Baseball Card Market Report for January 12-18, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- How did cards of Hall of Fame holdovers perform in 2022?

Jan 20, 2023

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Creating a 1-of-2 and the Sliding Scale

If you’ve paid any attention to the new card market over the last couple of decades, you’ve no doubt noticed the bluster over “1:1” cards, wherein a manufacturer hypes and releases a single copy of some super-duper special card.

A collector pulls said card, sells it for a bajillion dollars, and the manufacturer moves on to its next super-duper singular sensation.

It’s sort of like playing the lottery, and it’s sort of a strange concept to think that card makers can create something so ostensibly valuable right out of the pack. It’s something that could never have happened in the “old” days.

Interestingly, though, the modern hobby actually has introduced the same concept to those dusty old cards we collected in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s and 1980s (though to a lesser extent).

You can see a great example of this at the very pinnacle of our list of top-selling cards on eBay last week.

In particular, a 1969 Topps Yaz All-Star card sold for $23,000, which may seem impossible until you consider that a) the card was graded PSA 10 and b) there are only two copies of that card in that grade in the world.

It’s a 1:2, in other words.

For now, at least.

Until, you know, a third copy gets so anointed. Sure, it’s unlikely that will happen any time soon, but what happens when it does?

And what if someone unearths a Mr. Mint-style “find” of 1969 Topps cards that yields 10 or 20 perfect Yaz’s? Then each one falls from a 1-of-2 to a 1-of-10 or 1-of-20, that’s what.

The point?

Mostly just a ramble, I suppose, but there’s something in all those words to the effect that you never really know what’s going to happen in this hobby from decade to decade.

The next rarity-maker — or rarity-buster — might be just around the corner.

Speaking of just around the corner, the Cooperstown announcement looms, so ponder.

Ponder something like …

How Did Cards of HOF Holdovers Fare in 2022?

There are 14 players on the 2023 Hall of Fame ballot who were also on the 2022 ballot. Those range from second-year guys like Alex Rodriguez all the way up to Jeff Kent, now in his tenth and final year on the ballot.

Reading down that list gives you a quick tour of much of baseball history for the last 30 years or so, and it got me to wondering (surprise).

In particular, I wanted to know … how have the baseball cards of these ballot holdover fared in the year between votes?

To find out, I …

… found the most popular rookie card for each player (by measure of the PSA Population report).
… found the selling price for that card in its most common condition for December 2021, and again in December 2022.
… found the value multiplier for the RC, using the more recent value in the numerator and last year’s value in the denominator.

Here is what I found …

(Note: The following section contains affiliate links to eBay listings for the cards being discussed.)

1995 Bowman's Best Blue Scott Rolen (#87) - PSA 9

Years on ballot: 6
December 2021 Value: $80
December 2022 Value: $60
Multiplier: 0.75

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1993 Topps Traded Todd Helton (#19T) - PSA 10

Years on ballot: 5
December 2021 Value: $155
December 2022 Value: $135
Multiplier: 0.87

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1994 Bowman Billy Wagner (#642) - PSA 9

Years on ballot: 8
December 2021 Value: $35
December 2022 Value: $160
Multiplier: 4.57

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1995 Bowman's Best Blue Andruw Jones (#7) - PSA 9

Years on ballot: 6
December 2021 Value: $35
December 2022 Value: $50
Multiplier: 1.43

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1989 Upper Deck Gary Sheffield (#13) - PSA 10

Years on ballot: 9
December 2021 Value: $40
December 2022 Value: $70
Multiplier: 1.75

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1994 SP Alex Rodriguez (#15) - PSA 9

Years on ballot: 2
December 2021 Value: $400
December 2022 Value: $200
Multiplier: 0.5

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1992 Fleer Update Jeff Kent (##U-104) - PSA 9

Years on ballot: 10
December 2021 Value: $30
December 2022 Value: $30
Multiplier: 1

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1992 Bowman Manny Ramirez (#532) - PSA 10

Years on ballot: 7
December 2021 Value: $35
December 2022 Value: $30
Multiplier: 0.86

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1989 Upper Deck Omar Vizquel (#787) - PSA 10

Years on ballot: 6
December 2021 Value: $25
December 2022 Value: $25
Multiplier: 1

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1993 Bowman Andy Pettitte (#103) - PSA 9

Years on ballot: 5
December 2021 Value: $35
December 2022 Value: $25
Multiplier: 0.71

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1998 Bowman Chrome Jimmy Rollins (#181) - PSA 9

Years on ballot: 2
December 2021 Value: $40
December 2022 Value: $40
Multiplier: 1

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1995 Bowman's Best Bobby Abreu (#3) - PSA 10

Years on ballot: 4
December 2021 Value: $50
December 2022 Value: $30
Multiplier: 0.6

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2000 Bowman Chrome Draft Pics Mark Buehrle (#69) - PSA 10

Years on ballot: 3
December 2021 Value: $95
December 2022 Value: $85
Multiplier: 0.89

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1994 Bowman Torii Hunter (#104) - PSA 8

Years on ballot: 3
December 2021 Value: $25
December 2022 Value: $10
Multiplier: 0.4

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—

Before we dig into this bloodbath, a couple of caveats.

First, and mainly, the sales volume for some of these cards is pretty low. That means we don’t always get to see December-to-December comparisons.

In those cases, I took the latest-in-year sale for each or 2021 and 2022, and called it good.

Second, and similarly, sometimes the most populous grade saw zero (or near-zero) sales, so I slid up or down the scale as needed.

Say la vee, as my grandpappy used to, uh, say. “La vee,” I’d of course reply in obeyance.

Now …

Of our 14 could-be-Hall-of-Fame rookie cards, eight have multipliers less than one — that means they’re selling at lower prices NOW than they were a year ago.

Of the remaining six, three flatlined … no changes.

That leaves us with just three winners, and the nearly-five-fold largesse from Billy Wagner looks specious to me, though I can’t realy disprove it’s validity other than to say, “tiny sample size.”

The other two, Andruw Jones and Gary Sheffield, are interesting. Each of those gents has a strong Hall of Fame case, though each carries his warts. Maybe with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Curt Schilling off the ballot, collectors are expecting the much lower pariah factor that Jones and Sheffield carry to actually carry the day with voters.

We shall see.

Otherwise, considering not one of our “losers” has struck out, given up a home run, or teased a puppy (that we know of) in the last year, I can only surmise the crumbling prices are another symptom of a softening market.

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Sorta like the top of the top of our list of …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for January 12-18, 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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