Sell or hold? The CGC dilemma
- Mark Potash
- May 21, 2025
- 3 min read
To-sell-or-not generally isn't a critical decision with vintage collectibles. With a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle or a 1968 Topps wax pack, you almost certainly cannot lose. You either take your profit today or hold it and take a bigger profit tomorrow.
Not so with graded magazines. While still a ground-floor collectibles hobby, CGC-graded magazines have commanded some high-end, eyebrow-raising prices usually reserved for more mainstream, established collectibles — $126,000 for Michael Jordan's "A Star Is Born" cover (1984); $60,000 for Wilt Chamberlain's first cover (1961); $32,400 for a 1964 Sandy Koufax cover; $30,000 for a Wayne Gretzky first cover (1981); $27,600 for a Mickey Mantle first cover (1956).
Yet, it's still a fledgling hobby that is far from a mainstream collectible. There's a lot of room for massive growth, but also room for volatility and decline. The graded magazine market is just a toddler, and nobody knows if it will grow up to become Mickey Mantle, Mark McGwire ... or Jose Canseco.
So when it comes to sell-or-hold, PSA's imminent entrance in magazine grading — reportedly sometime in 2025 — only complicates matters for some collectors/investors. In theory, PSA can only enhance the hobby — bringing much-needed competition for CGC and, more importantly, legitimizing graded magazines as a collectible and exposing it to the huge population of graded-card collectors.
But with the graded magazine hobby is such a developmental stage, it's still created a quandary for some collectors on two main fronts — 1) there's a lull in the hobby, presumably as collectors await the introduction of PSA; and 2) population counts of many valuable graded magazines are increasing as more and more collectors have magazines graded by CGC.
Recent sales at Goldin Auctions — currently the most popular auction house for graded magazines — illustrated the downturn.
A Dec. 17, 1990 newsstand issue of Sports Illustrated with Michael Jordan on the cover ("Another Bull Run") graded 9.8 by CGC (pop 2, none higher) sold for $12,200 in December of 2024. Two months later, another 9.8 version of that issue (pop 3, none higher) sold for $4,575.
A May 21, 1990 newsstand issue of Sports Illustrated with Jordan on the cover ("Show Time") graded 9.6 by CGC (pop 5, two higher) sold for $6,222 in August of 2024. In March, another 9.6 graded issue of that magazine (pop 6, two higher) sold for $1,464.
A May 11, 1992 newsstand issue of Sports Illustrated with Jordan (and Clyde Drexler) on the cover ("Collision Course") graded 9.8 by CGC (pop 3, none higher) bsold for $6,100 last September. In February of 2025, another 9.8 newsstand copy of that issue (with the same pop count) sold for $4,270.
So for collectors/investors with higher-end issues have a tough decision (if they haven't already missed the boat) — sell or hold? At this point, it appears the only choice is to wait and see if PSA's entry into the graded-magazine market raises all boats. But that best-case scenario likely will take awhile. What would you do?
There are only about 10,000 magazine collectors, half of whom only deal in raw issues. We need to have 100,000 magazine collectors in order for this hobby to be robust. There is a glut of items out there for sale, and not enough high-end collectors. The size of a magazine slab is the main problem for the hobby...inconvenient. We should have a national magazine convention to stoke interest.