Baseball Card Market Report for December 29, 2022-January 4, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- What to expect from the hobby market in January 2023

Jan 06, 2023

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(Happy) New Year Brrrrrings Cold Prices

The 12th day of Christmas was yesterday, but if you were expecting to see a cascade of card sales at the top of the market, culminating with 12 drummers, or maybe a dozen Mantle rookie cards … eh … last week’s top eBay sales might be a tad disappointing.

You can see the full list below, as usual, but …

If the post-Christmas “rush” at the top of the card market is any indication, we could be in for a chilly cardboard winter.

Which begs the question …

Where Will Card Prices Head in January 2023?

So, here we are, less than a week into the New Year, when everything seems possible — good and bad.

Everywhere you look, folks are making predictions about and resolutions for 2023 … let’s not buck the trend, shall we?

So …

Since we are who we are, doing what we do — talking about baseball cards, that is — let’s take a stab at figuring out where the market will go … not in 2023 as a whole, but in January.

Yeah, that’s a hedge but 1) the whole world is topsy-turvy, which 2) makes 12 months seem like 12 decades in terms of trends, and 3) the card market is notoriously unpredictable on a year-to-year basis.

But we can at least take a stab at a month’s worth of changes, and we’ll base it on past trends.

Here’s how we’ll do it …

Pick five cards that are Big Deals in the hobby and trade at a pretty steady clip.
For each of the five cards, do this:
- Find the most common PSA grade for that card
- Find the average selling price in December of 2019 for that card in that grade
- Find the average selling price in January of 2022 for that card in that grade
- Find the profit or loss, in both absolute and percentage terms
- Repeat the previous four steps for 2020-21 and 2021-22

I did all that, and the results are below. Note that I only list the changes here, and not the average selling prices themselves. (You can see detailed pricing in the PSA price guide(s) — read about those tools in our post right here.)

Here are the results:

1968 Topps Nolan Ryan (#177) - PSA 6

January 2020 P/L: $100.00 (18%)
January 2021 P/L: $550.00 (50%)
January 2022 P/L: $150.00 (10%)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1975 Topps George Brett (#228) - PSA 8

January 2020 P/L: $30.00 (12%)
January 2021 P/L: $50.00 (9%)
January 2022 P/L: $250.00 (38%)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1980 Topps Rickey Henderson (#482) - PSA 9

January 2020 P/L: $50.00 (13%)
January 2021 P/L: $400.00 (24%)
January 2022 P/L: $50.00 (3%)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken, Jr. (#98T) - PSA 9

January 2020 P/L: -$10.00 (-5%)
January 2021 P/L: $350.00 (70%)
January 2022 P/L: $50.00 (11%)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr. (#1) - PSA 9

January 2020 P/L: $0.00 (0%)
January 2021 P/L: $125.00 (71%)
January 2022 P/L: $0.00 (0%)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

—

So the last three Januaries have been good for card prices, or at least these card prices.

Out of 15 period-card combos considered, 12 showed month-over-month price increases from the end of December to the end of January. And only one showed a (slight) decrease, with the other two entries essentially holding steady.

Does that mean that January of 2023 will deliver similar big gains?

Not necessarily. This is the era of layoffs, worker shortages, high interest rates, housing bubbles, inflation, rampant travel, and all sorts of other financial contradictions.

You never can tell, in other words.

But if you’re looking to buy any of these cards, just be aware that January has provided a pretty strong seller’s market for at least three years running.

Now, let’s see if any of our luminaries make the list of the …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for December 29, 2022-January 4, 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
Most expensive hockey cards sold in the last 30 days

Now, on with the show …

Baseball Card Values Newsletter

Discussion about this post

Baseball Card Values Newsletter

Baseball Card Market Report for December 29, 2022-January 4, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- What to expect from the hobby market in January 2023

(Happy) New Year Brrrrrings Cold Prices

Where Will Card Prices Head in January 2023?

1968 Topps Nolan Ryan (#177) - PSA 6

1975 Topps George Brett (#228) - PSA 8

1980 Topps Rickey Henderson (#482) - PSA 9

1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken, Jr. (#98T) - PSA 9

1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr. (#1) - PSA 9

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for December 29, 2022-January 4, 2023

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Discussion about this post