Baseball Card Market Report for December 21-27, 2023 - Top eBay Sales post

PLUS -- Checking in on Steve Garvey cards

Dec 29, 2023

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Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

Once again last week, the top of the baseball card sales were littered with the Tom Brady Expos mockups perpetrated by Bowman Draft.

And once again, I pulled them out of the listings of the top-selling baseball cards on eBay at the bottom of this post…mostly. I did leave one Brady in the mix since it represents a snapshot of this point in time in the baseball market.

Otherwise, you’ll find some familiar names down there — Ohtani, Ruth, Mays — as well as some unfamiliar ones, courtesy of some recent draft picks and an old T206.

Speaking of old…

Checking in on the Steve Garvey Market

Dodgers legend and former Padres All-Star Steve Garvey turned 75 three days before Christmas, and used the occasion to look at some of his cards over on YouTube:

With Garvey mounting a bid for a US Senate seat out of California in 2024, he probably won’t fade out of the limelight anytime soon.

So I thought it might be a good time (and fun) to look at how Garvey’s cards have performed since the beginning of the pandemic.

To do that, I pulled selling prices for the most common graded condition of Garvey’s first ten cards, both in late 2019 and in late 2023, then looked at the differences. (Based on information in the PSA Auction Prices Realized tool).

Here is what I found:

1971 Topps Steve Garvey (#341) - PSA 7

2019 Value: $50
2023 Value: $150
Profit/loss: $100
% change: 200

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1972 Topps Steve Garvey (#686) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $60
2023 Value: $125
Profit/loss: $65
% change: 108

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1973 Topps Steve Garvey (#213) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $15
2023 Value: $35
Profit/loss: $20
% change: 133

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1972 Topps Steve Garvey (#575) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $23
2023 Value: $50
Profit/loss: $27
% change: 117

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1975 Topps Steve Garvey (#140) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $15
2023 Value: $35
Profit/loss: $20
% change: 133

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1976 Topps Steve Garvey (#150) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $10
2023 Value: $35
Profit/loss: $25
% change: 250

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1977 Topps Steve Garvey (#400) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $22
2023 Value: $50
Profit/loss: $28
% change: 127

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1978 Topps Steve Garvey (#350) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $8
2023 Value: $25
Profit/loss: $17
% change: 213

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1979 Topps Steve Garvey (#50) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $15
2023 Value: $45
Profit/loss: $30
% change: 200

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1980 Topps Steve Garvey (#290) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $8
2023 Value: $50
Profit/loss: $42
% change: 525

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—

All of these cards more than doubled in value over the last four years, with the average among the ten seeing a 165% increase in selling price since late 2019.

Garvey’s 1980 Topps card, which usually ranks among the favorites when you ask long-time collectors, leads the pack with a five-fold bump up.

Of course, by the time you read this, those prices could be edging even higher thanks to Garvey’s senate run. This is a good example of an off-field event that can affect card prices even decades after a player has retired.

But even Garvey would probably need some Presidential-level news cycles to bump him onto the list of …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for December 21-27, 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 …

Baseball Card Values Newsletter

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