Baseball Card Market Report for December 14-20, 2023 - Top eBay Sales post

PLUS -- Comparing the 1984 update/traded sets

Dec 22, 2023

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Making an Expos-ition of Himself

If you’ve been following “new card” news at all over the past month or so, you’ve probably heard some rumblings about Topps’ dalliance with Tom Brady…on the baseball side.

Playing on the fact that the old Montreal Expos drafted Brady back in 1995 before he became the face of the NFL, Topps (Bowman) has pushed out cardboard in recent weeks showing the former QB in an Expos uniform.

The point of all this is that several listings related to those cards showed up on the roster of the most expensive baseball cards sold on eBay last week (see bottom of post).

I removed them from our list — they’re more Tom Brady Cards than Baseball Cards, and they sort of clutter up our normal operations around here.

But, hey, if you want to see what’s changing hands on that front, go to eBay and type in “Tom Brady Expos.” No shortage of results await, I’m sure.

Back here in this little corner of the world, the rest of last week’s top-selling baseball cards feature all-time rookie cards that belong to guys named Willlie and George and Sandy and Roberto.

Once upon a time, there were a couple of sets that also featured plenty of popular RCs…

1984 Fleer Update v. 1984 Topps Traded

One of our videos over on YouTube this week took a look at recent selling prices for 1984 Topps baseball cards:

But even though that summer was a great one for the hobby, the fall may have been even better thanks to the arrival of Dwight Gooden rookie cards.

Not to mention the arrival of the first ever Fleer Update set, crashing yet another Topps party after three years of Topps Traded ruling the postseason card roost all by itself.

But which of the two 1984 Traded/Update sets do collectors prefer?

To find out, at least to some extent, I grabbed the top five players who appeared in both sets and then compared selling prices for each (based on the PSA Auction Prices Realized tool), before and after (now) the pandemic in PSA 10 condition.

Here is what I found:

Dwight Gooden

1984 Fleer Update Dwight Gooden (#U-43) - PSA 10

2019 price: $300
2023 price: $550
Profit/loss: $250
% change: 83

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1984 Topps Traded Dwight Gooden (#42T) - PSA 10

2019 price: $85
2023 price: $275
Profit/loss: $190
% change: 224.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Pete Rose

1984 Fleer Update Pete Rose (#U-102) - PSA 10

2019 price: $35
2023 price: $150
Profit/loss: $115
% change: 329

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1984 Topps Traded Pete Rose (#103T) - PSA 10

2019 price: $35
2023 price: $70
Profit/loss: $35
% change: 100

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Bret Saberhagen

1984 Fleer Update Bret Saberhagen (#U-103) - PSA 10

2019 price: $70
2023 price: $115
Profit/loss: $45
% change: 64

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1984 Topps Traded Bret Saberhagen (#104T) - PSA 10

2019 price: $17
2023 price: $55
Profit/loss: $38
% change: 224

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Tom Seaver

1984 Fleer Update Tom Seaver (#U-106) - PSA 10

2019 price: $30
2023 price: $45
Profit/loss: $15
% change: 50

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1984 Topps Traded Tom Seaver (#108T) - PSA 10

2019 price: $13
2023 price: $45
Profit/loss: $32
% change: 246

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Jimmy Key

1984 Fleer Update Jimmy Key (#U-61) - PSA 10

2019 price: $30
2023 price: $115
Profit/loss: $85
% change: 283

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1984 Topps Traded Jimmy Key (#62T) - PSA 10

2019 price: $20
2023 price: $40
Profit/loss: $20
% change: 100

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

—

So the upstart Fleer “wins” every single battle in terms of today’s value, with the exception of Tom Seaver. That one’s a wash.

But the performance of these cards across the pandemic years was more of a mixed bag: three of the Topps cards increased in value faster than their Fleer counterparts.

Both trends make some sense.

On the one hand, Fleer Update has always been harder to find, with hobby lore holding that Fleer held production numbers down that fall until they knew how well collectors would receive their new offering.

Of course, the cards were a hit, and we all scrambled to buy up whatever sets we could find — hence, higher prices.

But some of that nuance has probably been lost over the years, and the Topps cards gave a new generation an easier point of entry into the 1984 year-end sets over the last half decade.

So the market was ripe for a little Topps catch-up.

Now, here are some cards that don’t need to catch up to anyone…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for December 14-20, 2023

(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 …

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