Baseball Card Market Report for July 25-31, 2024 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Checking in on Dan Quisenberry baseball cards

Aug 02, 2024

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Dog Food, Tobacco, and Bubble Gum

One of the charming parts of this hobby is that it can and does wedge itself into every corner of American society. It may not be everywhere all the time, but you can bet that baseball cards have touched many parts of your day-to-day life somewhere along the line.

The list of the top-selling cards on eBay last week (bottom of post) are a case in point. Here we have a classic tobacco card leading off, supported by the usual complement of bubble gum cards and modern no-product-but-the-cards cards. In between, we get to check the error log, buzz the candy counter a couple more times for some now “off-brand” chicle, and even stop in the dog food aisle before closing time.

Speaking of “closing,” it’s high time we go…

Checking in on Dan Quisenberry Baseball Cards

Last week, we took a look at the baseball cards of Ron Guidry, one of the best starters of the late 1970s through the middle 1980s — but one who didn’t end up in the Hall of Fame.

This week, I thought it would be fun — and fitting, given their roles — to follow up with a dive into the cards of Dan Quisenberry. The Royals’ submariner was one of the great closers of the 1980s and helped to set the standard for how end-of-game pitchers would be judged for years.

But, like Guidry, Quisenberry declined rapidly and ended up with a relatively short career (12 years) and outside of Cooperstown. But also like Guidry and the other players in this current series, looking at non-HOF cards, Quiz still has plenty of fans in the hobby.

So, below are seven key early Quisenberry base cards, spanning from his multiplayer 1980 Topps rookie card through his 1986 Topps card. I had to jump around a bit for these, and also jump up to PSA 10s for the later years, because there just aren’t that many graded Quiz cards changing hands.

For each 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:

1980 Topps Dan Quisenberry (#667) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $10
2024 Value: $37
Profit/loss: $27
% change: 270

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1981 Topps Saves Leaders Dan Quisenberry (#8) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $5
2024 Value: $10
Profit/loss: $5
% change: 100

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1981 Topps Dan Quisenberry (#493) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $15
2024 Value: $8
Profit/loss: $-7
% change: -47

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1983 Topps Dan Quisenberry (#396) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $28
2024 Value: $100
Profit/loss: $72
% change: 257

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1983 Topps All-Star Dan Quisenberry (#583) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $50
2024 Value: $230
Profit/loss: $180
% change: 360

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1984 Donruss Dan Quisenberry (#583) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $5
2024 Value: $20
Profit/loss: $15
% change: 300

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1986 Topps Dan Quisenberry (#722) - PSA 10

Fall 2022 Value: $10
Summer 2023 Value: $50
Profit/loss: $0.2
% change: 1

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)
—

Overall, this group of Quisenberry cards saw an increase in selling price of 270% over the last five years, nearly quadrupling on the whole. That dwarfs the numbers we’ve seen for other players in this run of deep dives, but you have to swallow some grains of salt with this one.

Like I mentioned above, there aren’t all that many Quiz cards trading hands, so some of these prices are based on just a couple or few sales. And since some of the later cards barely show up at all on the market below a PSA 10, I had to make the jump to the top grade for those. Gem mint cards saw a pretty solid boost across the board during the pandemic, and Quisenberry’s cardboard was no exception.

There might also be a bit of market correction at play here, too, though. While players like Dave Parker and Dale Murphy have been talked about as Hall of Fame snubs for decades, Quiz and his cards have been mostly an afterthought. Maybe his card prices just had more room for growth than other stars of the era five years ago?

Could be.

Now, here are some cards that have already grown to gargantuan price levels…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for July 25-31, 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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