Baseball Card Market Report for August 11-17, 2022 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- The Contemporary Baseball Era in the Investment Corner

Aug 19, 2022

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The Cardboard King and His Court

If you’re looking for variety at the very top of the eBay baseball card market, I hope you were paying attention last week.

Because, after a diversion into Mike Ty Trout Cobb Land, we’re back in the kingdom of the Mickey Mantle Rookie Card this week, just like we were a fortnight ago (and in the weeks prior to that, too).

And this week, it’s a two-fer special, where we get the 1952 Topps Mantle in slot #1, and the true Mickey Mantle rookie card (1951 Bowman) in slot number 2.

The rest of our list (see bottom of post) is pretty solid, too, and that 1948 Bowman Jackie Robinson rookie card at #3 really pushed the real Mantle RC for runner-up honors, but this is always Mickey’s game to lose.

And speaking of losing, it’s time to see if we can manage to steer clear of losing our virtual shirts once again with our monthly visit to the interwebs in search of some bargains.

“Contemporary Baseball” in The Investment Corner

Last winter the Baseball Hall of Fame reconfigured its Veterans Committee yet again, revamping their “Eras” structure and setting up a vote this December for guys who did most of their damage from 1980 on and who are no longer eligible for the Cooperstown election through the writers’ balloting.

That means a whole slew of guys potentially will be up for consideration, including Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

And that gives us the chance now to (fake) buy into some potential new Hall of Famers before the hype train takes them closer to the sky. So that’s what we’re doing here in this installment of the Investment Corner: (not) picking up some likely Contemporary Baseball Era candidates.

Same rules apply as always: we have to pretend buy about $1000 worth of cards at the actual prices they sold for on eBay in recent weeks. Then we’ll come back in a year to see how we did with our picks.

Here goes …

(The following sections contains affiliate links to eBay listings for the cards being discussed.)

1986 Donruss Fred McGriff Rated Rookie (#28) - PSA 10 - $379.99

McGriff fell seven home runs short of 500 for his career, a plateau that almost certainly would have locked in his slot in the Hall of Fame. As things stand, Crime Dog fell victim of the retrofitted ten-year rule and fell off the ballot in 2019. Aside from Bonds and Clemens — and maybe even more so than those guys — and Lou Whitaker, McGriff has the best shot at Cooperstown this winter, and this is his best, most popular rookie card.

It’s a big spend for our budget, but perfect 10s are tough to come by and the ceiling is high.

See listing (affiliate link)

1980 Topps Dave Stieb Rookie Card (#77) - PSA 9 - $57

Stieb is a dark horse for election, just as he has been for decades. But the Blue Jays longtime ace was a better pitcher than Jack Morris, who’s already enshrined, and he was probably the best pitcher of the 1980s if you consider service time in that decade (Clemens and Dwight Gooden were around for only about half those years).

See listing (affiliate link)

1978 Topps Lou Whitaker Rookie Card (#704) - PSA 9 - $249.85

Whitaker has gained a lot of grassroots support for a Cooperstown plaque in recent years, and for good reason. In my book, he’s the most deserving candidate still on the outside looking in, Non-Scandal Division, and this looks like his time — finally! — to these eyes.

Sweet Lou’s RC is already expensive, but it’s hard to imagine HOF election making the price go down.

See listing (affiliate link)

1991 Upper Deck Final Edition Kenny Lofton Rookie Card (#24F) - PSA 10 - $22.50

Lofton is something like the tenth best centerfielder ever by measure of JAWS and finished his career with more than 2400 hits and 600+ stolen bases. And, coming in the heart of the Junk Wax Era, Lofton’s rookie cards are still pretty cheap.

See listing (affiliate link)

1987 Donruss Kevin Brown Rookie Card (#627) - PSA 10 - $37.56

Even more of a dark horse than Stieb, Brown probably stands little chance of ever grabbing a place in Cooperstown, but his numbers stand up well to plenty of guys who are already in. The black-bordered 1987 Donruss cards aren’t all that easy to find as 10s, so this is probably at least a safe buy.

See listing (affiliate link)

1995 Bowman Andruw Jones Rookie Card (#23) - PSA 10 - $214.99

Jones is right there with Lofton as an all-time centerfield talent, and he was well on his way to the Top 5 before he fell off the table in his 30s. With his son Druw picked second by the Diamondbacks in the last month’s MLB Draft, the Jones name is sure to get plenty of play in coming seasons.

See listing (affiliate link)

1987 Donruss Will Clark Rookie Card (#66) - $37.55

Clark doesn’t have the Hall of Fame bona fides of some others on this list, but he was one of baseball’s biggest stars in the first half of his career and stands as the face of the anti-PED movement. No one would bark if The Thrill got the call, and plenty would rejoice.

See listing (affiliate link)

—

So, there we go — $999.44 spent on six potential Hall of Famers, leaving us 56 cents for a twentieth of a gallon of gas or sip of Starbucks.

Time will tell how our picks turn out, just like a year’s worth of distance gives us some perspective on how we’re doing in our …

Sprint Home for Bucks

Last August, we sunk our faux funds into some players who had played big roles in pennant races of the past, with an — as always — toward cards we (I) thought had the potential for growth in the short or long term.

Here is the rundown of our “purchases” and our profit/loss, where our “selling” price is based on recent actual sales of cards in similar condition on eBay.

1975 Topps Robin Yount PSA 8

Bought (8/2021): $292.00
Sold (8/2022): $325.00
Profit/Loss: $33.00 (11%)

1974 Topps Dave Parker PSA 8

Bought (8/2021): $139.99
Sold (8/2022): $120.00
Profit/Loss: -$19.99 (-14.%)

1976 Topps Ron Guidry PSA 6

Bought (8/2021): $57.16
Sold (8/2022): $6.00
Profit/Loss: -$51.16 (-90%)

1978 Topps Burger King Lou Whitaker (ungraded)

Bought (8/2021): $16.50
Sold (8/2022): $25.00
Profit/Loss: $8.50 (52%)

1987 Fleer Will Clark PSA 9

Bought (8/2021): $26.99
Sold (8/2022): $8.00
Profit/Loss: -$18.99 (-70%)

1977 Topps Dale Murphy PSA 8

Bought (8/2021): $77.00
Sold (8/2022): $85.00
Profit/Loss: $8.00 (10%)

1973 Topps Dwight Evans PSA 8

Bought (8/2021): $297.92
Sold (8/2022): $300.00
Profit/Loss: $2.08 (1%)

1986 Donruss Fred McGriff PSA 9

Bought (8/2021): $36.00
Sold (8/2022): $47.00
Profit/Loss: $11.00 (31%)

1986 Topps Traded Barry Bonds PSA 9

Bought (8/2021): $50.00
Sold (8/2022): $30.00
Profit/Loss: -$20.00 (-40%)

1982 Topps Traded Ozzie Smith

Bought (8/2021): $6.50
Sold (8/2022): $9.50
Profit/Loss: $3.00 (46%)
—

All in all, we (fake) lost $44.56, or about 0.45% of our total $1000 spend.

But, like the stock market, you really only lose money here when you actually sell your cards, and the big on-paper losses in this group came from guys we should hold onto for awhile.

After all, the first Contemporary Hall of Fame ballot is coming up quick (see above), which could bode well for some subset of Yount, Whitaker, Clark, Murphy, McGriff, and Bonds.

Of course, not every card needs help from some arbitrary committee. Consider, for example, our …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for August 11-17, 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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