Holy Grails? There Are a Billion of Them
From Chrétien de Troyes and the origins of King Arthur’s legend in the Middle Ages, to modern retellings through the likes of Indiana Jones and Monty Python, the search for the Holy Grail is a perilous gauntlet saturated with death and failure. Those seeking the chalice from the Last Supper typically must confront famine, illness, ferocious knights and, quite possibly, killer rabbits.
Fortunately, for sports card collectors, the term “Holy Grail” is purely metaphorical, though the quest nevertheless begins with a difficult, but essential, question: which card, of the roughly one billion produced since 1875, is at the end of the journey? Which is unique among all others as a singular obsession worthy of the time, effort, and, of course, money involved?
There are, obviously, one billion potential answers to those questions, though posing the issue to dealers at a recent Greenie Sports Cards show in Broadview Heights, OH reveals a few common themes.
After all, the daunting number of choices can be knocked down significantly by understanding that few people are going to award grail status to a 1987 Topps Don Schulze, or millions upon millions of similarly-unremarkable commons. Even if they did, for whatever reason, that journey begins and ends with a few bucks and a trip to eBay, and what fun is that?
Some, like Larry Chiu, go straight for the opposite of that, and land on the most recognizable and valuable pieces of cardboard ever printed, exceedingly rare grails that boast numerous suitors.
“1952 Topps [Mickey] Mantle,” he said. “It’s an iconic card. It sells for a million for a PSA 10.”
The good news? A 1952 Mantle in worse condition can be obtained for the price of a new car.
“I’ll probably never own one,” Chiu admitted. “Maybe a PSA 1 or 2. Maybe.”
Of course, a lot of the magic of cards and collecting rests not in the value of any specific item, but in the way it allows people to retain a certain enthusiasm towards sports and athletes that most lose as they age. Accordingly, many attendees at the Cleveland-area show look to their hometown stars and legends above all others – just as they might have done when they were ten years old.
Luke Heestand of Hartville Sports Cards, for example, is trying to chase down an autographed version of Jim Brown’s rookie card, from the 1958 Topps set, and doesn’t care what it would be graded. LeBron James, a man who has joined Brown atop the local sports hierarchy over the last 20 years, was the choice of Bob Evans, specifically his 2003-04 Exquisite Collection Rookie Patch Autograph that is typically valued well into six-figure territory.
Star Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez is another popular grail subject, including with Alex Schacht, who is after a non-autographed 2014 Topps Chrome Gold card of Ramirez.
“That’s my favorite card of all time, I’ve been looking for it for a legit four years, cannot find it. If you’ve got one, hit me up,” he pleaded.
Naturally, there are also plenty of people with random, unexpected grails, serving as a reminder that the only limitation on treasure selection is the bounds of human imagination.
Rachel Mansfield, for example, is after a Sylvester Stallone PSA/DNA authenticated Rocky Balboa card. Perhaps trying to manifest its acquisition, she wore a t-shirt featuring the iconic movie boxer poised to get off the mat for one more round to the Greenie show.
That reality begs one other question: what’s your Holy Grail?
