A Price Way Too High To Be Believed

Recently a rare Ryan Bader card showed up for auction, not super rare but it is #/25. The card is a 2009 Topps UFC Round 2 red autograph and this specific card is #14/25. This is only the second copy of this card that I have seen since I started collecting Ryan Bader six years ago (the last card sold in 2012) so it is not something that shows up every day.

While I knew that I would not be bidding on the card because doctor bills come first, I still watched the card. Recent low serial numbered Bader autographs have sold in the $25 range, which is what I expected of this card too. Like I said, this is a rarer card and it is from his first year in the UFC so I figured if there was a bidding war it could possibly end a little higher, but no higher than $35-38 range.

Before I went to bed it was at $47, which completely surprised me, and when I checked when I woke up I was floored to see it end at $255. That is seriously insane and I thought maybe shill bidding was involved but it does not appear to have happened. This was just a straight up bidding war that nobody wanted to walk away from until it was over. Someone paid $200+ over what this card is worth.

I have five Bader #1/1 cards and ten #/30 or less and the most I have paid was $26 plus shipping so I cannot understand what would drive a person to spend this much money on a card. This kind of price is what you would expect from top tier fighters like GSP, Rousey or McGregor not what you would expect to see from a mid-level Light Heavyweight fighter who has never gotten close enough to sniff a championship belt.