Baseball Card Market Report for April 18-24, 2024 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Checking in on the cards of the Boys of Summer

Apr 26, 2024

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The Hammer Eclipses Them All

Three weeks ago (Eclipse Day for some of us) marked the 50th anniversary of Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run. As if to mark the occasion, and give it a little time to sink in, the market responded last week with a real humdinger.

Check out the top listing in our rundown of the most expensive baseball cards sold on eBay last week (bottom of post), and you’ll see what I mean.

Besides that amazing rookie card, Hammerin’ Hank shows up three times on our roster this week, along with multiple appearances by Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Shohei Ohtani, and Mike Trout (to name a few).

So, yeah, collectors continue to dig the longball.

Not that we don’t also dig some of the more subtle aspects of the game, as evidenced by the ongoing love affair with the long-since-moved Brooklyn Dodgers.

Collecting the Boys of Summer

Carl Erskine passed away on April 16, 2024, at the age of 97. He was a member of the fabled Brooklyn Dodgers teams of the 1950s who seemed to meet — and lose to — the mighty Yankees in the World Series every year.

That is, until 1955 when Dem Bums finally didn’t have to “Wait ‘til next year” and took down the Yanks in a hard-fought seven-game Fall Classic.

Erskine got lit up in his only appearance in that World Series, but he was a key cog in the Dodgers rotation, winning 20 games in 1953 and in double digits every season from 1951 through 1956.

Erskine, or “Oisk”as Dodgers fans called him, was also the last of the famed “Boys of Summer” as listed by author Roger Kahn in his book, called (of course) The Boys of Summer.

I thought Erskine’s passing would be a good time to take a look at the market for the rookie cards of the 13 men Kahn designated as his “Boys of Summer.” For this exercise, I compared the rookie cards of each player to common values using our usual card value multipliers method, with prices culled from the base PSA Price Guide.

Here’s what I found:

1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson (#79) - PSA 4

Value: $18700
Common Value: $125
Multiplier: 149.6

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1949 Bowman Gil Hodges (#100) - PSA 6

Value: $150
Common Value: $55
Multiplier: 2.73

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1949 Bowman Roy Campanella (#84) - PSA 6

Value: $1000
Common Value: $55
Multiplier: 18.18

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1949 Bowman Duke Snider (#226) - PSA 6

Value: $1550
Common Value: $80
Multiplier: 19.38

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1941 Play Ball Pee Wee Reese (#54) - PSA 5

Value: $1025
Common Value: $50
Multiplier: 20.5

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1951 Bowman Carl Erskine (#260) - PSA 7

Value: $125
Common Value: $70
Multiplier: 1.79

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1952 Topps Clem Labine (#342) - PSA 6

Value: $275
Common Value: $195
Multiplier: 1.41

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1949 Bowman Carl Furillo (#70) - PSA 6

Value: $80
Common Value: $55
Multiplier: 1.45

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1952 Topps Joe Black (#321) - PSA 6

Value: $275
Common Value: $195
Multiplier: 1.41

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1952 Topps George Shuba (#326) - PSA 6

Value: $350
Common Value: $195
Multiplier: 1.79

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1948 Leaf Andy Pafko (#125) - PSA 4

Value: $125
Common Value: $125
Multiplier: 1

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1949 Bowman Preacher Roe (#162) - PSA 6

Value: $90
Common Value: $80
Multiplier: 1.13

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1949 Bowman Billy Cox (#73) - PSA 6

Value: $55
Common Value: $55
Multiplier: 1

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—

The pattern is pretty clear here: the no-doubt Hall of Famers carry multipliers in the 15-20 range for the most part, with the legendary Jackie Robinson rightly blowing that number out of the water.

Gil Hodges, who waited decades for a Cooperstown plaque and who still has his doubters, sits near 3.

The rest of the “boys” are between 1-2, partly because the vintage commons from their RC sets are tough to come by in their own right.

What else is clear is that the old Brooklyn Dodgers continue to capture the imagination of collectors well over 60 years after they left town, and their cards are hobby classics.

Now, here are some other cards that at least command prices like they’re hobby classics…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for April 18-24, 2024

(Quick note — this list contains affiliate links to the original eBay listings.)

If you want to see updated 30-day market toppers anytime, we have a couple of resources over on WaxPackGods.com:

Most expensive baseball cards sold in the last 30 days
Most expensive football cards sold in the last 30 days
Most expensive basketball cards sold in the last 30 days

Now, on with the show …

Baseball Card Values Newsletter

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