ONLINE AUCTION FRENZY
We’ll remember 2021 as the year the hobby “went totally nuts,” as longtime appraiser and expert Simeon Lipman put it. If you were watching closely, you know exactly what “totally nuts” means.
“Everything went through the roof,” says Lipman, who has coordinated auctions for Christie’s, Lelands and other auction houses. “Certain things have come back down to earth, as they had to. But people are still paying crazy prices. Even this month [February 2022], there were sales that were completely insane. A Zion Williamson card went for around $600,000 [at Goldin Auctions]! He hasn’t been able to stay on the court. And Jasson Dominguez — he batted .258 in Single-A ball last year, but his card sold for almost $500,000 the other night [also at Goldin Auctions].
“Things like that are lunacy, cuckoo,” Lipman continues. “It’s just . . . nuts.”
Where the hobby in general soared to mind-boggling heights in 2021, so too did the online auction segment of the market. Online auction bidders
