How on earth does someone pay this much for this card when they are all less than half this price everytime they come up on Ebay.

http://sports.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=717&Lot_No=81621&src=pr

Damir,

What amazes me more is this card received a PSA 9 with the left edge being rough cut?? Grading companies put so much weight on centering and downgrade accordingly when a rough cut is much worse in my eyes. I can see if they all were rough cut, but they are not! I don't get it?

Anyways what did it sell for as I cannot access prices?

what's a reasonable value for a PSA 9? $1500?

I've saved many photos of Gretz PSA 9s for reference and many of them have rough cuts. I would be skeptical if the card didn't have a rough cut to some degree. That is a very high price for a card that sales between $3500 and $5500. All 9s aren't created equal.
An ugly 9 which I have photos of many should sale for between $3500 and $4500. A really nice 9 is worth $5500 in my opinion.

Rob, we have had many discussions here about OPC rough cuts. Some like it, some don't. They usualy don't penalize for rough cuts since most OPC's are like that. I would say that this Gretzky is an average rough cut. The final sale price with buyer's premium was $10,157.50.

Dan, I think you are talking about a Topps rookie. The Topps are about $1,200-1,500 in a PSA 9.

I just don't get why anyone would pay double for a card. He could have bough 2 of them in the same grade.

that's a lot of money for the Great One, and it's not a rare card, relative to an Orr in high grade...

In general I don't understand why auction houses seem to bring such premium prices in comparison to eBay.

Oh wait, maybe I do. There is a class of collectors that are too highbrow for eBay, don't care about penny pinching, and have longstanding relationships with the auction houses.

"Rob, we have had many discussions here about OPC rough cuts. Some like it, some don't. They usualy don't penalize for rough cuts since most OPC's are like that. I would say that this Gretzky is an average rough cut."

Damir,

With that being said then why is it not held true that they usually do not penalize for "centering" since most OPC's are like that.....a factory flaw just like the "rough cut". A card with a rough cut should NOT be a 9 or at least a 9 with a qualifier. If it were true that all Gretzky's were rough cut then I might be able to accept it, but this is not the case.

As for the quote of being sceptical that if a Gretzky RC did not have a rough cut that it is authentic then I guess I am unsure why people are grading cards? If the card is in a holder whether rough cut or not then it is considered authentic and correct me if I am wrong but there are high graded Gretzky's out there that do not have a rough cut! If a card is raw and does not have a rough cut then a person has to use his due diligence and ensure it is authentic, but this thread is not about raw cards....that is another topic!

Rob, the only high grade OPC Gretzky rookies that I have seen without OPC rough cuts are sheet cut and are in BGS and GAI holders. Sending sheet cut cards to PSA and SGC is a waste of time since they will be rejected. Some people are happy with those cards because they are pristine and authentic, but they are not factory cut and the majority see these cards as worthless. I cannot recall ever seeing an OPC Gretzky RC without some sort of rough cut. The grade is always subjective. When we send a card to be graded to any grading company all we are doing is asking them for their opinion on the grade of a card. Doesn't mean we have to agree with the grade we recieve.
As far as centering, they do penalize and rightfuly so. Bad centering is a qualifier unless the sender asks for a no qualifier. I know SGC doesn't use qualifiers, but I would hate to have a Gretzky rookie graded mint or gem mint and have 90/10 centering.

"In general I don't understand why auction houses seem to bring such premium prices in comparison to eBay".
"Oh wait, maybe I do. There is a class of collectors that are too highbrow for eBay, don't care about penny pinching, and have longstanding relationships with the auction houses".

I think this is true. I have sold cards with auction houses and they usualy bring a pretty good dollar compared to Ebay. Getting to know auction houses is a pretty good thing since I have been fortunate enough to be charged a seller's premium of only 5% with one major auction house. The "bigger" cards are usualy consigned to the auction houses anyway, so I guess some people just trust them more than Ebay.

When it comes to any PSA 9 Gretzky Rookie card I am a firm believer that it should have mostly smooth edges.I mean guys they are out there.Have a look at my PSA 8 what makes it special is that the edges on this card are 90% smooth just a bit on the right edge.
I opened hundreds of packs from this year the smooth edge cards are rarer for sure so lets reward these with the higher grades.
I am sorry I do not agree with any of you who say rough edges are desired I do not see how a rough edged Gretz rookie compares to a smooth edge one.

I welcome your feedback

J

Here...here ....Jon. I beleive they do exist and thus should have a premium grade. A rough cut card should receive nothing higher than a 6 or 7. IMHO

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Here is my PSA 9 I sold back in 2005-6. The smooth edges come from the first-print run (blue line on back) as the blades were sharp...

My PSA 8 with the mostly smooth edges also has the blue lines on the back so there is a direct relationship to more of the first print run cards having the smooth edges?

To Damir:

Get to know Bill Goodwin -- they don't charge any seller commission. Doesn't get better that 0%! Great fella too.

My two cents on the rough cut vs smooth edges:

The rough cut does appear quite often on the 1st print run (with blue lines on back). I'm not quite sure that the smooth edges are very common at all.
I'm also always dubious of any card that is out of the ordinary. PSA, SGC and BGS/BVG are in no way 100% with regards to trimmed cards. They grade some that are and some that aren't as trimmed. Not really an exact science, but then again what can you expect for a few $$ per card? I'm not claiming that any of the posted cards are trimmed or unoriginal in any way, just that they give me pause for thought.

I have never seen a non-rough cut high grade Gretzky RC that I would stake anything of value on. They all have a high likelihood of being either sheet cut or trimmed, or worse. That's just my opinion and I'd be happy for someone to prove me wrong.

VB -

The importance of the first print run/smooth edge Gretzky rookies is that it is evidence that the card is not sheet cut. The bad thing (IMO) is that the first print run line again, IMO, is a print defect.

Personally I LOVE the look of the rough cut edges of a "mint" Gretzky

Just can't win with this issue. It's a print line or rough edges. I don't think that there will ever be a perfect Gretzky RC unless it's sheet cut.

VB, thanks for the recomendation, but I just don't see their auction being big for hockey cards. I think Mile High, Heritage, Memory Lane, Legendary Auctions, Huggins and Scott are the best for the prices they bring for hockey, but Classicauctions would be THE auction site for very high end hockey. Personaly, I would have no problem dealing with either of these auctions as they always bring great prices.

As far as my 5%, I'm pretty sure I can get 0% if I asked because of my history with them, but 5% is nothing to complain about since I was offered it by the CEO without even asking for it so it's my way of being greatful to him for offering this deal. I think many people just don't even ask if they can get a discount on consignments since they probably think that they will say no anyway. There is one thing I have learned in this hobby that applies to almost everything and everyone, everything is negotiable-just ask.