Baseball Card Market Report for February 15-21, 2024 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Checking in on 1974 Topps commons

Feb 23, 2024

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Pitchers and Catchers Bats Report

One look at the list of the top-selling baseball cards on eBay last week (bottom of post) tells you that the boys of summer are at least on their way to Spring Training.

Because, as pitchers and catchers were busy warming up diamond complexes in Florida and Arizona last week, Shohei Ohtani and a group of big young bats were busy warming up the hobby.

Yes, after weeks of old cards dominating our listings, Ohtani is back on top, and he has a good chance of staying there through at least October.

The good news is that the top end of the baseball card market continues to offer something for everyone, so you’ll still find plenty of vintage material showcasing names like Mantle, Paige, Jackie, Aaron, and Mays.

But the sun is dawning on a new season, and the hobby looks ready.

Now, for something a bit more dusty…

How Are 1974 Topps Commons Doing?

Last week, we took a look at 1975 Topps commons and how they’ve been doing in the market over the last 4-5 years.

As part of that analysis, I quasi-promised to come back and look at a) 1974 Topps commons and b) 1975 Topps top-sellers.

Consider this to be the fulfillment of part a) — you might want to check out last week’s piece for the ground rules before we dive into the numbers here.

I’ll wait right here while you do that.

OK, ready to roll? Cool, here are the before-and-after sales prices for several 1974 Topps commons:

1974 Topps Dave Roberts (#651) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $2
2023 Value: $3
Profit/loss: $1
% change: 50

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1974 Topps Bill Parsons (#574) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $4
2023 Value: $4
Profit/loss: $0
% change: 0

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1974 Topps Jim Lonborg (#342) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $4
2023 Value: $4
Profit/loss: $0
% change: 0

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1974 Topps Danny Thompson (#168) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $4
2023 Value: $5
Profit/loss: $1
% change: 25

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1974 Topps Bobby Floyd (#41) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $9
2023 Value: $5
Profit/loss: -$4
% change: -44

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1974 Topps Ted Sizemore (#209) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $4
2023 Value: $6
Profit/loss: $2
% change: 50

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1974 Topps Ray Sadecki (#216) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $5
2023 Value: $6
Profit/loss: $1
% change: 20

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1974 Topps Don Wilson (#304) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $4
2023 Value: $6
Profit/loss: $2
% change: 50

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1974 Topps Ken Rudolph (#584) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $5
2023 Value: $6
Profit/loss: $1
% change: 20

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1974 Topps Bob Robertson (#540) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $3
2023 Value: $6
Profit/loss: $3
% change: 100

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—

Overall, these cards showed a 16% increase from 2019 through 2023 — very close (if slightly below) both the 21% bump we saw with 1975 Topps commons and the 19% rate of inflation reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (again, see last week’s post for details).

Since we’ve already done 1974 Topps stars, right here, we can also compare these commons to those top-rung sellers. As we saw back then (January), those star cards increased in selling price an average of more than 160% during the pandemic.

That gives us a couple of round numbers for 1974 Topps overall and lets us say that, based on these sales, star cards from the set increased in value 10X faster than commons did from 2019 to 2023.

Yowsa!

That’s a big number, and there’s probably a lot more we can do with it. And so we shall, in later days.

For this day, though, it’s time to move on to the…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for December February 15-21, 2024

(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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