No matter how much we talk about collecting for the love of it, the question about the value of baseball cards always pops up sooner or later.
So last week, I decided to try a little experiment and report on recent sales of some of the cards we all know and love (and, in many cases, covet).
Response to that piece was positive, so we’ll keep the lab work rolling for at least another go-round.
With that in mind, I thought it might be fun — and instructive — to dive into some of the big-ticket or otherwise intriguing items that have been gavelled on eBay over the last week.
So, here we go with five more big lots that will make you envious …
(Note that these listings contain affiliate links, which means if you click over to eBay and buy something, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.)
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 7 AND 1941 Play Ball Joe DiMaggio PSA 8
Think you won’t find top-of-the-line cardboard changing hands on eBay? Think again, Sparky!
I mean, baseball players don’t come much more top-of-the-line than Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, who together patrolled center field for the New York Yankees for more than 30 years.
And when it comes to iconic baseball cards, not many can top the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle (sorta) rookie card. The 1941 Play Ball Joe D. card is a classic, too.
So how about the chance to own both of those cards in one fell swoop? And what if the Mantle had been graded a 7 by PSA, and the DiMaggio an 8? Wouldn’t that be just so cool?
Darn right, it would be! But just how cool?
According to the winner of this lot, it would be $152,000 worth of cool. Yowza!
Top-of-the-line, indeed.
See the original eBay listing here (affiliate link).
1954 thru 1957 TOPPS BASEBALL LOT OF 670 CARDS
There is something almost indescribably exciting about coming across a partially full storage box of baseball cards that you can tell right away has a mix of years and styles.
Especially if those cards stretch back into the 1950s.
And especially especially if top loaders wink at you as you move the cards around.
You just know that someone has sunk a lot of time and tender-loving care into separating those cards from their original pack brethren and then loading them up in special holders for safety.
You get all of that and more browsing through the pics for this lot of 670 baseball cards from the 1954-1957 Topps sets that sold earlier this week. According to the seller’s description, some of the Hall of Famers included were Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Yogi Berra, and Roberto Clemente.
And you can see several other beauties in the listing photos, including multiple 1957 Topps Ernie Banks cards.
Great stuff, with a sale price that seems to have come in somewhere below the original $7500 asking mark.
See the original eBay listing here (affiliate link).
1969 Topps Reggie Jackson Rookie Graded BVG 9 Mint
It seems the Oakland A’s (née Kansas City Athletics) were pretty keen on ballpark hot dogs in years gone by.
And collectors eventually locked onto that trend, too.
Last time around, we looked at a 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson rookie card that brought big bucks (affiliate link) on eBay in mid-May.
Not to be outdone, a stellar 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson rookie card graded BVG (Beckett) 9 changed hands for $4750 this week. That’s not surprising when you consider that the Beckett population report shows just eight Reggies have achieved this grade out of 1643 total submissions.
That the card drew 59 bids is further evidence of its continued importance in the hobby.
See the original eBay listing here (affiliate link)
1954 Red Man Tobacco All-Star Team Andy Pafko – Unopened Package
Each unopened pack of baseball cards is like a miniature time machine, and it’s amazing just how far you can travel these days with a couple clicks of the mouse.
Even though we all know by now that cards from 1980s were made in huge quantities, it’s still a bit jarring to think you can pick up 35-year-old packs for reasonable sums.
Of course, if you’re willing to up the ante a bit, you can still find amazing unopened material from the 1970s, 1960s, or even the 1950s.
But when was the last time you saw an unopened package of Red Man tobacco from the 1950s with its baseball card intact? I’d never come across one until I saw this listing from this past week.
Here we have (had) a package of 1954 Red Man with Andy Pafko staring back at us from the back of the package. The gavel came down at a hefty $1800, but it’s hard to argue against such a price for an item that you just don’t find.
See the original eBay listing here (affiliate link).
1989 Upper Deck Baseball Unopened Case
No matter what you think of the direction the hobby has taken since the late 1980s, there is no denying that Upper Deck forever changed the way we look at baseball cards.
Starting with the prototypes they released in 1988, Upper Deck showed us just how professional, slick, and precision-made a baseball card could be. It was what we had been clamoring for over the last decade or more
So … collectors eagerly awaited the release of 1989 Upper Deck baseball cards, and when we saw that the Ken Griffey, Jr., rookie card was number one on the checklist, we lost our hobby minds. It was like history had been rewritten to give us a T-206 Babe Ruth card.
As the years passed, that Griffey card became every bit the icon we thought it would be, and we also found RCs of some other pretty decent players: Gary Sheffield, John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, Chris Sabo, Craig Biggio, Rob Dibble, Brady Anderson, and others.
Of course, we’ve learned that even vaunted sets like 1989 UD were produced in hefty quantities in the 1980s and 1990s, but this issue still maintains a mystique and popularity that keep us coming back for more.
And more is what a recent eBay lot provide, to the tune of a 1989 Upper Deck unopened foil pack case, boasting 20 boxes of 36 packs each. Since each pack holds 15 cards, that’s a whopping 10,800 chances to pull Griffeys and other treasures.
On the strength of those odds and ten bids, this case sold for $2275.
See the original eBay listing here (affiliate link).
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