One week until taxes due

There comes a certain point (age) that you no longer want speculation but only guaranteed returns.

In the late 1970s, a young hippie started advertising in the local Denver Pennysaver that he bought comics. For a few months, things were slow and he was considering not renewing his ads when his nine-month contract expired.
Then he got the call that would change his life and the comic book world.
A family in the suburbs was preparing to sell the family home and wanted to know if he would buy the books in the basement.

The Church collection was some 20,000 comics from the late 30s to the early 50s that were mostly in pristine condition. The legend is that the family sold them at face value- ten cents each.
Today, Action #1 from this collection sold for $5.1 million dollars.

Quote: billryan

I take a bit of Buffet, a bit of Dave Ramsey( when I was younger and digging out of a hole), a bit of Rick Edelman, throw in some Christian mysticism, a bit of Dale Carnegie, some Vince McMahon, Elon Musk and Hugh Jackman, apply the lessons my family business has experienced and try to make informed decisions. I try to study a situation and ponder what Levi Strauss would do.
link to original post

Nice assortment. I want to personally follow the Charlie Sheen plan.

Quote: DRich

Quote: billryan

I take a bit of Buffet, a bit of Dave Ramsey( when I was younger and digging out of a hole), a bit of Rick Edelman, throw in some Christian mysticism, a bit of Dale Carnegie, some Vince McMahon, Elon Musk and Hugh Jackman, apply the lessons my family business has experienced and try to make informed decisions. I try to study a situation and ponder what Levi Strauss would do.
link to original post

Nice assortment. I want to personally follow the Charlie Sheen plan.
link to original post

In my younger days, I used to channel Hunter Thompson but lemonlabob cured me.

Quote: billryan

Captain America #1 sold for $3,000,000 this week, and even more amazing- a Fantastic Four #1 from 1961 broke the million-dollar barrier. What was surprising was it is nowhere close to being the highest-graded example.
Last year I kept hearing about new crypto millionaires driving the market but that doesn't explain the current price surges.
link to original post

I used to have some video games back in the day that are literally worth a couple thousand today to collectors. Back in the '90s I either gave them away or sold them at a yard sale for pennies on the dollar. Nobody was collecting s*** back then as far as video games, so it was all practically worthless and you could barely give it away. Nowadays video game collecting is huge.

As a lad I had a couple shoe boxes of baseball cards, many would be very valuable today: who knew?

I got rid of them over time, usually by losing them to a friend by "flipping" them to see who won, or they got destroyed after being clothes pinned to my bike to make clicking noises via the spokes.

Vintage baseball cards, especially anyone but Mantle, are all about condition and centering. Some key cards the difference between being graded authentic (1 on 1-10 scale) and a well centered 8 can literally be the difference between a couple hundred dollars and a six figure card. Some of those valuable cards there were plenty of them produced but they were either poorly kept or poorly cut/manufactured in the first place. If it was kept in a shoebox virtual guaranteed not to grade higher than a 6. First and last number cards in sets very difficult to find in good condition due to generally being kept in front/back of shoebox or rubber bands.

I find the Mantle premium and potential reasons behind why his cards are worth so much more than Aaron and Mays, players from his era who were clearly superior players, to be interesting. Think it’s partially because he was a Yankee, partly because he’s white in the era he played, and partly because he was like the first guy to start signing autographs at shows so collectors more likely to have had a personal interaction with him.

Aaron’s cards are interesting to me from a historical perspective because you see that old Braves logo, very prominently featured on his ‘54 rookie card, that would never fly today along with Aaron probably being the player who had to endure the most racial nonsense of any player since Jackie in his pursuit of the home run record.

Quote: mcallister3200

I find the Mantle premium and potential reasons behind why his cards are worth so much more than Aaron and Mays, players from his era who were clearly superior players, to be interesting. Think it’s partially because he was a Yankee, partly because he’s white in the era he played, and partly because he was like the first guy to start signing autographs at shows so collectors more likely to have had a personal interaction with him.

in 1961 Mantle and Maris captured the interest of the nation as they dueled to best Babe Ruth - Maris did it with 61 homers, Mantle got 54______this was pre steroids and human growth hormones - the homers those 2 were hitting late in that season became front page news and not just in NYC

Maris was a stodgy character,________Mickey was a fun loving playboy - very handsome and everybody liked him - he had serious leg injuries which were widely publicized and got him lots of sympathy

Mickey had a great year in 1956 at age 24 when he hit 52 homers and got 132 RBIs - in 1957 he hit .365

in 1953, at Griffith Stadium in DC he hit a 565 foot homer - one of the farthest in MLB history and the phrase "tape measure home run" was born

in 1957 he also was walked 146 times - he was walked over 100 times in 8 different years - it gives an idea of how much he was feared - it's not really useful to compare this stat to the steroids sluggers

not trying to say he was better than Aaron or Mays but Mays was only walked over 100 times in one year and Aaron was never really close to being walked 100 times

in 1956 Mantle's slugging average was .705. neither Aaron or Mays ever got really close to .700


getting walked during his years was a very underrated stat




Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle








.


.

Mickey Mantle was the best player on the best team in the country.
Willie Mays was the best player on the third-best team in his own city when he played in NY.

I think playing in Northern Cali hurt Mays' popularity tremendously. The same with Aaron in Wisconsin and then in the Deep South.

Allow me to reminisce...

In 1961 I was 9 years old. My Dad took me to Yankee Stadium and we sat behind third base.

It was the day Mantle and Maris both hit homers breaking the season total of Ruth and Gehrig.

As that record breaking homer went over the wall my father looked at me with the biggest smile I ever saw and said...

"You will never forget this for the rest of your life."

My father died in 1978.

I'll never forget that moment and his smile and how he looked.

He was right.