Baseball Card Market Report for June 8-14, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Snagging some catcher cardboard in The Investment Corner

Jun 16, 2023

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Come On Let Me Take You on a C(in) Cruz

The Cincinnati Reds (aka, my Reds) finally made a little bit of positive news when they called up prospect Elly De La Cruz earlier this month.

He immediately stirred some excitement on the news wire … and also in the hobby.

In fact, he appears six times on our list of the top-selling baseball cards on eBay from last week (bottom of post).

Whether he keeps hitting and his cards keep selling, but for now, Elly has nosed ahead of that 1976 Topps Leroy Stanton at the bottom of our standings.

Now, for some guys more famous for not standing …

Catchers in the Investment Corner

Earlier this month, I ran down how some non-Hall-of-Fame catchers (but star+) catchers are faring on the card market.

I thought it might be fun to continue that theme here in The Investment Corner for June, so here are.

As a refresher, here are the rules:

I get to fake spend about $1000 on cards matching our theme — non-HOF receivers in this case.
I have to “buy” cards that have actually sold on eBay recently.
I have to revisit these picks in a year to see how they’ve performed.
We all have to realize that this is all cardboard we’re talking about, so investing any real money in said baubles is dicey at best and likely to leave you with significantly less money if it all turns out to be a *ahem* house of cards. This is all for fun, in other words, and no money will or even should change hands.

With all that said, here are the guys I’m betting on this month to hopefully pay off in several dozen (or even hundreds of) months.

1971 Topps Gene Tenace (#338) - PSA 10 - $89

Tenace was a main cog of the A’s dynasty of the 1970s, but he doesn’t get a lot of play today. That goes double for the hobby, where Vida Blue, Reggie Jackson, and Tenace’s contemporary catchers get most of the attention.

Case in point, it would be about impossible to fit Tenace’s 1970 rookie card on this list since he shares it with the late Blue — it prices us out of the market.

See listing (affiliate link)

1963 Topps Bill Freehan (#466) - PSA 8 - $168.50

Freehan was both a key bat and the rock behind the plate for the great Tigers teams of the 1960s. With fewer than 45 WAR and not even 1600 hits, he probably won’t ever make the Hall, but this RC will jump forward if he does.

See listing (affiliate link)

1978 Topps Rookie Catchers (#708) - PSA 9 - $121.50

For our purposes, this card is about Lance Parrish, one of the core four who made the Tigers a force in the ‘80s (along with Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, and Jack Morris).

But, of course, it’s always nice to have Bo Diaz, Dale Murphy, and Erni Whitt as backups (Murphy’s true RC was in the 1977 Topps set).

See listing (affiliate link)

1994 Bowman's Best Jorge Posada (#29) - PSA 10 - $74

Given his stature in the 1990s and 2000s as a key to four Yankees championships, it’s sort of surprising that Posada was one-and-done on the Cooperstown ballot. If he ever makes it to a Veterans vote, this card will get more attention, even if he’s not elected

See listing (affiliate link)

1972 Topps Darrell Porter (#162) - PSA 10 - $398.58

Before we had advanced metrics to help separate star-level players at certain positions, Porter was right there with guys like Hall of Famer Ted Simmons and Bob Boone as All-Star-but-not-Bench catchers. This is a hefty price tag for a player on the outside looking in, but it’s also a 50-plus-year-old PSA 10.

See listing (affiliate link)

1975 Topps Mini Jim Sundberg (#567) - PSA 9 - $73.76

Sundberg fit into that same basic bucket as Porter through most if his career, though generally playing for less visible teams. Sundberg doesn’t have much of a HOF case, but he was a 3-time All-Star and this is a classic mid-1970s rookie card in great condition.

See listing (affiliate link)

1971 Topps Thurman Munson (#5) - SGC 5.5 - $79.77

Munson is the big draw among non-Hall of Fame catchers, of course, and he’ll get in some day if public groundswell has any say. His 1970 Topps rookie card is in the stratosphere, but this 1971 Topps is a stone-cold hobby classic. It’s a worthy buy, even in somewhat “off” conditions.

See listing (affiliate link)
—

All in all, we “spent” $1005.11 on these catcher cards. We’ll check in sometime around Father’s Day next year to see how our buys are treating us.

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And speaking of Father’s Day cards…

Sorry Dad!

Last June, we limited our buying to cards that had some component of baseball father-son, in honor of Father’s Day.

Here’s the tale of the tape:

1973 Topps Buddy Bell Rookie Card (#31) - PSA 8

Bought (10/2021): $50.44
Sold (10/2022): $41.00
Profit/Loss: -$9.44 (-19%)

1973 Topps Bob Boone Rookie Card (#613) - PSA 9

Bought (10/2021): $202.50
Sold (10/2022): $140.00
Profit/Loss: -$62.50 (-31%)

1974 Topps Ken Griffey Rookie Card (#598) - CSG 8

Bought (10/2021): $47.96
Sold (10/2022): $35.00
Profit/Loss: -$12.96 (-27%)

1989 Fleer Update Glossy Craig Biggio Rookie Card (#U-89) - PSA 10

Bought (10/2021): $101.99
Sold (10/2022): $50.00
Profit/Loss: -$51.99 (-51%)

1981 Donruss Tim Raines Rookie Card (#538) - PSA 10

Bought (10/2021): $231.20
Sold (10/2022): $174.52
Profit/Loss: -$56.68 (-25%)

1981 Topps Pete Rose Record Breaker (#205) - PSA 10

Bought (10/2021): $136.25
Sold (10/2022): $97.00
Profit/Loss: -$39.25 (-29.%)

1984 Fleer Update Roger Clemens (#U-27) - PSA 8

Bought (10/2021): $217.50
Sold (10/2022): $142.50
Profit/Loss: -$75.00 (-34%)

1955 Topps Chuck Tanner Rookie Card (#161)

Bought (10/2021): $11.61
Sold (10/2022): $11.50
Profit/Loss: -$0.11 (-1%)

—
(The price we’d have to pay now - “sold” — is culled from the PSA Auction Prices Realized tool, generally taking the most recent sale of the given card in the given condition as our barometer and leaning on recent eBay sales in some cases.)

No wonder dad never let me use the debit card when I was a kid. Well, that, and the fact that debit cards didn’t exist.

All in all, we “paid” $999.45 for these cards last June and fake-sold them for $691.52 this month. That’s a $307.93 bloodbath, or a loss of about 31%.

Hopefully for them, this month’s big spenders on eBay will fare better than that down the line.

Here’s what they’re up against …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for June 8-14, 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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