buddy who gets a lot of grading done thinks that on a good day it could pull an 8. When I look at how much those are currently going for, it's a bit crazy. Those of us who have been around long enough remember Roy RC's were always like $75-$100. If we could all go back 4-5 years and tell our younger collecting selves to load up....

[30ranfordfan]

The knock-on effect of this sale will be felt throughout the hobby - every time we get another "record sale" it pulls up the value of everything else. It's why PSA is so overloaded that they've stopped accepting new grading submissions. People hear about these, they decide "now is the time" to finally get that really nice looking HHOF'er RC graded. I've got a pretty nice Patrick Roy OPC RC that I've had for years and years now, and my buddy who gets a lot of grading done thinks that on a good day it could pull an 8. When I look at how much those are currently going for, it's a bit crazy. Those of us who have been around long enough remember Roy RC's were always like $75-$100. If we could all go back 4-5 years and tell our younger collecting selves to load up....

Crazy, eh? It's not like we're kicking ourselves for ignoring all of those cards we didn't buy 30 years ago (like all the people who didn't save their 1960s cardboard, and regretted it in the 1990s).

The swing in card prices from just 5 years ago, is nuts. Should have loaded up on $60 Ovechkin YGs, $120 Crosby YGs, and $150 McDavid YGs when we had the chance. Gretzky PSA 5 cost me about $400 in 2016. Should have bought more.


You're right: As the record breaks, it pulls everything else up with it.

[RGM81]

Crazy, eh? It's not like we're kicking ourselves for ignoring all of those cards we didn't buy 30 years ago (like all the people who didn't save their 1960s cardboard, and regretted it in the 1990s).

The swing in card prices from just 5 years ago, is nuts. Should have loaded up on $60 Ovechkin YGs, $120 Crosby YGs, and $150 McDavid YGs when we had the chance. Gretzky PSA 5 cost me about $400 in 2016. Should have bought more.


You're right: As the record breaks, it pulls everything else up with it.

Oh I gotta show you something a buddy messaged me with last night. I'll send it on the IM.

[creasecollector]

Massive sales like these are huge for the hobby. Awesome!!

[morasha7]

The guy who bought the other one in December, for a (then record) 1.3 million, must be very happy with his investment.

I'm not sure how to answer your question though, lol. Outside of my Oilers & Ranford collections, I don't have much of a desire to expand my collection. I suppose if money were no object, and I could acquire any one card, it would be a McDavid Cup RPA /99. If you told me "what's the one card you want to see show up on an eBay auction next week?" (but money *IS* an object) my answer would be immediate, and the same as it's been for more than a decade: A 1998-99 Upper Deck MVP Superscript #188 Bill Ranford /25.


For me: The only card that was ever something (IMO) readily available, I didn't own, but I thought "one day, I want to own that card" was a Wayne Gretzky RC..... but I picked one up 5 years ago. Obviously not a GEM Mint though, a PSA 5.

Haha, any answer works. I was curious to see what answers people would give. It sounds like you've been looking for the Ranford for awhile, I hope you find it one day. You're lucky to have a Gretzky RC (even if it's not GEM Mint). I've been looking at prices recently and I just wouldn't be able to justify the cost against my budget, lol. I do have a Gretzky card that I picked up unknowingly (bulk purchase at a flea market/yard sale thing) that appears to be signed by him though. I don't think it's worth any money, but I think it's pretty cool and it's one of my favourites.

[Savard18]

I just found this article that a Gretzky card broke the record for selling price (again). I can only dream of adding a card like that to my collection.... $3.75 million!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...RDj2lS&ampcf=1

If you could afford to buy any card in the world, what would be your dream card?

If I had 3.75 million I wouldn't spend it on one card... I mean you can find a perfectly nice PSA 6 Gretzky for $700-800 bucks, if that...

If I had $3.75 million I would buy a lot of sweet hockey cards, probably open a card shop too. I'd also contact Upper Deck and have them send me several cases of all of their new hockey, baseball, football and basketball product when it's released.... lol, I'd probably offer Upper Deck a million bucks for a life-time subscription to all of their product.. That would be awesome....

But yea, I'd certainly make sure I had every major hockey issue post war to the present..

I love collecting and all but only a fool would blow 3.75 million on one card.. I mean I wonder how many sealed BBCE authenticated cases of 79-80 OPC one could buy with a million bucks? perhaps 10? would 100k a case get it done?... IDK, if I wanted a PSA 10 Gretzky rookie I'd certainly go about it that way, because you're pretty much guaranteed 2 per box, I mean the set is only 396 cards and I believe there are 48 wax packs per OPC box and 15 cards a pack so 720 cards per box, so you figure 20 boxes a case you're going to get 35-40 pack fresh Gretzky's per case, if you buy 10 cases that 350-400 Gretzky Rookies -- so yea, I really like my chances on that one.. And that's only a million bucks.. I mean I'm sure one of those 350-400 Gretzky rookies will grade a PSA 10....

From an investment perspective, you cant go wrong with 10 cases of 79-80 OPC, lol... I wonder where or how someone could find 10 cases of 79-80 OPC??

I mean if you think about it whomever purchased that Gretzky for 3.75 million really wasted their money.. Like I just pointed out - the guy probably could have bought 10 cases for a million bucks 350-400 Gretzky rookie cards... When you break it down like that what the buyer did makes no sense.... And think of all of the high grade Gretzky's one would get out of a case? I mean even a PSA 9 Gretzky fetches 20K (probably way more) these days..

[Savard18]

The guy who bought the other one in December, for a (then record) 1.3 million, must be very happy with his investment.

I'm not sure how to answer your question though, lol. Outside of my Oilers & Ranford collections, I don't have much of a desire to expand my collection. I suppose if money were no object, and I could acquire any one card, it would be a McDavid Cup RPA /99. If you told me "what's the one card you want to see show up on an eBay auction next week?" (but money *IS* an object) my answer would be immediate, and the same as it's been for more than a decade: A 1998-99 Upper Deck MVP Superscript #188 Bill Ranford /25.


For me: The only card that was ever something (IMO) readily available, I didn't own, but I thought "one day, I want to own that card" was a Wayne Gretzky RC..... but I picked one up 5 years ago. Obviously not a GEM Mint though, a PSA 5.

Yea, I have both Topps and OPC Gretzky Rookies... Not high grade by any means, both are raw. The OPC has pen on the back - not too bad but it displays really nice - and the Topps has fuzzy corners/slight rounding and a hairline crease that isn't visible but it's there, lol... I mean I'd say the OPC is a PSA 2 and the Topps perhaps a 3.5, maybe 4?

Back in 2017 I traded an Auston Matthews YG for the OPC, then a couple of years ago

I bought the Topps off of eBay via Buy It Now. It wasn't that expensive - I paid $275 for it.... I mean they're nice cards to have and no hockey card collection is complete until you have a Gretzky Rookie, lol..

There are a lot of nice vintage rookies tho, I always thought the Dryden Rookie was iconic - that was always a "must have" for me, of course I have a few of those, obviously the Lemieux Rookie is another "must have" for me so I have a handful of them.... I'm not too picky when it comes to grade, I mean I'm absolutely fine with mid-grade cards and you can (or at least could) pick up Dryden and Lemieux rookies in mid grade all day for less than $70 bucks.. I mean I think I paid between $30-50 for my Dryden Rookies and $40-90 for my Lemieux's..

Of course there is always one iconic non-hockey card I must have and that's the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson Rookie, lol.. I don't really collect any other sport but hockey but I used to before I got out of the hobby in the late 90's, and Henderson's rookie always caught my eye - that's a really iconic card.. So yea I do have a small collection of baseball - mostly rookies from the 60's,70's and 80's..

[30ranfordfan]

Haha, any answer works. I was curious to see what answers people would give. It sounds like you've been looking for the Ranford for awhile, I hope you find it one day. You're lucky to have a Gretzky RC (even if it's not GEM Mint). I've been looking at prices recently and I just wouldn't be able to justify the cost against my budget, lol. I do have a Gretzky card that I picked up unknowingly (bulk purchase at a flea market/yard sale thing) that appears to be signed by him though. I don't think it's worth any money, but I think it's pretty cool and it's one of my favourites.

Yeah, my "white whale" so to speak. For cards that came out while Ranford was still playing (retired in 2000) that's the only one I need.

A Gretzky RC was on my want list forever..... just could never justify the cash. in 2016 after I sold a lot of cards (many of which have gone up in value since) - I was easily able to justify spending a small chunk of it on a Gretzky RC (I paid around $400 CND for a PSA 5)