Archive for Holly Holm

This needs to be said about our hobby and card “values” in wake of Rousey loss

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2015 by Cardboard Icons

I’m not an MMA fan per se. I don’t buy Pay Per Views, seek Online streaming of events or even care really about who’s the champ of their weight class in whatever promotion.

But unless you were living under a rock last night there was no chance you were going to avoid the hot topic: Ronda Rousey getting knocked out by Holly Holm with a kick to the neck and a succession of punches to the face and head to end the fight and Rousey’s reign as baddest woman on the planet.

You’ve all seen the video or still images. No need for me to go there.

I watched this madness unveil on Twitter via countless reactions and a seemingly endless barrage of bandwagon jumpers.

But what started to upset me, as a card collector, was when discussions started to center around how a Ronda Rousey 2012 Topps Finest autograph sold on eBay for $1,300 before the fight and how blazing hot Holly Holm’s rookie cards immediately after the fight.

   
Rovell is not a hobby guy.  He’s a sports business reporter, so he’s always looking for a numbers angle. I don’t fault him for that.

While what he tweeted is true if you believe what you see on eBay, the perception of actual worth of a card gets misconstrued before, during and after big events such as the Rousey-Holm fight.

The reaction to Rovell’s tweet included mostly discussion about how the Rousey card is seemingly worthless now and how dumb collectors are.

Additionally, this conversation about the Rousey card then leads to a discussion about Holm’s card(s).

During the minutes that made of the entire fight, Holm’s card went on eBay from just a few dollars to one hitting triple figures.

While this is all true, what you won’t hear from the mainstream media outlets or via their reporter’s Twitter streams is that many of the immediate high sales on eBay for cards of people involved in significant events often go unpaid and the “worth” or “value” ends of being incorrectly reported to the masses. 

True, Rousey cards lost value generally speaking and interest for Holm’s card increased based on the outcome of UFC 193. But they surely are not to the extreme that some would have you believe based on the immediate numbers shown on eBay.

Collectibles by nature are volatile and what’s important for everyone to understand is that the value of a card is determined in the exact moment a transaction is actually completed. And a deal it’s not actually complete until cash or goods are exchanged and the items is delivered.