PWCC Auctions is set to a launch a trading card value index based on the S&P 500 to evaluate the top 100, 500, and 2,500 trading cards using ten years of auction house data.
The Index will be limited to cards that regularly sell at auction and excludes rarities such as the 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, the ever-popular 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle and other iconic issues.
The New York Times recently ran an article on the index and the increasing popularity of high-end sports cards as an investment. The Time interviewed several people in the hobby including collector Brady Hill, who stated he and his wife have invested 20% of their total funds in trading cards. Highlights from Hill’s collection include a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle in PSA 8, a T206 Ty Cobb with Ty Cobb back from the Lucky 7 Find, an E96 Honus Wagner in PSA 10 from the Black Swamp Find, an M101-6 Babe Ruth, and a T206 Eddie Plank.
You can read the Times’ story here.
Evan Mathis, who played left guard for the 2015 Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos, is the consignor of the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 9 in Heritage Auctions’ current trading card auction catalog.
Now retired from the NFL, Mathis buys and sells high value cards on a regular basis. In addition to baseball cards he collects Garbage Pail Kids, Pokémon, Magic the Gathering, Three Stooges, and Star Wars.
Mathis is selling the card, which has been estimated at a record $3.5 million, to find a “dream home” for his parents. He told Denver’s 9NEWS he originally acquired the card from a hobby friend.
Wrigleyville memorabilia shop ‘Yesterday’ owned by Tom Boyle recently celebrated 42 years of operation and was featured in a profile by Medill Reports. In an era when most memorabilia stores in Chicago have had to shutter their doors, Boyle’s shop has managed to survive.
Operating out of an 1890s storefront that is older than Wrigley Field, which gave the neighborhood its name, ‘Yesterday’ is home to between 50,000 and 500,000 items depending on which employee you ask.
The store began out of Boyle’s personal collection and has become something of an antique itself. ‘Yesterday’ has no cash register, computer, and cannot even process a credit card transaction. The only form of payment is cash and checks – with two forms of identification.
You can read more about the store–and watch a video here.