Baseball Card Market Report for August 25-31, 2022 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Does "heart and soul" mean expensive baseball cards?

Sep 02, 2022

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Hit King Rumbling

We’re coming up on 37 years since the night that Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb’s all-time record for career hits. Yeah, I know that MLB subsequently took away a couple of safeties from ol’ Tyrus, but the celebration was when it was — September 11, 1985.

Anyway, I was *just* writing about my memories of that momentous occasion for an upcoming issue of the Wax Pack Gods newsletter and now here we have a Cobb Cornucopia in our list of top-selling baseball cards on eBay last week (see bottom of this post).

Coincidence? Or is the ghost of The George Peach starting to get restless?

I’ll leave that for you to decide, but the man himself sure seemed to be the restless sort on the diamond.

Full of fire and p*** and vinegar. You might say he had a lot of heart for the game.

Say, that reminds me of an old hobby song that often comes up this time of year, when the likes of Cobb or, say, Terry Pendleton, tries to will his team to the promised land …

Do Heart-and-Soul Players Command a Premium?

September is an exciting time in baseball, and sometimes it can feel downright magical.

And, often, when the magic is unleashed, we’re introduced — or re-introduced — to the players who really make their teams tick.

Like how David Ortiz always seemed to come up big for the Red Sox when the stakes were at their highest.

Or how Tug McGraw willed his team to the World Series (or so the legend goes) in 1973 despite being maybe the weakest division winner ever.

You gotta believe!

But do you gotta believe in the cards of these players? That is, all else being equal, do the card prices of these “heart and soul” players perform better than similar players who were maybe a bit more mundane in their greatness?

To find out, I racked my memory banks to come up with five guys who really made their teams rock and then identified a roughly equivalent player for each one (by measure of Baseball Reference’s Similarity Scores).

Then, I applied our familiar algorithm …

Find the top rookie card for each of the two players, by measure of number of graded card sales
Find the Card Value Multiplier for each of those cards
Find the Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM) for the two cards, with the heart-and-soul player in the numerator and the normal-star guy in the denominator

Here is what I found out …

(The below sections contains affiliate links to eBay and Amazon listings for the card being discussed. Stats culled from Baseball-Reference.com.)

Tug McGraw v. Dan Quisenberry

As I mentioned above, Tugger gets the lion’s share of the credit for propelling those ‘73 Mets to the brink of a World Series title. Quiz was merely maybe the best closer of his generation while playing a big role on a run of successful Royals teams fronted by George Brett.

1965 Topps Tug McGraw (#533) - PSA 8

WAR: 21.8
Value: $125
Common Value: $16
Multiplier: 8

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1980 Topps Dan Quisenberry (#667) - PSA 9

WAR: 24.6
Value: $30
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 10

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Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 0.8

Tony Perez v. Orlando Cepeda

Ask long-time Reds fans when The Big Red Machine ended, and many/most will point to the December 1976 trade that sent Doggie to the Montreal Expos. Cepeda was a great player who even won an MVP award (1967) but never quite reached the heart-and-soul acclamation level with the Giants or Cardinals.

1965 Topps Tony Perez (#581) - PSA 8

WAR: 54
Value: $515
Common Value: $16
Multiplier: 32

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1958 Topps Orlando Cepeda (#343) - PSA 7

WAR: 50.1
Value: $325
Common Value: $15
Multiplier: 22

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Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 0.36

Paul O’Neill v. Reggie Sanders

O’Neill wasn’t the *best* player on the 1996 Yankees or the three clubs that won the Fall Classic from 1998 through 2000, but he was maybe the hardnosed-est of them all. And he demanded excellence and professionalism from his teammates. Sanders, meanwhile, is a an underrated star who never found himself in much of a postseason limelight.

1986 Donruss Rated Rookie Paul O'Neill (#37) - PSA 9

WAR: 38.9
Value: $15
Common Value: $2
Multiplier: 8

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1991 Upper Deck Reggie Sanders (#71) - PSA 10

WAR: 39.8
Value: $40
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 13

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Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 0.62

Kirk Gibson v. Juan Gonzalez

Gibson always had a reputation for being a smash-mouth, all-out baseball man, and he was a key to the Detroit Tigers amazing 1984 team. But to most outsiders, he sort of worked in the shadows of Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jack Morris, and the rest. That all changed when Gibby carried the Dodgers to a title in 1988 on one leg.

Juan Gone, meanwhile, was an amazing talent whose teams lost all four American League Division Series they saw, and whose reputation got canned by the Steroid Era.

1981 Topps Kirk Gibson (#315) - PSA 8

WAR: 38.4
Value: $32
Common Value: $2
Multiplier: 16

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1990 Upper Deck Juan Gonzalez (#72) - PSA 9

WAR: 38.7
Value: $7
Common Value: $1
Multiplier: 7

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Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 2.29

David Ortiz v. Jason Giambi

Giambi was at his Yankees’ peak while Big Papi was building his legend with the Red Sox in the mid-2000s, but Giambino was never THE man in New York … a little fella with a (virtual) “C” on his sleeve sort of ensured that.

1997 Fleer David Ortiz (#512) - PSA 10

WAR: 55.3
Value: $370
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 123

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1991 Topps Traded Jason Giambi (#45T) - PSA 10

WAR: 50.5
Value: $17
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 6

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Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 20.5

—

And the verdict?

Well, our first three “heart and soul” guys lose the multiplier battle to their (maybe) less ballyhooed counterparts. The O’Neill-Sanders results are frankly sort of surprising and *may* represent and undervaluing of O’Neill’s rookie card. Certainly something is going on there that might merit a deeper look at some point.

And the two heart-and-soul guys that DID win their cage match?

Gibson has those iconic postseason moments, no steroid taint, and a managerial stint to boost his values. Juan Gone, meanwhile, has a rapid decline phase and “PED” tattooed to his chest.

Ortiz is fresh off his Hall of Fame election, while Giambi will never get there, so there’s that. And there’s also the steroid pass that Ortiz seems to have picked up at the principal’s office, while Giambi still wears the Scarlet S.

So, should you pour your pennies into heart-and-soul players at the expense of others. Not necessarily if monetary returns are you main goal. If those players are YOUR faves, though, pour away.

Plenty of pennies this past week got poured into our …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for August 25-31, 2022

(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
Most expensive hockey cards sold in the last 30 days

Now, on with the show …

Baseball Card Values Newsletter

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