Baseball Card Market Report for July 11-17, 2024 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Getting the 'Scoop' on Al Oliver baseball cards

Jul 19, 2024

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Young, Old, and Up the Middle

As usual, this week’s list of the most expensive baseball cards sold on eBay last week (see bottom of post) has a little something of everything — in fact, the (sold) offerings are even more eclectic than usual.

From Josh Gibson and Lou Gehrig to Paul Skeens and Brooks Lee, just about every era, league, and baseball skill set is represented in some form or another. Guess that’s fitting for this time of year, when the All-Star break treats us all to the great talents the game has to offer.

And speaking of great talents at the All-Star Game, let’s do some…

Checking in on Al Oliver Baseball Cards

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve looked at the cards of superstars from the 1970s and 1980s who once looked like surefire Hall of Famers but ended up falling short…at least so far.

Last week, Pirates and Reds great Dave Parker was our subject, and we saw that Cobra’s cards haven’t missed a beat in the last five years.

This week, I thought it would be interesting to turn our attention to one of Parker’s teammates. Al Oliver may have been less flamboyant than Parker with his peak performances, but the two men ended up with remarkably similar career numbers.

And with seven All-Star appearances, three Silver Slugger awards, and a National League batting title under his belt, Oliver has enjoyed his share of groundswell support for Cooperstown induction over the years.

Now, on to our exercise…

Below are the first ten Oliver base cards, which takes us from his multiplayer 1969 Topps rookie card through his 1978 Topps card. Unlike Parker and Dale Murphy, then, Oliver’s early cards don’t quite reach into the three-company era (Topps, Fleer, and Donruss) that began in 1981.

For each Oliver card, I found selling prices for copies in the most common graded condition (via the PSA Population Report and Auction Prices Realized tools) from both late 2019 and from this spring (2024).

Here is what I found:

1969 Topps Al Oliver (#82) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $40
2024 Value: $110
Profit/loss: $70
% change: 175

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1970 Topps Al Oliver (#166) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $30
2024 Value: $75
Profit/loss: $45
% change: 150

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1971 Topps Al Oliver (#388) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $45
2024 Value: $150
Profit/loss: $105
% change: 233

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1972 Topps Al Oliver (#575) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $12
2024 Value: $50
Profit/loss: $38
% change: 317

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1973 Topps Al Oliver (#225) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $10
2024 Value: $30
Profit/loss: $20
% change: 200

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1974 Topps Al Oliver (#52) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $8
2024 Value: $25
Profit/loss: $17
% change: 213

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1975 Topps Al Oliver (#555) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $8
2024 Value: $25
Profit/loss: $17
% change: 213

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1976 Topps Al Oliver (#620) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $17
2024 Value: $50
Profit/loss: $33
% change: 194

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1977 Topps Al Oliver (#130) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $13
2024 Value: $40
Profit/loss: $27
% change: 208

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1978 Topps Al Oliver (#430) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $25
2024 Value: $35
Profit/loss: $10
% change: 40

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—

Though Oliver generally maintains a lower hobby profile than either Parker or Murphy, these ten cards increased in value — as measured by selling price — by more than 180% since just before the pandemic. That means his cards have nearly tripled in price, besting the increases of 120% and 75% that we saw for Parker and Murphy, respectively.

So, Scoop may not be front of mind when you think about Hall of Fame snubs, but his baseball cards are as strong or stronger than ever.

Speaking of “strong” baseball cards…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for July 11-17, 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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