Baseball Card Market Report for August 8-14, 2024 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Checking in on Keith Hernandez baseball cards

Aug 16, 2024

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Go Ahead and Look Back

One of the famous quotes generally attributed to the great Satchel Paige is, “Don’t look back; something might be gaining on you.”

When it comes to our list of the most expensive baseball cards sold on eBay last week (bottom of post), the 1948 Leaf Paige rookie card at the top doesn’t have much to worry about. It can look back all it wants, and feel confident that nothing is gaining on it.

With a selling price at over $46,000, it nearly tripled the second-placer.

Paige cards in generally don’t show up in our “standings” here very often, but he’s here twice this week — the big RC up top, and a 1949 Bowman further down.

But when it comes to the sheer volume of cards on our list, no one can touch Mickey Mantle, who shows up ten times below. Some things never change in this hobby, huh?

Now, here’s a look at another guy who was pretty steady for a long time.

Checking in on Keith Hernandez Baseball Cards

If you had told Cardinals fans in 1979 or especially Mets fans in 1986 that Keith Hernandez would still not be in the Hall of Fame in 2024, they might have been accused of being a bitter National League West fan.

But even though Hernandez won 11 Gold Gloves as one of the greatest first basemen ever and nabbed a share of the 1979 N.L. MVP award, he finished with fewer than 2200 hits and a lifetime average that slipped below .300 (.296). Couple that with mediocre power (162 home runs) at a power position, and Hernandez had trouble finding support with Hall of Fame voters.

He’s found plenty of support among fans and collectors over the decades, though, and his cards are still popular in the hobby. So…

Below are ten key early Hernandez base cards, spanning from his multiplayer 1975 Topps rookie card through his 1983 Topps card. 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:

1975 Topps Keith Hernandez (#623) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $30
2024 Value: $60
Profit/loss: $30
% change: 100

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1976 Topps Keith Hernandez (#542) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $15
2024 Value: $23
Profit/loss: $8
% change: 53

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1977 Topps Keith Hernandez (#95) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $12
2024 Value: $25
Profit/loss: $13
% change: 108

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1978 Topps Keith Hernandez (#143) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $20
2024 Value: $22
Profit/loss: $2
% change: 10

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1979 Topps Keith Hernandez (#695) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $12.5
2024 Value: $60
Profit/loss: $47.5
% change: 380

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1980 Topps Keith Hernandez (#321) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $9
2024 Value: $35
Profit/loss: $26
% change: 289

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1981 Topps Keith Hernandez (#420) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $15
2024 Value: $25
Profit/loss: $10
% change: 67

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1981 Fleer Keith Hernandez (#545) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $15
2024 Value: $35
Profit/loss: $20
% change: 133

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1981 Donruss Keith Hernandez (#700) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $10
2024 Value: $75
Profit/loss: $65
% change: 650

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1983 Topps Keith Hernandez (#) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $35
2024 Value: $60
Profit/loss: $25
% change: 71

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—

Overall, this group of Hernandez cards saw an increase in selling price of 247% over the last five years — higher than we’ve seen in recent “studies” for Dave Parker, Dale Murphy, and Al Oliver.

Part of that likely owes to the inclusion of some PSA 10 cards in our list above, as the “GEM” grades really exploded in popularity and price during the pandemic.

But Hernandez also scores well in Sabermetric-type stats, like WAR. Baseball Reference, for example, rates him as the 21st greatest first baseman overall. When you consider that 25 men at the position are in Cooperstown, it’s not hard to see why many continue to make the case for Hernandez.

Now for some baseball cards that make their own case for dropping some jaws…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for August 8-14, 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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