Baseball Card Market Report for January 26-February 1, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Does Spring Training boost card prices?

Feb 03, 2023

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Head and Shoulders (but not shoes) Above

Take a gander at the list of top-selling baseball cards on eBay last week, and you’ll see an all-time classic at the very pinnacle.

And, when you consider how infrequently you see genuine copies of the 1915 Cracker Jack Shoeless Joe Jackson card, it’s little wonder that something of a bidding frenzy erupted for this one.

But any hopes that the $45K price tag was a sign that we’re returning to pandemic-level gaud here at the top of the market will be dashed when you see that #2 on the list is a 1959 Topps Mickey Mantle at about a third the cost.

The seasons — at least from a baseball perspective — are about to change, though, which means the market might, too.

So …

Does Spring Training Boost Card Prices?

We’re in February now (said Mr. Obvious) which, for most of America means … well, more winter.

But for baseball fans, the arrival of February means we start batting around that most beautiful of phrases: “Pitchers and catchers report.”

Yeah, Spring Training is just around the corner, which means a new jolt of diamond life is, too.

And for card collectors, Spring Training always lights the collecting fire, or stokes it to new levels.

But does that stoking extend to card prices? That is, does the advent of Spring Training itself boost card values, at least temporarily?

As with all these questions we ponder around here, it’s tough to nail down a definitive answer for what’s about to unfold in the market, but what we can do is look backwards.

In the case of card prices and Spring Training, in particular, we can look back at hobby performance durng the pandemic era, from 2020 through 2022, to see what Spring Training wrought.

We don’t have the space here to look at everything in the market, so we’ll narrow our focus a bit.

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 at the end of January 2020 for that card in that grade
- Find the average selling price at the end of March 2020 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

Spring Training 2020 P/L: $0.00 (0%)
Spring Training 2021 P/L: $850.00 (52%)
Spring Training 2022 P/L: -$150.00 (-9%)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1975 Topps George Brett (#228) - PSA 8

Spring Training 2020 P/L: $20.00 (7%)
Spring Training 2021 P/L: $260.00 (43%)
Spring Training 2022 P/L: $50.00 (6%)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1980 Topps Rickey Henderson (#482) - PSA 9

Spring Training 2020 P/L: $25.00 (6%)
Spring Training 2021 P/L: $100.00 (5%)
Spring Training 2022 P/L: $200.00 (11%)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

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

Spring Training 2020 P/L: $15.00 (9%)
Spring Training 2021 P/L: -$150.00 (-18%)
Spring Training 2022 P/L: -$75.00 (-15%)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

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

Spring Training 2020 P/L: $15.00 (20%)
Spring Training 2021 P/L: $25.00 (8%)
Spring Training 2022 P/L: $0.00 (0%)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

—

So what do we see?

Well, generally we actually do see increases in card values here. Of the fifteen card-period cnzombinations, in fact, ten of them show value growth in the roughly two months of Spring Training.or

Of the remaining five card-period groupings, three saw price drops, while two held their own.

The losers?

The Ripken RC the last two years, and the Ryan rookie last year (2022). Ryan was also one of the no-growth guys, in 2020, but his legendary rookie increased its value by more than half during Spring Training of 2022.

The flatliner was Junior in 2022.

Overall, then, we might expect a bump up in prices for blue chip cards during Spring Training in general, though it is interesting to note that prices for all of these cards — except Brett — fell in the period from late March 2021 to late January 2022.

So, maybe … just maybe … Spring Training is a good time to take advantage of a buying frenzy if you’re looking to sell. Maybe not the best time to load up, though.

And if there is a Spring Training bump, maybe it will carry over to cards like those on our list of …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for January 26-February 1, 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 January 26-February 1, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Does Spring Training boost card prices?

Head and Shoulders (but *not* shoes) Above

Does Spring Training Boost Card Prices?

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 January 26-February 1, 2023

Discussion about this post

Head and Shoulders (but not shoes) Above