Half Cash, Half Stock
admin_news
Good morning, Collectors.
GameStop’s reported $56B bid to acquire eBay catapulted the collectibles industry to business news primetime earlier this week. And given eBay remains the hobby’s primary marketplace, what happens next could impact the whole ecosystem. That said, analysts remain skeptical about the deal’s feasibility, especially after GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s CNBC interview quickly turned into a meme with his ‘half cash, half stock’ answer to how GME would finance the acquisition.
Can GameStop pull off the deal? Or was this all a ploy for Cohen to drive traffic to his personal eBay store to help him unload his PSA 10 1990 Larry Walker Score Young Superstars RC?
Color us intrigued.
An Arizona grandmother and her three grandsons pulled the Josh Allen 1-of-1 Gold Shield Auto redemption from a box of Topps Chrome Football after waiting all day to open packs together. The family plans to consign the card through Fanatics Collect and split the proceeds evenly among the boys (as any grandmother would do). We’re hoping the card nets a big number, and then the boys use some of the cash to buy grandma a little something.
Ken Griffin has acquired a second rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution, making him the owner of the only two surviving copies still in private hands (save some for the rest of us, Ken!). Griffin previously paid $43.2M for another copy in 2021, setting a record for any book or historical document sold at auction. The newly acquired “Van Sinderen copy” will go on display in New York later this month as part of a broader exhibition celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.
The Met Gala’s $100,000 ticket price got Mantel’s Mike Metzler thinking of the card market (though most things remind Mike of cards, TBF). So he compared the price of the Met Gala ticket to a list of the best rookie cards. Steph Curry, Joe Burrow, Serena Williams, and Dwyane Wade all easily cleared the threshold with seven-figure grails. Meanwhile, stars like Justin Jefferson, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, Jimmy Butler, and Russell Wilson saw their top cards fall short of the Gala’s price of admission. This was a fun piece.
Boise State is turning pieces of its iconic blue “Smurf Turf” into collectibles ahead of replacing the field this summer. In partnership with CollectU, the school sold everything from small turf swatches for $40 to a 400-square-foot section that fetched $25,000 at auction. Boise State officials framed the initiative as both a fan engagement opportunity and a new revenue stream as the program prepares for its move into the revamped Pac-12.
A LeBron James vertical rookie auto Logoman 1/1, potentially worth more than $15M, sparked a debate over why vertical versions of identical 1/1 cards are valued more highly than horizontal ones (my random guess… most grading companies don’t have horizontal slabs, so the vertical cards look way better once graded). The piece also touched on rising soccer card sales ahead of the World Cup, Josh Donaldson claiming his card collection is worth $35M, a Yasiel Puig Topps Now card surging past $4,000 because of a Kobe Bryant image, and renewed interest in obscure or overlooked collectibles.
