The Yak Shack Forum

So I stopped in my local shop today to talk to the guy who takes care of the sportscard side of the business and he pulled out this felt bag with a super super thick screwdown with a card in it.......and shockingly.....(sorry trying to make this suspenseful so you can get the a feel for my reaction)....he had acquired the cut signature from Topps 2004 baseball (about a $40 box) of none other than...........................................................THE POPE :o

Yes the recently deceased POPE JOHN PAUL II (I think that is the right pope I am not Catholic so the pope is the pope to me), oh and of course it is 1/1.

As far as he know this is the only Pope cut signature that has been produced (as there have now been multiple releasing including 1/1's of others such as G Washington and B Franklin, etc.)

Oh and before someone asks he bought it from a guy who pulled the card from a pack at a shop about 30 minutes north in Stockton, CA.

The owner of that shop offered him $2,000 on the spot for it but he declined.  SO he walked in to the local shop and asked Jeff how much he would offer an he said $4000 cash on the spot.   Done deal :)

Any guesses as to what this will go for he will be listing it on ebay soon and no doubt Beckett (like nonsport mag only for the sports side of things) will be tracking this sale.

And for the record my guess is $25,000.  He thinks $6,000.   I guess depending how you look at it it is either poor timing or great timing.

 :o

How ironic for it to surface at this time! I wonder if he plans on selling it or not ... I bet he could make a bundle especially since it's a 1/1 card. Does anyone know the prices for the G Washington or B Franklin?

EDIT: Beckam1 posted the prices in a reply just as I was posting. In fact, he posted in response to a lot of the stuff I had to say  ;)

He is going to list it on ebay.  There was a G Washington that sold for $26,500.   However according to Beckett baseball there was a dual G Washington and B Franklin auto that just sold for a little over $15,000 how cool would that card be.

This is the only Pope John Paul the Second card I've ever seen:

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/EmmasOneandOnly/Other/th_023-00016b.jpg) (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/EmmasOneandOnly/Other/023-00016b.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/EmmasOneandOnly/Other/th_023-00016m.jpg) (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/EmmasOneandOnly/Other/023-00016m.jpg)

Just to make sure it is clear the one he has is an autographed signature of the Pope

I know, I didnt say this was the card he had.

A fortune, there's no doubt about it - but I think it's poor taste timing (as profiteering from a pontiff's death seems in poor taste to me). But very good timing for sale of the card because everyone is running high on emotion for him.

Here is the auction link already over $1700.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5184587652&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5184587652&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1)

Interestingly enough the as I said before the guy who listed it runs the sports card part of the local shop, and the guy who is currently the high bidder is his boss, the owner of the shop :-\

It is rather bad taste to release it now. Good business sense, but bad taste :-\

ya it ios but it would still be amassing to have it.if only i had that kind of money.....

I don't really think it is bad to sell it now, IMO a card like this is really a very special card and should go to someone who it would mean something to.'

Now on the other hand I have seen the opposite too, I am sure all US posters will know who this person is, anyway there was a professional football player who instead of signing for a new huge (about $4 mil. a season) contract joined the Army shortly after 9-11 (Pat Tillman).   He was killed in action in Afghanistan about a year to year and a half ago.  All the sudden all the football cards that you could get for 10 cents a piece were up on ebay being sold for $20-$100 for his RC.  This was certainly only about profiting of his tragic death.

I thought that was in bad taste as these people had the cards sitting in there common boxes and wanted to profit off of his death.  

I am not sure this should be considered a tragic event.  The pope was rather old, and the writing was on the wall with all of his health problems.  Certainly not a life cut short.  Look at all the great things he did.  Also I think there is a little bit of a difference for a dealer to sell cards at any time, than a collector.  After all that is how they earn there living.

What does everyone else think?  And with me knowing how he got the card it is more coincidence in timing than anything else.

Over $2200 and still and only been up for less than 1 1/2 days.

Over 600 hits already.  I told him to list it on the front page of ebay but he didn't.

No no you are right Becks. It's not tragic - what would have been tragic was if he died in 1983ish when he was shot... this is just sad for many folks.

Although it's probably good news for AIDS in Africa!

I'm such a mean little girl I posted a moriorium on my auctionne site that no one could mention the death of an actor in their auctionne's titles. I said they could mention in the description if they wanted to, as long as it was tasteful. What caused it was Enterpirse's Kelly Waymire who passed away right before the card set with her auto in it..that and someone posted an auctionne with the word deceassed! in it. I'm pretty sure anyone with good sense can appreciate that an exclamation point was a bit much.
One shoudl always strive to find a balance between making a sale and good sense ;)

$4300+ with still over 5 days to go and almost 2,000 hits.

At least he will get at least what he put into it back.

You are not mean - you are a person with decent morals!

I can understand selling a card in those kind of circumstances, like this current JP auction, but to use their death as a major selling point is poor taste in my opinion!

I wouldnt have sold it. Me being a Christain I know nothing of the Pope but he is no longer with us and I would love to have this card in my collection because he was a great man.

It is a tough decision, but I know for a fact the guy makes about $25,000-$30,000 working 6 days a week at the shop and makes most of his money buying collections and individual cards from people and turning around and selling them on ebay or to individuals who collect a certain player or team.

Oh absoloutely. It's not like it's a rip roaring trade in Pope John the Second's head. After all there was a time when rich folk collected memorabilia/relics like that from religious "celebrities" ;)

$7,900 about 16 hours to go!

Anyway the auto ended up at $8,100 a while back, Jeff told me the winner then said her son bid on it when she was at work and was not going to pay (not her fault  >:()). 

So he offered it to other bidders.  No real takers, and by the time he got down to the third or fourth I think they started wondering what was going on.

Anyway then he relisted I think with a BIN of $7,000.  He had many emails wanting to work out a deal but couldn't come to an agreement with anyone.  So he has relisted again.

Anyway the most interesting part is that there are articles that are starting to pop up all over the place.  I came across one last night and then opened MSN and found this article link on the FRONT PAGE.  And appartently they have actually finally called him to ask questions, because as of last Fri he hadn't heard from anyone.  Also the article says it is going to be on Beckett Baseball's next cover. :o

I would say that is pretty cool, and good publicity.  So here is the link to the article on MSN's home page

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/3602790

Well I hope that all the publicity brings him luck, interest and a slightly higher (and more serious) winning bid :)

The people who think they can bid on things and don't really have to buy them really PMO.  I can understand the occasional misunderstanding or misleading listing that buyer have to deal with (I once bought a box of LOTR Trilogy w/ BIN and then realized it was a retail box) but paid the sellers listing fees.

I am sure the womans son wasn't bidding on it when she was at work.  I personally think all buyers and sellers should have a small $ amount in an account with ebay to be able to list high ticket items, or bid on items over a certain $ amount (maybe $100 or so).  That would definately stop people from screwing things up.  Sellers who disappear with peoples money would then lose the money in there account and buyers would either have to pay the listing fees or not be authorized to bid on high $ items if they didn't have an account.  Just an idea, if they don't change something they should change the name to EFRAUD.com   

I really think there are sellers who have ripped of people for $1,000's of dollars and wait a few months and start selling again only to do the same thing.

EBay and sellers dont catch that. People relisting things. I mean you'd think the ripped off seller would alert them or something :-\

I may have missed someone writing this, but the cards has been relisted:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5195111658&fromMakeTrack=true

 :ebay:

Look at the bidders list, I would certainly be a little concerned about the bidding of people with little or no feedback on that kind of item.

I told him to require approval for anyone before they can bid on it.

Yeah, the high bidder right now, munaaminaaazim, with only 2 feedback, can't be nice for the seller to watch him as the high bidder, I hope someone with a high feedback rating will make the high bid, and make the seller a bit more sure that he actually will complete the deal...

Has anyone been keeping an eye on this.... :o....$101,000+ w/ 3 days left.  Darn, he told me last week if I offered him $4,500 for it he would take it just to get out of it.

I wish I had $4,500 cash to burn >:()  That will be a pretty good investment.  Although I think that is one of those that you would certainly have to report on your taxes ;) A little to much public attention for the IRS not to pick up on that one.

oh my god, i cant believe it  :o :o :o bet he is glad that the first sale fell through!!!

I'm watching this auction too!! :o :o :o

I notice he's changed his listing over to an 'approved bidders list' from the ordinary aucton listing he had yesterday, which hopefully will weed out the low feedback bidders. I also notice that several bidders have had their bids voided by eBay or others have withdrawn their bids ... still, it's an amazing auction to watch and I hope it sells this time and the money comes through for him! ::) ;)

What the???....the price has gone down from 101k+ to 72k, must have had some bid retractions or something...well it is still an amazing price. 10 hours to go, will be interesting to see what it finishes at.

At least he finally changed it to approved as mentioned before I told him to do that from the start.  I am pretty sure that is why the high bid has gone down, at one time the high bid was over $1,000,000.  Yes 1 Million.  I am pretty sure that is what made him change the listing.  I don't understand why people do that crap and bid it up to 1 Mil just goofing around.  The auction fees on this are going to be pretty pricey.  Overall I would say it was worth it for a $4,000 investment.  I would say the person who sold it will be kicking themselves the rest of their life :'(

Yow - the final value fees hurt just thinking about it! :o

It has ended $72,424.  Wow not a bad final price now the key is will the person actually cough up the money.  That is a lot to spend on a card.  I will find out from the owner if this guy really is going to pay up.

The buyer has good feedback, so maybe the sale will go through.  At least the high bidder wasn't someone with zero feedback who might have bid on the card as a joke.

The saga continues:

http://cgi.ebay.com/POPE-JOHN-PAUL-II-2005-TOPPS-WORLD-TREASURES-AUTO-1-1_W0QQitemZ5227060832QQcategoryZ98015QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

ahhhhhhh I wondered what happened with this auction, as I noticed the high bidder from the second auction appeared to deny all knowledge of having bid on it in the first instance! :-\
*fingers crossed* it sells this time ... third time's the charm as they say! ;)

not quite on the same topic but i did pull a William Seaward auto from 2005 topps series 2. He negotiated the Alaska purchase. here is a couple pics of the card: http://www.freewebs.com/spirit_lupus/cards.htm
from the signature its hard to tell who it even is. i am not planning on selling it. I am amazed i could even pull a card like that.

I think that's incredible!  I can't even imagine pulling a 1/1.  Maybe someday.  :o=

Dave - I know this topic is a bit dusty from lack of use, but can you update us what actually happened on that third auction for the Pope's cut signature card (assuming you can remember of course!) - did it finally sell and the guy get his money or what?

Cheers, m'duck!  ;)