Baseball Card Market Report for August 15-21, 2024 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Checking in on Will Clark baseball cards

Aug 23, 2024

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Boring Bombers?

As these things go, the list of the most expensive baseball cards sold on eBay last week (bottom of post) looks sort of blah.

No card topped the 20K mark for the first time in a few weeks, for one thing. And no individual player ran away with the show — Shohei Ohtani, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Paul Skenes, and others are all well represented.

So, too, is Barry Bonds, whose cards continue to percolate — if not scorch — in spite of his outside-looking-in Hall of Fame status.

In short, while plenty of money changed hands along with these cards last week, nothing super thrilling transpired on the eBay front.

Maybe collectors are saving their “thrills” for the pennant run and October? Could be.

But if you want a “Thrill” right now, come join me in…

Checking in on Will Clark Baseball Cards

Last week, we took a look at how Keith Hernandez baseball cards have performed on the market over the last five years, so it seems only natural that we follow up with…Will Clark!

Like Hernandez, “The Thrill” was one of the most revered first basemen of his generation, and he hit with more power to boot. While Clark didn’t have anywhere near the glove skills of Hernandez, he more than made up for that with fans and collectors with his tough, no-nonsense approach to the game.

But Clark had trouble staying on the diamond in his 30s and played his last game at 36 in October of 2000. His career numbers — 2176 hits, 284 home runs, no MVP awards, one Gold Glove — just didn’t ring the bell for Hall of Fame voters and he fell off the ballot after one try (2006).

Still, there are tons of collectors and fans who revere Clark today and think he got short shrift in the recognition department — especially now that a PED stain marks so many stars of the era, while Clark remains whistle-clean in that regard.

Below are Clark rookie-ish cards, including late-year 1986 issues and the three 1987 base sets. For each card, I found selling prices for copies in the most common graded condition (via the PSA Population Report and Auction Prices Realized tools) from both late 2019 and from this spring (2024).

Here is what I found:

1986 Donruss The Rookies Will Clark (#32) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $7
2024 Value: $10
Profit/loss: $3
% change: 43

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1986 Fleer Update Will Clark (#U-25) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $10
2024 Value: $20
Profit/loss: $10
% change: 100

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1986 Topps Traded Will Clark (#24T) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $7
2024 Value: $16
Profit/loss: $9
% change: 129

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1987 Donruss Will Clark (#66) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $15
2024 Value: $40
Profit/loss: $25
% change: 167

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1987 Fleer Will Clark (#260) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $30
2024 Value: $120
Profit/loss: $90
% change: 300

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1987 Topps Will Clark (#420) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $25
2024 Value: $40
Profit/loss: $15
% change: 60

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

—

Overall, this group of Clark cards saw an increase in selling price of 162% over the last five years — higher than we’ve seen in recent “studies” for Dave Parker and Dale Murphy, slightly lower than Al Oliver’s numbers.

No matter how you slice them, though, high-end Clark rookie cards more than doubled in price (as a group) over the course of the pandemic and are still holding serve as 2025 approaches.

Clearly, Clark still “Thrills” collectors.

And now, here are some other cards unleashing some thrills of their own…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for August 15-21, 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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