The Meaning of Something

Today, an item from CNN that has nothing to do with innumeracy or, for that matter, news of the usual sort.  It's just a headline and a couple of brief excerpts.  Here's the headline:

"Honus Wagner baseball card sells for record $2.3 million"

	Perhaps you are wondering why this baseball card was worth $2.3 million.  Easy!  "This particular one was preserved in spectacular condition,'' said Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator of Newport Beach - the company that certified the authenticity of the card. "It's the Holy Grail of baseball cards.'' And what about those in not-such-spectacular condition?
	The others "you could stick in middle of the street and let cars drive over it through the day, take it in your hand and crumple it up, and it still would be a $100,000 card,'' said Seigel, [the seller].

Apparently there are only 60 of these cards extant.  Given that maybe a few are worth in the million dollar category, and the balance are a few hundred thousand, I think it would be fair to say that the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, could corner the market in Honus Wagner cards with just the $54 million bonus he earned this year alone.  Of course he would have to purchase them discreetly to avoid driving up the value of those not yet in his hands.

My paltry collection of spectrum analyzers pales in comparison!

NP:  "Back to the Wall" - The DiVinyls

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