I purchased the card in May of 2022. This was one of my many low-dollar purchases on eBay, made during one of my frantic buying phrases; This happens when I’m in a particularly good or particularly bad mood. “Stop buying things,” my wife would say when the UK demo cassette of White Town’s song “Your Woman” arrived at the house. And I would respond, “But I’m in one of those manic shopping phases when I’m in a particularly good or particularly bad mood!” Eventually I throw that item in a box and forget about it, and then I try to remember to work on things in therapy and maybe ask for a change in medication.
Anyway, this particular purchase was her fault for once. He was the one who told me about the card. Jan usually experiences sports through me, but she is a baseball fan. We had a long discussion on our third date Bobby Estalella And was he the worst player named in the Mitchell Report. (Feel free to discuss in the comments.) So she knows a thing or two about sports cards. And one of the reasons we love each other so much is that his brain, like mine, is filled with esoteric knowledge that can never be useful in any scenario. Sometimes she says some wonderful things to me and I just kiss her.
One such scenario was in May 2022, when he told me about the Mark Jackson 1990-91 NBA Hoops basketball card. Fun(?) fact I didn’t know about this common piece of cardboard. The front of the card features an image of Jackson on the Madison Square Garden court; He’s throwing the entry pass. Behind Jackson, watching from the front row are convicted murderers Lyle and Eric Menendez.
The card was first discovered by Stefan Zehrens in 2018. The brothers moved into the background as they went on a shopping spree following the August 20 murder of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez, purchasing numerous luxury items and cars; Lyle put down a $300,000 deposit on a $500,000 restaurant in Princeton, NJ. pair later said it was an effort To deal with the guilt of killing his parents. They testified at their trials that the murders were caused by Jose’s years of sexual abuse, which Kitty knew about and did nothing to stop. Sometime between the murders and their March 1990 arrests, the brothers bought a pair of courtside seats to a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden, and made this strange shared cameo on a basketball card.
Although Xerence appears to be first discovered Horrible fact about the card, no movement until a tweet about it in August 2018 after a few months At the end of December. “I’m glad it really went viral,” said Xerence, who has a subset of his poetrytold slam In 2018. “It’s a nice little news.” However, Jackson also commented on the card he didn’t have much to say About it: “Unfortunately, because of the history behind it, I was always aware of it. I heard about it whenever it took hold. People recognized what it was all about and who was in the background. I am well aware of this.
This photo may have been taken sometime between November 4, 1989 and the end of February. (Lyle was arrested on March 8; Eric turned himself in to police three days later.) So it could have been one of about 25 games. Jackson is wearing a knee pad, but it appears he has worn it all season. I couldn’t get any closer than to determine when the photo was taken.
I was in one of those phases – let’s just say it was a good mood – so I went on eBay. I decided I wanted to make sure I got one Real Mark Jackson card. Dave Jamison writes in his wonderful book, “Card grading has become its own subindustry of the baseball card business.” Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession“And it is now so ingrained in the hobby that it is almost impossible to sell a card of any value without first getting it slabbed by a reputable grader.” I wasn’t trying to make a big fuss, but I’d never had a graded card before. I decided to look for one.
I stopped at one of the SGC gradings. It wasn’t a top grader on the market, which makes me think the price was a little low. I paid $16.12 for 8.5/10 Mark Jackson Hoops #205 from the 1990-91 set. It arrived about a week later, and I showed it to Jan. we didn’t have fight gossip about. At least she was happy with the deal I got.
He should be even happier now. I put it in my small collection registry at PSA, the largest grading firm, and they valued it at $24 + $7.41. I’m an investment expert! And I can even earn more on this card than the current price.
well maybe. The Menendez Brothers are in the news again for a few reasons. Old stories of the trial and defense of the brothers a few years ago went viral on tiktokMany users are expressing sympathy towards this couple. This helped generate a crowd on Menendez material. There is a new drama series called demonCreated by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, streaming on Netflix. There’s also a new documentary on the streamer with extensive jailhouse interviews of the pair. there’s probably actually Very There’s a lot of material from the Menendez brothers available right now: “11 Menendez Brothers Documentaries Worth Watching demon,” a recent headline hollywood reporter Reads.
And who wouldn’t want to own a piece from the Menendez brothers, especially if it’s graded 8.5/10 and is encased in Lucite slabs? Lots of mean people like me, I guess! Multiple news outlets have reported on this surge in prices For the Menendez Brothers card, however, the initial surge actually occurred when the otherwise 10-cent card jumped a few bucks in the initial wake of the frontline reveal. Right now, the cards are really fair salesA quick scan of eBay by yours truly shows that the cards are probably going for something like Little Prices increased, but not by much. PSA database shows equal short jump,
There is a limit to all this, mainly due to the incredible abundance of cards that companies like NBA Hoops were producing at the time. There are too many cards—this is a common card—to be that valuable. PSA Estimate There are 7,200 cards available in their database alone. But the increase in sales seems quite real. Some are rare, or at least rare: Goldin is auctioning off a version of the card Signed by Mark JacksonAnd it is currently at $110. But a quick search of eBay shows 15 sales today. Yesterday I counted 121. There were 101 on October 9. I counted 53 on September 22nd. On August 27, only 21 cards were sold, but demon Netflix was not a hit then.
Even if prices aren’t really moving a ton, it might be time to make an arbitrage play: Sell now, and make a new version whenever the prices drop a bit when the Menendez Brothers fever is over. Buy. I can earn a rupee or two. Of course one problem: I don’t know where the card went. It’s in a box somewhere in the basement. I think my wife and I will talk again tonight.