Baseball Card Market Report for February 2-8, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Does the market prefer power arms over finesse?

Feb 10, 2023

Note: When you click on links to various merchants in this newsletter and make a purchase, this can result in this newsletter earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Dust in the Marketplace

It’s no secret that top-of-market prices these days aren’t quite what they were in the middle of the pandemic, or even last year at this time.

Indeed, you might say that the place has gotten a little dusty, judging by the relative pittances you see at the top of lists like the rundown of last week’s big eBay sellers at the bottom of this post.

But this week, our list is also sort of dusty for another reason … it’s loaded with super-vintage cards.

Starting with a 1907 Ty Cobb rarity, our first three cards all hail from 1951 or before. Further down the list, we see another pre-1920s card, a couple from the 1930s, five from the 1940s, and several more from the 50s.

It all sort of makes sense in this period of economic uncertainty, don’t you think?

After all, the next superfantastic 1-of-1 whizbang new card is just a few mouse clicks from winking into existence, but they stopped making cards from the 1920s a good while ago last I checked.

The power of nostalgia keeps the old stuff perking along fairly steadily, if nothing else.

Speaking of power, do you think the market prefers …

Power or Finesse??

Pitchers and catchers are heating up their Ramblers (American Motors, baby!) and loading up their lunch pails for the long season ahead.

So, why don’t we toss some warmup pitches of our own with a hurler-based market question?

No reason not to, so what I want to know is, does the market prefer power arms or finesse artists?

Or does it not care at all?

To find out, I did the thing you might expect me to do if you’ve been reading these ramblings for long …

First, I grabbed five Hall of Fame power pitchers.

Then, for each one, I …

Found one of his top historical comps, based on Baseball Reference’s Similarity Scores, who’s also in the Hall of Fame but who was more of a finesse pitcher
Found the top rookie card for each of those two pitchers, by measure of number of graded card sales
Found the Card Value Multiplier for each of those cards
Found the Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM) for the two cards, with the power guy in the numerator and his comp in the denominator

Here’s how this week’s matchups played out …

Nolan Ryan v. Tom Glavine

1968 Topps Nolan Ryan (#177) - PSA 7

WAR: 81.3
Value: $3000
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 600

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1988 Topps Tiffany Tom Glavine (#779) - PSA 10

WAR: 80.7
Value: $1100
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 367

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 1.63

Sandy Koufax v. Whitey Ford

1955 Topps Sandy Koufax (#123) - PSA 5

WAR: 48.9
Value: $2000
Common Value: $35
Multiplier: 57

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1951 Bowman Whitey Ford (#1) - PSA 5

WAR: 57.1
Value: $1900
Common Value: $35
Multiplier: 54

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 1.06

John Smoltz v. Jim Palmer

1988 Fleer Update John Smoltz (#U-74) - PSA 10

WAR: 69
Value: $75
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 15

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1966 Topps Jim Palmer (#126) - PSA 7

WAR: 68.5
Value: $280
Common Value: $15
Multiplier: 19

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 0.79

Bob Gibson v. Robin Roberts

1959 Topps Bob Gibson (#514) - PSA 7

WAR: 89.2
Value: $1800
Common Value: $16
Multiplier: 113

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1949 Bowman Robin Roberts (#46) - PSA 6

WAR: 86.1
Value: $600
Common Value: $55
Multiplier: 11

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 11.3

Tom Seaver v. Greg Maddux

1967 Topps Tom Seaver (#581) - PSA 7

WAR: 109.9
Value: $2100
Common Value: $9
Multiplier: 233

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1987 Donruss Greg Maddux (#36) - PSA 10

WAR: 106.6
Value: $200
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 40

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 5.83

—
What do we see here?

Well, four of the power pitchers do outperform their finesse comps, rookie-card-wise, though Ryan and Koufax not by much.

I sort of cheated with the Ryan-Glavine matchup, though, by using Glavine’s “glossy” RC rather than his base, matte version. That high-gloss treatment tends to move Junk Wax cards more into legit collectible territory.

If we used the plain old 1988 Fleer Update card, Ryan would be further ahead.

That leaves three pretty solid victories for the strikeout guys, one close call — where Ford’s Yankees mystique helps him keep up with Koufax — and one “loss.”

That one L comes courtesy of Palmer bettering Smoltz, who may suffer in this comparison for both his Junk Wax-ness and his journey into relieverdom.

Overall, the power arms come out on top here, just about like you’d expect.

Speaking of power and expectations, how about a romp through the …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for February 2-8, 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