Getting In Early on All-Time Greats
Adam Gray tells the story of buying early on PMGs, specifically Michael Jordan cards, and why he didn't sell despite owning a $2M+ card.
Video Transcript
This is a great story.
So after I bought the Jordan PMG, which was in 2015, 2016, PMG Championship, it's a BGS 90.
Five grand.
Yeah, five grand.
What's that worth now, by the way?
500?
I, I, I don't know the PMG market.
I watched.
So the last, the last PSA 4 that moved was, like, 500 grand, and mine's a BGS 9, so I don't know what it's worth.
Oh, oh, so millions, okay.
I don't- I did, I thought you said s- I didn't know you said nine.
Okay.
Right.
Right.
So I n- know, I really don't know, but here's, here's I remember on Blowout, there's a guy who I still converse with today, and he asked me at the time, back on the Blowout forums, right?
He's like- Who is this, by the way?
I, I was huge on Blowout.
I had 1,000 feedback.
I was like one of the first 50 people to do it or something.
The guy who's on there, you mean?
Yeah, you know his name?
Those Back Pages.
Do you remember him?
I don't, darn it.
I mean, I was- You, you would know him if you saw him at the National.
Like, he's an i- Okay he's an iconic guy in our hobby.
Like, he's- Cool been around for a long time.
But I remember he asked me, I think it was Those Back Pages.
I'm pretty sure.
He asked me, and you can still probably look this up.
This, this was like 2016, 2017.
He asked the question, he's like 'Cause one sold on eBay, and it sold for, like, 15 grand.
Or not on eBay, sold somewhere for, like, 14, 15 grand, and he's like, "Adam, did you see what this card just sold for?
Are you gonna sell yours?"
And I was, I was like, "No."
And he's, and I remember people were like, "How can you not sell it?
It's worth so much money."
That was the logic.
But I really- Yeah did believe, and I, and I said this to Jeff, and I mean it, I always believed that some of these key pieces would be viewed more as, like, long-term investment pieces by a lot of people.
And so I said, "I'm, I know it sounds crazy," and support my, I mean, credit to my wife on this, 'cause everybody's like, "Well, doesn't your wife want you to sell these things?"
And I was always just like, "No, some of these things are going to have real crazy value down the line."
And unfor- and fortunately, fortunately, that's, you know, turned out to be true.
Yeah, that's incredible.
Yeah, I do think the other thing, just really quick, then I gotta go in just a minute.
I also love, I didn't realize you were in- involved in wax as much as you were like that, like early Flawless and Eminence.
Eminence is another one I think is hilarious.
I had, 'cause Eminence is the one that did the diamond, the Kobe black set.
It had the diamond on it and the silver or the gold auto.
I bought two of those before he died, so 2019, pre- pre-COVID, pre-death, 'cause I think he died February of that year.
I think he died right before- January, January 26th.
Okay, perfect.
January 26th, he dies.
COVID starts shutting down the end of March, so very, you had, like, two nuclear events.
I sold both those to Nate Burns at Grand Slam for 1,500 a piece.
I 5X'd my money.
I was like, "Great."
Like- I'm a genius.
Yeah, and then they went for 12,000 or some- whatever they did.
Right.
There are some pieces, though, you are right.
Like, some stuff it's like, oh, if I can I just bought a Jackson Dart downtown.
I flipped it the next day at the card show two weeks ago.
Made 20%.
I was thrilled.
I don't care about Jackson Dart.
Really?
I will tell you this, though.
The one piece I still regret selling more than anything ever, and I'm not even a memorabilia guy, there's a picture, it's in the shape of a lightning bolt.
It's baseball, so all, it had the original 11 500 home run members, aside from Babe Ruth.
So Mantle, Mays, Ted Williams, Schmidt.
It was this iconic picture.
Some of them were just prints.
Others were, like, not original paintings, but, like, lithograph maybe or something closer to that.
Signed by all 11 guys, 'cause they did a card show in 1990 in Atlantic City.
You had to have a ticket, a voucher, for each table to get it, and it had their name on it.
Well, this guy kept all 11 vouchers.
He had the whole thing framed around it.
One of a kind.
Like, there's not a lot of those originals anyways, and there's nobody that kept the tickets.
That thing was, like, 1,500 and then sold for five grand.
Ah.
And I was like, "Unbelievable."
Those are the things I look back at, though, like, "Dude, you should've just kept it, you dummy."
So- You've gotta- yeah, I've involved with some of those you've gotta keep a few things along the way that you love.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
And, and that's the thing, is, like, if you, this is my best pie- piece of advice I can give to people.
If you can collect stuff that you love and that, you know, from your logical perspective, with all the study that you do, you believe that people will find more collectible as the years go by, that's the key.
You gotta love it, and you've gotta think that- Head and heart as the years go by, people are gonna want it more.
That's the stuff you've gotta, you gotta keep some of that stuff.
Yeah.
You know the other trick I now do, and I've done it for the last few years?
'Cause I've gotten real big with Card Letter and, like, having my collection in there, and even the stuff I flip, I like to have- Oh, yeah two d- two different folders, 'cause I like to keep up.
There's probably 15 cards that are just not in there.
I don't wanna know if they're up 2% or 8,000%.
Like, out of sight, out of mind.
I just wanna keep them, so.
