Mile High Bolsters Hobby with Staggering Prices in Its $2.6 Million Spring 2009 Auction  

Centennial, CO -- Once again proving the hobby maxim that high-end collectibles are generally impervious to poor economic conditions elsewhere, Mile High Card Company allayed many doubts and fears within the hobby with the overwhelming results of its recent March 25^th auction. With sales totaling $2.603 million, and with the recent dissolving of the industry's largest firm, Mile High finds itself in a familiar position, confidently poised at the summit of the high-end auction scene. In terms of expertise, customer service, reliability, and, most importantly, results, Mile High stands strong and resolute, a full mile ahead (indeed above) the competition.  

KEY SCARCITIES

Results for key scarcities from the company's most recent event indicate an ever-increasing demand for elusive, high-grade material. The world's finest E103 Breisch Williams Cy Young and the world's fifth finest E90-1 Joe Jackson rookie led the way, each posting a final sales tag of $79,068. An SGC 40 VG 3 example of Jackson's E90-1 rookie also impressed, with a final sales tag of $22,321, and a PSA 8 NM/MT 1933 Delong example of Lou Gehrig chimed in at $32,410, while a PSA 8 NM/MT example of Lou's increasingly popular 1934 Goudey #37 recorded a final sales price of $14,864. Cardboard collectibles of another pinstriped hero, Mickey Mantle, also performed well, with a PSA 7 NM example of The Mick's 1951 Bowman rookie reaching $9,829, a PSA 8 NM/MT example of his 1953 Topps issue bringing $14,738, and an SGC 88 NM/MT 8 example of his 1954 Bowman issue bringing $5,358. 

HIGH-GRADE SCARCITIES

Leading the way in Mile High's vast selection of low-population, high-grade GEMS, a PSA 10 GEM MINT example of Sandy Koufax's second-year 1956 Topps issue reached $49,019, while a PSA 10 GEM MINT example of Willie Mays' 1963 Topps issue, the only one of its kind, brought a bewildering $30,860, and a PSA 10 GEM MINT example of Ernie Banks' challenging 1971 Topps issue, also a Pop 1, brought an impressive $12,773. High-grade examples from the 1951 Bowman Baseball issue performed particularly well, with PSA 9 MINT examples of Gil Hodges bringing $13,112, Tommy Byrne bringing $4,141, Gene Mauch brining $4,593, Carl Erskine bringing $2,397, and nearly a dozen PSA 9 MINT 1951 Bowman commons bringing anywhere from $1,195 to $1,618. Other notable, low-pop, high-grade sales included the following:

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  MHCC Makes Amazing Find of Rare
1968 Topps Plaks 

From the perspective of a standard-issue company set collector, 1968 was not a great year for The Topps Company. More PSA 10s have surfaced from the lackluster 1968 Topps Baseball set, for example, than from every other Topps Baseball issue of the entire 1960s combined. Frankly, they're just not that tough, and toughness is the defining characteritic of a sustainable collectible. But don't disparage the Topps gang for taking it too easy in 1968.

Among the most experimental Topps test issues of 1968 were the "All Star Baseball Plaks." Virtually unknown to most collectors today, Topps Plaks are bronze-colored plastic busts of two dozen stars of the late '60s issued in three-player sprues, like model airplane parts, along with one of two checklists and two sticks of bubblegum in a ten-cent wax pack. The checklist cards feature photos of the 24 players presumed to have been included in the set, and they are far easier to locate today than the actual Plaks. In fact, so scarce are the plastic busts that no one has yet been able to confirm the existence of all 24 checklisted players. Until now.
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